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Teen-Beat 156.

Eggs

How Do You Like Your Lobster?

Skyscraper
Ocelot
It's Hard to Be an Egg
The Government Administrator
Sugar Babe
The Obliviist, Pt. 1
The Obliviist, Pt. 2
Erin Go Bragh!
Sexual Tension
In State

Roll Away the Stone
Baked Alaska
A Pit With Spikes (Ruined by Robinson Re-Mix)
A Sparkling Mix
Genetic Engineering
Genetic Engineers
Words
Eggs WHFS Theme #2

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DESCRIPTION

A collection of singles, compilation tracks, and unreleased material.

ORIGINAL TRACK SOURCES

Skyscraper / Ocelot
7" vinyl 45

label: Teen-Beat (Teen-Beat 66)
September 9, 1991
recorded by Barrett Jones
    at Laundry Room, Arlington, Virginia, USA.

1. Skyscraper

2. Ocelot

TeenBeat 50
vinyl LP/CD/cassette
compilation album

label: Teen-Beat (Teen-Beat 50)
November 12, 1993
recorded by Barrett Jones
    at Laundry Room, Arlington, Virginia, USA.

3. It's Hard to Be an Egg

The Government Administrator
7" vinyl 45

label: Hemiola (Hemiola 3)
1992?
recorded by Rob Christiansen and Eric Ashman
    at McKinely Hall, American University,
    Washington, D.C., USA.

4. The Government Administrator

5. Sugar Babe

The Obliviist
7" vinyl 45
split single with Aurora Paralysis

label: Landspeed/Saltpeter (LS-003/PPP-001)
March, 1992
produced by Phil Pegg    
and recorded by Rob Christiansen and Eric Ashman
    at McKinely Hall, American University,
    Washington, D.C., USA.

6. The Obliviist part one

(listed on the single only as "The Obliviist")

How Do You Like Your Lobster
compact disc

label: Teen-Beat (Teen-Beat 156)
June 27, 1995
recorded by Rob Christiansen and Eric Ashman
    at McKinely Hall, American University,
    Washington, D.C., USA.

7. The Obliviist part two

(exclusive to "How Do You Like Your Lobster?)

Erin Go Bragh!
7" vinyl 45
split single with Whale

label: Hineymartian (Hineymartian 1)
1992?
recorded by Rob Christiansen
    at TeenBeat Sound System, Arlington, Virginia, USA.

8. Erin Go Bragh!

Jade Tree E.P.
7" vinyl 45

label: Jade Tree (JT1010)
January, 1993
recorded by Geoff Turner
    at W.G.N.S., Arlington, Virginia, USA.

9. Sexual Tension

10. In State

(a third track from this record, "Fever,"
is not included here)

Working Holiday, April
7" vinyl 45
split single with Jonny Cohen

label: Simple Machines (SMWH 04)
April, 1993
recorded by Rob Christiansen
    with Danny Scheman and Jeff Carey
    at McKinely Hall, American University,
    Washington, D.C., USA.

11. Roll Away the Stone

Teenbeat 100
7" vinyl 45
compilation album

label: Teen-Beat (Teen-Beat 100)
March 18, 1993
recorded by Rob Christiansen
    at McKinely Hall, American University,
    Washington, D.C., USA.

12. Baked Alaska

A Pit with Spikes
7" vinyl 45

label: Teen-Beat (Teen-Beat 116)
November 19, 1993
recorded by Rob Christiansen
    at McKinely Hall, American University,
    Washington, D.C., USA.

13. A Pit with Spikes (Ruined by Robinson Re-Mix)

14. A Sparkling Mix

Genetic Engineering
7" vinyl 45

label: Teen-Beat (Teen-Beat 136)
September 29, 1994

15. Genetic Engineering

recorded by Geoff Turner
    at W.G.N.S., Arlington, Virginia, USA.

16. Genetic Engineers

recorded by John Morand
    at Sound of Music, Richmond, Virginia, USA.

