New Music Alert: Egg Drop Soup's "Hard to Hold On"

Egg Drop Soup has a new music release in the song "Hard to Hold On." 

Here's part of the lyrics that I find so compelling:

I'm so scared of getting older

But I'm not getting any younger

I'm just doing what I oughta

But I'm not gettin' what I'm 'sposed to

It speaks to the struggles of reaching those personal goals. It also speaks not to just a struggle, but a fear of never getting to those goals.

I'm not sure the above video is considered an official video release. It is listed as a lyric video. Even so, the video takes you on a tour of visuals from the band performing to individual bandmembers having fun in front of the camera to road trip visuals to street protests. All this against the pulsating beats of this punk rock band that has grown a loyal following in the Los Angeles music scene.

photo take at the Zebulon

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 60

The Satellite held their October "Six at Six" presented by The 6660s monthly series. 

I already did a specific post on Mars Rodriguez, which I got to attend in person to do some photography. For the rest of the series, I watched online.

Chase Petra opened up that part of the series for me. I just recently came across this band during Echo Park Rising that was held online in September. The band played as a two piece, their drummer wasn't able to attend. The band actually started their set late due to traffic jams as they were coming in from Orange County, which was impacted by a fire. Their acoustic set just highlighted how great the vocals are. The band knows how to carry a tune. 

Humorous moment: "Hunter usually brings the skeleton of a song." Then the two members of the band pointed to the Halloween skeleton that was situated in front of them. 

Chase Petra

Mediocore was the second band up. I always forget that Cindy Clark has those screaming vocals. I first came across her in Earthsleep, her prior band. In that band, her vocals screeched to the point of what I have to assume strains her vocal chords. Why I would forget that fact, I don't know. Her new band, Mediocore has a garage, experimental rock feel that brings in some unusual chord structures. 

Humorous moments: during one song, the electricity went out for a split second, causing the stage lights to blink and the pedal board to scramble. Then at the end of the sent, the amp picked up a local radio station.

Mediocore

Cartalk had those folk rock vibes going on. The guitar was played down to bass level. There was a request to lower the guitar volume, but I got to say even then the music still blasted in great fashion.

Had to notice: Jail Weddings joined the Livestream. And so did Jessie Deluxe - I haven't seen this one person dynamo in way too long. 

Cartalk

Tony Knox of Crisis Actor was the only band from the series that I had never seen. The set reminded me of 80s Bon Jovi doing an acoustic rock set. He tapped his shoe to the beat of his music.  

What did I notice: the sun glasses.

And fact: the drummer of the band is learning how to be a trucker.

Tony Knox

Egg Drop Soup took their punk sounds into the world of the unplugged. This was the first time I've seen the band since getting a new drummer. Their minimalist punk set also highlighted some Halloween fun: scarecrow, Kurt Cobain, and a pterodactyl. Like Brian, who was hosted the event, I also thought the pterodactyl was an alligator.   

Lyric of the set: If I'm not supposed to dream like this, pinch me now.

Egg Drop Soup

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 17

Los Angeleno provides some great Friday night entertainment. The bands and artists playing put on pre-recorded sets that appear to last between 8 and 15 minutes. The sets are featured both on Instagram and Facebook. I have to admit that I do prefer sets shown on Facebook. I enjoy the horizontal presentation of Facebook versus the vertical presentation of Instagram. Both can have technical glitches when doing live streams, which isn't a problem for Los Angeleno so it really is a preference of presentation for me. This is coming from a person who posts photos only on Instagram.

This particular Friday night started off with Soft Sailors. Their set had a fun feel to it. The set started off with one member of the band in his living room. He got a call from his other two band mates and off they went. It was a great scripted 8 minutes that also included some screen in screen shots, a couple guests and a pet dog.

Soft Sailors

Devon Williams had me thinking of 80s icon Robert Palmer. I'd love to see a live set with a full band to see if that assumption rings true.

Devon Williams

Egg Drop Soup has been playing across the Internet during this lock down. This time around they broke the social distancing rule and all 3 members of the band were together to play their set. There was also a person doing the camera work who did a really good job of giving the audience the feel of the band's attitude. There were quick zooms in and out that matched up with the band's beats.

Egg Drop Soup

Closing out the night was Pearl Charles. That set was some country swoon. While watching the set, the kids in my apartment complex were having fun outside. I couldn't help but imagine that they were dancing to the music coming from my apartment (though in truth they couldn't hear the music).

Pearl Charles

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 8

April 17th thru April 19th was spent watching a couple of online festivals. The whole weekend was spent watching sets here and there of the Couch LA festival. The one cool thing about this particular festival was that half of the money raised would get donated to The Satellite and The Hi Hat. On Friday night, I was only able to catch Egg Drop Soup. The band played from their 3 homes. Three cameras tracked the band members. I have to say they did a solid playing their punk music from unknown distances from each other.

Egg Drop Soup

Saturday was spent catching The Gooms and Lauren Ruth Ward. The Gooms was a one person show with the other three band members taped to the wall of the shower. I've seen a handful of online sets played in bathrooms. I believe that Early Evil, who played on Saturday, was also in the bathroom. Is it something to do with the acoustics of a bathroom or the best place to play and not disturb the next door neighbors? Lauren Ruth Ward was the last band for Saturday night. Lauren played it up to the camera throughout the set. Amazing music, as always.

The Gooms

Lauren Ruth Ward

On Sunday, many of the bands took it up a notch. Easy Friend is hanging out in the desert. I guess he's officially moved to the desert and out of Los Angeles. He owns property out there and plans to live on around $6,000 a year. That's some minimalist living. His set includes a few minutes of just looking out into the desert as the wind whipped past. Then you could hear the noise of a motorcycle. He road up and started his set. SLUGS did Egg Drop Soup by one. Egg Drop Soup had 3 members playing from 3 locations. SLUGS had 4 members playing from various locations. I can't believe over a year has passed since I last saw that band at the Moroccan Lounge. Dream Phases is writing some new music while in isolation. And played his set in the dark confines of his apartment. Holy Wars really outdid everyone that I caught during this festival. They didn't play live (honestly, not sure if Egg Drop Soup or SLUGS were playing live, either). They put on this great long form music video with a couple cameras and inserted TV shows from the 1950s or 1960s. During the video, they interacted with those watching online via the comments section. It was just super awesome.

Easy Friend

Early Evil

SLUGS

Dream Phases

Holy Wars

Before heading over to Couch LA on Sunday, I spent the afternoon watching bands playing the Live From Quarantine festival put on by Magic Giant. I actually tuned in to catch Meg Myers, but she had technical difficulties and wasn't able to play the festival. The second reason I tuned in was to catch Glen Hansard. I so remember catching the movie "Once" back in 2007. So long ago, but I loved that movie and fell in love with the music. During his short set, he played a few lines of "Falling Slowly." Beautiful. Filling in for Meg Myers was Max who shifted his set forward. He was totally cool with it and did a great job at it. Closing out my time with Live From Quarantine was Shaed. I totally didn't realize that this band sings the song "Trampoline." I swear at times when I hear this song on the radio I figure it is a song by Lorde.

Magic Giant

Glen Hansard

Max

Shaed

Quick Hit Band Interview: Egg Drop Soup

Egg Drop Soup at The Echo

Interview with the band (via Sam). Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Thrashy punk gone surfing and/or surfy punk gone thrashing. 

What’s the favorite part of your set? What’s not the favorite part of our set? Lol, but really, we love mosh pits, melting faces, and making general mayhem

 Own final thoughts: Next time you see us, ask us where our name came from . . .