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Eels

 

Pop group

A singer, songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer known simply as "E" is the man responsible for eels. A native of Virginia who later moved to Los Angeles, E was born Mark Oliver Everett on April 9, 1963. His first instrument was a drum kit. Music soon became an unquenchable passion. "Whatever everyone was listening to didn't interest me," he told the Boston Globe's Ty Burr. "I was listening to stuff that was long gone…. Luckily, instead of making Phil Collins my role model, I went with Levon Helm [of The Band]. I used to go to his shows all the time and follow him around and ask him questions. I was kind of obsessed with Leon Russell for a while, too. I was really obsessed with Ray Charles; I read his autobiography when I was a teenager and got a lot of good advice from it."

Before forming eels, he released two solo albums for Polydor Records. In 1995 in Los Angeles, after Polydor agreed to release the veteran songwriter and producer from his contract, E teamed with his touring drummer, Butch Norton, and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Tommy Walter to record as eels. Everett hoped an expanded lineup would enable him to produce a fuller sound more akin to his greatest influence, that of singer, songwriter, and pianist Randy Newman, and to add trip-hop technology to the idiosyncratic pop sensibility of his prior work. Taking his new project to DreamWorks Records, the label established by film director/producer Steven Spielberg, E, along with his group, became one of the first acts to sign a contract with the newly formed record company.

A Diverse Debut
E's new band debuted in mid-1996 with the eclectic Beautiful Freak, an album noted for its intelligent pop sound and intriguing lyrics. Each of E's songs revealed a heartfelt, personal edge and underpinning humor, a mix that appealed to a young, literate audience dissatisfied with the slacker culture. Because of these elements, eels' first album often drew comparisons to another fresh-sounding songwriter, Beck. However, E resisted such comparisons: "The only similarity is that we're white guys using samples. We're coming from a completely different angle," he argued, as quoted by Rock: The Rough Guide contributor Alex Ogg. Beautiful Freak earned rave reviews for its fresh mix of classic pop, country, rock, and hip-hop beats, with Q magazine calling the work a "complete musical vision, a genre-spanning soundscape that reels you in with its myriad of hooks." And after the album's 1997 release in Great Britain, Melody Maker ranked Beautiful Freak number 43 on that year's list of best albums, while a New Musical Express critics' poll listed it at number 33.

Record buyers in America and Europe embraced eels' debut. The ironic single "Novocaine for the Soul" became a modern rock hit, and the band in 1996 started touring the United States and Europe, opening for the likes of the Screaming Trees and playing music festivals such as the Inrock Festival in France and the Rockpalast in Germany. By 1997, eels were a headlining act, gaining a reputation for their impressive live shows, especially in Europe, where the band's popularity soared. That same year, eels also toured in the United States with Lollapalooza, then returned to Europe for another round of sell-out concerts. Despite eels' breakthrough, Walter left the band soon after touring in order to form his own band, Metromax, later known as Tely.

Revealed Personal Hardships
Electro-Shock Blues, released in 1998, was primarily a solo effort by E with a noticeably darker feel than the group's debut. The album was inspired largely by the suicide of E's sister Elizabeth, who died just before the release of Beautiful Freak, and by the long illness and imminent death of his mother, who suffered from cancer. While sales of the record were slow, due to its anguished subject matter, Electro-Shock Blues nonetheless was given stellar reviews. CMJ (College Music Journal) called the work "one of 1998's most oddly powerful pop albums, demonstrating that weighty, tearful emotions, pretty melodies and groovy tempos can harmoniously complement one another." To support the album, E enlisted My Head frontman Adam Siegal (a former member of the Suicidal Tendencies) to play live with him on bass, but the American leg of the tour was cut short when E's mother died of cancer in November of 1998. In spite of E's personal difficulties, eels did return to Europe later as Pulp's supporting act, and then returned home to conclude the Electro-Shock Blues tour.

E spent most of 1999 writing and producing Daisies of the Galaxy in his Los Angeles basement with eels drummer Norton, Grant Lee Buffalo's Grant Lee Phillips on bass, and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck on piano, guitar, and bass. The sessions were interrupted, however, when E had to return to Virginia to settle his parents' estate, later documented in the song "Estate Sale," written with Buck, which was included in the album. While at his parents' house, E also came across a 1950s-era Greek children's book, which he used for the album's artwork.

