- in Entertainment News by Mike
eels To Release A Daisy Through Concrete
EELS’ “A DAISY THROUGH CONCRETE” LIVE VIDEO PREMIERES ON STEREOGUM
EELS—ROYAL ALBERT HALL CONCERT FILM AND
LIVE ALBUM OUT APRIL 14
FILMED AND RECORDED LIVE JUNE 30, 2014 AT ROYAL ALBERT HALL, LONDON, ENGLAND
THIS TITLE WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING FORMATS
• DVD+2xCD PACKAGE
• DELUXE TRIPLE HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL LP+DVD+DOWNLOAD CARD
• DIGITAL AUDIO DOWNLOAD
• LONG FORM DIGITAL VIDEO
EELS IN A NUTSHELL
EELS have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing project of principal singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, EELS have released 10 studio albums since their 1996 debut, Beautiful Freak. Mojo Magazine calls Everett “a member of rock’s very own League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” while legendary troubadour Tom Waits says he “eagerly awaits each new release.” In 2008 Everett published his highly acclaimed book Things the Grandchildren Should Know and starred in the award-winning Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives documentary about the search to understand his quantum physicist father, Hugh Everett III. In 2009 EELS began the release of an album trilogy: Hombre Lobo, End Times and Tomorrow Morning, followed three years later by 2013’s Wonderful, Glorious and the critically-acclaimed The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett in 2014.
A live video for EELS’ “A Daisy Through Concrete” is premiering today on Stereogum, watch it here. The video, taken from the forthcoming concert DVD and live album EELS—Royal Albert Hall, out April 14, features EELS frontman E and the band playing the song live in the legendary London venue.
Watch the trailer for the film here, and preorder the film and album physically via the EELS website here and digitally via iTunes here.
In May 2014 EELS embarked on an ambitious 53-show world tour. Starting in Phoenix, Arizona and crossing the United States and Canada before rolling through mainland Europe and Great Britain, the band performed spine-tingling shows at New York’s Apollo, Chicago’s Vic Theater, Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theater, The Montreux Jazz Festival and The Amsterdam Concert Hall, among many others. On the night of June 30 EELS returned to London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall for the first time in nine years to play a stunning show that was filmed and recorded.
In sharp contrast to the previous EELS tour that found the band in track suits playing high octane electric rock & roll, this EELS show was “a gentlemen’s EELS concert,” as EELS leader Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, puts it. Filmed by 12 cameras in the gorgeously-lit Royal Albert Hall, the new film and album find the EELS dapperly dressed in suits and ties, and all five band members stretching their musical capabilities past new boundaries, playing songs from 2014’s critically-acclaimed The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett for the first time along with songs spanning the EELS’ 19-year career. When they played Royal Albert Hall in 2005 they were accompanied by a string section; this time there are only the five core members of the band on stage throughout the concert, splitting their time between guitar, piano, pedal steel guitar, trumpet, upright and bowed bass, melodica, vibraphone, timpani, drums, concert chimes and glockenspiel. And the results are stunning.
The film features the band backstage preparing for the big night and captures the entire show from start to finish, as it happened, including Everett kissing the spot where John Lennon once stood on the stage, making his way to hug fans all the way around Albert Hall’s massive floor, returning for several encores, as well as a surprise “phantom” encore where Everett’s dream of playing the massive Albert Hall pipe organ for some spooky EELS classics finally comes true.
Perhaps as a result of this fantastic show, EELS were quickly invited back for a second 2014 London show and Everett, once heavily bearded and mistakenly suspected by London police to be a terrorist (while taking a break from press interviews in Hyde Park), was made an honorary citizen of London in a ceremony granting him Freedom of the City.
EELS—ROYAL ALBERT HALL
Performed by E, The Chet, Royal Al, P-Boo and Knuckles
Directed by Charlie Lightening
Released by E Works/PIAS
EELS—ROYAL ALBERT HALL FILM/ALBUM TRACK LIST
SHOW
01 WHERE I’M AT
02 WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR
03 THE MORNING
04 PARALLELS
05 ADDRESSING THE ROYAL AUDIENCE
06 MANSIONS OF LOS FELIZ
07 MY TIMING IS OFF
08 A LINE IN THE DIRT
09 WHERE I’M FROM
10 IT’S A MOTHERFUCKER
11 LOCKDOWN HURRICANE
12 A DAISY THROUGH CONCRETE
13 INTRODUCING THE BAND
14 GRACE KELLY BLUES
15 FRESH FEELING
16 I LIKE BIRDS
17 MY BELOVED MONSTER
18 GENTLEMEN’S CHOICE
19 MISTAKES OF MY YOUTH/WONDERFUL, GLORIOUS
20 WHERE I’M GOING
Encore 1:
21 I LIKE THE WAY THIS IS GOING
22 BLINKING LIGHTS (FOR ME)
23 LAST STOP: THIS TOWN
Encore 2:
24 THE BEGINNING
25 CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE
26 TURN ON YOUR RADIO
Phantom Encore:
27 FLYSWATTER
28 THE SOUND OF FEAR