WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.760 Okay let's unpack this. We are taking a deep 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:05.419 dive today into well it's more than just a band's 00:00:05.419 --> 00:00:08.039 discography isn't it? It's like a singular intensely 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:11.900 personal journal set to music. Exactly. We're 00:00:11.900 --> 00:00:13.800 charting the career of an artist Mark Oliver 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:18.100 Everett or E who basically spent Over three decades 00:00:18.100 --> 00:00:20.420 turning, I mean, just immense personal tragedy, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:23.019 but also these high concept physics ideas from 00:00:23.019 --> 00:00:25.260 his family. Right. And just raw, messy humanity. 00:00:25.420 --> 00:00:28.140 Into a sound that just absolutely refuses to 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:30.620 sit still. We're talking about eels. The American 00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:34.320 indie rock institution eels. And the focus really 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:36.929 has to be on E. Because he's the sole constant 00:00:36.929 --> 00:00:39.369 member, the driving force. Yeah, Eels is sort 00:00:39.369 --> 00:00:41.590 of the ultimate example of a band as a vehicle 00:00:41.590 --> 00:00:44.049 for one person's worldview. The musicians around 00:00:44.049 --> 00:00:46.570 him change. They come and go. But that creative 00:00:46.570 --> 00:00:49.270 anchor, E himself, he's absolute. And the sources 00:00:49.270 --> 00:00:51.469 we're drawing on, you know, detailed biographies, 00:00:51.469 --> 00:00:53.729 the full discography, they map out this incredible 00:00:53.729 --> 00:00:56.909 history. It starts technically Las Feliz, Los 00:00:56.909 --> 00:00:59.130 Angeles, around 91. But the name Eels came in 00:00:59.130 --> 00:01:02.250 95. Right, 1995. But it's not just a band history, 00:01:02.369 --> 00:01:04.989 is it? It's really a story about radical person. 00:01:05.659 --> 00:01:08.780 And the sheer volume of work is kind of staggering. 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:12.879 15 studio albums since the 96 debut. Wow, 15. 00:01:13.319 --> 00:01:15.340 Yeah, and seven of those hitting the Billboard 00:01:15.340 --> 00:01:18.519 200. That consistency is remarkable, but what's 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:21.239 maybe even more remarkable is the extreme variability 00:01:21.239 --> 00:01:24.640 of the sound. Totally. It swings from... alternative 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:27.700 rock fuzzy indie stuff to even those early kind 00:01:27.700 --> 00:01:29.939 of unexpected trip -hop moments but the core 00:01:29.939 --> 00:01:33.079 identity like you said stays fixed eel's music 00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:35.400 is just so deeply tangled up with these huge 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:39.430 themes Death, family, you know, complicated grief, 00:01:39.670 --> 00:01:41.609 love that doesn't quite work out. And it's not 00:01:41.609 --> 00:01:43.969 abstract. It's pulled directly from his own life, 00:01:44.030 --> 00:01:46.890 often really traumatic experiences. So our mission 00:01:46.890 --> 00:01:49.010 today is kind of figuring out how this unique 00:01:49.010 --> 00:01:51.010 way of dealing with chaos created something so 00:01:51.010 --> 00:01:54.269 resilient, so enduring, and, yeah, so musically 00:01:54.269 --> 00:01:56.030 varied. And I think that's the hook for you, 00:01:56.090 --> 00:01:58.030 the listener. This isn't just musician overcomes 00:01:58.030 --> 00:02:01.150 tragedy. It's about how an artist's deepest struggles 00:02:01.150 --> 00:02:04.269 run weirdly parallel to his family's really mind 00:02:04.269 --> 00:02:06.870 -bending scientific legacy. That's the tension, 00:02:06.930 --> 00:02:10.050 isn't it? The son of this famous quantum physicist 00:02:10.050 --> 00:02:13.270 grappling with a chaotic nature of, well, everything. 00:02:13.650 --> 00:02:16.389 How does that collision shape the art? Let's 00:02:16.389 --> 00:02:18.629 get into that right from the beginning. The genesis 00:02:18.629 --> 00:02:22.129 of E. So Mark Oliver Everett's family background, 00:02:22.370 --> 00:02:25.310 it's genuinely unique. It's defined by these 00:02:25.310 --> 00:02:27.810 like polar opposites. Yeah. On one hand, you've 00:02:27.810 --> 00:02:30.110 got this intense emotional vulnerability you 00:02:30.110 --> 00:02:32.990 hear in the music and on the other. The absolute 00:02:32.990 --> 00:02:36.199 pinnacle of theoretical thought. His father was 00:02:36.199 --> 00:02:38.639 Hugh Everett III. A name that, if you're into 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:41.419 quantum physics, you definitely know. He originated 00:02:41.419 --> 00:02:44.319 the many worlds interpretation. Which is, well, 00:02:44.419 --> 00:02:46.199 it's a heavy concept. For anyone not familiar, 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:48.759 the theory basically suggests that every quantum 00:02:48.759 --> 00:02:51.580 event, every possibility, splits off reality, 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:55.139 creating a new parallel universe. Infinite alternative 00:02:55.139 --> 00:02:58.740 lives unfolding at the same time. Pretty mind 00:02:58.740 --> 00:03:00.759 -bending stuff to grow up around. Totally. So 00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:03.340 E's childhood has this incredibly cerebral theoretical 00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:06.680 backdrop. Multiple realities are scientifically 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:09.680 plausible in his house. But then that high concept 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:12.039 physics is sharply contrasted by other parts 00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:14.599 of his upbringing. Absolutely. You get this real 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:17.060 grounding element from his mother's side. His 00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:19.419 maternal grandfather was Harold Kidd Gore. Ah, 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:22.560 the coach. Yeah, a figure of like solid athletic 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:26.180 normalcy. A celebrated coach at UMass Amherst. 