Artist of the Week: EELS

This week WERS is featuring the American band EELS as our Artist of the Week.  The band formed when singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett (better known as E) and drummer Jonathan “Butch” Norton met bassist Tommy Walter.  The collaboration was originally intended to play E’s songs live but formed into an individual entity in its own right when they adopted the name EELS.  Supposedly, they chose the name “EELS” so that their output would appear near E’s solo efforts in any kind of alphabetical listing (they later realized that anything by The Eagles or Earth, Wind, and Fire, just to name a few, actually come between the two) not to mention put an end to the mass confusion that must have come from going by one letter.

Three more letters, nearly two decades, and several band members and collaborators later, E is keeping EELS going with their tenth studio album, this month’s Wonderful, Glorious.  E built a new home studio specifically for this album and the songs were partially formed by jamming with his collaborators – an atypical choice for an EELS album.  True to the album’s title, it has been very well received by critics and fans alike.  Noted for it’s seemingly “upbeat” lyrics and mood (at least for an EELS album) it’s so far been thought of as a successful follow-up to E’s 2009-10 trilogy of albums.  The band announced a world tour in support of the album and will be in town next week on February 27th.

By Bentley J. Holt

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