Daisies of the Galaxy was regarded as an upbeat coda to 1998's Electro-Shock Blues, a project that took a more optimistic view of the world. As E himself concluded, according to DreamWorks Records: "If Electro-Shock Blues was the phone call in the middle of the night that the world doesn't want to answer, then Daisies of the Galaxy is the hotel wake-up call that says your lovely breakfast is ready."

Like previous eels' records, a list of poignant characters appear throughout Daisies of the Galaxy. When asked if he has always felt so empathetic toward others, E explained that he does appreciate the good in others and tries to understand their hardships and problems. "I can be very cynical, but deep down I don't believe there's such a thing as bad people," he told Mark Healy in an interview for Rolling Stone. "People do bad things and get led astray, but if you take any person and follow the line backward from the bad thing they did, you can usually start to understand them." And just how did he arrive at such a hopeful view? "If you've been through some of the experiences I've been through these last few years, you cling to any shred of optimism you can muster," he continued. "Once I felt like the dust was settling and I hadn't been to any funerals for awhile, I realized you have a choice: You can stay down in the muck, or you can tighten your belt and move on. It's like, 'OK, time for some carefree years. Time to have some fun.'"

Returned to Happier Music
After his recent tragedies, E, now the only living member of his immediate family, felt the need to focus on the positive. "I needed to make something in love with life for my own sanity," he related, as quoted by DreamWorks. "It became important that I make simple, pure, sweet music." And although Daisies of the Galaxy opened with the sounds of funeral music, E opted to use a New Orleans-style groove. "I wanted to make a fun, pretty record that was full of life," he added.

Released in March of 2000, Daisies of the Galaxy brought E further acclaim. "Like its predecessor," wrote Jim Wirth in New Musical Express, Daisies of the Galaxy "mixes humor and humility, hope and fear, and stands as quiet testimony to one of modern music's most gifted writers…. In almost every respect a masterpiece." Soon thereafter, eels started touring again, this time with Norton and a couple of string and horn players. They traveled first to Europe, then opened for singer/songwriter/pianist Fiona Apple in the United States. He had plans for a fourth record, and soon after completing Daisies, started working on producing new and louder songs with Siegal.

Souljacker, "a bluesy wallop of an album … filled with songs about grotesques," as described by Time's Josh Tyrangiel, was released in 2002. In 2003 E produced two projects, one of which was the often-overlooked Shootenanny!. Everett told Hollywood Reporter, "It's really the only Eels record, I think, where we really set up like a band and played it all live. On some of the other albums, there's much more studio trickery at work This one was really just like a rock band."

Critic Jason Fine of Rolling Stone observed that E is "at his best … when he takes a deep breath and lets himself have some fun. As he did on 2000's enchanting Daisies of the Galaxy, E lifts the depressive curtain on Shootenanny!, balancing existential woe with spiky humor, some hope and even glimmers of Zen-like self-realization."

That same year, E released I Am the Messiah as MC Honky, a guise for his "self-help rock" alter ego, who was purportedly a bit more cheery than E himself.

He also embarked on writing for film. His work was featured in soundtracks for animated films including Shrek and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, as well as American Beauty. His first complete score was created for the film Levity.

E was also on his own after DreamWorks was sold to Universal. The shakeup resolved with eels being signed to Vagrant, another Universal-owned label, in 2004.

For years, E was quiet about one particular project. He wrote and saved songs for several years for an ambitious concept album, planned as a double album. "I did a little research in my defense and found that some of the best-selling albums of all time were double albums," he said in an interview with Tom Lanham, writing in Magnet.

Vagrant was prepared. The label had already released a Paul Westerburg double package. Rich Egan, the label president and co-owner, told Lanham he "thought it was really important to present the eels record as a whole, because it's such a journey."

The critical response to Blinking Lights and Other Revelations was decidedly polarized. Ty Burr of The Boston Globe found it to be "a staggeringly ambitious project, the kind people don't make anymore, but it's as intimate as a whispered confidence. And it only took E seven years to complete."

