Eels mastermind Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, has not suffered a shortage of critical acclaim over the past fifteen years. A geek’s progress from a busted-up childhood to a kind of resigned, bloodstained wisdom. Eels began life as another offbeat college rock band but have become a fascinating, flexible vehicle for Everett’s strengths as a perversely uplifting songwriter. E’s twisted tales of disappointment, death and the occasional horrors of everyday life are constantly reaching new emotional depths. At 19, E found his father dead. His troubled sister, Elizabeth, committed suicide shortly afterwards and his mother was terminally ill with lung cancer. That was his entire family. He ultimately decided he could not ignore these things artistically. So he set about to write and record and deal with the tragedies in his life, only to offer himself a new point of view, and a positive resolution. Eels’ ninth album, Tomorrow Morning, is out now. Live – fronting a 5-piece rock band – E is proving he’s one of America’s finest musical treasures. No kidding.