00:03:26.759 --> 00:03:29.620 Basketball, football, baseball. It's this fantastic 00:03:29.620 --> 00:03:31.759 contradiction, isn't it? Quantum mechanics debated 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:34.860 at home and then stories about, you know, coaching 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:38.259 three different sports, pragmatism versus infinite 00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:40.699 possibility. But the moments that really seemed 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:43.879 to shape E as a young adult were these sudden 00:03:43.879 --> 00:03:47.319 visceral events, things that left literal marks 00:03:47.319 --> 00:03:50.060 like his glasses, his trademark look. Right. 00:03:50.099 --> 00:03:52.259 Most people probably think it's just style. But 00:03:52.259 --> 00:03:54.460 it's not. It comes from this shocking incident 00:03:54.460 --> 00:03:56.219 when he was a teenager. He was at a Who concert. 00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:58.900 A Who concert. OK. And one of those special effects 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:00.800 lasers hit him directly in the eye. He said, 00:04:00.819 --> 00:04:02.939 where are glasses ever since? Just this sudden 00:04:02.939 --> 00:04:06.560 physical intrusion from spectacle. Wow. That's 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:10.020 quite a story and kind of darkly foreshadows 00:04:10.020 --> 00:04:12.419 the deeper emotional traumas to come, doesn't 00:04:12.419 --> 00:04:15.000 it? It really does. Because the defining loss 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.560 came early. He was only 19. His father, Hugh 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:21.920 Everett III, died suddenly. Heart attack. And 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:24.879 the detail that just hits you is that Mark E 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:27.100 was the one who found his father's body. Yeah. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:30.680 I mean, imagine that at 19. That's a trauma that 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:33.360 just rips your world open instantly. And it's 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:35.240 not just something that influences his music. 00:04:35.259 --> 00:04:38.519 It actively surfaces and resurfaces through the 00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:40.980 years, sometimes hidden, sometimes very direct. 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:44.279 So before Eels became Eels, E was already trying 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:46.639 to make it in music, right? He moved out to California 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:50.180 from Virginia in 87. Yep. And by the early 90s, 00:04:50.180 --> 00:04:52.800 he actually had two major label solo albums out. 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:56.620 A man called E in 1992. That had Hello Cruel 00:04:56.620 --> 00:04:59.120 World on it. I remember that video on MTV. Exactly. 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:01.899 A minor hit. And then Broken Toy Shop in 1993. 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:04.639 And this is when the name E really sticks. But 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:08.060 the reason is surprisingly mundane. Totally practical. 00:05:08.519 --> 00:05:10.420 Sources say it was just because his first name, 00:05:10.500 --> 00:05:12.060 Mark, was shared by a bunch of people in his 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:14.740 life, causing confusion. So he just shortened 00:05:14.740 --> 00:05:17.360 it to E. It's almost funny. Such a simple solution. 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:20.399 Very E in a way. That pragmatic streak, that 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:22.300 almost humorous utility, it carries over right 00:05:22.300 --> 00:05:24.439 into the band's naming, too. When he officially 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:26.660 formed the band with Butch Norton on drums and 00:05:26.660 --> 00:05:29.839 Tommy Walter on bass. They needed a name. And 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:32.519 the logic. Oh, the logic was brilliant. Brilliantly 00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:35.800 flawed. They chose Eels specifically so the records 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:38.480 would sit right next to his solo stuff in the 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:40.920 E section of record stores. You know, E then 00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:43.879 Eels. Alphabetical proximity. Simple. Makes perfect 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:46.819 sense. Until you hit the reality of music retail. 