PREMIERE | eggcorn, "Hitler Was a Vegetarian"

Delving into the in-between that inhabits both darkness and light with eggcorn’s Lara Hoffman; photographed by Ginger Fierstein.

Delving into the ongoing process of self-betterment during a time when we as a society are largely bereft of considerate, conscious, and gracious behaviors is difficult. When doing the proverbial therapy-speak work we are faced with all the aspects of ourselves that we don’t like. The processes of looking back more often than not highlight the various incidents where we are not as valorous as we would have like, moreso than even the most fondest of wholesome memories. Coming to terms with these incomplete and incongruous aspects of our selves is important work, no matter how difficult. The therapy seems exponentially more upsetting in a spiritual and humanitarian scale when you begin to size your shortcomings up with the dictators of yore, in hand with the aspiring autocrats of our calamitous current day quagmires.

Entering into the fray of dissecting these polar dualities is Vallejo, CA artist eggcorn with the debut of the fiery and fierce “Hitler Was a Vegetarian”. The Bay Area band based on the pensive perceptions of Lara Hoffman scours the human psyche in a Jungian flight of frightening fancy to understand the good and bad that exists at the savage heart and core of the individual. Featured on the upcoming album Observer Effect, Lara follows up Your One True Love with songs that wade into waters that confront the contradictions and abundance of complications that are rife within the messiness of the human condition. Moving toward the closed corridors of chamber championed trajectories that tread through the troves of interior examinations and actualization of the soul; “Vegetarian” grasps at a better understanding of the cogs, coils, and chaos that comprises everything that makes us who we are as people.

The caustic coffee shop confessional chic plays out like an A24 flick with a plot punctuated by pop poetics. Lara begins the brutal self-diagnoses with expletive bursts of self-deprecation, recollecting all the anxious and angry attachments, and the ways in which projected issues become unfair to others. Thoughts of mortality are mused amid coffee runs, mulling over catch-22s and pyrrhic victories where the means to an end defeat the purpose of the goal to begin with. The harsh personal deep dive, and manic sentiments are contrasted with the lavish baroque accents that provide a soft touch to Hoffman's torrential revisitations of backroads that would be otherwise best left in the past.

The pleasant percussion and swing-set swishing strings provide a lovely interlude that becomes interrupted by jazzed electric guitar jeers that recall an episode of drunk driving from the Bay to Calistoga, the fights that ensued, difficult phone conversations with mom, hypocritic paradoxes, and other such problematic paradigms of self-destruction, and self-sabotage that lead down the blurry-eyed highways of perdition. Lara dissects and rips apart her own character, upping the ante with comparative history notes on the duality of humankind that would cause Hannah Arendt to raise an eyebrow.

"Vegetarian" goes for an extreme comparison about the good qualities of the worse people in history, applying it to the self like the aftermath of the longest and worst hangover ever. It is a reminder that we can be better, that we can mend the broken aspects of our fragile beings that will allow us to become our best selves. It is also a reminder that the world is rough, and it begins with us to alter the courses of our own life's dreams, and that we truly are empowered to move forward from any and all errors of our current or previous ways.

Reclining in leaves, trees, tall weeds, flowers and other plants in bloom with eggcorn; photographed by Ginger Fierstein.

Lara Hoffman from eggcorn shared some honest insights on the inspirations and events behind the track:

Hungover and sad, I wrote this song the day after picking a fight with my partner and driving off drunk. Instead of smoking weed until my brain turned off, I picked up my guitar and began improvising a blunt apology. I wanted to take accountability, to document what had happened. On the verge of tears, words spilled out and I was able to sit with the deep fear and sadness behind my explosive anger. I was afraid of losing my partner. I was hurt we didn’t understand each other and that made me feel so alone. Very universal feelings, yet so hard to sit with.

Natural sanctuaries of self-reflection with Lara Hoffman, aka eggcorn; photographed by Ginger Fierstein.

By the time I got to writing the last verse, I also didn’t want to be forgiven, or looked at in a kinder light and this led to the epiphany — I am tender but that doesn’t make me nice, Hitler was a vegetarian — which seemed like the most succinct encapsulation of what I was wrestling with. We all have these tender, wounded parts of ourselves and we all have the potential for evil and goodness. What is the difference between a hero and a villain? How they metabolize their pain. It can be so hard to be vulnerable in the moment, but I wanna be brave and keep trying and I hope you will too.

Toasty cinnamon bread cover art for eggcorn’s “Hitler Was a Vegetarian”.

Alex Doolittle (who also played drums) recorded himself, my partner Kyle Stringer, and me playing this track live in his basement. I love how raw and real it sounds; Alex did a great job capturing the energy. Later, I recorded Ali Gummess and Karen Moran’s string overdubs at my house. Lastly, Maryam Qudus did a beautiful job mixing the song, working with all the bleed from the live take.

Observer Effect will be available soon via Spirit House, listen to more via Bandcamp.

Catch eggcorn May 23 in Oakland, CA at Tiny Telephone.