By request, EELS part 3, and OUT!

If you've been paying attention for the last few weeks, you'll know that friend of the blog Blake requested some EELS.....well, I knew I had SOME (2 or 4 albums), but I had no idea of the mountain of material (good stuff too mostly) that was available.....so I decided to make this comprehensive, the first part covering the studio releases, the second taking on live stuff, and now, and this is especially for EELS true mega-fans, singles, EP's rarities and more.......I have by no means listened to all of this stuff yet (anxious to though), so critique will be limited.....however, just reading the descriptions should let you know if you want these or not.....thanks to Blake for the original request, I know I learned a BUNCH about EELS I'd not known before!

OK, we are gonna start off with three pre-EELS EP's done as "solo" efforts from E. We have three such EP's, "Bad Dude in Love" (1985), "A Man Called E" (1992), and "Not For Airplay" (1995), also a full length pre-EELS full length by E entitled "Broken Toy Shop" (1993)......I have only carpet-bomb listened to these, what I've heard I do like, and NO QUESTION anyone can hear the seeds of what would be EELS' later, more defined work here.

The CD "Souljacker" (2001) came with a pair of singles (I am told sometimes sold in the same package, sometimes not), each containing four tracks.....maybe a bit of overlap, but completists will love them. The singles titles are "22 Miles of hard Road" and "Rotten World Blues", see below for track lists.

OK, never heard this one, not sure I want to, some sort of E side project entitled (wait for it) "I Am the Messiah" credited to "MC Honky"......this is from 2002, as I said, I'm gonna pass until someone recommends it to me, hey, it's here if you want it.

E also released a non-EELS soundtrack album, "Levity" (2003), I carpet bombed this one a bit too and it sounded pretty good as well......again, recommendations? Hatreds? Another one I never even knew existed.

Perhaps the true gem here (ask a rabid EELS fan) might be "Useless Trinkets", a 2 disc set jammed with rarities, B-sides, all sorts of odds and ends.....likely something even the biggest "true EELS believer" may be unfamilar with unless they already have this.

Finally, for the dabblers, this may be what you've been wanting....."Meet the EELS is a fairly straight forward "Best of" set, a lot of the tracks (the ones I WAS familiar with) from the earlier LP's are here, a nice collection if this is the one stop shopping you are looking for.

This has been a challenge, trying to do something comprehensive on a band with which I was only about 1/3 familiar........I learned a lot about E/EELS, and I anxious to hear the rest of this stuff......STILL reminds me a lot of Elliott Smith (as I think I said, there is a MEGA-Smith post coming at some point, and him I AM familar with) or Nick Drake, especially songwriting wise, and those are certainly not put downs......Blake, this is for you buddy, if you happen to have anything to share with the rest of the blogger world, don't hesitate!

BAD DUDE IN LOVE-01 Everybody's Tryin' To Bum Me Out/02 Gotta Get Out Tonight/03 History Baby/04 Too busy Thinking About My Baby/05 Eunice/06 I Just Wanna Be With You/07 Bad Dude In Love/08 The Girl In My Neighborhood/09 Burning Love/10 Aint Braggin/11 I Can't Get Next To You

A MAN CALLED E-01 Hello Cruel Worald/02 Fitting In With the Misfits/03 Are You & Me Gonna Happen/04 Looking Out the Window With a Blue Hat On/05 Nowheresville/06 Symphony For Toy Piano In G Minor/07 Mockingbird Franklin/08 I've Been Kicked Around/09 Pray/10 E's Tune/11 You'll Be the Scarecrow

BROKEN TOY SHOP-01 Shine It All On/02 Standing at the Gate/03 The Only Thing I Care About/04 Manchester Girl/05 LA River/06 A Most Unpleasant Man/07 Mass/08 Tomorrow I'll Be Nine/09 The Day I Wrote You Off/10 Someone to Break the Spell/11 She Loves a Puppet/12 My Old Raincoat/13 Permanent Broken Heart/14 Eight Lives Left

NOT FOR AIRPLAY-01 Shine It All On/02 LA River/03 Tomorrow I'll Be Nine/04 Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas

22 MILES OF HARD ROAD-01 I Write the B-Sides/02 Hidden Track/03 Jehovah's Witness/04 Mr E's Beautiful Remix (Butch n Joey Remix)

ROTTEN WORLD BLUES-01 I Write the B-Sides/02 Hidden Track/03 Jehovah's Witness/04 Rotten World Blues

