Eels: Blinking Lights and Other Revelations

by Tim Grierson

Over the last 15 years, Mark Everett’s band, Eels, has released nine acclaimed albums, from Beautiful Freak to 2010’s Tomorrow Morning. Everett is also one of music’s most fascinating characters and Blinking Lights covers his unusual childhood, the tragedy of his sister’s suicide, his relationship with his brilliant mathematician father and his initial struggles to succeed in the music industry.

Genres: Nonfiction

328 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2012

About the author

Senior U.S. critic for Screen International and chief film critic for Paste, as well as contributing editor at Backstage and writer at The New Republic, Rolling Stone and The Wrap.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

22 Miles of hard road
33 Years of tough luck
44 Skulls buried in the ground
Crawling down through the muck
Oh yeah

[Sheldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a massive eels fan (seen them numerous times, met E before he headed into a soundcheck @ Glasgow where his stage manager took a terrible photo of us – this was pre camera phones so I never got to see the photo until it was developed many days later!) there is a ton of excellent interviews with folk that have worked closely with E over the years. E’s biography, Things The Grandchildren Should Know, is a brilliant read however he only very lightly touches up certain aspects of his music; most notably the production and relationships with band members i.e. Butch. Tim Grierson does not manage to get an interview with Butch here sadly (he mentions something about signing an NDA so couldn’t talk, sounds like an excuse to me and rather Butch didn’t want to dig up buried history) but we do have piles of revelations from other collaborators, whether it’s musicians or record label people. It’s brilliant that we are hearing from this people; I’ve followed eels from their Beautiful Freak album and compared to many other bands, especially those that have critical acclaim, the amount of information about production and their group has always been light. All of the interviews you will find elsewhere are with E, which is understandable as it’s his project, so we’re constantly been left with questions about line up (lost count of how many times I have been looking through new album notes and left with the question “that’s great but just who is Kool G/The Chet/ Pudding etc. etc.”) so the very fact that Grierson has got hands on quotes with a whole cast of people that have supported E’s vision for years is frankly wonderful for anyone who cares about the music of eels and have probably had these questions unanswered (even after reading E’s biography).

I read this book whilst listening to the specific albums that Grierson was talking about in the writing as I went along, it’s been a great excuse to go through the eels canon in chronological order. I bought this book in hardback when it first came out and was packed away for a house move and just never found it’s way out. When looking at other reviews of Blinking Lights and Other Revelations I am starting to think I read a different book. Sorry to Tim for taking so long to read it as it was a genuine pleasure to go through it.

[Clarissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of the music, including the early solo albums and MC Honky.

[York · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es bonito que la banda y Mark Everett por fin tenga una biografía propia por su proyecto musical, pero en verdad, tiene harto lugar común, Tim Grierson es muy mediano como escritor y la gran mayoría de puntos que aborda ya fueron relatados de manera entrañable por el propio Everett en Things The Grandchildren Should Know.

Esperemos que los futuros libros sean mejores...

[Alyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insights not gleaned through E's bio, but not the best writing and a little drawn out and repetitive in places