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eels

brain candy March - April 2013

Eels

Beacons Revisited

SIDE ONE

1) DAVID COMES TO LIFE
None of us can really remember where or when we met David, but it
seems like a long time ago. Originally this song was called
"Ian"-something something, and was going to be in reference to Ian
Dickson, who we had recently kicked in the balls rather severely.
While writing it at practice (about 2 weeks before we recorded the
Hidden World
LP) one of us said "Wait, maybe it should be about David, and be
called David Comes to Life?"  And David was born.  This is a rare
unmixed version without the backup vocals over the last chorus.
Alternately, one morning while we were doing backups and pre-mixing,
it was early enough that only me and Beat were in the studio.  We did
a version of this song that has a lush 14 part vocal harmony at the
end of the song.  By the time we got to the 5th and 6th overdubs, we
were clapping, whistling and laughing. I would have included this
version but I couldn't find it.

2) NEAT PARTS
This was done during the Hidden World demo sessions at Audiolab, where
we recorded most of the cuts from the old singles.  That session
produced demo's of "Carried out to the Sea", "Vivian Girls" with no
vocals, parts of "Crusades", "Two Snakes" and "Triumph of Life", both
of which were released on the internet. The session also produced the
Triumph of Life 7" single, the Dangerous Fumes 7" single, and the Year
of the Dog 12". All in all, we were in that studio for 51 hours over
the course of 2 and a half days.  Ultimately we ended up with a LOT of
different vocal versions for "Neat Parts" and "Teenage Problems", our
2 UNDERTONES tribute songs. This one was almost going to be the 7"
version, but we balked at the last minute, because Pink Eyes sounds
way too much like IAN STUART, and as you know from the last Mixtape,
we aren't into referencing racism in any way.

Pink Eyes - As I remember it: I cut the vocal, which I was pretty
happy with, and I walked out of the booth and Camp and Beat just
stared at me blankly.  Thinking, that perhaps, the amazingness of what
I had just committed to tape had left them searching for words to
describe the awesomness of what they had just heard rhetorically asked
"What do you think?" To me shock and horror they suggested that I do
again differently. This is one of the rare points where I will concede
that I was in the wrong. This is not to say that
I am not going to one day release my solo record "Patriotic Ballads Vol. 3".

Mr. Jo - There was a lot of talk and worry about whether the way some
of these new songs were coming out was going to be either too poppy,
too indulgent, and/or dealing too much with unsavory ideas. While this
is probably the safest, most politically correct and positive Fucked
Up song, at the time I couldn't think of anything more callously poppy
and indulgent as to consider releasing this crooned version of 'Neat
Parts.' Of course with the new shouted vocals, the acoustic guitar, 12
part lead, marching drum break, the mild 'bust' which PE so tastefully
evanesced into the split second gap 3/4
through the song, and the "Looking for Gold-brand" riff-reference lead
seem totally justified and equate to a total classic.

3) I DON'T WANNA BE FRIENDS WITH YOU
If you bought this tape at the Hidden World record release shows, you
are probably also holding onto the Dolly Mixture and Shop Assistants
tribute 7''s we put out just for these shows.  This is the best SHOP
ASSISTANTS song, and they were a post-punk pre-twee C86 band from
England in the 1980s. The vocalist was also in MOTORCYCLE BOY who did
I think one 12" only.  Anyhow, we covered their songs and got Manno
from the Bayonettes to do vocal versions as well.

4) TEENAGE PROBLEMS
Speaking of girl vocals, here is Mr. Jo's version of TEENAGE PROBLEMS
which you aren't going to be able to hear all of.  Also in this series
is the Pink Eyes "Morrissey" version of "Looking Back" by the Shop
Assistants, and Concentration Camps "Gojira"
version of "Litany".  I almost included a section on this tape with
all of Camp's back-up vocals I found in the live sets, but it was way
to scary, so I left it out.

