And you didn't stalk the fuck out of her?

"Shootenanny" has some pretty good songs on it, huh? For some reason, I always think of it as a "minor" album.

my friend send one of their friends over to my house today to pick up some lights and to borrow my camera tripod. when she arrived i found out it was because she's the director of photography for a low budget video for one of the new songs.

4/3/2009- TREMENDOUS DYNAMITE: MAKING HOMBRE LOBO:
There is a thirty minute documentary film about the making of the new EELS album called TREMENDOUS DYNAMITE: Making HOMBRE LOBO. Stay tuned for more info.

EELS
HOMBRE LOBO
****

by James McNair

Birds do it, bees do it, even beardly blokes named E do it...

EELS' first studio record in four years presents E, aka Mark Oliver Everett, as a horny man-wolf. "Got her right here in my sights/Got a fuse that I can light," he drools on feral blues nugget Tremendous Dynamite, but concerns about our host's stalker tendencies ease with That Look You Give That Guy, a romantic slice of vulnerability built on rolling guitar chords.

The record's shrinking violet/rutting stag shifts in mood make for a gripping listen, E conjuring Howlin' Wolf (Prizefighter), then sounding winningly out of sorts amid echoey, spaced out guitars (The Longing). With Fresh Blood powering a Neanderthal lust, and My Timing Is Off packing gentle optimism, HOMBRE LOBO gives us much to ponder upon as it shifts through courtship's different gears.

Lean and timeless sounding, it's also as truthful as Everett's sobering autobiography, THINGS THE GRANDCHILDREN SHOULD KNOW.

Eels - 'Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs Of Desire'
4.0/5.0

throughout 'Hombre Lobo', E manages to take your breath away...
by Jamie Milton


Bloodthirsty like a werewolf, desire hasn't been a topic that Mark Oliver Everett's shied away from over his fifteen years as an alternative-rock pioneer. Although his song-writing has always remained exposed and generous in honesty, never has a man sounded so out in the open as E does on this concept album on that very subject. It's difficult to fully gain awareness of the actual attitude E takes towards seducing sexy ladies, with the lyrical content varying between a desperate, lust-filled man and one so wounded that he can't continue. Nevertheless, throughout 'Hombre Lobo', he manages to take your breath away.

Strictly speaking, this is a concept album, but you need not know that. Instead you could interpret this record as a truthful collection of Eels' most naked accounts on seeking love. A proverbial pendulum switches musically and personally between the obnoxious, edgy numbers ('Tremendous Dynamite') and the beautiful, damaged ballads ('The Longing'). Each track maintains the accessibility factor that comes with Eels, but the variety feels like something new, almost on a level of the diverse nature of 'Souljacker' in 2001. It's in the words he sings that E truly excels. The most poignant moment of the aching account 'The Longing' is the revelation "I think she knows, that when I say that I would die for her, it's not just words, I really would" and on the flip-side of that, there's the dark, almost stalker-like account of the itch on 'Fresh Blood', which suddenly opens up with the declarative "I'm more alone than I've ever been, help me out of this shape I'm in". Be it a concept album, be it E's words or not, those words still get to the very core of your thinking.

But at one point it does strike you that Everett might truly be a lonely man, not some playboy with a libido. His life has always been bleakly surrounded by death and loss. It's not the first time that as a songwriter, he's become so honest with his audience, but with that thought in the back of your head, it makes 'Hombre Lobo' a unique and striking account. You might think you've heard the likes of 'My Timing Is Off' and 'All The Beautiful Things' before, each clasping to a traditional Eels formula of summertime blues, major chords and an uplifting atmosphere, but lurking inside is something not so commonplace, something momentous.

Mr E’s beautiful freaks return

4.0/5;0

Mark Everett (or E) is something of an uncategorisable genius/ oddball, many would have you believe. Really, he’s only really “odd” in the way men with beards are odd, or people who don’t listen to the charts are odd. Basically, he’s just a guy with an interesting life who writes wonderful pop. Hell, he even produced Natalie Imbruglia, and you don’t get more mainstream than that.

Subtitled 12 Songs Of Desire, this is nevertheless Everett’s most sharply contrasting, yet accessible, work to date. For every howling rocker there’s a ballad backed with skipping drums and delicious counter melodies. That Look You Gave That Guy Is a beautiful paean to longing and self-loathing that’s sounds like a Beach Boys single. Then the intermittently raucous, scuzzy stomps, such as Fresh Blood and Tremendous Dynamite, seem to intentionally sabotage the lilting tone of these quieter moments.

This is the sound of someone playing around, yet confident in his songwriting skills. Perhaps most importantly, E seems comfortable, even happy at points. But then, love tends to do that to people.