I AM THE MESSIAH (MC HONKY)-01 Sonnet No. 3 (Like a Duck) (Sir Rock-a-Lot and Sir Whacks
a-Lot)-/02 Hung Up (Sir Rock-a-Lot and Sir Whacks a-Lot)/03 The Object (Sir Rock-A -Lot and Playboy Gigolo Bandit)/04 A Good Day to Be You (Sir Rock-a-Lot and Sir Whacks a-Lot)/05 Baby Elephant Rock-A-Bye (Wally Gagel and Sir-Rock-A-Lot)/06 What a Bringdown (Sir Rock-a-Lot and Playboy Gigolo Bandit)/07 Only a Rose Pt. 1 (Rudolf Friml and Brian Hooker)/08 My Bad Seed (Sir Rock-a-Lot and Playboy Gigolo Bandit/09 The Devil Went Down to Silverlake (Gagel and Sir Rock-a-Lot)/10 Soft Velvety 'Fer (L'il Fer, Sir Rock-a-Lot, and Sir Whacks-a-Lot)/11 The Baby That Was You (Sir Rock-a-Lot and Sir Whacks a-Lot)/12 3 Turntables and 2 Microphones (Sir Rock-a-Lot and Sir Whacks a-Lot)/13 Only a Rose Pt. II (Friml and Hooker)

LEVITY SOUNDTRACK-01 What I Remember Most/02 Skywriting/03 Running the Bath/04 Gravity/05 Haunted Piano #1/06 In Manual's Room/07 Taking a Bath in Rust/08 Flashback Rules/09 Post-flashback Blues/10 Lonesome Subway/11 Haunted Organ #1/12 Sofia Writing In the Sky/13 To Adel Easley/Trouble in the Alley/14 Manual's Got a Train to Catch

USELESS TRINKETS DISC 1-01 Novocaine for the Soul (Live From Hell)/02 Fucker/03 My Beloved Monster (Live from Tenessee)/04 Dog's Life/05 Susan's Apartment/06 Manchester Girl (Live on the BBC)/07 Flower (Live BBC)/08 My Beloved Mad Monster Party (Live BBC)/09 Animal/10 Stepmother/11 Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas/12 Your Lucky Day In Hell (Michael Simpson Remix)/13 Altar Boy/14 Novocaine For the Soul (Moog Cookbook remix)/15 If I Was Your Girlfriend/16 Bad News/17 Funeral Parlor/18 Hospital Food (Live BBC)/19 Open the Door (BBC)/20 Birdgirl on a Cell Phone/21 Vice President Fruitley/22 My Beloved Monstrosity/23 The Dark End of the Street (Live)/24 The Cheater's Guide to Your Heart (Live)/25 Useless Trinkets

USELESS TRINKETS DISC 2-01 Mr E's Beautiful Remix/02 Souljacker part 1 (alternate Version)/03
Dog Faced Boy (Alternate Version)/04 Jennifer Eccles/05 Rotten World Blues/06 Can't Help Falling In Love/07 Christmas Is Going to the Dogs/08 Mighty Fine Blues/09 Eyes Down/10 Skywriting/11 Taking a bath In Rust/12 Estranged Friends/13 Her/14 Waltz of the Naked Clowns/15 I Like Birds (live)/16 Sad Foot Sign/17 Living Life/18 The Bright Side/19 After the Operation/20 Jelly Dancers/21 I Could Never take the Place of Your man (Live Town Hall)/22 Mr. E's Beautiful Blues (Live at Town Hall)/23 I Want to Protect You/24 I Put a Spell On You (Live)/25 Saw a UFO

MEET THE EELS: ESSENTIAL EELS-01 Novocaine For the Soul/02 Susan's House/03 My Beloved Monster/04 Your Lucky Day In Hell/05 3 Speed/06 Last Stop: This Town/07 Climbing to the Moon/08 Flyswatter/09 I Like Birds/10 Mr E's Beautiful Blues/11 It's a Motherfucker/12 Souljacker Part I/13 That's Not Really Funny/14 Fresh Feeling/15 Get Ur Freak On/16 Saturday Morning/17 Love of the Loveless/18 Dirty Girl (Live at Town Hall)/19 I Need Some Sleep/20 Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)/21 I'm Going to Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart/22 Trouble With Dreams/23 Railroad Man (Edit)/24 Losing Streak

So there ya go, 3 parts, God knows how many albums and tunes, I hope there is something here for everyone, hardcore fans and novices alike.....I enjoyed doing this one, as I learned alot and look forward to hearing those I haven't gotten to yet!