How Do You Like Your Lobster
compact disc

label: Teen-Beat (Teen-Beat 156)
June 27, 1995

17. Words

18. Eggs W.H.F.S. Theme #2

LINER NOTES

PLAYERS

Andrew Beaujon, guitar, vocals

Jane Buscher, bass guitar

Rob Christiansen, trombone, drums, guitar, vocals

Ben Currier, drums

Marianne McGee, flügelhorn

Dave Park, bass guitar, vocals

John Rickman, drums, guitar

Evan Shurak, bass guitar, vocals

GUEST PLAYERS

Pat Gaugh, drums

Brian Markovitz, drums

John Morand, marching, snare drum

Mark Nelson, marching

MUSIC COMPOSITION

Eggs

except
"Genetic Engineering" written by
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
and
"Words" written by Low.

COMPILED BY

Andrew Beaujon

COVER STAR

Phil O'Donnell

PHOTOGRAPHY

Jimmy Cohrssen

COVER DESIGN

Andrew Beaujon

LEGAL REPRESENTATION

Richard Grabel, Esq.

U.K. MANAGEMENT

Ms. Madeleine Costa

ET CETERA

The original working title for the album was "Stems and Seeds."

Full title: "How Do You Like Your Lobster? A Collection of Crustaceans and Flotsam.

Title on label: "How Do You Like Your Lobster? A Singles Compilation.

The song from the band's split single with Pitchblende on Jade Tree Records, "Song With Contemporary Influences", is not included here.

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH

Mark Robinson,
Justine T. Wolfenden,
P.V.O.,
Darren Walters,
Tim Owen,
Treiops Treyfid,
Chris Albee,
Dave Marsh,
John Loder and all at Southern,
very especially Katy,
Keith Wood,
Liz Brooks,
David Levine,
Michelle San Genito,
Mark Thomasson,
Ellen Stewart,
Jim Romeo,
Tom Windish,
Vicky Wheeler,
Gail O'Hara,
Eric Gladstone,
Jason Cherkis,
Lydia Anderson,
Dawn Sutter,
Ian Jones,
Evan Bittner,
Mark Nelson,
Scott DeSimon,
everyone who's lent us a floor or a stage and all our friends.

RECORDING SESSION DINING NOTES

Skyscraper
Ocelot
It's Hard to Be an Egg

Laundry Room

Ate later at IHOP, not too far from the current Teenbeat residence (1995), though at that point a bright spot in a bleak suburban landscape. I had carp, McGee and Park split some turbot, and Rickman had pigs in blankets. Robinson came along and had a tuna melt.

The Government Administrator
Sugar Babe
The Obliviist, Pt. 1
The Obliviist, Pt. 2

American University

Several trips to the market with this one, Rickman opting for Oysters Rockefeller, Shurak a strict smelt man, Christiansen eating not one, but two king crabs, and me all alone with my bony sunfish salad. Later, we smoked cigarettes dipped in clam juice.

Erin Go Bragh!

Teenbeat Sound System

The taste of Monkfish is comparable to your beloved Lobster," she fairly spat at me, as I, carbuncular and restrained, sucked kelp.

Sexual Tension
In State

W.G.N.S.

Turner was wild for grouper that year, and we found ourselves at Hogates with those dumb plastic bibs that make any man look ridiculous. I slurped my starfish cocktail loudly in disapproval. "This is for tourists!" I hissed, but then realized that everyone else was having a great time with the common plate of hushpuppies. I kept my mouth shut after that, you better believe.

Roll Away the Stone

American University

There was this swordfish steak, see, and my consumption thereof just about laid me out in ecstasy. I slept it off on the gross couch outside of A.U.'s control room. When I woke up, Evan & Rob were banging on fire hydrants. We used all 24 tracks.

Baked Alaska

American University

I had barely a minute to eat my lobster roll when suddenly a large chunk of tomalley got stuck in my throat. I screamed bloody murder but ended up copping some John Dowie lyrics instead. Fac 19, rest in peace.

