For Folk's Sake » Eels

A playlist for the end of the world

For Folk's Sake — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:21:21 +0000

The End of the World by John Martin

The ol’ playlisting ground to a resounding halt when Brian got himself into what can only be described as “a MASSIVE HUFF” over Spotify’s user-unfriendly changes. Huffing is terribly unattractive behaviour, (especially for one who considers himself to be wise), so we decided to just let him be for a while.

In the meantime, though, a nice chap* called Harold Camping has kindly pointed out that it’s the start of the end of the world tomorrow, so we’re not wasting another playlist-making moment.

And we’ve found some spangly new software that makes it EASY and means anyone can listen to it, Spotify user or not. We’re hoping Brian will be coaxed back, tail feathers between his birdy little legs.

So in celebration of tomorrow’s Rapture, here’s a playlist of our favourite songs about the end of the world. Enjoy!

*lunatic

Thanks our twitter pals for song suggestions: @awkwardellie @woodlandbear @leefli @antoniojl @cajitamusic @thomhoffman @martinchilton @bickbox @darrenmjones @theyannster @life_nerd @grouchotendency @brownie873 @lucy_shepherd @heart_of_a_dog @docnat @petiteesperance @drelfy @outroversion @L0Liveri @crosstheborder @sheena__is

News: EELS – world tour and free EP

Lynn Roberts — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:42:55 +0000

Good news for people who like good music. EELS are very selflessly spending their summer traipsing all over the world so folk like you and I will have a chance to see them play.

The band will be on the road from June to August on the Tremendous Dynamite tour, taking in Canada, the US and Europe as well as a couple of dates in China.

It sounds like frontman and mastermind, Mark Oliver Everett, is as excited as we are. He said: “We’re looking forward to playing in some of the places we weren’t able to get to last time and coming back to some of the places we couldn’t resist returning to. There will be lots of fun surprises for old and new fans alike. I can’t wait.”

Mr E et al will play headline shows in London, Brighton, Leeds and Newcastle and make appearances at Glastonbury, Oxegen, T in the Park and Latitude festivals.

UK & Irish dates:

June 26   Somerset, UK – Glastonbury Festival
July 6       Brighton, UK – The Dome
July 7       London, UK – Somerset House
July 9       Naas, Ireland – Oxegen Festival
July 10    Kinross, Scotland – T in the Park Festival
July 11    Newcastle, UK – O2 Academy
July 12, Leeds, UK – O2 Academy
July 17    Suffolk, UK – Latitude Festival

For tickets and more dates go here.

On top of the marvelous touring news, EELS are giving away a set of three songs, one from each of their most recent albums Hombre Lobo, End Times and Tomorrow Morning. Get it here:

PS Has everyone read Mr E’s book Things The Grandchildren Should Know? Cos you should. It’s really well written and entertaining.

Christmas show on London Fields Radio

Lynn Roberts — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 20:48:18 +0000

In all the Christmas album hoopla, I’d almost forgotten to tell y’all a bout our Christmas radio show. I recorded it last week in sludgey Hackney with Bitter Fingers presenter and generally nice chap Mark Higgins.

We delved into the world of Christmas music, with songs by Bob Dylan, EELS, Laura Marling and Dolly Parton, while Brian the-mixtape-making-owl presents his playlist ‘The Goose Is Getting Fat’.

Click below to listen. And Merry blimmin Christmas!

For Folk’s Sake, Vol. 2 by London Fields Radio on Mixcloud

Tracklist

The Beach Boys
Little Saint Nick

Sea Of Bees
Feliz Navidad

Sufjan Stevens
Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing

Laura Marling
Goodbye England

Eels
Christmas Is Going To The Dogs

Dolly Parton
I Believe In Santa Claus

Wise Children
I Saw Three Ships

Laura Hocking
I Am Christmas

Magnetic Fields
Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree

Rachel Sermanni
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Bob Dylan
Must Be Santa

Album: Eels – Tomorrow Morning

Helen True — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 19:37:11 +0000

Being a devoted Eels fan can be pretty hard on the heart. The bitter, lonesome, near-despairing End Times was the eighth album in Mark Oliver Everett’s discography, and bore witness to the tearing of sinew and bone that comes at the end of a marriage.