Some Requested EELS Part 2

Back again with the second (of three) parts of the massive EELS collection.... again until I received the request (from Blake), these albums were for the most part unfamiliar to me.... thusly, I've heard them only once (at most) and really can't shed a lot of light on them..... I think today we'll put up a batch of live recordings, and when we get to Part 3 we will wrap it up with a slew of singles, EP's, side projects, and more. Look for it in the next week or so.... so as for Part 2.......

From 2001 comes "Oh What a Beautiful Morning"......listened to this one yesterday, pretty good live stuff (differing venues) from the "Daisies of the Galaxy" tour, I found the version here of "Susan's House" to be quite good, a lot of this is acoustic stuff, and, as an aside, some of these shows were from opening for Fiona Apple, which I never knew EELS did until now, but thinking about it, a pretty fair match for each other.

Another multi-venue, multi date effort was "Electro Shock Blues Show".....as I mentioned in Part 1, I have long been a fan of the studio effort of the same name, and find this live effort of tunes from that era to be quite good as well, although not as intense as the original.....still, many of my fave EELS tunes are here, and always good to hear stuff like "Cancer For the Cure" and "Going to Your Funeral" again in different versions.

"EELS With Strings: Live at Town Hall" is an interesting 2006  release, recorded in 2005 in NYC. What makes it interesting is it takes some older and more familiar EELS tunes and stands them on their heads with some outstanding orchestration. Maybe not for everyone but I liked it on first listen. Nice cover of Johnny Rivers' "Poor Side of Town" also.

Another good effort is "Live and In Person! London 2006".......so what can we say? Again, good covers of some classic, vintage era EELS tunes and a version of "I Put a Spell On You" among other stuff..... again, I don't know how many HARD CORE EELS fans we have but if there are alot I'm sure they'll be wanting to hear this one as well........

OK, "only" four albums in this one, Part 3, whenever I get to it, will be a good bit bulkier...... and that's where we'll get to the rarities and stuff. For now, enjoy the live EELS stuff.

OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING-01 Feeling Good/02 Overture/03 Oh What a Beautiful
Morning/04 Abortion in the Sky/05 It's a Motherfucker/06 Fucker/07 Ant Farm/08 Climbing to the Moon/09 Grace Kelly Blues/10 Daisies of the Galaxy/11 Flyswatter/12 Vice President Fruitley/13 Hot and Cold/14 Mr E's Beautiful Blues/15 Not Ready Yet/16 Susan's House/17 Something Is Sacred

ELECTRO SHOCK BLUES SHOW-01 Cancer For the Cure/02 Fingertips part III/03 Going To Your Funeral part 1/04 Efil's God/05 Souljacker Part 1/06 My Beloved Monster/07 Novocaine For the Soul/08 Not Ready Yet/09 Last Stop: This Town/10 Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas/11 Flower/12 Dead of Winter/13 Electro-Shock Blues/14 The Medication Is Wearing Off/15 Climbing to the Moon/My Beloved Monster/My Girl

EELS WITH STRINGS-01 Blinking Lights (For Me)/02 Bride of Theme From Blinking Lights/03 Bus Stop Boxer/04 Dirty Girl/05 Trouble With Dreams/06 The Only Thing I Care About/07 My Beloved Monster/08 Pretty Ballerina/09 It's a Motherfucker/10 Flyswatter/11 Novocaine For the Soul/12 Girl From the North Country/13 Railroad Man/14 I Like Birds/15 If You See Natalie/16 Poor Side of Town/17 Spunky/18 I'm Going to Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart/19 Suicide Life/20 Losing Streak/21 Hey Man (Now You're Really Living/22 Things the Grandchildren Should Know

LIVE AND IN PERSON-01 Old Shit/New Shit/02 Rock Show/03 Crazy Love (Crazy Music)/04 Eyes Down/05 Jesus Gonna Be Here/06 My Beloved Monster/07 A Magic World/08 Not Ready Yet/09 Dog Faced Boy10 /Souljacker Part 1/11 I Put a Spell on You/12 That's Life/13 I Like Birds/14 Mr E's beautiful Blues

Some EELS, by request, Part 1

A longtime lurker/friend of the blog, Blake, recently requested some EELS.... I was somewhat familiar with them, at least with their early 90's material, but once I got into researching them a little bit, I was genuinely stunned by how much material is out there.....EELS (also known as Eels and eels) are/were basically multi-instrumentalist/singer/Elliot Smith-style songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, who performs under the name "E".... truly I have found SO MUCH material that this thing is going to take THREE posts to get to everything, I found a TON of EP's, singles, E's non-EELS work and side projects..... this post we'll get the "official" studio releases covered, and then (in the next week or so) we'll get to the other stuff.....if you are new to this band, start here, if you're a fan, likely you have all of these (I had the first few) but the other stuff to come in Parts 2/3 will be a Godsend to you!