Burr, reviewing the project in Entertainment Weekly, raved that "Mark Oliver Everett finally delivers the absolutely stone masterpiece fans have always known lurked inside his dour heart. Blinking Lights is ambitious as hell—a two-CD, cradle-to-grave journey."

Mark Jenkins, writing in the Washington Post, said Everett deserved "credit for defying the zeitgeist" for making "an album that rejects the iPod-ification of contemporary music." Jenkins found Blinking Lights to have only "a half-dozen fully realized numbers, but also several inessential interludes and a surfeit of unadorned laments that are just too dire for repeated exposure."

As Los Angeles Times reporter Richard Cromelin said of the songwriter: "E refuses to codify emotional reality into a convenient package. His determination to capture life's complex, ambiguous, paradoxical contours is what makes his songs so true and touching."

Select discography
Beautiful Freak, DreamWorks, 1996.(Contributor) Scream 2 (soundtrack), Capitol, 1997.Electro-Shock Blues, DreamWorks, 1998.Daisies of the Galaxy, DreamWorks, 2000.Souljacker, DreamWorks, 2002.Shootenanny!, DreamWorks, 2003.Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, Vagrant, 2005.With Strings: Live at Town Hall (live), Vagrant, 2006. Sources
Books
Buckley, Jonathan, and Mark Ellington, editors, Rock: The Rough Guide, Rough Guides Ltd., 1999.

Periodicals
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 18, 1997.
Boston Globe, June 26, 2005.
Boston Herald, June 27, 2005.
CMJ, January 11, 1999, p. 5.
Entertainment Weekly, April 29, 2005.
Hollywood Reporter, December 4, 2001; April 10, 2003; June 19, 2003.
Los Angeles Times, February 5, 2000; March 16, 2000; April 30, 2000; May 14, 2005.
Magnet, July-August 2005.
Melody Maker, February 16-22, 2000, p. 46.

New Musical Express, February 19, 2000.
Q, December 1996, p. 147.
Rolling Stone, April 27, 2000; May 25, 2000; June 12, 2003.
Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland), May 15, 2005.
Time, March 25, 2002.
Washington Post, June 24, 2005.
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Biography

Although Eels are often marketed as a full-fledged band, singer/songwriter E (real name: Mark Oliver Everett) is responsible for the group's sound and direction. Born in Virginia on April 9, 1963, Everett became interested in rock music at an early age via his sister's record collection, and began playing drums at the age of six (as well as tinkering on his family's piano). As the years progressed, Everett began leading a troubled teenage life, which was further complicated by his father's death. However, the turmoil led to an even stronger interest in music, as he taught himself how to play his sister's guitar and began writing his own original compositions. (Tragedy would later form the catalyst for Eels' magnum opus, Electro-Shock Blues.)

Due to the fact that several of his friends also were named Mark, it was also around this time that Everett began going by his initials -- and eventually, solely by the letter "E." By his early twenties, E was recording demo material on a used four-track cassette recorder, and eventually decided to pursue his rock & roll dreams by relocating to Los Angeles. Due to his prolific songwriting, the quality of his tunes naturally began to improve, which led to a recording contract as a solo artist for Polydor Records. This was followed by a pair of underappreciated releases, 1992's A Man Called E (which was supported with a tour opening for Tori Amos) and 1993's Broken Toy Shop, before E left the label and formed Eels along with bassist Tommy Walter and drummer Butch Norton. The trio inked a deal with the then-newly formed Dreamworks label and issued Eels' debut, 1996's Beautiful Freak. The album spawned a sizable MTV/alternative radio hit with "Novocaine for the Soul," its promo clip received three MTV Video Music Award nominations the following year, and the group's popularity rose in England (resulting in a Brit Award, which was presented to the group by goof metallists Spinal Tap).

