“It’s a shit business”, proclaimed Les McQueen of Crème Brulee fame about the music industry. It is certainly a brutal business, as many have discovered. A fair chunk of the issue is the volume of people who want their piece of you. Oftentimes, the people making the poorest living from their art are the creatives themselves. Their voices are stifled as it all becomes about unit sales, tour schedules and press promotion. So, what is the alternative?
Do it yourself. Be in control of your own destiny. The DIY ethos has permeated the 20-year career of The Lovely Eggs. They call the shots. They do things themselves. They’ve toured during school holidays so they can work around the needs of their son. They have their own record label, Egg Records. They work hard to keep the ticket prices as low as they can for their live shows. It is all to be applauded and recognised as proof that there is another way.
It isn’t always easy. Dealing with packaging and posting their last album almost broke them. Yet they still state they will not change how they do things. It is as important to them as the music they produce. To still be going and still gathering new fans after twenty years is impressive. Their last album, Eggsistentialism, was their best work to date in my humble opinion.
The latest release to be let loose from Eggland is Bin Juice – a collection of self-recorded outtakes from their last album, alongside some rare B-sides. It comes to you in a black plastic bin bag with great artwork from Casey Raymond, a long-time collaborator with the band. The vinyl itself is neon toxic green slime colour. There’s also another limited-edition version of 300 copies available through Rough Trade with alternative artwork and different vinyl colouration.
The vinyl version of Bin Juice contains fifteen tracks (more about the CD version later), and it doesn’t disappoint. The album’s opener, ‘Introducing Bullshit’, is a full-on sonic assault with scuzzy guitars making your fillings hurt and a thumping beat that loosens your load-bearing joints. Perhaps a medical disclaimer should be on the album cover? Highlighting people’s behaviour and beliefs, Holly Ross proclaims, “You choose to be who you are”. Very apt at this moment in time, I feel.
‘The Grind’ would have been a great inclusion on their last album, I believe. It dissects the minutiae of the daily grind that many of us entertain and pass off as making a living. It is quite depressing when you really break it down as Ross does here. The track’s constant rhythm creates a feeling of being stuck on a treadmill as Ross spits her quickfire vocals, itemising the mundanity of the 9-to-5 life. “I won’t cut my hair off”, Ross cries repeatedly, refusing to succumb to the uniformity expected in the corporate workplace.
If you have ever wondered what The B-52s would sound like if they grew up in Lancaster and were fed excessive amounts of Butter Pie and Chips, then ‘Crab Shell’ should satisfy your curiosity. Punk meets Metal in ‘Eat Me’, a track that has a lumbering feel, like Frankenstein’s monster stomping about in full mardy fashion.
Next off the rank is ‘Empire of Death’, a track which also may have fitted well on Eggsistentialism. “Interactive melatonin/Televised psychic phone-in”, Ross decrees as we are guided to examine our relationship with the old gogglebox.
“You’ve been a shit to me/Thousands of people make you angry/And I don’t disagree/You’re so unhappy and now you’re blaming me”, Ross declares despairingly in ‘(You’ve Been a) Shit to Me’. The song will no doubt resonate with many people, especially as we seem to exist in such a divisive, irate and manipulated society nowadays. I get it. Seeing hatred being accepted as the new norm makes me angry, too, and it can be hard not to release that rage on those you love. This track is a melancholy affair, brooding in its feel and shows a different side to The Lovely Eggs that isn’t shown often enough.
‘It Takes More Than Us’ is a song full of squidgy synths and thumping drums courtesy of David Blackwell. ‘Creepin’ takes us to the halfway mark with a stripped-back sound of a simple guitar and vocals. Well, not quite. At the midpoint of the song, that familiar Egg-infused fuzzy guitar appears to offer its opinion on the quiet that preceded it.
So far, so good. Bin Juice is delivering the goods. But why Bin Juice? Blackwell explains, “(Bin Juice is) a kind of sketchbook of songs. They’re not polished or laboured over, but we thought it would be interesting to release them. It’s why we called the record Bin Juice. These were songs we had thrown away. But hopefully people like going through bins collecting trash.” A number of these tracks are essentially out-takes from Eggsistentialism, but that is no bad thing, as it was a superb album.
One of my favourite tracks is ‘Slug Graveyard’, originally released as the B-side to ‘Allergies’. It is a fun song, something The Lovely Eggs are adept at creating. “There ain’t no bones/They won’t never find us”, croons Ross, something I had never thought about when pondering the common or garden slug – not that I’ve ever contemplated slugs in much detail before. There’s a fifteen-second burst of fierce guitars and rapid-fire drums in the middle of the track that would not have been out of place on The Exploited’s 1982 album, Troops of Tomorrow.
With a slight feel of Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ running through the melody, ‘My Dad’ examines reconnecting with loved ones within your dreams. These can be rose-tinted visions, accurate representations or completely distorted. Always be careful how you interpret them once you awaken.
The final five tracks somewhat fly by, with one exception. Four of them are about one minute in length. That does not make them throw away by any stretch. ‘Friendship is a Beautiful Thing’ is a simple track with an even simpler message – if you feel like ending it all, please talk to someone. Reach out to a friend. You can tackle the challenges together. If you ever feel desperate, please reach out to someone. Please.
We move to a more disorienting and quite trippy track with ‘The Voyage’. It has a deliciously awkward and moody ambience to it. This song is how I would imagine floating around in Holly Ross’ subconscious would feel like – fascinating, peculiar and once experienced, never forgotten!
‘Furnace Mountain’ resembles a lullaby, with the main musical accompaniment being the sound of falling rain and the gentle, familiar rhythm of a train rolling along the track. ‘On the Line’ could well have been a song by They Might Be Giants (they love the weird, wonderful and experimental too), and the album concludes with a 51-second blast that is ‘Melody for Meathead’, B-side to the 2017 single ‘I Shouldn’t Have Said That’. This is a punchy rant against the kind of arseholes who hold people like Stephen Yaxley-Lennon up as a national hero. Mr Waxy-Lemon’s disciples probably won’t hear this track, as they will likely be out painting roundabouts and engaging in other questionable life choices.
There are a few obvious candidates for your playlists. For me, ‘The Grind’, ‘Slug Graveyard’, and ‘(You’ve been a) Shit to Me’ are no-brainers. Of course, if you purchase the CD version of Bin Juice, you will also get nine bonus tracks in the shape of The Lovely Eggs’ Egg E.P. to choose from.
Listening to any album by The Lovely Eggs is always an experience to savour. It is never quite what you expect, but in a good way. Bin Juice is no different. Don’t be put off by the title or the fact that these are ‘thrown away’ songs. They are certainly not of lesser quality by any means. What this album does is demonstrate the quality of songs they had to choose from when assembling the track listing for Eggsistentialism. Also, it brings into focus the quality of their back catalogue, bringing several older tracks back into the spotlight.
You could do a lot worse than take a trip to Eggland and wander around the musical theme park built by Holly Ross and David Blackwell. It is akin to visiting a sonic version of a Dali surrealist painting, which is hanging in the Cabaret Voltaire during Dadaist sound poetry night. It is a lovely place. Take a trip and see for yourself. Egg cups are optional.
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