Egg Hunt
Me & You

After Embrace and before Fugazi: Egg Hunt. I have no difficulty admitting it: I fell in love with this little gem from the cover alone. Partly because seeing the big head of "old" Ian sagely looking at me from a basement trapdoor is something that, for some reason, puts me at peace with the whole world; and partly because of the name itself. Egg Hunt.

The historical reason is that the two founders of Dischord Records, as well as former Minor Threat members and, above all, great friends Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, found themselves in England in the spring of '86 for logistical reasons, let's say. They met with the late John Loder - legendary sound engineer for Crass and "Psychocandy," among others - and, since they were there, they decided to have some fun playing a little something: John as producer, Jeff on drums and backing vocals, Ian on everything else, and thus they cooked up no. 20 of the Dischord catalog; and since it was recorded during Easter week, they decided to call themselves Egg Hunt. But for me, it might be Ian, it might be the songs or my own mental ramblings, I like to think of another reason: that life is a kind of egg hunt, priceless eggs found every so often only if one really wants to and has the humility to go out and look for them. Just like that.

Now let's talk about this single/EP, also known as "2 Songs" (...), because that's what it is: 2 songs for a total of 400 seconds. The first, "Me and You," opens with a splendid bass line and develops around an obsessive guitar riff; syncopated rhythm, stunning progression, background spoken words that culminate in the only three words sung, "me and you"; time changes, accelerations. Applause. Tried and retried by the duo in their garage since time immemorial, to me, it already seems like a piece with a vague Fugazi flavor.

The other, "We All Fall Down": written for Embrace, though the band as a whole didn't really like it. But the influence of the group is alive and tangible, starting with the sound, introspective and vaguely languorous; though I can hear a bit of those certain Fugazi here too. This time Ian sings "for real"; and if Ian sings, you start to think, there's no getting around it. Theme: the Revolution Summer, a movement that arose in Washington (of course) the previous year, critical of the image and attitude of early Hardcore punk, and fundamental for bands like Rites of Spring and Embrace. And regarding this, Egg Hunt offers a bitter and regretful reflection: why do we act like we just learned to walk when we've been walking all this time?... What was ours is now yours or mine.

In the search of the quiet life we all fall down. In the search of the righteous life we all fall down. Despondent words, reminding me of there are no winners... we all lose from the fabulous "Money." And that verse, I'm feeling kind of lonely, I won't be dying for a while... pure chills. It all fades out on Jeff's drums: the single is over, your story is not.

After this gem, Egg Hunt tried to give more substance to the project by contacting two former members of Gray Matter, but in the end, nothing came of it. These, Geoff Turner and Steve Niles, would join Jeff in the band Three; and Ian, what he did next, we know well. The two founding fathers would never play together again; but they left us this, and that is not a small thing.