A Pit With Spikes [Ruined by Robinson Remix]
A Sparkling Mix

American University

It was our first all-out crab feast. I covered the mixing board with newspaper and dumped those steaming babies all over it. One was still alive so I smashed it with an old reel until it stopped moving. Rob was outside smoking seaweed and boy was he ever surprised when he saw Evan and I trying to scrape crabmeat out of the patchbay. Robinson came in, an eel dangling from his mouth, C.M.J. in his hands. "Boys," he said, "I think we've got a hit on our hands."

Genetic Engineering

W.G.N.S.

I was mainlining Bouillabaisse at this point, and was asleep for most of the session. I remember Turner and Jones going on about some sort of Squid Dance, but I really don't remember most of '93.

Genetic Engineers

Sound of Music

I was more or less clean at this point, though I would occasionally find myself wandering glass-eyed through Chinatown, staring wishfully at the big fish in the windows. His Hooks (that's poorly done rhyming slang) got me clean, and now the strongest thing I touch is Clamato. It didn't help that Morand had seawater in his bong, but we adapt, we survive. Christiansen is up to a school a day. I hope to perform an intervention soon.

Words
Eggs WHFS Theme #2

W.H.F.S.

We went ice fishing with Sparhawk and Nichols in Duluth. I got a fine trout, and Al landed the biggest mullet I'd ever seen and Evan Bittner caught an hell of a roughy. When Rob's flag went up, he tripped leaving the tent and began an half-hour-long backslide across Lake Superior. That Mim sure can cook au papillotte.

- Andrew Beaujon, 1995.

REVIEW

"A collection of various singles and compilation appearances, How Do You Like Your Lobster? makes for a mighty fine overview of the Eggs' first half of the '90s, and arguably might actually be its best album all around. It's certainly a great snapshot of the band's quietly evolving approaches over time. If opening songs like the wonderful "Skyscraper" are low-key indie rock with a bit of energy here and there, as the album goes things are much more varied, from the odd chants on "Sexual Tension" and the not-quite-scat-singing and funk turns on "Roll Away the Stone" to the shoegaze-meets-tempo change of "Baked Alaska." It's not that one can't hear the ambition early on -- Marianne McGee's low-key turn on flügelhorn helps add just a touch of majesty, if one likes, to "Ocelot," while Rob Christiansen does similar on "Sugar Babe" and both parts of "The Oblivist" with tuba (on the latter adding some woozy New Orleans jazz moans). Some really wonderful songs and performances mark the entire disc -- the earliest stone classic is "The Government Administrator," which sounds like the type of epically heroic song the Flaming Lips would end up doing more of towards the end of the millennium. Then there's Mark Robinson's "ruined" remix of "A Pit With Spikes," beautiful, simple verses complete with bizarro falsetto midsong break, and a snaky, just off-kilter enough cover of OMD's early-'80s winner "Genetic Engineering" (the replication of the computer voices is quite amusing!), as well as a slightly peppier version of Low's "Words" -- with tuba. Andrew Beaujon tackles the liner notes with a curious but fun theme, relating every particular single or recording session to a fish dinner or meal of some sort. Among other revelations -- that Mimi from Low 'sure can cook au papilotte.'"

- Ned Raggett, All Music

"Eggs were one of Teenbeat's flagship bands in the '90s, and their best work was their string of all-over-the-place singles, collected here. Singer/guitarist Andrew Beaujon had been associated with Teenbeat in one capacity or another since its very early days, including early cassettes he made under the name Scaley Andrew. He was a witty, acerbic songwriter with a taste for non-rock modes: 'Sugar Babe' is more or less a samba, and 'A Pit With Spikes' bursts into full-on Bee Gees disco for its bridge. Eggs' signature sound, though, was Rob Christiansen's trombone, an instrument so desperately uncool by '90s indie-rock standards it looped all the way back around to supercool. (Christiansen went on to the rock-opera-prone Teenbeat band Viva Satellite.)"