What should have been a time of great promise for E turned out to be one of tragedy, as both the singer's sister and mother passed away in quick succession. This was compounded by Walter's departure from the group. The dark mood resonated in Eels' sophomore effort, Electro-Shock Blues, which proved to be stronger than its predecessor yet failed to fuel much commercial success. With new bassist Adam Siegal in tow, the group toured behind the album's release before returning to the studio immediately afterward to work on a third album. Issued in 2000, Daisies of the Galaxy offered a slightly brighter outlook and featured a guest appearance from R.E.M.'s guitarist Peter Buck, who also helped co-pen a track. Despite the album's commercial failure, E put together "the Eels Orchestra" and launched an international tour in support of its release. The six-piece band featured saxophone, trombone, trumpet, banjo, guitar, violin, upright bass, piano, melodica, clarinet, and timpani -- to make it work on-stage, each bandmember was required to play three to four different instruments each night.

After a live recording of the 2000 Eels Orchestra tour, Oh What a Beautiful Morning, was issued via the group's official website, E began preparing for Eels' fourth studio release. Instead of penning the entire album by himself (as he'd done with the group's previous work), E turned to John Parish for help. The two created Souljacker, which was issued throughout most of the world in September 2001 and hit American shores early the following year (in the U.S., the first edition of the CD also contained a bonus four-track disc). The resulting tour saw E and Norton joined by multi-instrumentalist Parish, as well as new bassist/synthesizer player Koool G Murder. A live disc, Electro-Shock Blues Show, followed soon after to promote the tour.

Spring 2003 began a flurry of Eels/E-related releases, beginning with MC Honky and his SpinART release I Am the Messiah. While the man behind Messiah's splattering mix of hip-hop beats, dance grooves, and kitschy samples was little more than E in DJ drag, the album was nevertheless an enjoyable slice of summertime fun. E's score for the indie film Levity arrived in April, and June saw the release of the Eels' fifth studio album, Shootenanny! Its follow-up, 2005's Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, was an ambitious double album including 33 songs. Eels' With Strings: Live at Town Hall album, recorded June 30, 2005, documented the New York Town Hall performance during their 2005 tour of the same name, and another With Strings: Live at Town Hall edition was simultaneously issued in February 2006 with a concert DVD.

In 2008, Eels released two CD/DVD sets -- Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996-2006, Vol. 1 and Useless Trinkets: B Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2007. The band's music also comprised the bulk of the soundtrack for Yes Man, a comedy featuring Jim Carrey. E then returned to the drawing board and emerged with Hombre Lobo, a concept album about desire that arrived in mid-2009, followed closely by the MySpace Transmissions Session 2009 live EP. The lo-fi End Times, which revolved around the central theme of broken love, arrived in 2010, but was followed in August by Tomorrow Morning, a much more polished album of upbeat optimism that relied heavily on analog electronics to drive its songs. In 2011 Eels issued Hombre Loco, End Times, and Tomorrow Morning as a box set entitled Trilogy with an accompanying DVD. ~ Greg Prato, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Eels (band)

Top
Eels

Birmingham Town Hall, February 2008 (left to right): The Chet and E
Background information
Origin Los Feliz, California, United States
Genres Alternative rock, lo-fi
Years active 1995–present
Labels DreamWorks, Vagrant, EWorks
Members
E
The Chet
Knuckles
P-Boo
Tiny Al
Koool G Murder
Past members
Jonathan "Butch" Norton
Tommy Walter
Adam Siegel
John Parish
Lisa Germano
Joe Gore
Puddin'
Shon Sullivan
Allen Hunter
Big Al
Crazy Al

Eels (often typeset as eels or EELS) is an American indie rock band formed by singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, better known as E. Other members rotate frequently, both in the studio and on stage.

Eels appear on several film soundtracks, including Scream 2, American Beauty, Road Trip, Holes, The Anniversary Party, Knocked Up, Yes Man, The End of Violence, Hellboy II, Hot Fuzz and the first three Shrek movies.

Contents

Recording history

E solo records

In 1992, Polydor released A Man Called E under the name E. The single "Hello Cruel World" was a minor success. Touring to support the album, E opened for Tori Amos. A Man Called E was followed by Broken Toy Shop in 1993. This year also marked the beginning of E's collaboration with drummer Jonathan "Butch" Norton. After Broken Toy Shop, E was released from his record deal with Polydor. E himself has recovered two of the songs ('The Only Thing I Care About' and 'Manchester Girl') from Broken Toy Shop for his own live shows with the Eels.

