14/12/2025
Tribute to THE EELS : on SUN french radio station
with : Journey , Magnapop , The Coral , Badly Drawn Boy , The Inspector Cluzo , Lisa Germano , The Guilteens , Portrait Of Tao
EELS: It’s not just a band. It’s a musical adventure, a human odyssey.
A unique blend of transformed pain into beauty, genres mixed with audacity, and unwavering loyalty to an artistic vision that belongs to them. For longtime fans and newcomers alike, discovering EELS is like opening a door to a universe where each album is a new exploration, a new promise.
You’re tuned in to "Le Fil Rock", an hour of alternative rock, a touch psychedelic, a bit melancholic, a dash of blues, a hint of madness, but always of high auditory quality—and dare I say, addictive. Tonight, we’re diving into the universe of... EELS.
Before we begin, let’s address the elephant in the room to avoid weighing down the evening: the life of Mark Oliver Everett, founder and soul of EELS, has not been spared by tragedy. And it’s precisely in their second album, Electro-Shock Blues (1998), that these family ordeals become the very heart of their music.
Take Baby Genius, for example: this song is about his father, a quantum physics genius who theorized parallel universes... at just 24 years old. He died of a heart attack in 1982. In 2007, Mark Oliver Everett even appeared in a documentary named "Parallel Universes, Parallel Lives", to explore the life of this father he barely knew. A film I highly recommend, especially if you love when science and music intersect.
And then there’s Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor... A song that recounts his sister Liz’s suicide attempt, just months after their father’s death. She survived that time, but not in 1996, when she ultimately took her own life. Two years later, it was his mother’s turn to pass away from lung cancer, right in the middle of writing the album. You’ll understand, then, why themes of death and loss haunt Electro-Shock Blues. A tough album, but magnificent.
--> Listen to My Descent Into Madness...
Mark Oliver Everett—or Mister E to his close friends—has a gift: the ability to reinterpret other artists’ songs like no one else. On the website SecondHandSongs, you can find a whole list of artists who inspired him: Rickie Lee Jones, Elvis Presley, Tom Waits, The Beatles, and even The Lovin’ Spoonful. His covers? Always rearranged in his own style—slowed down, stripped back, refined—to extract every last drop of emotion. And sometimes, he even invites his idols on stage!
Did you know that Steve Perry, the lead singer of Journey , joined EELS on stage in 2014 in Minnesota? A visible complicity, a touching reverence... A magical moment you can discover on the podcast’s page. And yes, you see where I’m going with this: I’m offering you the legendary title
--> Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey, released in 1981. After that, I’ll share another anecdote about this song.
So, the anecdote about the song we just heard: Do you know The Tonight Show hosted by Jimmy Fallon ? Do you know Will Ferrell, the actor from Very Bad Cops or Zoolander? Well, bring the two together, and you get a moment of pure television gold. I’ll let you search for it, or you can go to the podcast page on lesonunique.com. Trust me, it’s worth it!
Let’s get back to EELS for a few more details about this band created in 1993 by singer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett, with percussionist Jonathan "Butch" Norton and bassist Tommy Walter. The band’s lineup has evolved over the years and is still active today. With 15 studio albums, I won’t list the entire discography, but I’ve picked a few tracks from 8 of their albums for this tribute. The current lineup around Mister E is as follows:
On guitar: Jeff Lyster and Mike Sawitzke
On bass: Kelly Logsdon and Allen Hunter
On drums: Joe Mengis
The name "EELS" comes from a very pragmatic classification strategy: Mister E wanted the band’s records to be shelved next to his solo albums, released under the pseudonym "E." A trick to improve visibility in record stores and create consistency between his projects. However, he didn’t anticipate being separated in the bins by dozens of other records by "Earth, Wind & Fire," "Eagles"... So, a somewhat failed strategy.
Another fun fact: The song My Beloved Monster, which appears on the album Beautiful Freak—you know, the one with the little girl with the big eyes in the style of Margaret Keane—was featured in the soundtrack of the movie Shrek!
