| Tour Dates
04/07/08 Pantages Theatre Mineeapolis, MN
04/09/08 Fox Theatre Boulder, Colorado 04/11/08 Showbox Theatre Seattle, WA 04/13/08 Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR 04/14/08 Palace Of Fine Arts San Fransisco, CA 04/16/08 El Rey Theater Los Angeles, CA 04/17/08 El Rey Theater Los Angeles, CA 04/24/08 The Tilvoli Theatre Brisbane, AUS 04/26/08 The Palais Theatre Melbourne 04/27/08 The Enmore Theatre Sydney Eels Discography
Compilations / Live / E (Solo) / Miscellaneous
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Life is hard, and so am I.
Possibly the best opening line of any song. Easily.
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Fans of the Eels have never been happier. In early 2008, we saw the release of THREE brand new Eels project: Meet the Eels: Essential Eels Vol. I, Useless Trinkets, and Live and in Person! London 2008. The later is only available at their live shows, so hardcore fans should see them live or hit ebay.
Although two of the items hit the stores in January, I finally got a hold of Meet the Eels: Essential Eels Vol. I and Useless Trinkets for review.
Let me start off by saying these are very, very excellent products. Everything from the massive liner notes to the well-designed packaging and photos tells me that Geffen Records spent quite a few pennies to get this together.
Collecting about 70 tracks and 3 hours of videos, this is a must for any Eels fans. Of course, hardcore fans will want to invest in both, but for casual fan or new fans, the Essential Eels should be perfect for your collection.
Meet the Eels: Essential Eels collects all the band's hits throughout the years, including "Novocaine for the Soul" "Susan's House", and "I Like Birds".
"Novocaine" is their break through alternative hit, so I've also included their video to check out. On the commentaries to this video, Mark Everett (aka E), explained that it was very frightening floating in the air with wires. He also really, really hated the video for "Susan's House", which was a word-for-word interpretation of the song lyrics.
The lyrics to "Susan's House" really capture what Everett is best known for, writing about everyday mundane observations - but when you hear it, it sounds absolutely surreal.
The best example of E's surreal lyrics can be found early on his debut solo album, A Man Called E, on the song "Hello Cruel World", in which you hear such wonderful lyrics as: "Venus de Milo grew an arm and Old Mcdonald bought the farm. Say goodbye, Hello cruel world!"
The DVD accompanying the Essential compilation is pretty good, it mainly collects all their music video. There's some extra photos and even a commentary (as I previously mentioned) on these music videos - although E does not talk through the entire song.
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As for Useless Trinkets, this is really meant for the fans that must have everything. There's a ton of b-sides and rarities that any true fan would love. I was happy to see that the alternate version of "Dog Faced Boy" is on this collection. I love the original version, but this this bluesy alternate take might actually sound as what it was intended.
The DVD portion to Useless Trinkets contain live concert footage of Lollapalooza 2006. This was kind of a disappointing because the quality looks poor and audio is so-so.
Although I am panning the video quality, it is still a very nice bonus feature.... just don't try to sell this as a stand-alone DVD - unless you want to market it as a poor bootleg or something.
One thing that I should mention about the DVD is that it looks like the camera really love "that security guy".
I have to admit it was quite funny to see him flexing and working out on stage (what a distraction!)
The massive 76 page booklet that came with the Useless Trinkets album is absolutely amazing! You quickly realize that E is a big time packrat. I love going through and seeing notes and set lists and tour passes and and other scrapbook material.
I've included a scan of one of the page for example: a hand-written note to Melody Maker for his top all-time favorite songs.
Overall this is a great 3 CDs + 2 DVD set. Released by Geffen Records, oddly not listed on their release page, but you can pick this up at any retail stores. And let's face it, both you and I, know that it won't matter what I say about it, if you're a fan, you already have it or it's already on your "to buy" list.
04/06/2008 13:23:12
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| thedharmablues wrote:
Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 2:35 PM
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[esto es genial] These were an instant purchase for me.
Currently waiting for my first pay check before I pick up a copy of Things the Grandchildren Should Know.
If you get the chance to see Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, it is definitely worth it, especially if you want to improve your understanding of parallel universes. It also contains a priceless moment when Everett is listening to a recording of his dad dictating and a younger E can be heard in the background.
BTW great review!!!
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