- Douglas Wolk, eMusic

RELEASE DATE

June 27, 1995

FORMAT

compact disc

LENGTH

68 minutes, 23 seconds

18 tracks

CATALOGUE No.

Teen-Beat 156
100GM-11

DETAILS

U.S.A. EDITION

June 27, 1995

4,000 pressed.

INSERT:
8-page booklet and tray card (one side colour and one side black and white).

JEWEL CASE:
with standard black tray.

LABEL:
black and red ink.

Distributed by
Matador Records, New York, New York.

Printed and pressed by
Specialty, Olyphant, Pennsylvania.

EUROPE EDITION

June 26, 1995

2,000 pressed.

INSERT:
8-page booklet and tray card (one side colour and one side black and white).

JEWEL CASE:
with standard black tray.

LABEL:
black and red ink.

Manufactured and distributed by
Southern, London, England.

Manufactured in France

JAPAN EDITION

June 17, 1995

1,000 pressed.

INSERT:
8-page booklet and tray card (one side colour and one side black and white).

OBI CARD:
Black and red ink. Card sits on top of the jewel case.

JEWEL CASE:
with standard black tray.

LABEL:
black and red ink.

Manufactured and distributed by
100 Guitar Mania, Tokyo, Japan.

DISCOGRAPHY

SINGLES

Skyscraper / Ocelot
Government Administrator
split single with Aurora Paralysis
split single with Whale
Jade Tree E.P.
Working Holiday, April [split with Jonny Cohen]
A Pit with Spikes
Genetic Engineering

ALBUMS

Eggs Bruiser L.P.
Teenbeat 96 Eggs Exploder
How Do You Like Your Lobster?

COMPILATIONS

Teen-Beat Fifty
Teen-Beat 100
The Machines
Monsters of Rock II
Wakefield: Volume 1
Working Holiday [box set]
We're All Normal and We Want Our Freedom
Wakefield: Volume 2
Wakefield: Volume 3
Wakefield: The Teen-Beat Boxed Set
Give Me the Cure
Slow Children At Play
2001 Teenbeat Sampler
Rough Trade Shops' Indiepop 1
Teen-Beat 20th Commemorative

ALSO

EGGS Tune Mass Damper tee-shirt
Teen-Beat's Ninth Anniversary
EGGS Morning Blend coffee
Teen-Beat's 20th Anniversary

RELATED

Andrew Beaujon
Scaley Andrew
The Sisterhood of Convoluted Thinkers
Viva Satellite!
William & Vivian

SONGS

A Pit With Spikes
A Pit with Spikes (Ruined by Robinson Re-Mix)
A Sparkling Mix
Ampallang
The Argument
Baked Alaska
Bruiser
Catch
Claire's Snares
Conchita
Cushion
Ebenezer
Eggs Teenbeat 96 Exploder Bye! Bye!
Eggs Teenbeat 96 Exploder How're You Doing?
Eggs Teenbeat 96 Exploder Let's Go
Eggs W.H.F.S. Theme #2
Erin Go Bragh!
Evanston, IL
Fever
Genetic Engineering
Genetic Engineers
The Government Administrator
Hippie Purple
In State
It's Hard to Be an Egg
John's Bar Mitzvah
Love With a Tumblin' "O"
March of the Triumphant Elephants
Maureens's Beans
Minestrone
Music Without Keys No.1
Music Without Keys No.3
The Obliviist, part one
The Obliviist, part two
The Obliviist, part three
Ocelot
Ocelot (Party Mix)
Opener
President
Rebuilding Europe
Roll Away the Stone
Rollercoaster
Salsa Garden
Saturdays Cool
Sexual Tension
Side Division [1]
Side Division [2]
Side Division [3]
Skyscraper
Spaceman
Sugar Babe
Theme from Bob
This Party Never Ends
Why Am I So Tired All the Time?
Willow, Willow
Words