It's been awhile since we've heard from Jeff Fuller's LA band Egg, but the wait for new music is almost over. Their new album Hard Boiled is due out shortly, and the first video from the new album is out. It's for a slow, simple song called "Green Eyes." It's also a slow, simple video featuring what must be at least a hundred photographs stitched together in an almost hypnotic very-slow-moving movie (or very-fast-moving slideshow).
Egg - "Green Eyes" [YouTube]
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo Recycles a "Road Trip"
So remember that Egg / Secret Agent 23 Skidoo collaboration "Look Both Ways"? Well, that's not the only thing that came out of this most recent collaboration. The leadoff track on the upcoming Skidoo disk Underground Playground is "Road Trip" and it was born out of "Look Both Ways." Skidoo came up with the idea for "Look Both Ways," Jeff Fuller and Egg wrote and recorded it. After Skidoo recorded his vocal take for the Egg song, Fuller sent him the separate studio files. Skidoo says he "grabbed the guitar and bass lines, chopped 'em up on my drum machine, and built a whole new song around them, thus resulting in this song... So 2 songs were born, with the thematic overlap that they're both sort of about roads, which was coincidental."
Anyway, if you want to download the song (which is a fun, ever-so-slightly mellow ska-tinged tune) in time for your own summer road trip prior to its Aug. 31st release date, grab it at iTunes here. (And I plan to play it on my Live365 station later this week.)
Just as with the Coal Train Railroad / Readeez collaboration I mentioned earlier, it's this long-term trading of ideas and songs and appearances that will, in the long run, give the sense to the public at large that this is a genre, not a fad. Children's book authors and illustrators trade off and collaborate all the time -- why shouldn't family musicians?
Track listing for the album after the jump...Listen To This: "Look Both Ways" - Egg with Secret Agent 23 Skidoo (World Premiere)
The last time the LA band of pop-rockers Egg hooked up with kid-hop star Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, the result was the very winning "I Like Fruit". Now the two of them are back together once more and it's just as fun, methinks. Egg brings the ska, Skidoo brings the hip-hop, and both parts will have the family bouncing, if not their whole bodies then at least their heads.
The genesis of the song? In return for Egg mastermind Jeff Fuller giving 23 Skidoo "I Like Fruit" to remix as he'd like, Skidoo gave Fuller an idea to write for Egg - "Look both ways. Not just at street corners but in life." Fuller returned the song back to Skidoo, which he cut up and used parts from for his upcoming single "Road Trip." That's collaboration. (And "Look Both Ways" will also end up on the next Egg disk as well.)
Anyway, however you, er, look at it, here for a limited time, courtesy of Egg, you can Video: "Summer Today" - Egg
I know I just talked about a video with a pre-production reel, but it's also possible to put together an effective video on a minimal budget, so long as there's some sense of editing and the song's good. Jeff Fuller from L.A.'s Egg just got a new Flip video camera and used it to record a video. "Not exactly a proper music video," Fuller says, "but fun none the less." Agreed - I actually think the lo-fi video is an excellent match for the song, one of my favorites off Sunny Side Up.
Egg - "Summer Today" [YouTube]
KidVid Tournament 2009: Mark Kozelek vs. Egg
Our other matchup in the Leadbelly Region for KidVid Tournament 2009 is a matchup of the #2 seed vs. the #3 seed. It's Mark Kozelek's "Bedtime Lullaby" (from the Yo Gabba Gabba! TV show) going up against Egg's video for "Night Time Party" off their debut Sunny Side Up!
Comments welcome below, but the videos and the all-important official poll are after the jump. All votes due by midnight tonight (Tuesday) East Coast time. One vote per person, please. And play nice as always.
Review in Brief: Sunny Side Up - Egg
Egg is the creation of LA-based audio engineer Jeff Fuller who wrote some songs with his young daughter Annabella, wrote some more songs himself, and recruited some other moms and dads to record the songs for an album.
Reading over that description might not necessarily fill you with hope for the album -- good intentions and enthusiasm being a poor substitute for, you know, musical talent and songwriting skills -- but luckily their debut album Sunny Side Up has enough of that musical talent and songwriting skills to make it a fun listen.
The band mentions Cake as one of their musical reference points, and I can hear that, at least in the somewhat spare arrangements that rely a lot on drums and, on a couple tracks, trumpet. But I hear more of a West Coast Brady Rymer. It's roots-rock mixed with a little country and with a more sunny (album title pun unintended), wide-open feel. The album has a loosey-goosey sound (I mean that as a compliment here) and it serves as an appealing musical background for lyrics that are squarely aimed at the preschool set. In part this probably partially reflects the influence of Fuller's daughter, but it's nice to hear songs about shuffling down the hall (the angular "Flip Flops") or summer ("Summer Today") that retain that kid's perspective. "Hiccups" is a goofy, make-the-kids-laugh song, while the last two songs ("Airplane" and "Goodnight") are tender ballads.
Kids ages 3 through 7 are most likely to enjoy the songs here. You can hear sound clips from the 26-minute album at its CD Baby page. Egg's Sunny Side Up will have no small appeal to families who prefer their kids music (if not their eggs) a little bit scrambled. Recommended.