Beautiful Freak

Eels were officially founded when Butch and E met Tommy Walter. The name "Eels" was chosen so that the band's records would be close to E's solo records in an alphabetical ordering, although it was too late realised that numerous "Eagles" and "Earth, Wind and Fire" releases were in between.[1] Eels became one of the first groups to sign a record deal with DreamWorks Records, followed by Elliott Smith.

In 1996 the band released their debut album Beautiful Freak, a melancholy pop record with tormented lyrics. Musically, it demonstrated a wide range of influences including grunge and hip hop. The singles "Novocaine for the Soul", "Susan's House" and "Your Lucky Day in Hell" achieved modest national and international success, winning the Best International Breakthrough Act award at the 1998 BRIT Awards.

In 1996 and 1997, the Eels toured extensively to support the album, playing at many festivals and building their name as a live act in the United States and Europe. In September 1997, Walter quit the band (or was fired, according to some accounts).

"My Beloved Monster" was featured on the soundtrack for the DreamWorks movie Shrek. Two other songs from the album, "Not Ready Yet" and "Guest List", were featured in the fifth season of the television show Homicide: Life on the Street. The song "Your Lucky Day In Hell" also achieved moderate success, and was used in the horror movie Scream 2.

Everett wrote the song "Beautiful Freak" for a girlfriend, and he jokingly remarks in his memoir, Things The Grandchildren Should Know (2008) "Perhaps if I hadn't referred to her as a 'freak' she'd still be my girlfriend". The song appears in "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army".

Electro-Shock Blues

Following the success of Beautiful Freak, E experienced a difficult time in his personal life. His sister committed suicide, and his mother was diagnosed with cancer. These events inspired him to write Electro-Shock Blues, which focuses on his family, which he had never written about previously, bar perhaps the song "Fitting In With The Misfits" from his 1992 solo album A Man Called E, written in the form of a letter to his mother. "Electro-Shock Blues" was released in 1998. The album deals with many difficult subjects including suicide, death, and cancer. The tragedy of Everett's father's death became prominent once more in the context of his mother's pending death and his sister's suicide, and as a result the song "Baby Genius" is written for Hugh Everett III (his father).

Contributions to the album were made by Jon Brion, Lisa Germano, Grant Lee Phillips, Dust Brother Michael Simpson, and T-Bone Burnett.

The single "Last Stop: This Town" saw minor success; "Cancer for the Cure", the second single from the album, was used on the American Beauty soundtrack.

Still a three-piece band on stage, Tommy Walter was replaced by Adam Siegel. Part of the American leg of the tour was cancelled after the death of E's mother. They returned to tour Europe later in the year, to open for Pulp.

Daisies of the Galaxy

In 2000, Eels released Daisies of the Galaxy. The album, which was recorded almost entirely in E's basement, is lighter and more upbeat than its predecessor. Everett noted, "if Electro-Shock Blues was the phone call in the middle of the night that the world doesn't want to answer, then Daisies of the Galaxy is the hotel wake-up call that says your lovely breakfast is ready". He was joined in the studio by Michael Simpson (Dust Brothers), Grant-Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo), and Peter Buck (R.E.M.). On the tracks "It's a Motherfucker" and "Selective Memory", E plays the same piano that Neil Young used on his classic album After the Gold Rush.

The first single, "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues", was co-written by Simpson and features the sound of his pager in the beginning. The song was not intended to be on the album, but the record company insisted on its inclusion. Therefore, it is not featured on the track listing but is instead listed as a "bonus track", separated from the rest of the album by 20 seconds of silence. E declared, "You can think of it as buying the album and getting a bonus track, or buying the single and getting a bonus album." The song also appeared on the Road Trip soundtrack and several of the film's cast members are featured in the music video. Mark Everett was against the inclusion of his song in the film, however it was used when his current publisher overruled his objections. Because of the use of profanity in "It's a Motherfucker" and "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" ("Goddamn right, it's a beautiful day") a censored version was released. "It's a Motherfucker" was renamed to "It's a Monstertrucker" with E singing over instances of the word fuck in a distorted voice. Dan Bartlett of the presidential campaign for then-Governor George W. Bush cited the album—which was reportedly given as a gift at a Democratic political event—as an example of obscenity-laden entertainment marketed to children.[2][3] This conclusion was due to the contrast between the aforementioned song title and the cartoon drawings on the album cover, which were inspired by children's books found in the estate of E's mother.