5) LOOK BACK AND LAUGH "A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS"
I saw LBAL do this cover on a bridge in Austin at 4am and it blew
everyone's mind. We think these dudes are great.  These tunes were
from the same session that produced their last 7" for Deranged.
Pink Eyes - I remember I kept reading for like 2004-2005 about how
great this band was and how they are the best live band in the world
and all this bullshit, so I said to myself: "Yo fuck this band. No
Matter how good they are I will hate them on principle. Because, let's
face it, no band ever lives up to the hype. So I never listened tyo
there records and then on 1st west coast tour I saw them and had to
eat my shit. I can't put into words
how shit it feels to watch them and know that you have to go one after them.

6) FUCKED UP "PANIC"
Ok, some people think the only bands we listen to are HATEBREED and
INTEGRITY and that we are a mosh-metal band. We put this token
Japanese hardcore cover that we did on this tape to dispell those
rumours and to let people know that The Slasher paid $100 for the "No
Side" 12" in Portland. If you still dont' know who this is a cover of,
you are bigger posers even than we are.
Pink Eyes - I got my copy for $30 and Seasons The Size Of days is a way better
record.

7) FUCKED UP LIVE AT CREWTONZ
Ok, lots of people will know about this defunct "venue" in "New York
City". We played there a bunch of times. The first time was New Years
Eve and was special. The second time was after a show we did at the
Knitting Factory downtown and was a bit more bananas i think. One of
the times there were 3 fights during the CRO MAGS cover we played. I
saw Ian Dickson almost put a pretty small kid through the wall because
he liked bandana thrash in the early 00's, and Ian only liked
DISCOUNT.  During this particular set, more kids i think had to be
thrown out, but since they were in a "bike gang", they came back and
there were more scuffles outside for a while.  We are a responsible
unit, so we tried to clear the building by playing cover after cover,
trying to frustrate everyone into leaving.
Pink Eyes - I remember some kid in a Mental shirt with a Taxi Driver style
Mohawk and jacket (who was ex Navy), trying to hand over hand it
across a huge drainage pipe that hung 15 feet above where violent
minds were playing and falling on top of guitarist Haroon mid set. I
honestly thought that it may have killed him.
Later on during out set, this guy was thrown out for fighting while we
were playing. Four people rushed him out the door, and Pink Eyes
followed them, still talking into the mic.

8) A lot of the in-between-song banter from this tape is from a radio
show our friend Guille does in Barcelona Spain.  We set up in his
small room and i think he had the turntable on his lap. If you've ever
been to Spain, you know these people speak really fast, so there was a
LOT of talking. Also our Jewish-Canadian friend Nathalien was present,
but he didn't actually fall out the window.

9) COLD WORLD "A-ALIKES"
Nick: "The breakdown is the beat from Prodigy of Mobb Deep's "Keep It
Thoro" note for note.  The singing part is me and Alex together. The
dude who says "reaching out, i need your help" is Craig Wilson.  His
dad has a size 7 1/2 foot and was once seen by our friend driving his
motorcycle into "fag forest" at around 8pm.  His favorite singer is
Prince and he talks like a straight up femme. But Craig refuses to
believe he's gay."
This song is exclusive to this tape by the way.

10) DANGEROUS FUMES
Two years ago, the plan was to have "Dangerous Fumes" be the 1st
single for Hidden World. This song was written almost three years ago.
Well, it didn't even end up making it onto the LP at all. We recorded
an LP version during the Hidden World sessions, and made the bridge a
bit longer and trickier, but then we weren't real happy with the
version, plus the record was pushing 80 minutes already. So we cut it,
and revisiting it, it's pretty smoking, albeit a little rough.  Plus
check out the enviro-themed DROPDEAD style freestyle in the middle.
Pink Eyes - No matter what I did during that bridge it sounds lame but
I think this is worse then the single version.
Mr. Jo –  Like almost every FU song we record I end up listening to
the rough mixes without vocals a ton before the session is done. In
this case, the original version had such a perfectly executed lead, I
used to dream about it as its own entity. Sadly, the re-recording and
subsequent re-re-recording of this song along with the addition of the
vocal track sent that dream careening directly into 'fag forest.'

