Eels

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Eels
E (Vienna, July 2006)
E (Vienna, July 2006)
General information
Genre (s) Alternative rock
founding 1995
Website www.eelstheband.com
Current occupation
Mark Oliver Everett aka "E"
Chet Lyster aka "The Chet"
Allen Hunter alias "Krazy Al"
Derek Brown aka "Knuckles"

Eels is an American rock band formed by singer / songwriter Mark Oliver Everett (pseudonym: E ). He is the front man of the band, whose other members have been changed several times both in the studio and on stage. The band's live shows are surprising as each song is reinterpreted in the style of the current album. Usually several cover versions of well-known songs by other artists are also played.

history

Mark Oliver Everett was born on April 10, 1963, in Washington, DC , to quantum physicist Hugh Everett and a writer . Influenced by the musical preferences of his sister Elizabeth ( Neil Young After the Gold Rush ), he got a drum kit at the age of ten and took his sister's guitar as a teenager. In the 1980s, E (or Mark E., as he called himself at the time) was in several bands (including The Toasters ), recorded countless promo tapes and produced his first album ( Bad Dude In Love ), which was 500 Copies was limited. At 24, he moved from Virginia to Los Angeles . In 1991 he signed a contract with Polydor and released the albums A Man Called E (1992) and Broken Toy Shop (1993) under the name "E" . He played in the opening act for Tori Amos . That year he was assisted on stage by Jonathan "Butch" Norton . After Broken Toy Shop , Everett was released from the contract with Polydor.

When Norton and Everett met Tommy Walter , they formed Eels. The main reason for this name was because the band's albums would follow E's albums in alphabetical order. They later found that The Eagles' albums were ranked between those of E and those of Eels. They signed a contract with Steven Spielberg's production company DreamWorks and were one of the first bands to join DreamWorks. In 1996 they released their debut album Beautiful Freak , a melancholy pop album on which the lyrics of a tormented Everett shine through. The band had modest international success with the singles Novocaine for the Soul and Susan's House . In 1996 and 1997 the band went on an extensive tour and played at numerous festivals to make a name for themselves as a live band. In September 1997 Walter left the band.

At the time, Everett was having major personal problems. Shortly before the release of Beautiful Freak , his sister committed suicide and his mother was diagnosed with cancer. These events inspired him to write the album Electro-Shock Blues , which was released in 1998. For the following tour, Tommy Walter was replaced by Adam Siegel , who had previously played for Suicidal Tendencies . After Everett's mother died, much of the US tour was canceled. Later that year, they continued in Europe, where they opened for Pulp . After the tour, Siegel left the band to pursue his own project, My Head .

In 2000 a far happier album was released with Daisies of the Galaxy . As Everett put it, Electro-Shock Blues was a middle of the night call that the world wouldn't answer, but Daisies of the Galaxy is a hotel wake up call that tells you breakfast is ready. To promote the album, another tour through America and Europe was started, this time with six musicians on stage, including Lisa Germano . In addition, Everett did some solo shows as opening act for Fiona Apple .

Souljacker was released in 2001 , again darker than Daisies of the Galaxy . John Parish , who previously played in PJ Harvey's band , also wrote the lyrics and played guitar in the studio and at the first concerts of the tour. Koool G Murder played bass and keyboard and was also on tour. He was presented on stage as a joke by Everett as "the other guy" (Eng. "The other guy" ). Wim Wenders directed the video clip for SOULJACKER, Part I . After Parish became a father, Joe Gore replaced him.

On the album Shootenanny! , which was released in 2003, followed the Tour Of Duty (Eng. mandatory tour ), during which the Eels played for the first time in Australia . The band consisted of Everett, Shon "Golden Boy" Sullivan (guitar), Koool G Murder (bass) and Puddin (drums). Golden Boy left the band to work on his own project Goldenboy and was replaced by Chet Atkins III . That year Everett composed the soundtrack for the film Levity .

The 2005 album Blinking Lights and Other Revelations was enthusiastically received by the press.

In the summer and autumn of 2005, Eels went on a world tour as a seven-piece band (4 violinists, 2 multi-instrumentalists, Everett). This tour was recorded on the live DVD / CD Eels with Strings , released in February 2006 .

In May 2007 the band contributed a song to the Shrek franchise for the third time. Royal Pain is the name of the song that can be heard as the opening track in the film Shrek the Third . The Losing Streak known from Blinking Lights And Other Revelations can also be found at the OST .

In February 2008, the best-of album Meet the Eels - Essential Eels Vol. 1 1996-2006 and the double album Useless Trinkets were released at the same time .

Another album followed in June 2009, Hombre Lobo . In January 2010, the eighth studio album End Times was released. After further publications, The Deconstruction was released in 2018 , the band's twelfth and so far highest-placed studio album in the German charts.