To promote Daisies of the Galaxy another tour took place across the United States and Europe, as well as their first visit to Australia. This time Eels were transformed into an 6-piece orchestra, including Lisa Germano. E also played some solo shows, opening for Fiona Apple.

Souljacker and Shootenanny!

In 2001 Souljacker was released, an album with a heavier feel and more rock-oriented sound than Daisies of the Galaxy. John Parish, previously of PJ Harvey's band, co-wrote most of the songs and played guitar on the album and first part of the tour. After Parish became a father, he was replaced with Joe Gore for the American leg of the Bus Driving, Band Rocking Tour. Koool G Murder played bass and keyboards and joined Eels on tour, jokingly introduced by E as "the other guy." Wim Wenders directed the video for the first single, "Souljacker part I".

2003 marked the release of the album Shootenanny!. E now refers to the album as a break from recording the following Blinking Lights album. It was recorded live in the studio in only ten days. "Saturday Morning" was released as a single.

Butch was replaced on drums by Puddin'. In 2003 Eels did another big tour, the Tour of Duty. The live band consisted of E, Goldenboy (guitar), Koool G Murder (bass) and Puddin (drums). Later that year, E composed the score for the film Levity.

Blinking Lights and Other Revelations and Eels with Strings

Eels' next album, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, was released on April 26, 2005; it was the band's first release for new label Vagrant Records. It is a 33-track double album. Contributions were made by Tom Waits, Peter Buck, John Sebastian (The Lovin' Spoonful), and Butch. A hand-written lyric-sheet to "In the Yard, Behind the Church" was sold on eBay for $544, which was given to charity.

The first tour in support of the Blinking Lights album, billed as Eels with Strings, featured primarily acoustic guitar-, organ- and piano-based performances by E backed by Allen 'Big Al' Hunter on piano and upright bass; Jeffrey Lyster (also known as Chet Atkins III or 'The Chet') on guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, musical saw and drums; and the string quartet of violinists Paloma Udovic and Julie Carpenter, violist Heather Lockie and cellist Ana Lenchantin.

The tour resulted in a live album, Eels with Strings: Live at Town Hall, recorded in New York City. The performance includes tracks from all of their albums, and was released on CD and DVD on February 21, 2006.[4]

Meet the Eels: Essential Eels Vol. I and Useless Trinkets

In early 2008 Eels released their first "greatest hits" compilation as well as a compilation of b-sides, rarities, soundtrack singles and unreleased tracks.

Meet the Eels: Essential Eels Vol. I spans the first decade of the Eels with singles from all their albums. Attached is a DVD featuring music videos and one live performance video. Useless Trinkets contains 50 B-sides and rarities and a DVD of their Lollapalooza 2006 performances.

To promote those releases the band went on world tour ("An Evening with Eels"). This time only The Chet joined E on stage, both playing a broad cross-section from the Eels repertoire on a variety of instruments. The concerts also featured The Chet reading excerpts from E's autobiography, Things the Grandchildren Should Know. On this tour, the band released a live CD/DVD package of Eels' 2006 performance at the London AstoriaLive and in Person!), documenting a show from the second tour in support of Blinking Lights and Other Revelations.

