You probably didn't say Eggs at the Middle East last Sunday. Your loss; this Arlington, VA trio--singer/ guitarist Andrew Beaujon, bass second guitarist/trombonist Rob Christiansen, plus a rotating corps of helpful temporary drummers--has been touring up and down the East Coast for a couple year now, wowing tiny rock clubs (or at least the people who stand around in them) with an ever-varying mixture of instrumental comedy and soulfully complicated pop. They've also been releasing records, largely on the DC label Teen Beat; their latest is a multifaceted opus called Exploder. We (the columnar "we") caught up to them in their cramped yet snazzy van Sunday night.

fM: Tour stories? Best, worst, craziest shows...

Rob: Um. Craziest show we've done...the show at Princeton was pretty amazing....I guess it was particularly crazy because we were wearing these togas...

Andrew: And wreaths.

Rob: We happened to be wearing these togas and acting out a sort of half-baked rock opera thing we had done.

fM: The new album. Were there models, were there big structured records you were thinking of when you were putting together this one?

Rob: Have you read the Masonic Code?

fM: No.

Rob: We've been into the Masons lately, we've been studying the Masons. We were noticing the Masons have this all-encompassing plan for the world and they manipulate the various media to further this. And we were thinking along the same lines when we did the album.

fM: Musical precedents? The Masons not being a rock and roll group. As far as I know.

Rob: The Masons are behind a lot more popular culture than you think.

fM: About the song "Saturday's Cool": I was listening to it this morning, trying to go through and see whether the idea was to have a catalog of things people might have listened to growing up who are now listening to the Eggs record. Because one line is from a Blue Oyster Cult song, "Burn out the day..."

Rob: That's not a line in the song!

fM: It is! About 2/3 of the way through..

Andrew: That is a line in the song. Heck, I don't know--I wasn't thinking Blue Oyster Cult.