00:05:47.660 --> 00:05:50.100 E tells this story about going into a Virgin 00:05:50.100 --> 00:05:53.120 Megastore, seeing his solo CDs right there at 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:56.300 the start of E, and then just pages and pages. 00:05:56.639 --> 00:06:00.100 Eagles, earth, wind and fire. Dozens of them. 00:06:00.430 --> 00:06:03.189 Separating his solo work from his band, the Eels 00:06:03.189 --> 00:06:05.769 records were nowhere near E. It's perfect, though. 00:06:05.870 --> 00:06:08.899 A perfect little Eels story. Trying for structure, 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:11.759 ending up with beautiful, slightly awkward chaos. 00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:15.420 So, OK, despite the name kerfuffle, by 1996, 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:18.019 the band Eels is officially launched and they 00:06:18.019 --> 00:06:19.720 make a really big splash right away with the 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:22.120 debut Beautiful Freak. Yeah, this was a significant 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:24.560 signing. Eels was one of the very first acts 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:26.720 signed to the brand new DreamWorks records. Remember 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:28.899 DreamWorks? Huge deal at the time. Oh, yeah. 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:31.540 Elliot Smith signed soon after, I think. So Beautiful 00:06:31.540 --> 00:06:33.500 Freak comes out and it just clicks internationally, 00:06:33.899 --> 00:06:37.259 too. Driven by those huge singles. Nova came 00:06:37.259 --> 00:06:40.160 for the soul, obviously. Susan's House, your 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:42.379 lucky day in hell. They were everywhere for a 00:06:42.379 --> 00:06:44.879 bit, and it led to actual awards recognition 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:48.339 pretty quickly. They won Best International Breakthrough 00:06:48.339 --> 00:06:50.860 Act at the Brit Awards in 98. Which is pretty 00:06:50.860 --> 00:06:53.959 major for an American indie band. Susan's House 00:06:53.959 --> 00:06:56.439 especially seemed to hit a nerve. particularly 00:06:56.439 --> 00:06:59.000 in the UK. Right. The sources point out its style, 00:06:59.079 --> 00:07:01.939 that slow tempo, the murky vibe, the distorted 00:07:01.939 --> 00:07:04.920 spoken word vocal. It really resonated with the 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:07.240 trip -hop sound that was massive in the UK then. 00:07:07.319 --> 00:07:11.019 Think, massive attack, Portishead. Exactly. So 00:07:11.019 --> 00:07:13.860 this LA alternative band kind of gets swept up 00:07:13.860 --> 00:07:16.759 in that UK scene because of that one song's resemblance. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:19.199 Maybe a bit of an awkward fit for E! ultimately, 00:07:19.420 --> 00:07:21.399 but it definitely worked commercially over there. 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:23.660 But even with that early success... instability 00:07:23.660 --> 00:07:26.160 creeps in pretty fast. The touring for Beautiful 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:28.720 Freak was apparently quite grueling. And Tommy 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:31.040 Walter, the original bassist, he quit in September 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:34.379 97. So an early sign of things to come. E is 00:07:34.379 --> 00:07:36.800 the constant. The lineup around him is fluid. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.800 Change is the only certainty. And then, almost 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:43.100 immediately after that initial burst of success 00:07:43.100 --> 00:07:46.639 and that first lineup shift, comes the absolute 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.959 pivot point in the Eels story. The 1998 album 00:07:49.959 --> 00:07:52.709 Electroshock Blues. Yeah. He himself just called 00:07:52.709 --> 00:07:55.189 it a terrible, difficult time. And you hear it. 00:07:55.209 --> 00:07:58.149 The music is like listening to a raw, open wound. 00:07:58.370 --> 00:08:00.569 Because the personal tragedy that was maybe simmering 00:08:00.569 --> 00:08:02.810 beneath the surface just exploded. A cascade 00:08:02.810 --> 00:08:05.829 of loss. His sister died by suicide. And then 00:08:05.829 --> 00:08:08.290 right in the wake of that, his mother is diagnosed 00:08:08.290 --> 00:08:10.949 with terminal cancer. Electroshock Blues is him. 00:08:11.430 --> 00:08:14.269 processing these just impossible events in real 00:08:14.269 --> 00:08:16.670 time through the songs. It's famously profoundly 00:08:16.670 --> 00:08:19.149 dark. I mean, the themes are right there. Mental 00:08:19.149 --> 00:08:22.329 illness, cancer, suicide, death. The lyrics are 00:08:22.329 --> 00:08:24.350 brutal, almost like documentation rather than 00:08:24.350 --> 00:08:26.949 poetry. If you look at the tracks. Climbing to 00:08:26.949 --> 00:08:29.529 the Moon deals so directly with his sister's 00:08:29.529 --> 00:08:32.029 struggles, the medication is wearing off. I mean, 00:08:32.049 --> 00:08:34.429 the titles alone tell you it's harrowing stuff. 