OK, let's start with the first "official" EELS release, 1996's "Beautiful Freak".....it's a pretty fair effort, I enjoyed it when it came out, Elliot Smith/Nick Drake-style depression-pop, the best known/best tracks (imo)are "Susan's House" and "Novocaine For the Soul"......it's a good album, but not nearly up to the standard of the next release.

After the release of "Beautiful Freak", E went through more personal tragedy/distress than any human deserves....I won't go into it here, you can look it all up if interested. The thing is, as sometimes happens, the tortured state that his soul had to be in at the time resulted in a fantastic album, "Electro Shock Blues"......a bleak, depressed, chilling record (not unlike maybe a good bit of Elliot Smith's work"), this one is a classic...."Going to Your Funeral" and "Cancer For the Cure" are standouts, but this is an album that needs to be heard in its entirety, great disc.

2000 brought us "Daisies of the Galaxy". It is airier and more upbeat than "Electo", (it would be hard not to be), it's decent but no classic in the mode of its predecessor. "Grace Kelly Blues" and "It's a Motherfucker" are good tunes, and there are more.

"Souljacker", EELS 2001 release, was, I think, where I lost track of the band.......no reason really, I just did......this is also a very good album, a little more rocking than the earlier ones, and one I would recommend....."Dog Faced Boy" and the two part title track are standouts.

From here on, these albums were really not familiar to me until the request for this post and my researching it, for teh most part, I have heard the remaining material exactly once, and in the last week or so at that.....the next release was "Shootenanny!", which, on first listen really doesn't impress me that much, "Saturday Morning" is a pretty good track, and I'd NEVER render an opinion on an album after only one listen, so I'll give it a couple of more listens before passing final judgement.

In 2005, EELS released the sprawling 2 disc "Blinking Lights and Other Revelations"........it's massive, 33 tracks, and there truly is some good stuff here, although it might take some searching to get to. I'm certain there is some concept at work here, but I have yet to sort it out. Suffice to say, if you've enjoyed the other stuff, you may wish to venture here, personally, I think it might have been a really good single disc release.

Begining in 2009, EELS released a series of three albums, issued as a conceptual trilogy. The first was "Hombre Lobo", followed by "End Times" and "Tomorrow Morning".....believe it or not, I listened to all three in the last week or so, and while they do have their moments, I obviously haven't had the chance to break down the conceptual thing. I will say that, without question, the more bleak, sad, empty-feeling songs had returned.......by now you know if this is a band for you or not. If so, likely, these will be for you.

The most recent release (I think) is 2013's "Wonderful, Glorious", presented here in all its glory in 2-disc deluxe edition. Again, I've listened to it once.....can't render MUCH of an opinion, but here it is, if this stuff has appealed to you thus far.

OK, that's it for part 1.....look for the next couple of parts in the next week or so. There is a LOT of material to cover, if you are a fan of the band, likely you already have all the stuff from part 1, but the upcoming rarities and stuff will thrill you. If you are new to them, it'll all be of interest, and wait until you see (you especially, Blake!) how MUCH stuff I uncovered!

BEAUTIFUL FREAK-01 Novocaine For the Soul/02 Susan's House/03 Rags to Rags/04 Beautiful Freak/05 Not Ready Yet/06 My Beloved Monster/07 Flower/08 Guest List/09 Mental/10 Spunky/11 Your Lucky Day In Hell/12 manchild/13 Novocaine For the Soul/14 Manchester Girl/15 My Beloved Mad Monster party/16 Flower

ELECTRO SHOCK BLUES-01 Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor/02 Going to Your Funeral Part 1/03 Cancer For the Cure/04 My Descent Into Madness/05 3 Speed/06 Hospital Food/07 Electro Shock Blues/08 Efils' God/09 Going To Your Funeral Part 2/10 Last Stop: This Town/11 Baby Gebius/12 Climbing to the Moon/13 Ant Farm/14 Dead of Winter/15 The Medication is Wearing Off/16 PS You Rock My World

DAISIES OF THE GALAXY-01 Grace Kelly Blues/02 Packing Blankets/03 The Sound of Fear/04 I Like Birds/05 Daisies of the Galaxy/06 Flyswatter/07 It's a Motherfucker/08 Estate Sale/09 Tiger in My tank/10 A Daisy Through Concrete/11 Jeannie's Diary/12 Wooden Nickles/13 Something Is Sacred/14 Selective Memory/15 Mr E's Beautiful Blues

SOULJACKER-01 Dog Faced Boy/02 That's Not Really Funny/03 Fresh Feeling/04 Woman Driving, Man Sleeping/05 Souljacker Part 1/06 Friendly Ghost/07 Teenage Witch/08 Bus Stop Boxer/09 Jungle Telegraph/10 World of Shit/11 Souljacker Part 2/13 What is This Note?