The soundtrack of the 2008 Jim Carrey comedy film Yes Man features nine songs by the Eels, including "Man Up," a brand new song.[5]

Concept album trilogy: Hombre Lobo, End Times, and Tomorrow Morning

Hombre Lobo, the seventh Eels studio album, was released on June 2, 2009. The album comprises twelve new songs.[6] "Hombre Lobo" is Spanish for "wolf man" or "werewolf" and may be a reference to E's unusually long beard which he originally grew when writing the song "Dog Faced Boy". On March 31, 2009, the band made the track "Fresh Blood" available on Spinner.com,[7] explaining that the song would be the lead single for the album. A Jesse Dylan-directed music video was released on April 29, 2009 as well.[8] The album was released as a single-disc CD and a deluxe edition with a DVD.[9] In September 2009, Eels released a music video for "That Look You Give That Guy" featuring Bobby, Jr., E and "Top Chef" host, Padma Lakshmi.[10]

While promoting this album, Eels released the live EP The Myspace Transmissions Session 2009 on October 14, 2009.

On October 14, 2009, the band's website announced that a new Eels album entitled End Times would be released on January 19, 2010. It was largely recorded on a four-track recorder and is based on the themes of broken love.[11] Three album tracks—"Little Bird", "In My Younger Days", and "A Line in the Dirt"—were made available as music videos or promotional downloads prior to the release of the album. Once again, Butch contributed drums to "A Line in the Dirt". On January 19, 2010, End Times was released. Mark Oliver Everett has made no comment on touring and there is no tour scheduled to begin.[12]

A second 2010 album was announced on May 20, 2010—Tomorrow Morning was described as "final installment of a trilogy that began with Hombre Lobo and End Times." The three albums respectively explore themes of desire, loss, and redemption.[13] A world tour, the first since 2007's An Evening With Eels tour, was announced at the same time. This tour once again featured the Chet on various instruments, alongside Koool G Murder on bass, trilogy drummer Knuckles on drums and a new member, P-Boo, on guitar. During this tour, E wore a white jumpsuit and bandana, and handed out ice cream at each performance.

Discography

References

  1. ^ Everett, Mark Oliver: Things the Grandchildren Should Know, Page 110, Picador 2009.
  2. ^ Elizabeth, Mary. "A campaign's dog days". Archive.salon.com. http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/09/21/bush/index2.html. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
  3. ^ "Offensive CD Distributed At Gore's Convention". Web.archive.org. 2000-11-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20001120140800/http://www.georgewbush.com/News.asp?FormMode=NR&ID=1416. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
  4. ^ "Eels Get Tangled In Strings On Live CD/DVD". http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001699389. Retrieved 2005-12-15. 
  5. ^ "Zooey Deschanel, Eels Affirm Yes Man Soundtrack". Pitchfork Media. 2008-11-21. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/node/147621. Retrieved 2008-12-23. 
  6. ^ ""Hombre Lobo" out on June 2nd, 2009". Official Eels Site. 2009-03-03. http://www.eelstheband.com/main.php. Retrieved 2008-03-03. 
  7. ^ "'Fresh Blood' on AOL Music". AOL Music. 2009-03-31. http://www.spinner.com/2009/03/31/eels-fresh-blood-song-premiere/. Retrieved 2009-03-31. 
  8. ^ ""Fresh Blood" music video". Stereogum. 2009-04-29. http://stereogum.com/archives/video/new-eels-video-fresh-blood-stereogum-premiere_066932.html. Retrieved 2009-04-29. 
  9. ^ "Hombre Lobo Deluxe Edition". Play.com. 2009-04-22. http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/9602997/Hombre-Lobo/Product.html. Retrieved 2009-04-22. 
  10. ^ "Eels, 'That Look You Give That Guy' – Video Premiere". Spinner.com. September 1, 2009. http://www.spinner.com/2009/09/01/eels-that-look-you-give-that-guy-video-premiere/. 
  11. ^ "Eels' 'End Times' Will Be "A Divorce Album With a Modern Twist"". Rock.about.com. 2009-11-16. http://rock.about.com/b/2009/11/16/eels-end-times-will-be-a-divorce-album-with-a-modern-twist.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
  12. ^ "End Times News". Eels. 2009-10-14. http://eelstheband.com/main.php. Retrieved 2009-10-14. 
  13. ^ Larsen, Peter (2010-08-04). "Eels Explore New Material at the Galaxy". O. C. Register. http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/eels-260689-soundcheck-http.html. Retrieved 2010-08-04. 

Further reading

External links


 
 

 

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Gale Musician Profiles. Contemporary Musicians © 1989-2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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