00:08:34.629 --> 00:08:36.509 But essential listening, if you want to understand 00:08:36.509 --> 00:08:38.710 E's whole creative drive. And what makes the 00:08:38.710 --> 00:08:41.389 album feel so complete in its sadness is how 00:08:41.389 --> 00:08:43.789 it connects back to earlier losses, too. The 00:08:43.789 --> 00:08:46.509 song Baby Genius. That's for his father, Hugh 00:08:46.509 --> 00:08:49.230 Everett III. Right. It brings his father's death 00:08:49.230 --> 00:08:52.269 back into the frame, alongside his sister's suicide 00:08:52.269 --> 00:08:55.159 and his mother's impending death. He was facing 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:58.039 the virtual dissolution of his entire immediate 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:01.059 family in just a couple of years. It's unthinkable. 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:03.799 And yet somehow in the midst of all this darkness, 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:06.179 the recording process attracted some amazing 00:09:06.179 --> 00:09:09.519 talent. John Brien worked on it. T -Bone Burnett, 00:09:09.620 --> 00:09:11.639 Michael Simpson from the Dust Brothers. Yeah, 00:09:11.740 --> 00:09:14.279 it's like the weight of the material drew people 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:17.240 in. And despite the heavy themes, it still found 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:19.340 this cultural traction. The single Cancer for 00:09:19.340 --> 00:09:22.149 the Cure. which is surprisingly driving, almost 00:09:22.149 --> 00:09:24.889 manic, ended up on the American Beauty soundtrack 00:09:24.889 --> 00:09:27.690 in 99. Bringing that incredibly personal pain 00:09:27.690 --> 00:09:30.950 into mainstream Hollywood. But the real -world 00:09:30.950 --> 00:09:33.769 cost was huge. The sources confirm part of the 00:09:33.769 --> 00:09:36.210 U .S. tour for Electroshock Blues had to be canceled. 00:09:36.350 --> 00:09:39.220 Because his mother passed away. Yeah. The art 00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:40.820 wasn't separate from the life. It was completely 00:09:40.820 --> 00:09:43.720 bound up in the ongoing, consuming grief. So 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:47.379 after the absolute emotional devastation documented 00:09:47.379 --> 00:09:51.759 on Electroshock Blues, E clearly needed, well, 00:09:51.860 --> 00:09:54.919 he needed a shift. A conscious, artistic choice 00:09:54.919 --> 00:09:57.960 to step back from the abyss. Which leads us to 00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:00.679 Daisies of the Galaxy in 2000. It felt like such 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:03.539 a deliberate, almost offensive... move towards 00:10:03.539 --> 00:10:05.919 something lighter. Yeah this is where that parallel 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:08.879 worlds idea maybe starts showing up musically 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:12.220 even implicitly. He's using the album format 00:10:12.220 --> 00:10:15.799 to compartmentalize the trauma, to actively move 00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:17.840 away from it. He had that great quote comparing 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.740 the two albums. Electrochock Blues was the dreadful 00:10:20.740 --> 00:10:22.679 phone call in the middle of the night. That nobody 00:10:22.679 --> 00:10:24.879 wants to answer. Right. And Daisies of the Galaxy 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:27.580 was engineered to be the hotel wake -up call 00:10:27.580 --> 00:10:29.519 that says your love and breakfast is ready. It's 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:31.879 just instantly warmer, more acoustic, maybe a 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:33.740 little fragile still, but definitely lighter. 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:35.940 And even with that shift, and the fact it was 00:10:35.940 --> 00:10:38.899 recorded mostly in his basement, very intimately. 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:42.379 He still pulled in great people. Peter Buck from 00:10:42.379 --> 00:10:44.120 R .E .M. is on there. Grant Lee Phillips, too. 00:10:44.259 --> 00:10:46.279 But we have to talk about the big single from 00:10:46.279 --> 00:10:49.139 that album, Mr. E's Beautiful Blues, because 00:10:49.139 --> 00:10:52.799 the story behind it is classic E. Oh, yeah. That 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:55.000 track, co -written with Michael Simpson again, 00:10:55.159 --> 00:10:57.639 it was absolutely not supposed to be on the album. 00:10:57.820 --> 00:11:00.460 Right. E didn't want it. But the record company, 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:03.259 Polyor, they heard it and basically insisted 00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:06.980 they knew it was a hit. So E, being E, finds 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:09.000 this perfect passive -aggressive compromise. 00:11:09.789 --> 00:11:12.230 He lets them include it, but only as a quote 00:11:12.230 --> 00:11:14.529 -unquote bonus track, listed separately on a 00:11:14.529 --> 00:11:17.169 sticker on the cover. And crucially, separated 00:11:17.169 --> 00:11:19.929 from the rest of the album by 20 seconds of silence 00:11:19.929 --> 00:11:22.269 on the CD. It's his way of saying, okay, you 00:11:22.269 --> 00:11:24.429 get your single, but it exists in its own little 00:11:24.429 --> 00:11:27.029 universe, walled off from the actual album. Brilliant. 00:11:27.110 --> 00:11:29.529 But E being E, he can't stay in that lighter 00:11:29.529 --> 00:11:32.029 space for long. The pendulum swings back pretty 00:11:32.029 --> 00:11:35.309 quickly. 