It’s been a long time since “Novocaine for the Soul,” but Mark Oliver Everett is still meting out Ritalin for the brain. “Wonderful, Glorious” (out next week), the 10th album from Everett’s long-running musical persona Eels, reveals the veteran provocateur at his strongest – the album and its spacey, witty and percussive underdog tales rank […]
I’m not sure I’ve made enough return to visits yet to fully digest Eels’ jaw-dropping album trilogy – “Hombre Lobo,” “End Times” and “Tomorrow Morning,” all released in a 14-month span in 2009-10 – but Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, is at work again. He has announced a new album “Wonderful, Glorious Eels” will arrive […]
[Birthday greetings to Ross Flournoy of L.A.’s own Apex Manor. And tonight …] Top picks for your Wednesday: ‣ Liverpool pop whippersnappers the Wombats hit the Troubadour behind their latest album “This Modern Glitch” (remember the fun video we posted in January?). Wild Party and Pop Noir open. ‣ Super Furry Animals main man Gruff […]
The favorite 40 local albums of 2010 as rendered by a listener who tries be open to sounds from every niche in our fair region, who tries not be swayed by hype, and who makes no apologies for liking his meat and potatoes. 1. Local Natives, “Gorilla Manor” (Frenchkiss) This was more of a 2009 […]
One of pop music’s most charmingly inscrutable figures, Mark Oliver Everett, gave one of his most charmingly eclectic performances on Tuesday night at the Music Box. The man known as E, as in Eels, performing at times solo and at others with a full band, mixed songs from his vast catalog with material from his […]
[Raising a glass today to birthday guy Bob Mould …] Top 4 shows tonight if you’re not an Alice in Chains fan: ‣ L.A. quartet the 88 celebrates the release of its new, self-titled album at the Troubadour, and there’s plenty to celebrate on this one – Keith Slettedahl, Adam Merrin, Todd O’Keefe and Anthony […]
Few songwriters make mopery more interesting or revelatory than Mark Oliver Everett. And it turns out the 47-year-old E can turn a phrase or two about optimism too. His ninth Eels album – and third in a 14-month span (!) – is titled “Tomorrow Morning,” and it’s a bottle of happy pills compared to the […]
If Tommy Walter didn’t have bad luck … well, he wouldn’t have those hard-luck stories he can tell about his first two albums. Walter, in his nom de tune Abandoned Pools, released two fine albums last decade. “Humanistic” came out in 2001, just before Extasy Records went belly-up. “Armed to the Teeth” followed in 2005, […]
Abandoned Pools – the musical vehicle of Tommy Walter (an original member of Eels) – return from a five-year hiatus to headline “A Night With Buzz Bands LA” on Tuesday, June 15, at Spaceland. Opening the evening will be up-and-coming indie-pop wizards Chasing Kings, followed by the tightly wound guitar rock of L.A. quintet Vanaprasta. […]
The new album from Eels, “End Times” (out in January), doesn’t futz with the sonic formula Mark Oliver Everett has used to craft his estimable eight-album catalogue, but as much as the L.A. songwriter has ever done, he gives you the feel that you’re looking over his shoulder at his journal entries. “End Times’” meditations […]
