The Egg - Saturday 10.11.2008
w/ Orchard Lounge
A lot of people are going to be very, very excited to hear that The Egg are back. The last regular broadcasts from their strange, funky and very lovely corner of the universe were towards the end of the last century, concluding with a tip top performance at Glastonbury 2000. And then nish, nada, full stop. If ever there was a cult band, it’s The Egg, and those of us who followed their antics, their limb-wrigglingly blissful concerts, and their ridiculously contagious ‘Albumen’ and ‘Travelator’ albums were gutted and bemused by the silence... But now they’re back. The band who have done everything from being Gary Oldman’s mum’s backing band (in the film ‘Nil By Mouth’) to playing the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, return with a new album. ‘Forwards’ startles with the variety on offer, from the indie guitar rockin’ ‘Forwards’ to the beautiful vocals of Zero 7-collaborator Sophie Barker on the Air-like ‘Walking Away’, from the string’n’piano lusciousness of ‘Wall’ to classic melodic Egg jams such as ‘Funky Dube’. It will come as no surprise to Egg-lovers that when the Big Chill organization took a poll on their web-site to find out which band their festival goers would most like to see at this year’s events, The Egg led the field by a distance.

But before ploughing into the future let’s start at the beginning. “I suppose Glastonbury is our spiritual home,” admits Ned Scott, one of the twins at the heart of the Egg’s creative apparatus, “We grew up there, in a way. We first went when we were four and our mum and her boyfriend used to go – dad went as well because they were all friends. Mum’s boyfriend would be naked backstage and then he’d go and play on the acoustic stage with his band Mr Spratt’s 21st Century Popular Motets.” It was impromptu, er, Motets-based gatherings at the Scott household that taught Ned and his brother Maff the joys of jamming. Such jamming became the heart of the group they formed in their native Oxford in the early 1990s. By the time they’d nailed what would become the Egg line-up for many years, with Ned on keyboards, Maff on drums, Dave Gaydon on bass and Mark Revell, lead guitar, their concerts were already attracting the attention of Supergrass and Radiohead. The Egg’s sound wasn’t angst rock, Brit-pop or dance music, but their jovial live persona garnered them fans from all kinds of musical denominations wherever they performed.

learn more about The Egg

Orchard Lounge is a collective of DJs that formed in Chicago around 2000. The trio of Ben Silver, Spencer Lokken, and Bethany Lokken, focus on performing for the more discerning of dance floors, and are commonly known to appeal to open-minded and diverse audiences. They've never let their passion for the beat confine them to a single genre, as their sets may include anything from laid back downtempo/IDM to hypnotic tech house and b-boy era electro. Don't be surprised if you hear an entire night of music dedicated to the sounds that have heavily influenced them as DJs either: they all share an affinity for classic hip hop, rock, funk, and soul, as well. This is the reasoning behind "OL: From the Dance Floor to the Couch". It's the appropriate defining phrase for the group because of their innate programming and record selection skills, as well as their talents in creating an experience for most any state of mind or environment. Some may label this as being versatile, however the three simply consider themselves serious music lovers with similar, albeit eclectic, interests. At the very core, they're highly enthusiastic individuals full of praise for the producers whose names appear on their records. To that end, they've always fully understood their role as middle(wo)man, and if they are to accept the coveted role of tastemaker, they want it to soley benefit the artists whom they all admire.

learn more about Orchard Lounge

Band Information
The Egg
Matt White — guitar, vocals
Ned Scott — keyboards, vocals
Maff Scott — drums
Ben Cullum — bass

Orchard Lounge
Spencer Lokken — turntables
Queen B — turntables, samples
Ben Silver — turntables, samples