2001 brings Souljacker. Yeah, if Daisies 00:11:35.309 --> 00:11:37.750 was the gentle breakfast call, Souljacker is 00:11:37.750 --> 00:11:40.700 way heavier. louder, more rock, grittier, moodier, 00:11:40.820 --> 00:11:43.120 back towards the fuzz. And a lot of that shift 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:45.399 seems connected to his collaborator on that record. 00:11:46.139 --> 00:11:48.200 Souljacker is notable for the heavy involvement 00:11:48.200 --> 00:11:50.500 of John Parrish. The British musician and producer 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:53.279 worked a lot with PJ Harvey. Exactly. Parrish 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:55.159 co -wrote most of the songs, and you can hear 00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:57.860 his influence. It's darker, more rhythmic, more 00:11:57.860 --> 00:12:00.179 driving. It really textures that album differently. 00:12:00.419 --> 00:12:03.740 And then just two years later, 2003, we get Shootin' 00:12:03.740 --> 00:12:07.730 Any. Which he later described almost as a palate 00:12:07.730 --> 00:12:10.490 cleanser. Yeah, like a break he took before diving 00:12:10.490 --> 00:12:12.590 into the next big project. It sounds like it, 00:12:12.610 --> 00:12:16.129 too. It's raw, immediate, recorded super fast, 00:12:16.250 --> 00:12:18.750 live in the studio in just 10 days. Yeah, 10 00:12:18.750 --> 00:12:21.490 days. Just a snapshot. Let's just play, not overthink 00:12:21.490 --> 00:12:24.789 it. Which maybe was necessary prep for what came 00:12:24.789 --> 00:12:27.309 next. Because what came next was, for many people, 00:12:27.470 --> 00:12:31.299 his magnum opus. Blinking Lights and Other Revelations 00:12:31.299 --> 00:12:34.580 in 2005. The ambition level here was just huge. 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:37.700 Colossal. The scope alone. 33 tracks, a double 00:12:37.700 --> 00:12:40.340 album, their first for Vagrant Records. He apparently 00:12:40.340 --> 00:12:42.860 felt he had maybe one massive artistic statement 00:12:42.860 --> 00:12:45.500 left in him. So he just poured everything into 00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:47.500 it. All the accumulated ideas. Pretty much. It 00:12:47.500 --> 00:12:49.539 was meant to be his big final word in a way. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:52.320 And the complexity, the ambition. It attracted 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.399 this incredible, almost historical lineup of 00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:58.059 collaborators. Seriously. Tom Waits is on there. 00:12:58.139 --> 00:13:00.620 Peter Buck came back. John Sebastian from The 00:13:00.620 --> 00:13:02.659 Love and Spoonful plays harmonica. It's like 00:13:02.659 --> 00:13:04.940 this gathering of legends to support E's deeply 00:13:04.940 --> 00:13:07.259 personal story. And because the music itself 00:13:07.259 --> 00:13:10.200 was so dense, so intricate, it led to this really 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:12.639 fascinating shift in how they presented it live. 00:13:13.370 --> 00:13:16.110 The Eels with Strings Tour. Which totally redefined 00:13:16.110 --> 00:13:18.289 vulnerability for them, didn't it? E on acoustic 00:13:18.289 --> 00:13:21.690 guitar or piano. Backed by an actual string quartet. 00:13:21.909 --> 00:13:24.830 Instantly strips away all the rock noise. He 00:13:24.830 --> 00:13:27.409 had Alan, Big Al Hunter on bass, and Jeffrey 00:13:27.409 --> 00:13:31.549 Leister, the Chet. Ah, the Chet. The multi -instrumentalist 00:13:31.549 --> 00:13:34.549 genius. Mandolin, musical saw, pedal steel. These 00:13:34.549 --> 00:13:37.110 quirky, beautiful textures. And treating the 00:13:37.110 --> 00:13:39.490 distortion for that delicate, sometimes bizarre 00:13:39.490 --> 00:13:42.340 chamber sound. just made the emotional core of 00:13:42.340 --> 00:13:44.679 the lyrics completely unavoidable. It was captured 00:13:44.679 --> 00:13:47.919 perfectly on that live CD -DVD, Eels with Strings, 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:51.000 live at Town Hall. Such a specific, powerful 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:53.399 moment. And that whole kind of retrospective 00:13:53.399 --> 00:13:55.639 phase seemed to wrap up around 2008. You get 00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:58.279 the greatest hits, Meet the Eels, Central Eels 00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:00.519 Vol. 1, and the B -Sides collection, Useless 00:14:00.519 --> 00:14:02.759 Trinkets. Right. And the tour that followed, 00:14:02.899 --> 00:14:05.340 An Evening with Eels, was even more stripped 00:14:05.340 --> 00:14:07.960 back, just E in the chat. Playing songs from 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:10.279 across the whole catalog, but with the Chet actually 00:14:10.279 --> 00:14:13.399 reading bits from E's autobiography on stage 00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:15.860 between songs. It's such a meta way to tour, 00:14:16.019 --> 00:14:18.659 blending the memoir, the music, the performance, 00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:21.379 really hammering home the biographical nature 00:14:21.379 --> 00:14:23.700 of the whole project. Okay, so we've tracked 00:14:23.700 --> 00:14:27.039 this incredible, sometimes chaotic journey through 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:30.779 tragedy experimentation, the darkness of electroshock 00:14:30.779 --> 00:14:34.379 blues, the sheer scale of blinking lights. Where 00:14:34.379 --> 00:14:36.850 does he go from there? especially given the pace 00:14:36.850 --> 00:14:38.889 he works at. Well, the output stays relentless, 00:14:38.990 --> 00:14:41.950 but around 2009, E finds this new way to impose 00:14:41.950 --> 00:14:44.370 some structure on it all, maybe as a reaction 00:14:44.370 --> 00:14:46.750 to the sprawl of blinking lights. He decides 00:14:46.750 --> 00:14:49.169 on this rapid -fire trilogy of concept albums. 