Fan scene

The Eels have a widespread fan base. The various world tours brought the band to Europe, Australia, Japan and of course America. The band is particularly successful in Great Britain and in Central and Northern Europe.

There was collaboration between the band and the fans. For example, a song called "Hidden Track" was recorded in 2001, the lyrics of which consisted only of fan submissions.

The relatively large fan scene is also very active independently. In 1999 there was a fan tribute album organized by the fansite at the time, The Galaxy . In 2006 the second tribute album was created. The third tribute album was released in late 2010.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1996 Beautiful freak - - - UK5
platinum
platinum

(33 weeks)UK 		US114 (11 weeks)
US
First published: August 13, 1996
1998 Electro-Shock Blues DE59 (2 weeks)
DE 		- - UK12
gold
gold

(5 weeks)UK 		-
First published: September 21, 1998
2000 Daisies of the Galaxy DE49 (4 weeks)
DE 		- CH69 (3 weeks)
CH 		UK8th
gold
gold

(6 weeks)UK 		-
First published: February 28, 2000
2001 Souljacker DE47 (3 weeks)
DE 		AT34 (5 weeks)
AT 		CH75 (3 weeks)
CH 		UK12
silver
silver

(3 weeks)UK 		-
First published: September 19, 2001
2003 Shootenanny! DE56 (4 weeks)
DE 		- CH54 (5 weeks)
CH 		UK35 (3 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: June 3, 2003
2005 Blinking Lights and Other Revelations DE30 (5 weeks)
DE 		AT32 (3 weeks)
AT 		CH18 (6 weeks)
CH 		UK16
silver
silver

(5 weeks)UK 		US93 (1 week)
US
First published: April 26, 2005
2009 Hombre Lobo DE20 (3 weeks)
DE 		AT42 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH10 (6 weeks)
CH 		UK18 (2 weeks)
UK 		US43 (3 weeks)
US
First published: June 2, 2009
2010 End Times DE29 (3 weeks)
DE 		AT33 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH10 (5 weeks)
CH 		UK21 (3 weeks)
UK 		US66 (1 week)
US
First published: January 19, 2010
Tomorrow Morning DE12 (3 weeks)
DE 		AT18 (4 weeks)
AT 		CH9 (4 weeks)
CH 		UK18 (2 weeks)
UK 		US83 (1 week)
US
First published: August 17, 2010
2013 Wonderful, Glorious DE19 (4 weeks)
DE 		AT18 (5 weeks)
AT 		CH4 (4 weeks)
CH 		UK14 (2 weeks)
UK 		US74 (1 week)
US
First published: February 4, 2013
2014 The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett DE10 (4 weeks)
DE 		AT14 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH5 (6 weeks)
CH 		UK7 (3 weeks)
UK 		US96 (1 week)
US
First published: April 21, 2014
2018 The deconstruction DE4 (4 weeks)
DE 		AT6 (3 weeks)
AT 		CH5 (4 weeks)
CH 		UK10 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: April 6, 2018

Compilations and live albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
2008 Useless trinkets DE88 (1 week)
DE 		- - UK69 (1 week)
UK 		-
First published: January 15, 2008
Meet the Eels - - - UK26th
silver
silver

(3 weeks)UK 		-
First published: January 15, 2008
2015 Royal Albert Hall DE38 (2 weeks)
DE 		AT48 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH36 (2 weeks)
CH 		UK40 (1 week)
UK 		-
First published: April 13, 2015

More live albums

year title Remarks
2000 Oh what a beautiful morning First published: 2000
2002 Electro-Shock Blues Show First published: 2002
2005 Sixteen Tons (Ten Songs) First published: May 2005
2006 Eels with Strings: Live at Town Hall First published: February 2006
2008 Live and in person! London 2006 First published: February 2008

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1997 Novocaine for the Soul
Beautiful Freak 		- - - UK10 (5 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: February 3, 1997
Susan's House
Beautiful Freak 		- - - UK9 (5 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: May 5, 1997
Your Lucky Day in Hell
Beautiful Freak 		- - - UK35 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: August 27, 1997
1998 Last Stop: This Town
Electro-Shock Blues 		- - - UK23 (3 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: September 14, 1998
Cancer for the Cure
Electro-Shock Blues 		- - - UK60 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: November 30, 1998
2000 Mr. E's Beautiful Blues
Daisies of the Galaxy 		- - - UK11 (6 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: February 14, 2000
Flyswatter
Daisies of the Galaxy 		- - - UK55 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: June 12, 2000
2001 Souljacker Part I
Souljacker 		- - - UK30 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: September 10, 2001
2005 Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)
Blinking Lights and Other Revelations 		- - - UK45 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: March 22, 2005

Web links

Commons : Eels  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ^ E. Biography ( Memento from March 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Amazon.de
  3. ↑ Tribute Album # 3 ( Memento from August 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ a b c Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
  5. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK