Eels: The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett
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05/14 Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom
05/16 Austin, TX Paramount Theater* 05/17 Houston, TX House of Blues* 05/19 Dallas, TX Strauss Square* 05/21 Denver, CO Gothic Theater* 05/23 St. Louis, MO Sheldon* 05/24 Chicago, IL Vic Theater* 05/25 St. Paul, MN Fitzgerald Theater* 05/27 Toronto, ON Winter Garden* 05/28 Montreal, QC Virgin Mobile Corona* 05/29 Boston, MA Berklee Performance* 05/30 Philadelphia, PA Keswick Theatre* 05/31 Washington, DC Lincoln Theater* 06/01 New York, NY Apollo Theater* 06/03 Detroit, MI Royal Oak* 06/04 Madison, WI Barrymore Theater* 06/07 Seattle, WA Moore Theater* 06/08 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater* 06/10 San Francisco, CA Palace of Fine Arts* 06/11 Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theater* 06/15 Oxford, UK New Theatre 06/16 Manchester, UK Bridgewater Hall 06/17 Glasgow, UK Academy 06/18 Cambridge, UK Corn Exchange 06/19 Bexhill, UK De La Warr Pavillion 06/21 Linz, Austria Posthof 06/22 Vienna, Austria Konzerthaus 06/24 Berlin, Germany Tempodrome 06/25 Amsterdam Het Koninklijk 06/26 Amsterdam Het Koninklijk 06/27 Rottendam Concertgebouw De Doelen 06/28 Eindhoven Naked Song Festival 06/30 London, UK Royal Albert Hall 07/01 Dublin, Ireland Olympia 07/02 Dublin, Ireland Olympia 07/04 Werchter Festival 07/05 Groningen Stadsschouwburg 07/06 Montreux Montreux Jazz Festival 07/07 Zurick, Switzerland Kongress Haus 07/08 Luxembourg Grand Theatre 07/10 Paris, France Days Off Festival 07/11 Toulouse, France Bikini 07/12 Barcelona, Spain Teatre Grec 07/14 Madrid, Spain Circo Price 07/17 Florence, Italy Teartro Romano di Fiesole 07/18 Milan, Italy Auditorium di Milano 07/20 Antwerp, Belgium Rivierenhof 07/21 Antwerp, Belgium Rivierenhof 07/22 Hamburg Laeiszhalle 07/24 London Barbican 07/25 Bristol Colston Hall 07/26 Gateshead Sage * Chelsea Wolfe opening
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Today marks the release of the Eels’ album The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett. This is the band’s 11th full length record in 18 years, since first hitting the alternative music scene with 1996’s Beautiful Freak.
A prolific and inventive musician, Everett has garnered a large following of fans and critics as well as fellow musicians with his simple, compassionate approach to songwriting. Everett’s songs are, indeed, spectacular to behold; lovingly-rendered audio gems that take the shape of gentle acoustic numbers and surprisingly wooly freak-outs. And in the tradition of great story songwriters, Everett has spent his career exploring his life and mining the human soul, uncovering pain and beauty and creating some of the most stunning tales in contemporary music.
The newest album sees Everett in a vulnerable state. As he recounts on the Eels website, the band started recording the album prior to the release of 2013’s Wonderful, Glorious. But the process proved to be too intense and so it was temporarily put on hold. Recently, the band reconvened to complete it. “I listened to what we had done, and it made me uncomfortable… but not uncomfortable enough,” Everett says regarding early cuts of the album. “I decided to scrub over half of the songs and write new ones that would make me feel even more uneasy. If I’m not uncomfortable, it’s not real enough. I needed to dig a little deeper.”
Clearly, this conscious effort to give the songs a more uneasy feel was successful. Tales’ is very stripped down sounding, utilizing only a handful of carefully selected instruments to fill out each song. The focus is truly on Everett’s sleepy rasp as his deeply personal words. “When I was young, I had a dream/I would be held in high esteem/I thought I’d end up with gentlemen/distinguished, respected, refined,” Everett sings on “Gentlemen’s Choice” invoking the tormented barroom croak of Tom Waits.” The life that I’ve led is better unsaid/the world has no use for my kind.” He gets darker on “Dead Reckoning” muttering in resigned tones, “I can’t change you/I can’t change anyone,” while a bassoon echoes ominously in the background.
