From the Washington City Paper blog Black Plastic Bag
Dischord is offering a free MP3 download of the Egg Hunt 7″ as a treat for customers that registered for an account with the label’s new digital download store.
Egg Hunt was a one off project that resulted from an Easter weekend that label founders Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson spent messing around in Southern Records founder John Loader’s London Studio. Well, it may have been a little bit more purposeful than just “messing around.” Really, who am I to say?
My initial reaction to this was, “Do I really have the 12MB to spare on these two songs that I will listen to approximately never?” It seemed like the kind of record where everybody’s mom got a copy and then the rest went into the basement forevermore–just as 200 of former Citylights editor Mike Kanin’s Better Automatic CDs continue to rot in my cellar (anybody want one of these? I can hook you up).
The single is pretty good though. “Me and You” has a pretty tight proto-Lungfish groove. “We All Fall Down,” is fully sing-along-able and benefits from what sounds like 80 overdubs of the same chugging guitar part. And the price is right.
Still, why not some obscuro Fugazi freebie? Or the studio version of Lungfish’s “Armageddon“? Or, jeez, even a Fidelity Jones b-side? Well, since Egg Hunt was a duo consisting of only MacKaye and Nelson, this was probably the only record they could give away without diminishing somebody else’s royalties. And there are probably members of Bluetip, guys that MacKaye can’t remember or possibly hasn’t even met, who are still living for those checks. So, respect.
