Eels

Goddamn if you can’t love a man called “E.” Since 1992, E, otherwise known as Mark Oliver Everett, has been a one-man musical machine. With a penchant for dark — yet playful — pop, the same man that once relentlessly recorded to four-track in “literally the closet” of his dumpy Los Angeles apartment has now personally released more than 12 full-length records, 10 under the band title of Eels.

    Beautiful Freak came down as Eels 1996 debut, and despite E’s belief that he was “still trying to find an artistic voice,” the album was well-received and gained notoriety within the alternative rock explosion by way of the hit single “Novocain for the Soul.” The road since has been crisscrossed with frantic touring and steadfast releases, both of which have ultimately yielded a cult fan base. All has not been cherry, however, as along the way E has dealt with a lifetime’s worth of personal strife.

    His father, Dr. Hugh Everett, was a brilliant man and a renowned quantum physicist. At the age of 19, E found Dr. Everett dead of a heart attack at the family’s Virginia home. After moving away to Los Angeles at the age of 24, E was pleasantly settled in his musical world until the suicide of his sister — and only sibling — Elizabeth in 1996. Shortly thereafter, his mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. By 1998, E was left with no family. Somehow, he was able to channel the traumatic experiences into 1998’s Electroshock Blues; deeply personal and revealing, Electroshock Blues stands tall as some of Eels finest work.

    At present, as years and years of miscellaneous recordings have piled up and gathered dust, E has raided the Eels vault for his latest release. Useless Trinkets, with a street date of January 15, is a comprehensive collection of Eels B-sides, soundtracks, rarities and unreleased material.

    “Originally I wanted it to be three CDs like a full on box-set — I always have these wild dreams, and then the powers that be tell me I’m dreaming.”

    The assortment is still pleasantly hefty, weighing in at a staggering 50 tracks, not including a third disc (DVD) with six cuts from Eels stint on Lollapalooza. And while the number 50 may burn like an eyesore and appear to be overkill, nothing could be more off target in the case of Useless Trinkets. Whether the creepy rhythm and spoken word of “Susan’s Apartment,” the sad lament of “Funeral Parlor,” the beat driven remix of “Your Lucky Day In Hell,” the lighthearted and live raw energy of “If I Was Your Girlfriend,” or the lounge-y groove “Estranged Friends,” Useless Trinkets provides the listener a wonderful view into the scope and diversity of E’s songwriting ability.   



    “I tend to have a soft spot for B-sides…I don’t know what it is. They get their own kind of freedom to not be thematically changed for an album. Sometimes you can sort of branch out and do something for the sake of that one song.” 

    In addition to the B-side extravaganza will be a retrospective, Meet the Eels: Essential Eels. The record digs in at 24 cuts, and is accompanied by a DVD with 12 Eels videos.   

    Atop all this, E waits in the wings for a European winter tour, as well as the airing of BBC documentary Parallel Universes, Parallel Lives, which chronicles the life of his late father and E’s drive to understand the man behind the science.

    “I never thought I’d star on a science fiction show,” claims E. The film debuts November 26^th on BBC 4. 

    The coming months will represent a busy yet fulfilling holiday schedule for Mark Oliver Everett. I can recall being 14 years old and watching Eels perform live at the Cow Palace for Live 105’s 1996 Green Christmas Ball. Joyously, E ran out on stage to find all his gear wrapped up with ribbons and bows, triumphantly exclaiming, “Wow! A new Wurlitzer!” Yo E, what’s on your wish list this year?

    With tongue in cheek and a smile you could feel through the phone: “What do you get the man that has everything?”   

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