Ultimately, despite the bleak emotional corridors Everett takes us through, there are small, sacred glimmers of light throughout the record. Amidst chiming guitars on “Answers,” he reveals that “living lost is not the way to go from here on out.” On the album closer, the gorgeous piano and horn-driven “Where I’m Going,” he soulfully declares, “I’ve got a good feeling about where I’m going.” Turns out, Everett is an optimist, if a reluctant one.
Can one make peace with a past filled with careless mistakes in under 50 minutes? Everett can. In fact, Mark Oliver Everett can be confronted with any real world problem and work through it with a guitar and a glockenspiel. That’s what makes him such an inspiring and beloved songwriter; he’s honest about his struggles and that makes him so accessible. To me, Everett’s songs are like psychic life-rafts or a protective pendant you wear around your neck. He can string together a few glorious notes and everything is suddenly okay again.
Be sure to catch Eels on tour starting next month in Austin, TX. The band will be playing the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul on May 25th. And if you haven’t read it yet, pick up Everett’s heartbreaking and funny 2008 memoir Things The Grandchildren Should Know.
A prolific and inventive musician, Everett has garnered a large following of fans and critics as well as fellow musicians with his simple, compassionate approach to songwriting. Everett’s songs are, indeed, spectacular to behold; lovingly-rendered audio gems that take the shape of gentle acoustic numbers and surprisingly wooly freak-outs. And in the tradition of great story songwriters, Everett has spent his career exploring his life and mining the human soul, uncovering pain and beauty and creating some of the most stunning tales in contemporary music.
The newest album sees Everett in a vulnerable state. As he recounts on the Eels website, the band started recording the album prior to the release of 2013’s Wonderful, Glorious. But the process proved to be too intense and so it was temporarily put on hold. Recently, the band reconvened to complete it. “I listened to what we had done, and it made me uncomfortable… but not uncomfortable enough,” Everett says regarding early cuts of the album. “I decided to scrub over half of the songs and write new ones that would make me feel even more uneasy. If I’m not uncomfortable, it’s not real enough. I needed to dig a little deeper.”
Clearly, this conscious effort to give the songs a more uneasy feel was successful. Tales’ is very stripped down sounding, utilizing only a handful of carefully selected instruments to fill out each song. The focus is truly on Everett’s sleepy rasp as his deeply personal words. “When I was young, I had a dream/I would be held in high esteem/I thought I’d end up with gentlemen/distinguished, respected, refined,” Everett sings on “Gentlemen’s Choice” invoking the tormented barroom croak of Tom Waits.” The life that I’ve led is better unsaid/the world has no use for my kind.” He gets darker on “Dead Reckoning” muttering in resigned tones, “I can’t change you/I can’t change anyone,” while a bassoon echoes ominously in the background.
Ultimately, despite the bleak emotional corridors Everett takes us through, there are small, sacred glimmers of light throughout the record. Amidst chiming guitars on “Answers,” he reveals that “living lost is not the way to go from here on out.” On the album closer, the gorgeous piano and horn-driven “Where I’m Going,” he soulfully declares, “I’ve got a good feeling about where I’m going.” Turns out, Everett is an optimist, if a reluctant one.
Can one make peace with a past filled with careless mistakes in under 50 minutes? Everett can. In fact, Mark Oliver Everett can be confronted with any real world problem and work through it with a guitar and a glockenspiel. That’s what makes him such an inspiring and beloved songwriter; he’s honest about his struggles and that makes him so accessible. To me, Everett’s songs are like psychic life-rafts or a protective pendant you wear around your neck. He can string together a few glorious notes and everything is suddenly okay again.
Be sure to catch Eels on tour starting next month in Austin, TX. The band will be playing the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul on May 25th. And if you haven’t read it yet, pick up Everett’s heartbreaking and funny 2008 memoir Things The Grandchildren Should Know.