Eels (often typeset as eels or EELS) is an American rock band, formed in California in 1995 by

singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett, known by the stage name E. Band
members have changed across the years, both in the studio and on stage, making Everett the only
official member for most of the band's work. Eels' music is often filled with themes about family, death,
and lost love. Since 1996, Eels has released twelve studio albums, seven of which charted in the
Billboard 200.[2]

Contents

1 History

1.1 E solo records

1.2 Beautiful Freak

1.3 Electro-Shock Blues

1.4 Daisies of the Galaxy

1.5 Souljacker and Shootenanny!

1.6 Blinking Lights and Other Revelations and Eels with Strings

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

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

1.9 Wonderful, Glorious and The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett

1.10 The Deconstruction

2 Members

3 Discography

3.1 As E

3.2 As Eels

4 References

5 Further reading

6 External links
History

E solo records

In 1991, Everett signed a contract with Polydor and released A Man Called E under the name E a year
later. The single "Hello Cruel World" was a minor success. Touring to support the album, E opened for
Tori Amos.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
After Broken Toy Shop, E was released from his record deal with Polydor.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

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 once they realized that numerous Eagles and Earth, Wind and Fire releases were in between.[3] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] In 1996 and 1997, Eels toured extensively to
support the album, building their name as a live act in the United States and Europe. In September 1997,
Walter quit the band.[citation needed]

Released in May 2001, the Shrek animated motion picture soundtrack included the song "My Beloved
Monster".

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. "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 his
father Hugh Everett III.[4][citation needed]
Contributions to the album were made by Jon Brion, Lisa Germano, Jim Jacobsen, 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.[citation needed] They returned to tour Europe
later in the year, to open for Pulp.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed] 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".[citation needed]
He was joined in the studio by Michael Simpson (Dust Brothers), Grant-Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo),
and Peter Buck (R.E.M.).

The first single, "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues", was co-written by Simpson. 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.

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 a 6-piece orchestra, including Lisa
Germano and Probyn Gregory. 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
Koool G Murder played bass and keyboards and joined Eels on tour.

2003 marked the release of the album Shootenanny!. E now refers to the album as a break from
recording the following Blinking Lights album.[citation needed] 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).[citation needed]
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), Jim Jacobsen, and Butch.

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.[5]

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.[citation needed] The concerts also featured The Chet reading excerpts from E's
autobiography, Things the Grandchildren Should Know.[citation needed] On this tour, the band released
a live CD/DVD package of Eels' 2006 performance at the London Astoria – Live and in Person!),
documenting a show from the second tour in support of Blinking Lights and Other Revelations.[citation
needed]

The soundtrack of the 2008 Jim Carrey comedy film Yes Man features nine songs by the Eels, including
"Man Up", a brand new song.[6]

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.[7] "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,[8] 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.[9] The album was released as a single-disc CD and a deluxe edition with a DVD.[10] 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.[11]

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.[12] 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 made no comment on touring and there was no tour scheduled to
begin.[13]

A second 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.[14] A world tour, the first since 2007's An Evening With
Eels tour, was announced at the same time.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]