00:14:49.250 --> 00:14:51.710 Right, the trilogy focusing on lust, loss, and 00:14:51.710 --> 00:14:54.269 redemption, sequentially. It's amazing how quickly 00:14:54.269 --> 00:14:56.970 they came out. First, 2009, you get Hombre Lobo, 00:14:56.970 --> 00:14:59.250 that's the Desire album. Hombre Lobo, Wolfman 00:14:59.250 --> 00:15:01.970 in Spanish, which apparently directly references 00:15:01.970 --> 00:15:04.169 Look at the Time. Yeah, he'd grown this massive 00:15:04.169 --> 00:15:06.909 beard while writing the song Dog -Faced Boy. 00:15:07.230 --> 00:15:10.549 So the album has this restless, kind of primal, 00:15:10.549 --> 00:15:13.250 animalistic energy running through it, reflecting 00:15:13.250 --> 00:15:15.870 that theme. And that album gave us one of the 00:15:15.870 --> 00:15:18.730 most unexpected, perfect soundtrack moments in 00:15:18.730 --> 00:15:21.629 recent memory. The track Fresh Blood. Oh yeah, 00:15:21.809 --> 00:15:24.210 becoming the theme song for the HBO docuseries 00:15:24.210 --> 00:15:27.850 The Jinx. That dark, driving, tense piece of 00:15:27.850 --> 00:15:30.700 music just perfectly scoring this... chilling 00:15:30.700 --> 00:15:34.000 true crime story it really cemented the album's 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:37.059 vibe then literally the next year 2010 comes 00:15:37.059 --> 00:15:40.769 part two End Times, the loss album, focused entirely 00:15:40.769 --> 00:15:43.250 on broken love, the aftermath. And fittingly, 00:15:43.250 --> 00:15:45.389 it sounds much more intimate, almost isolated, 00:15:45.590 --> 00:15:47.529 recorded mostly on just a four -track recorder, 00:15:47.710 --> 00:15:49.809 right? Exactly. It's got this beautiful lo -fi 00:15:49.809 --> 00:15:52.470 vulnerability. And the sources say, reflecting 00:15:52.470 --> 00:15:55.049 that deep personal focus, he initially didn't 00:15:55.049 --> 00:15:56.809 even plan to tour for End Times. Like it was 00:15:56.809 --> 00:15:58.850 just this private document of collapse, maybe 00:15:58.850 --> 00:16:01.350 just for him and the diehard fans. But the story 00:16:01.350 --> 00:16:03.590 needed its ending. So Redemption arrives just 00:16:03.590 --> 00:16:06.330 months later, still in 2010, with the final part 00:16:06.330 --> 00:16:09.720 tomorrow morning. the redemption album and this 00:16:09.720 --> 00:16:12.590 one signals a definite shift up in energy He 00:16:12.590 --> 00:16:14.129 announced a world tour with this one, the first 00:16:14.129 --> 00:16:16.870 since 2007. Yeah, back with the full rock band 00:16:16.870 --> 00:16:19.889 setup, the Chet, Cool G, Murder on Bass, Knuckles 00:16:19.889 --> 00:16:22.590 on Drums, Peeboo on Guitar. It completed that 00:16:22.590 --> 00:16:26.529 emotional arc. Raw desire, crushing loss, and 00:16:26.529 --> 00:16:29.110 then finding some hard -won clarity. But finishing 00:16:29.110 --> 00:16:31.309 the trilogy didn't mean slowing down. The output 00:16:31.309 --> 00:16:33.929 just kept coming, proving E had basically found 00:16:33.929 --> 00:16:36.970 this endless well of material in just living 00:16:36.970 --> 00:16:39.309 his life and documenting it. Absolutely. 2013 00:16:39.309 --> 00:16:42.509 brings wonderful, glorious... And this one leads 00:16:42.509 --> 00:16:44.649 to that amazing pop culture moment of political 00:16:44.649 --> 00:16:48.210 satire. Ah, the cold dead hand video. Right. 00:16:48.590 --> 00:16:51.190 Released through Funny or Die, it perfectly captured 00:16:51.190 --> 00:16:53.789 that Eels myth of serious commentary and just 00:16:53.789 --> 00:16:56.330 absurd humor. Featuring Jim Carrey taking over 00:16:56.330 --> 00:16:58.830 vocals for me. Doing the satirical country song 00:16:58.830 --> 00:17:01.129 lampooning American gun culture, specifically 00:17:01.129 --> 00:17:03.710 calling out Charlton Heston's ghost, all set 00:17:03.710 --> 00:17:05.789 on a fake he hostile show. It was brilliant. 00:17:05.930 --> 00:17:08.349 Just brilliantly weird. And the albums kept flowing. 00:17:08.509 --> 00:17:10.869 The cautionary tales of Mark Oliver Everett. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:14.359 in 2014 on his own E -Works records. That sounded 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:17.799 intensely reflective. Then 2018 gave us The Deconstruction. 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:20.119 Lyrically, that one really seemed focused on 00:17:20.119 --> 00:17:22.779 rebuilding after big life changes. Looking back, 00:17:22.980 --> 00:17:26.000 taking stock. And sonically, The Deconstruction 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:28.119 felt like a real summary of his whole career 00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:30.140 up to then, didn't it? It touched on orchestral 00:17:30.140 --> 00:17:33.019 pop, power pop, psych rock, indie rock. Yeah, 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:35.400 it was a really confident sound, acknowledging 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:37.880 the past but looking forward. And he's kept up 00:17:37.880 --> 00:17:40.940 the pace since. Earth to Dora in 2020, and then 00:17:40.940 --> 00:17:43.960 Extreme Witchcraft in 2022. That one felt significant. 00:17:44.180 --> 00:17:45.940 Definitely, because it marked his first production 00:17:45.940 --> 00:17:48.559 collaboration with John Parrish again since Souljacker 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:50.539 way back in 2001. And you could hear it immediately, 00:17:50.759 --> 00:17:53.519 right? Much more of that darker, rhythmic, driving 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:56.339 Parrish sound. Yeah, it was a fantastic injection 00:17:56.339 --> 00:17:58.799 of rock energy after the more reflective period. 00:17:58.940 --> 00:18:02.259 A great reunion. And now, most recently, Eel's 00:18:02.259 --> 00:18:05.519 Time, just out in 2024. So if you tie it all 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:08.789 together, the sheer volume. The wild stylistic 00:18:08.789 --> 00:18:11.250 shifts from rock band to string quartet to four 00:18:11.250 --> 00:18:13.390 track, it just hammers home that core truth, 00:18:13.589 --> 00:18:16.369 doesn't it? E is Eels. He's the constant, the 00:18:16.369 --> 00:18:19.250 author, the narrator. The musicians, whether 00:18:19.250 --> 00:18:21.289 it's Cool G Murder playing bass and producing 00:18:21.289 --> 00:18:25.750 or Big Al playing bass live, they're vital collaborators, 00:18:26.029 --> 00:18:28.509 but they serve that singular vision of Mark Oliver 00:18:28.509 --> 00:18:31.640 Everett. And beyond just the music. E's drive 00:18:31.640 --> 00:18:34.599 to process and document his life, it naturally 00:18:34.599 --> 00:18:37.380 spilled over into other things, equally compelling 00:18:37.380 --> 00:18:39.819 stuff that really cemented his narrative in the 00:18:39.819 --> 00:18:42.279 public eye. Like his autobiography, published 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:46.480 back in November 2007, the title alone is Pure 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:50.089 E, Things the Grandchildren Should Know. captures 00:18:50.089 --> 00:18:53.289 that mix of legacy and maybe fatalism. It's a 00:18:53.289 --> 00:18:56.089 remarkably honest book, often very funny too, 00:18:56.170 --> 00:18:58.029 despite the heavy stuff. And that book became 00:18:58.029 --> 00:18:59.829 part of the live show, didn't it? We mentioned 00:18:59.829 --> 00:19:02.029 the An Evening with Eels tour. Where the Chet 00:19:02.029 --> 00:19:03.930 would literally read sections from the memoir 00:19:03.930 --> 00:19:06.269 on stage, blending the text with the music that 00:19:06.269 --> 00:19:08.069 came from those experiences. It makes the whole 00:19:08.069 --> 00:19:10.250 thing feel like a conversation with his own past. 00:19:10.589 --> 00:19:13.069 But the most stunning non -musical project, the 00:19:13.069 --> 00:19:14.910 one that really brings us back to that core tension 00:19:14.910 --> 00:19:17.369 we talked about, is the documentary he made about 00:19:17.369 --> 00:19:22.130 his father. Right. The 2007 BBC documentary Parallel 00:19:22.130 --> 00:19:25.089 Worlds, Parallel Lives, all about Hugh Everett 00:19:25.089 --> 00:19:28.529 III and the many worlds theory. What's so fascinating 00:19:28.529 --> 00:19:30.529 is that it seemed like a journey of understanding 00:19:30.529 --> 00:19:33.970 for E himself. You see him talking to physicists, 00:19:34.450 --> 00:19:36.970 his father's old colleagues. Finally engaging 00:19:36.970 --> 00:19:39.210 directly with that massive scientific legacy, 00:19:39.390 --> 00:19:41.470 that idea of infinite realities that had always 00:19:41.470 --> 00:19:43.369 sort of loomed over him. It was like connecting 00:19:43.369 --> 00:19:46.390 with his father years after his death, but through 00:19:46.390 --> 00:19:48.190 science. It was critically acclaimed, too. Won 00:19:48.190 --> 00:19:52.250 a Royal Television Society Award. Aired on PBS's 00:19:52.250 --> 00:19:54.890 NoVA over here in 2008. And then in a classic 00:19:54.890 --> 00:19:57.539 E move of artistic accomplishment. They even 00:19:57.539 --> 00:19:59.960 showed the documentary sometimes instead of having 00:19:59.960 --> 00:20:02.319 a support band on tour. That's amazing. Talk 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:04.500 about maximizing your content. In terms of just 00:20:04.500 --> 00:20:07.079 pure pop culture saturation, Eels' music has 00:20:07.079 --> 00:20:09.819 done remarkably well getting into films and TV. 00:20:09.819 --> 00:20:11.880 Oh, yeah. He pretty much was the soundtrack for 00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:14.920 that 2008 Jim Carrey movie, Yes Man. Didn't he 00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:17.039 have like nine songs in that? Yep, nine songs, 00:20:17.099 --> 00:20:19.079 including a new one just for the film Man Up. 00:20:19.220 --> 00:20:22.079 But the reach is wider, isn't it? You hear Eels 00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:25.400 in really unexpected places. My beloved monster 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:28.460 is famously in Shrek. Tracks in American Beauty, 00:20:28.619 --> 00:20:31.200 Edgar Wright used their stuff brilliantly in 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:34.000 Hot Fuzz. And E himself keeps popping up on camera 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:36.640 too, embracing the weirdness of his own fame. 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:39.500 He was in Judd Apatow's show Love. Playing a 00:20:39.500 --> 00:20:41.579 character named Brian, doing a Paul McCartney 00:20:41.579 --> 00:20:44.480 cover. Jet. Right. Had a little cameo in Bill 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:46.940 and Ted Face the Music. And then. The absolute 00:20:46.940 --> 00:20:50.319 perfect piece of metacasting. His brief cameo 00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:52.799 with his dog in the opening of Ant -Man and the 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:55.640 Wasp. Quantumania. A blockbuster literally all 00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:57.859 about. Quantum realms and alternate realities. 