And did you know that Shootenanny!, released in 2003, was recorded in... ten days? During a tour! A raw, spontaneous album, praised for its authenticity. Shall we listen to
--> Rags to Rags (1996) followed by
--> Lone Wolf (2003)? Here we go!
Several groups or collaborations have evolved in parallel or alongside EELS. This is the case for Lisa Germano, a singer-songwriter of dream pop and folk rock, who accompanied EELS on the creation of 3 albums. If I tell you that she has also accompanied artists like Yann Tiersen, David Bowie, Simple Minds, OP8, or John Mellencamp, you’ll understand who we’re dealing with. Here’s her track
--> Energy, released in 1994 on her album Happiness on the 4AD label.
Let’s continue with other groups that have evolved in a style close to EELS. Several names come to mind: the Belgians dEUS and Girls in Hawaii, the Americans Grandaddy and Flaming Lips, but I won’t list them all. I’ve retained two choices close to my heart: first, the American band Magnapop, whose song Open the Door was covered by Mister E, and second, the English artist Badly Drawn Boy, who performed Summertime in Winter.
Here are two gems to discover without delay:
--> Magnapop in 1996 on the album Rubbing Doesn’t Help, followed by
--> Badly Drawn Boy in 2004 on the album One Plus One Is One.
Do you think EELS sounds like Beck? Me too! In the voice, the arrangements, that touch of originality that makes each track unique. Listen to
--> Dog Faced Boy, from Souljacker (2002).
And then there are The Kinks. Their influence on Mister E is undeniable: that sense of allegory, that bittersweet humor, and that theatrical approach to the stage. A legacy shared with The Coral. I invite you to discover them with
--> Dreaming of You (2002).
Back to EELS to listen to
--> A Daisy Through Concrete, from the album Daisies of the Galaxy (2000).
Let’s crank up the guitar and drums to jump to 2009 with the track
--> Lilac Breeze, from the album Hombre Lobo.
Let’s take a little Franco-French detour to meet Inspector Cluzo, a rock duo from France consisting of Malcolm Lacrouts (guitar and vocals) and Phil Jourdain (drums and backing vocals). When they’re not on tour or in the studio, they run a sustainable goose farm. They don’t have a bassist: their bassist bailed on them during a rehearsal in 2007, so they fired him without looking for a replacement. That’s how much it stuck in their craw—they even named their self-managed label "F**kTheBassPlayer."
Oh, and by the way, they’ve opened for EELS several times, notably in 2019 and 2023. So if you were looking for a connection, there you go!
So, repeating: The Inspector Cluzo, now with the track
--> I Am (Not) A Super Hero, from the 2013 album Gasconha Rocks.
I’m stepping away from France to offer you two new European groups. First, with Portrait of Tao, the indie-pop project of Austrian Fabian Holoubek, a musician and songwriter with over two decades of experience. Deeply influenced by his musical family, this multi-instrumentalist draws inspiration from the songwriting of JJ Cale, the melancholy of Nick Drake, and the chill vibes of EELS. Portrait of Tao creates an indie sound landscape with dreamy melodies. Here’s the track
--> Another Yesterday, released in June 2025.
Let’s teleport to Ireland to meet The Guilteens, a group that—according to the webzine banjaxed—has the excellent idea of blending a collaboration between EELS and Radiohead, mixing downtempo atmospheres and alternative rock. Let’s give the floor to The Guilteens with their track
--> Born Evil, from their EP Heavy Letters, released just a few weeks ago.
This is a very funny clip featuring Jon Hamm, which I highly recommend, accompanying the song that’s about to play. Featured on the album Earth to Dora, the track
--> Are We Alright Again was written during the quarantine period of COVID-19 and tries to imagine a near future where people can return to some normalcy and enjoy the simple things in life. Here’s EELS with their penultimate track.
It’s December, so it’s time to wish you happy holidays and to see you again in early January for the next episode of Le Fil Rock. Thank you all, I hope you enjoyed this show. The podcast and playlist are available on the SUN website, "le son unique."
Thank you, we’ll part ways with an optimistic song:
--> Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living), from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (2005). A track that perfectly sums up the spirit of EELS: even in hardship, there is light.
Thank you for listening, and above all... keep rocking! 🎸
