Last week Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) and his revolving lineup of bandmates known as The EELS unveiled their first “best of” compilation, Meet The EELS: Essential EELS Vol. 1, 1996-2006, and its first collection of rarities, EELS Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2006 (Label: DreamWorks/Geffen).

Meet The EELS offers 24 tracks that showcase the band’s evolution plus 12 videos. Useless Trinkets features 50 hard-to-find B-sides, film contributions and unreleased tracks, and a DVD of live performance footage from Lollapalooza 2006.

All music has been digitally remastered and both releases are accompanied by notes from E and full-color booklets. More release info & track listings here.

We got our hands on one copy of Meet The Eels, one copy of Useless Trinkets and one signed 7″ vinyl.

What You Can Win

• Meet The Eels CD
• Useless Trinkets CD
• Limited Edition 7″ vinyl (1 of 3,000) featuring two unreleased tracks (”Climbing To The Moon” [Jon Brion remix] and “I Want To Protect You”)

How to Win
E-mail us with a lyric from your favorite EELS song and why. We’ll randomly pick a winner out of a funny hat (seriously, a funny-looking hat) on January 25. Feel free to post it in the comments, too.

Some of the entries thus far:

1. “Do you know what it’s like to fall on the floor, cry your guts out until you’ve got no more? Hey man, now you’re really living!”
2. “This nagging malaise, Is more than a phase, It feels like a job, But no boss ever pays you to lay there, And think how you’ll die, While the tears start to well in your eyes”
3. “Something about spending the afternoon, Asleep in your arms”