11) "LKNG FR GLD"
A guy asked us to be on this compilation where every song had to be 20
seconds long. Since we were in the middle of recording the LP, we
really didn't have 20 seconds to spare, so we took the original 16
minute long "Looking for Gold" file, and shrunk into a 20 second
versino on protools one day when we were mixing.  For those of you who
don't have 16 minutes to indulge us with and listen to the original,
here is a more economical version, which should have pretty much the
same effect as the original.


Mixtape 2 Side A

Little Bird by EELS off of their album, End Times

Find it on iTunes for $7.99: http://bit.ly/cy7bqG
Purchase on Amazon: http://amzn.to/hommjb

Connect with EELS:
http://www.eelstheband.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/THE-EELS/7124595973?ref=search&sid=1584874392.1675941323..1
http://www.myspace.com/eels
http://www.youtube.com/user/officialeels

End Times

EELS - Little Bird

Blogging

Shifting

Burning Bridges

High

In Manchester

WOLF PEOPLE-STEEPLE-SILBURY SANDS

WOLF PEOPLE-STEEPLE-DORNEY REACH

WOLF PEOPLE-STEEPLE-MORNING BORN

The new album 'Wonderful, Glorious' available February 5th, 2013.

Pre-Order on iTunes: http://smarturl.it/wonderfulglorious

Physical Pre-Order: http://gomerch.com/eels/pre-order/

Wonderful, Glorious

iTunes Pre-Order

EELS - Peach Blossom

The new album 'Wonderful, Glorious' available now!

Purchase On:
iTunes http://smarturl.it/wonderfulglorious
AmazonMP3 http://smarturl.it/wonderfulgloriousmp3
Amazon CD http://smarturl.it/wonderfulgloriousamz
EELS Store http://smarturl.it/eelsstore

New Alphabet

EELS perform the main titles song "Calling For Your Love" (non-album track) in the new Cirque du Soleil "WORLDS AWAY" film opening today, 12/21/12. More info at http://www.worldsaway3d.com/

EELS - Calling For Your Love

Track One from the forthcoming Wire album "Change Becomes Us"

Change Becomes Us

Doubles & Trebles

Pre Order Ltd Edition

WIRE – CHANGE BECOMES US – pinkflag (pf20)

“Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time…,” laughs Colin Newman when asked to explain Wire’s original motivation for Change Becomes Us. While that might sound like the kind of feeble excuse you’d offer in mitigation when a drunken escapade goes horribly wrong, not only was it a good idea, it actually turned into a superlative one. 

In spring 2012, Wire’s plan had been to convene at Rockfield Studios in Wales to review the rudimentary blueprints of songs that had never made it beyond a few live performances in 1979 and 1980 – a time when the band-members were in creative overdrive yet the band was disintegrating. The aim wasn’t simply to resuscitate and record old songs – in fact, many of them hadn’t become proper songs in the first place, existing only as basic ideas or undeveloped parts. Rather, the objective was to approach that unrealised work as an oblique strategy, a potential springboard for Wire’s contemporary, forward-looking processes, a possible point of departure for new compositions.

This took place with Wire firing on all cylinders, as a four-piece studio entity again, the core line-up of Newman, Graham Lewis and Robert Grey now enhanced by guitarist Matthew Simms. Simms had played a key role in helping the band to cultivate and shape its new sonic landscape throughout the preceding year’s live work. Out of the exploratory Rockfield session and subsequent, extensive development and production at Newman’s Swim Studio, the ostensible source material became, in the classic Wire tradition, something quite other than what it may have once been or what it might have become if it had been pursued in 1980. 