SHOOTENANNY!-01 All in a Days Work/02 Saturday Morning/03 The Good Old Days/04 Love of the
Loveless/05 Dirty Girl/06 Agony/07 Rock Hard Times/08 Restraining Order Blues/09 Lone Wolf/10 Wrong About Bobby/11 Numbered Days/12 Fashion Awards/13 Somebody Loves You

BLINKING LIGHTS AND OTHER REVELATIONS DISC 1-01 Theme From Blinking Lights/02 From Which I Came/A Magic World/03 Son of a Bitch/04 Blinking Lights (For Me)/05 Trouble With Dreams/06 Marie Floating Over the Backyard/07 Suicide Life/08 In the yard, behind the Church/09 Railroad Man/10 The Other Shoe/11 Last Time We Spoke/12 Mother Mary/13 Going Fetal/14 Understanding Salesmen/15 Theme For a Pretty Girl That Makes You Believe God Exists/16 Checkout Blues/17 Blinking Lights (for You)

BLINKING LIGHTS AND OTHER REVELATIONS DISC 2-01 Dust of Ages/02 Old Shit/New Shit/03 Bride of Theme From Blinking Lights/04 Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)/05 I'm Going to Stop Pretending That I Didn't break Your Heart/06 To Lick Your Boots/07 If You See Natalie/08 Sweet Li'l Thing/09 Dusk: A Peach in the Orchard/10 Whatever Happened to Soy Bomb/11 Ugly Love/12 God's Silence/13 Losing Streak/14 Last Days of My Bitter Heart/15 The Stars Shine in the Sky Tonight/16 Things the Grandchildren Should Know

HOMBRE LOBO-01 Prizefighter/02 The Look you Give That Guy/03 Lilac Breeze/04 In My Dreams/05 Tremendous Dynamite/06 The Longing/07 Fresh Blood/08 What's a Fella Gotta Do/09 My Timing Is Off/10 All the Beautiful Things/11 Beginner's Luck/12 Ordinary Man

END TIMES-01 The Beginning/02 Gone Man/03 In My Younger Days/04 Mansions of los Feliz/05 A line in the Dirt/06 End Times/07 Apple Trees/08 Paradise Blues/09 Nowadays/10 Unhinged/11 High and Lonesome/12 I Need a Mother/13 Little Bird/14 On My Feet/15 And Now For the End Times/Some Friend/16 Walking Cloud/17 $200 tattoo/18 The Man Who Didn't Know He'd Lost his Mind

TOMORROW MORNING-01 In Gratitude For a magnificent Day/02 I'm a Hummingbird/03 The
Morning/04 Baby Loves Me/05 Spectacular Girl/06 What I Have To Offer/07 This Is Where It Gets Good/08 After the Earthquake/09 Oh So lovely/10 The man/11 Looking Up/12 That's Not her Way/13 I like the Way This is Going/14 Mystery of Life

TOMORROW MORNING (BONUS EP)-01 Swimming Lesson/02 St. Elizabeth Story/03 Let's Ruin Julie's Birthday/04 For You

WONDERFUL GLORIOUS DISC 1-01 Bombs Away/02 Kinda Fuzzy/03 Accident Prone/04 Peach Blossom/05 On the Ropes/06 The Turnaround/07 New Alphabet/08 Stick Together/09 True Original/10 Open my Present/11 You're My Friend/12 I Am Building a Shrine/13 Wonderful Glorious

WONDERFUL GLORIOUS DISC 2-01 Hold Onto Your Hat/02 Your Mama Warned You/03 I'm Your Brave Little Soldier/04 There's Something Strange/05 happy hour (We're Gonna Rock)/06 That's not Really Funny (live)/07 In My Dreams (live)/08 Prizefighter (live)/09 Looking Up (Live)/10 What I Have to Offer (live)/11 I Like the Way This Is Going (live)/12 Spectacular Girl (Live)/13  Summer In the City (live)

Stay tuned for the rest of this massive swarm, sometime in the next week or so......for now, let me know what you think of these, it's been a learning experience for me.