Back in the old world at the start of 2020, our psychedelic punk heroes The Lovely Eggs released their new album I Am Moron – the Lancaster duo’s greatest work yet, over-flowing with political venom and fresh ideas, set to a gloriously independent noise. Then, of course, the pandemic happened. The Lovely Eggs pushed ahead, and the album came out to critical-acclaim and #1 indie chart-topping status, but their plans to tour it far and wide were clearly scuppered. These tour dates have now been rescheduled a staggering seven times independently by the band and are now, thankfully, set to start later this month (full dates below). The Lovely Eggs do not give up!
But in that time, they’ve made a new fan and friend in Iggy Pop, the Godfather of punk, and without doubt the coolest street walking cheetah to ever stalk the earth. Throughout the pandemic Iggy has been playing The Lovely Eggs on his 6 Music show which led to the new collaboration, out today, called “I, Moron” via the band’s Egg Records label.
“The wonderful, wonderful Lovely Eggs,” said Iggy in that unmistakable drawl. “I like everything I hear by The Lovely Eggs.”
“Being in The Lovely Eggs we’re kind of used to surreal experiences but collaborating with Iggy Pop takes the biscuit,” exclaims Eggs singer/guitarist Holly Ross. “It’s actually unbelievable. For him just to say nothing but ‘moron’ over and over again fitted in with the sentiment of the song perfectly. He just GOT it. We are all morons. In a world of moronic things. In a world of moronic ideas. You are moron. I am Moron. We are Moron.”
The video for “I, Moron” is suitably deranged, drawing you into The Lovely Eggs claymation world. Watch + share via YouTube.
“We’ve made a couple of claymation videos ourselves before,” continues Holly. “But this time we roped in the amazing Sean McAnulty whose work we’ve admired for ages. He takes you on a weird journey into the moronic underworld, populated by monsters, robots, us and Iggy Pop.”
In a further homage to Iggy, the B-side features The Lovely Eggs own take on “Dum Dum Boys” from Iggy’s defining 1977 album The Idiot.
“For the B-side it made real sense to us to cover one of Iggy’s songs off ‘The Idiot’”, says drummer David Blackwell. “There seemed to be a real synchronicity to it. I had this album on cassette, and it was one of the first albums that I got really into. ‘Dum Dum Boys’ struck a chord with us, kind of missing the old days and the old gang we used to hang out with.”
Once again, the single features artwork (a three headed Iggy/Eggy beast) by the brilliant Casey Raymond on 1000 yellow colored vinyl 7” singles, recorded by The Lovely Eggs in Lancaster and mixed by Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studios, NYC. Physical copies sold out on the band’s website overnight on pre-order, with shops scrabbling to get their hands on copies. The band are now re-pressing a limited-edition red vinyl version for record stores which are available to pre-order now.
I am Moron was declared “Album of the Day” by BBC 6 Music
“A Triumph”, The Sunday Times ★★★★
“‘I am Moron’ is much cleverer than it would have you believe”- The Telegraph, ★★★★
“An act of fine calibration of noise and sweetness”- Q
8/10 – Uncut
“Anarcho spirit dominates”- MOJO
‘Album of the Month’ – Classic Rock
“Excellent”- Brooklyn Vegan