00:20:57.940 --> 00:21:00.319 It's just perfect. Speaking of connections, though, 00:21:00.380 --> 00:21:03.240 there's one final really devastating personal 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:06.500 detail that ties his family story into this massive 00:21:06.500 --> 00:21:09.839 global tragedy. The 9 -11 connection. Ah, yeah. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.380 His cousin, Jennifer Lewis, was a flight attendant 00:21:12.380 --> 00:21:15.220 on American Airlines Flight 77. The plane that 00:21:15.220 --> 00:21:17.950 hit the... Pentagon. And E writes in his book 00:21:17.950 --> 00:21:20.049 about how his father, Hugh Everett, had actually 00:21:20.049 --> 00:21:22.930 worked in the Pentagon years before. And E wondered 00:21:22.930 --> 00:21:26.049 if the plane hit his father's old office. It's 00:21:26.049 --> 00:21:28.869 this almost unbelievable dark convergence of 00:21:28.869 --> 00:21:31.269 personal loss and world history. Just layers 00:21:31.269 --> 00:21:33.930 upon layers. On a completely different note, 00:21:33.930 --> 00:21:36.130 though, he did get some nice recognition over 00:21:36.130 --> 00:21:38.970 in the UK. Right. In July 2014, he was given 00:21:38.970 --> 00:21:41.460 the freedom of the city of London. Which feels 00:21:41.460 --> 00:21:43.900 like a long way, geographically and maybe emotionally, 00:21:44.119 --> 00:21:46.740 from that Los Feliz basement where so much of 00:21:46.740 --> 00:21:49.220 this started. Definitely. And one final personal 00:21:49.220 --> 00:21:51.720 marker, something that must influence the more 00:21:51.720 --> 00:21:55.200 recent work, becoming a father. Yeah, relatively 00:21:55.200 --> 00:21:58.420 late in life. At 54, his then -wife, who worked 00:21:58.420 --> 00:22:00.400 in the film industry, they had a son. And although 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:02.940 they later divorced, that experience, late -stage 00:22:02.940 --> 00:22:05.000 fatherhood, is just another one of those huge 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:07.420 life shifts that inevitably gets processed through 00:22:07.420 --> 00:22:10.000 the music. So as we wrap up this deep dive, I 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:12.339 think what stands out most is just how clearly 00:22:12.339 --> 00:22:15.640 Eels isn't a band in the traditional sense. It 00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:18.740 really is this continuous, deeply personal and 00:22:18.740 --> 00:22:21.660 incredibly flexible vehicle for Mark Oliver Everett. 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:24.460 Yeah, his entire creative output feels like this 00:22:24.460 --> 00:22:27.619 chronological, almost diary -like record of him 00:22:27.619 --> 00:22:31.099 processing these profound, often sequential life 00:22:31.099 --> 00:22:34.539 events. You see the arc clearly. The pop hints 00:22:34.539 --> 00:22:37.000 of Beautiful Freak, the necessary darkness of 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:39.779 Electroshock Blues, then trying to find structure 00:22:39.779 --> 00:22:43.140 with that later trilogy, Lust, Loss, Redemption. 00:22:43.500 --> 00:22:46.059 And the distography itself, with all those stylistic 00:22:46.059 --> 00:22:48.559 jumps, heavy rock, delicate strings, intimate 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:51.279 four -track stuff, it almost serves as this strange 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:54.079 kind of user's manual for navigating grief and 00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:56.619 complex experience, offering different perspectives 00:22:56.619 --> 00:22:59.140 through these varied musical lenses. Which brings 00:22:59.140 --> 00:23:01.140 us right back to where we started, really, the 00:23:01.140 --> 00:23:02.940 source of his creativity and that structural 00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:05.559 tension in his life. his father's legacy. His 00:23:05.559 --> 00:23:07.940 father proposed the many worlds theory, infinite 00:23:07.940 --> 00:23:10.480 parallel universes branching off with every choice. 00:23:10.859 --> 00:23:14.140 And E has spent his career using music to grapple 00:23:14.140 --> 00:23:17.259 with singularity, the finality of death, of grief, 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:19.900 of loss. So considering that lifelong search 00:23:19.900 --> 00:23:22.420 for meaning and those dramatic rapid shifts in 00:23:22.420 --> 00:23:24.359 the music from the light of daisies to the dark 00:23:24.359 --> 00:23:26.920 of electroshock blues, from loud rock to quiet 00:23:26.920 --> 00:23:29.200 strings, we'll leave you, the listener, with 00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:31.460 this thought. Are Eels albums, with all their 00:23:31.460 --> 00:23:33.539 genre -hopping and emotional extremes, are they 00:23:33.539 --> 00:23:36.460 Mark Oliver Everett's way of exploring the alternate 00:23:36.460 --> 00:23:38.700 musical lives, the different emotional outcomes 00:23:38.700 --> 00:23:40.839 hinted at by his own family's scientific history? 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:44.839 Is he maybe album by album and not just documenting 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:47.220 one life but actually traversing his own personal 00:23:47.220 --> 00:23:48.500 musical parallel worlds?