“Love Bends” is a case in point. Its roots lie in “Piano Tuner” -- the raucous, octave-hopping number performed in February 1980 at the Electric Ballroom in Camden and preserved on Document and Eyewitness -- but it’s now morphed, improbably, into an irresistible, totally modern pop song. “It had to be turned into something else,” explains Lewis, “because it only really had one bit.” Just as improbably, the gently lilting “Re-invent Your Second Wheel” is tangentially connected to the notorious “Zegk Hoqp,” which was more of a one-time happening than a song at the Camden gig -- mostly shouting and banging, executed by a stage-full of Wire cronies in funny hats. “It was written for performance, around people with newspaper headdresses; not with music in mind,” Lewis emphasizes. Similarly transformed, “& Much Besides” is a six-minute oneiric-melodic interlude that gives no hint of its putative origins in “Eastern Standard” --  a dreary, obtuse three-minute geography lesson delivered with former manager Mick Collins at the Electric Ballroom concert.

Newman’s writing and production reimagines the past in ways that ultimately break any substantive connection with it, making entirely new pieces; and these songs themselves enact Wire’s restless drive to become other, often thriving on a fundamental tension between opposing sonic characteristics. With its stop-start, soft-hard, quiet-loud structure, “Adore Your Island” veers between what Newman describes as “prog and unhinged punk rock,” never quite resolving itself; the drama of “Attractive Space” hinges on a progressive splitting of the song’s personality, between its calm expansive, anthemic orientation and an increasing sense of intensity and claustrophobia. 

Change Becomes Us encapsulates the paradoxical essence of Wire’s creativity. The tendency of these new songs to refuse a single, settled identity is emblematic of the band’s ever-evolving aesthetic -- one that’s always hinged on sustained tensions and oppositions: between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the comfortable and the unsettling, the melodic and the brutal, the cerebral and the visceral, the smart and the moronic, the obvious and the inscrutable, the rational and the absurd. This intrinsic, core ambivalence generates the essential otherness that has characterized Wire’s most memorable, distinctive work -- from the epochal innovations of Chairs Missing and 154 to the electronic-pop deconstructions of A Bell Is A Cup to Send’s postmodern-punk expressionism and the widescreen lyricism of Red Barked Tree.

Change Becomes Us is an undeniable part of that illustrious lineage. Definitely more than just a good idea at the time.

Wilson Neate


Keep Exhaling

Adore Your island

Re-Invent Your Second Wheel

Stealth of a Stork

Eels Sang

I'm Your Brave Little Soldier

WOLF PEOPLE - FAIN - ALL RETURNS

Pre-order Delta Machine now: http://smarturl.it/DMitunes - Available March 26. “Heaven” available now: http://smarturl.it/HeaveniTunes



Heaven

Taken from the forthcoming album on Rabid/Brille 'Shaking The Habitual', out April 8th 2013. Available to pre-order at Amazon, HMV, your local record store, or at http://theknife.net 


The Knife 'A Tooth For An Eye' (single)

FREE DOWNLOAD

Eels - I Need Some Sleep (Dwin Remix)

Dogs

İnsan İnsan

Since their formation in London in 1976, the members of Wire have maintained and advanced a musical project which treats the creative potential of a rock band as a fluid, amorphous medium. As removed from self-conscious intellectualism as they are from the inherent conservatism of much rock music, Wire employ their unique, endlessly restless and risk-taking creativity to question every aspect of songwriting, recording and performance. They delight and disturb in equal measure, troubleshooting the circuitry of perfect pop, or patrolling the limits of focused experimentalism. In terms of working together as Wire, the group's members disbanded in 1980, reformed in 1985, disbanded in 1992 and reformed for the second time in 2000. Such sabbaticals from their career as Wire have served to sharpen the group's edge and focus, updating the tactics with which they pursue this shared project.

see more - www.pinkflag.com

Eels Sang

WireHQ