Eels - I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

As I said in an earlier post, "retiring" from the blogosphere has ironically rejuvenated my interest in posting, but not enough to want to do so regularly. In some respect I regret "retiring" - I should have just said I'd post less often - i.e. when I felt like it rather than when I felt I should!

So I'm officially changing my status - from "retired blogger" to "occasional blogger".

Here's another Eels track, this time from the compilation album Like A Version 2. Like A Version is a regular session featured on Australian youth radio station Triple J, and features bands performing cover versions. Most of the sessions are instantly forgettable but this once is superb - a cover of the Prince (or Poonce, as my bro used to call him!) toon I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

This is a different arrangement of the track than that on Useless Trinkets, featuring vocals and acoustic guitar. Gorgeous!

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Eels - Rotten World Blues

On the subject of bonus CD's accompanying Australian releases, here's the Rotten World Blues EP, which accompanied the Australian version of the Souljacker LP.

It's a nice mixture of oddball songs that didn't fit in with the rest of Souljacker.

The title track is a killer, which eventually made it's way onto the excellent odds and sods release Useless Trinkets. In some ways it summarises the whole Eels ethos: accept life's a bitch, and get on with it!

I Write The B-Sides is a whimsical look at being the being the poster boy of the depressive set: "I write the b-sides, that make a small portion of the world cry. I like the seaside, and singing songs that make you not wanna die!"

Eels - 1992 - Rotten World Blues

01 - I Write The B-Sides
02 - Hidden track
03 - Jehovah's Witness
04 - Rotten World Blues

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Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy

Daisy - 1998 - 2011 - RIP 

This post is in memory of my beloved dog, Daisy, who passed away yesterday.

Eels - 2000 - Daisies of the galaxy

1. Grace Kelly Blues
2. Packing Blankets
3. The Sound of Fear
4. I Like Birds
5. Daisies of the Galaxy
6. Flyswatter
7. It's a Motherfucker
8. Estate Sale
9. Tiger in My Tank
10. A Daisy Through Concrete
11. Jeannie's Diary
12. Wooden Nickels
13. Something Is Sacred
14. Selective Memory
15. Mr. E's Beautiful Blues

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Obscure Australian compilation albums

Here are some bits and pieces from miscellaneous obscure Australian compilation albums that I'm sure most readers would be unaware of....

Happy Patch - Predator (FLAC) and Lucy Jr (FLAC), from The Sound Barrier, a 1993 compilation of Adelaide (South Australia) bands.

Eels - Mr E's Beautiful Blues, from More Music Live From the Panel. The Panel was an Australian talk show. E turned up for an interview and played both Mr E's beautiful blues and Fucker, which I think can both be seen on You Tube. This interview is not the legendary interview conducted a few days later where E joked he loved Melbourne as it was the smack capital of the world!

The Go-Betweens - Head full of steam, and Mercury Rev - When you wish upon a star, from the Studio 22 highlights album. Studio 22 is a late night TV show where bands perform in front of a small live studio audience. The bands are usually little known Australian bands (little known outside Australia, at least), but Mercury Rev popped in after the release of their awesome Deserters Songs album, and graced the show with a set that also included a cover of Neil Young's Motion Pictures.

The Go Betweens - Hammer the hammer, The Triffids - My Baby Thinks She's A Train, and Hoodoo Gurus - Dig it Up, from Triple J live at the wireless album. Triple J is an Australian youth radio station. They have an awesome archive of live shows, including a Birthday Party show from 1983, part of which is streamed here.

Smudge - I Just Get Caught Out, from Right Here - Go-betweens Tribute. A match made in heaven - one of my fave Australian bands covering one of my fave Australian bands. Smudge, of course, released the classic Don't want to be Grant McLennan single, wrongly interpreted by most people as a slag-off! They will be featured shortly on this here blog with a gushing/fawning review of their classic Manilow album

Rock Music! Death! Crazy People! Love!

So sayeth the sticker on my copy of Things The Grandchildren Should Know, the tragicomic biography of Mark Oliver Everett, aka E from Eels. In addition to being a fantastic and cautionary tale of life in the music industry (right up there with Bad Vibes by Luke Haines - as referenced my Auteurs post), this book is essential for anyone interested in the psychology of an artist.

The book comes with a CD containing two versions of the song Things The Grandchildren Should Know - the demo version, and the version from the immense double CD Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. Below is one of my favourite anecdotes from the book that references this song, as well as the links to the demo version of the song.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE?

I'm sitting in a posh hotel in Paris. Mick Jagger is having tea in the lobby. I'm stuck in the draughty conference room doing a TV interview. The French TV journalist is asking me about the song Things The Grandchildren Should Know, that's about to come out on the Blinking Lights and Other Revelations double album, which is finally being released, a year after I finished it.

'Do you have children?' the TV journalist asks in her heavily accented English.

I sit back in the wooden chair they've offered me. 'Not yet. I'm gonna go straight to grandchildren,' I say.

She blinks and stares blankly back at me, squinting and squeezing her eyebrows down. 'But ... how is it possible?'

'Uh, well ... think about it; it's a much better deal,' I say, shifting in my chair. 'With grandchildren, you just see them on the weekend. Then you get the rest of the week to yourself."

'But how is it possible?'

'I don't know. I'll figure it out.'

'But ... it is not possible ... '


Eels - 2008 - Things The Grandchildren Should Know (demo)

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