Tomorrow Morning is, in a sense, an antidote to its predecessor. This is a record that begins in a position of hope and celebration; evading the clutches of the melancholy that so often catch hold of Mr. E’s work. In this respect, it’s closer in DNA to Daisies of the Galaxy than the darker stuff of Electro-Shock Blues or Souljacker, and sounds a lot like spring after the bleakest of winters.

‘Looking Up’ is like a trip to a gospel church for humanists: all tambourines, chorus-claps and rambunctious keys. It’s camped up through synthesized vocals and witty rhymes, but a religious experience it remains.

‘What I Have to Offer’ is a gentle, hopeful stab at self-confidence, and is reminiscent of a therapy exercise. On offer in this particular session are: “good manners”, “good pay”, “a caring nature” and “a tender touch”. This is one modest fellow, and he’s bursting at the seams with love.

There’s something dangerously addictive about all this optimism: ‘I’m a Hummingbird’ suggests a life of shit that’s finally on the mend, but the unbounded joy of the ensuing tracks, especially the outpouring of love in ‘Spectacular Girl’ and the unabashedly exultant ‘Oh So Lovely’ dominate the mood of this album. For the Eels, it’s positively perky.

Tomorrow Morning is a welcome respite from the apocalyptic outcry of End Times, but it might have benefitted from a bit of shadow in the light – Eels do dark better than anything, and there’s so little shade in this particular album that you begin to feel the want of it. Not too much, mind: FFS anticipates the next chapter of the Eels story with unabated anticipation.

Brian’s Mixtape #37: Let The Sun Shine

Lynn Roberts — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:23:52 +0000

Brian’s been having a lovely time at festivals over the past few weeks, and basking in the baking hot sun. Now the weather’s turned and he’s staying in to nurse his burnt feathers (not one for the factor 50, our Brian. Silly owl) he’s put together a nostalgic playlist for summers past. So kick back, crank up your Spotify speakers and remember those lazy, hazy days.

Listen on Spotify

Eels – Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues – Butch ‘n’ Joey Remix
Elbow – One Day Like This
Au Revoir Simone – The Lucky One
Noah And The Whale – 5 Years Time
Beach House – Used To Be
Daryl Hall & John Oates – You Make My Dreams
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home
She & Him – In The Sun
Wintersleep – Weighty Ghost
The Smiths – Cemetry Gates
The Kinks – Sunny Afternoon
Wildbirds & Peacedrums – My Heart

Spotify is now freeeee. You can download it here for access to tons and tons of free music. FFS has just splashed out for Spotify Premium and sadly admits that you really do notice the difference in sound quality. Vandross and Jackson are a pair of filthy liars.

PS For those who can’t get Spotify, we’re trying out this new website, let us know if it is of any use to you: Listen on Playlistify.

Free Eels download, tour and album news

Lynn Roberts — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:34:28 +0000

Mark Oliver Everett’s Eels are offering a free download from their 2nd album in a year, Tomorrow Morning, due for release on 23 August.

The album is the third in the trilogy that began with Hombre Lobo and continued with last year’s End Times. Tomorrow Morning is described as “the brightest and most overtly uplifting work of the Eels’ career”.

Mr E said: “It’s a very electronic album — sounds normally associated with a kind of ‘colder’ music, but I wanted to make a warm album that was a celebration using electronic instruments to reflect joy in the times I live in.”

He continued:”These three albums were all meant to be part of a whole and I wanted them to come out close to each other,” says Everett. “I had a lot of time to work on music during the four year break that followed Blinking Lights and since then. After all that time revisiting the past in the book [Things the Grandchildren Should Know], documentary [Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives - a film about E's father, renowned theoretical physicist Hugh Everett] and retrospective collections, I was eager to get back to the present. But I don’t think we’re going to keep putting out a new album every six months. It was just the plan for these three. That’s it for now.”

Download Looking Up

The Eels are embarking on a world tour in August, including dates in London (Brixton Academy, 1 September), Dublin (Electric Picnic Festival, 3 September) and Manchester (Academy, 4 September).

