Preview a New Fried Egg Song Before They Take Out Themselves (and Half the Audience) At Not Horrible Fest

Image: Juliana Caycedo

A demo tape seems the logical route for any new hardcore punk band, but Richmond, Virginia’s Fried Egg had bigger plans. At the end of last year they self-released The Incredible Flexible Egg a flexi 7”, which went into second press almost immediately.

Two months later they recorded a new 7” for up and coming LA label Negative Jazz (Mystic Inane, Lumpy and the Dumpers) which is set to drop this US summer and no doubt will burn a new chapter in Richmond’s punk scene.

The band are also heading out on the road with Baltimore freaks Quitter that includes a stop at the long running Not Horrible Fest, set over the weekend of May 25-28 at Cleveland’s infamous Now, That’s Class.

What began as a garage-punk fest featuring the Black Lips and King Khan in 2006, has taken on a crazier and more hardcore approach in lineup and attitude and morphed into what is now recognized as one of the craziest, vilest, and punkest, music festivals and parties in the world.

Sam Richardson, bassist and the push behind Fried Egg, tells us about the upcoming 7” and his excitement in being on the bill for the best and wildest weekend of the year.

NOISEY: Where was Fried Egg born?
Sam Richardson: In a practice space just down the hallway from where I was also practicing. I already knew the guys and only had to walk down the hall to hear a few songs, so things just happened to fall into place that easily. Initially the sound was quite simplistic hardcore but we soon decided to approach the songwriting with a bit more creativity.

Why release a flexi (possibly the most obnoxious music format) as your debut release?
The idea was totally mine. "The Incredible Flexible Egg", c'mon?! What a ridiculous first release for a band. I think the flexi worked better for us than a standard demo tape, and the sound on the flexi is actually pretty decent. I also wanted to start a band imprint and self release the flexi with involvement from each member of the band. In the past, I had been in too many bands where one or more members did little to produce or promote our releases. So we created Fried Egg Ltd. to do the flexi - and it worked out, so well that we are planning future releases.

What can we expect from the Negative Jazz record?
This material is the closest we have come to getting a true "live" sound on record. The first two tracks have a similar feel to the flexi material, while we put "Eggshells" third, which has been the track a lot of folks have seen us close sets with. It's just full of anxiety and then implodes at the end, kind of a mirror to many of our lives outside the band…"walking on eggshells", you know?

You are playing the infamous Horrible Fest. When was your first Horrible Fest?
2010 with Southside Stranglers. We returned the following year as well. If I remember correctly, that second year we played a 3pm matinee show and a 3am after show. No one in attendance seemed to show signs of slowing down either.
Since then, I've been back to Cleveland a handful of other times with different bands.

What’s been your most crazy experience there?
Another ridiculous after show, where some ex-residents of a punk house/venue broke into the building where they used to live at 3am, placed a generator in the basement, and let three bands play. The basement was completely packed full of wastoids and thick with gas fumes from the generator. The show involved Ranch dressing, fireworks, third degree burns and a kid slicing his forehead open from a light fixture.

It seems that Cleveland natives simply act on and say exactly what they intend, that there is no second guessing or pause in their thought process, shit just happens. A lot of things get destroyed and maybe some people's feelings get hurt in the process, but I will say that my friends in Cleveland are some of the most endearing and genuine folks out there.

Catch Fried Egg on the road:
May 13 - Charlottesville at Magnolia
May 20 - Chapel Hill at The Nightlight
May 26 - Pittsburgh at The Rock Room
May 27- Cleveland - Horrible Fest at Now That's Class
May 29 - Rochester at The Bug Jar
May 30 - Toronto at Faith/Void
May 31- Montreal at l'Escogriffe Bar Spectacle
June 1- Schenectady, NY at Allen's Garage
June 2 - Hadley, MA at Titannica
June 3 - NYC
June 4 - DC
June 5 - Charlottesville at The Ante Room

Not Horrible Fest 10- Cleveland at Now That's Class, May 25-28

Not Horrible Fest 10 Lineup 2016: Bad Noids (Cleveland Gamma gooons)
Brainwashed California (Electronic Brainwashed Youth)
Burger Boys (Sloppy Perverted Pop)
Cigarette Boys! (Burger Boy’s Enemies)
Crime Wave (Houston, TX punk rock)
Darvocets (Do the crop circle! 1st show in 4 years)
Doctor Tim Bones Jones
Flyin’ Trichecos(Trash from Italy & Painesville)
Folded Shirt (Retard Hoedown)
Fried Egg (Richmond hardcore punk on Negative Jazz)
Fugitive Family (Houston, TX black metal punk)
Giorgio Murderer (New Orleans weirdos, members of Buck Biloxi)
Glass Traps (New Cleveland goth rockerz)
LMNTL (Cleveland hip hop group bringing the bars n beats!)
Mr. California (The world’s greatest 1 man band)
Pig Flayer (Cleveland 2 piece packin a punch of heavy lo-fi drenched garage punk)
Pleasure Leftists (Cleveland post punk on Deranged Recs)
Predator (Atlanta, members of gg king, carbonas many more. Kbd weirdness)
Quitter (Baltimore synth driven weirdo punk)
Slave House (Columbus blackened punk raw black metal hardcore)
Spray Paint (Austin, TX tweaked out art punk on 12XU)
SQRM (Western Mass first show in years//crushing noise hardcore)
Tonawandas (New Cleveland fuzzed out synth punk)
Timmy Vulgar DJ Set (Timmy’s Organism)
The Cowboy (2 Members of Homostupids New Band)
Uniform (ATL sci-fi//sci-wave//gnarly fuckin hardcore)
Unholy Two (Despicable Columbus noise rock)
Urinals (Cali 70’s art punk legends)
Urochromes (Western Mass outsider punk)
Vanilla Poppers (Cleveland popper punks)
Watery Love (Philly ultra rare appearance. On Richie Records)
Yambag (Whose that masked fool?)