Brian’s Mixtape #25: Hello, Sunshine

Brian — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:15:39 +0000

Every discerning folk fan’s foul of choice, Brian Wilson II, is pleased to announce that spring has most definitely sprung. He’s spent most of the morning being dragged around a meadow by a fresh-born lamb in whose fleece his talons became most unfortunately entangled, and yet his pleasure in the changing of the seasons remains unassuaged.

For that reason, this week’s playlist is quite the joy-fest. If you’ve just been dumped/fired/treated rather rudely by the young man who made your afternoon coffee, this’ll perk you up. Either that or the unbounded exuberance that spring inspires in Brian’ll annoy you so much you’ll want to stick daffodil stalks in your eyes.

Let’s hope for the former. Here’s the tracklisting, with the Spotify link below. Happy spring!

Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring
Monsters of Folk – Dear God (Sincerely M. O. F.)
Belle and Sebastian – Another Sunny Day
Adam Green – Bathing Birds
The Lovin’ Spoonful – Daydream
Erland and the Carnival – One Morning Fair
Efterklang – Natural Tune
Air – Cherry Blossom Girl
Emmy the Great – The Easter Parade
Fairport Convention – Chelsea Morning
Giant Cloud – Rainbows
Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard – Bugs & Flowers
Eels – Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues

Link: Brian’s Mixtape #25: Hello, Sunshine.

If you’ve not got yourself registered on Spotify have a look at their website to learn more. And, if you need an invite (so you can use Spotify for free) let uncle Brian know in the comments section below and he will bestow one on you.

Have a flap around our mixtape section to find Brian’s previous efforts.

Brian’s mixtape #24: Because We Want To

Brian — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:03:54 +0000

Readers, we’re a little worried. After his absence a couple of weeks ago, Brian’s been acting a bit strangely. He used to be such a lovely tidy, polite owl but now Brian’s stomping about like a petulant teenager, his roost is an absolute shambles and he’s taken to shouting “boring” whenever he loses interest in a conversation. Frankly, it’s alarming.

We think you’ll be able to see the change in Brian in this week’s mix. It’s thematically rather messy, and he’s chosen to call it “Because We Want To”. He’s stopped short of including Billie Piper’s 1998 atrocity of the same name though, thank goodness.

Despite Brian’s waywardness, he’s certainly not lost his wonderful taste in music. Every tune is a gem. FFS is going to be listening to this for a long time to come.

Stars – Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
Eels – Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)
Regina Spektor – Fidelity
Amadou & Mariam – Mouna
Joni Mitchell – Night In The City
Field Music – Them That Do Nothing
Belle and Sebastian – Roy Walker
Alela Diane – The Pirate’s Gospel
Band – Up On Cripple Creek
Jackson C. Frank – Blues Run The Game

And here it is in all its rebellious glory on Spotify (which Brian says should be renamed Spotif-awesome – he’s not good with puns…) Brian’s Mixtape #24: Because We Want To

Have a flap around our mixtape section to find Brian’s previous efforts.

Blog: New Eels album + video and free download

Lynn Roberts — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:59:41 +0000

Here at FFS we’re very excited about the new EELS album that plopped into our inbox last week. We’re loving it and we’ll get a review to you in the next few days.

The album is released on January 19th.

Here’s the video to the desperately sad In My Younger Days:

Download Little Bird mp3 from the official Eels website:

Brian’s Mixtape #19: The Goose is Getting Fat

Brian — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:57:00 +0000

The Christmas spirit is well and truly on Brian by now. He was already feeling pretty festive — eating mince pies for breakfast and mulling his acorn wine will all spice and cinnamon sticks — but then a wonderful thing happened today. Brian’s favourite Laura Marling‘s Christmas song was finally put onto Spotify, which means he can add it to his playlist and share it with you folk. He’s bloody delighted.

The folk crowd really are brill at Christmas songs, so Brian had a smorgasboard of riches to choose from. Brian’s loves the incredible harmonies in Sufjan‘s arrangement of ‘Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing’ from his wonderflul album Songs For Christmas. Lyrics-wise though, he thinks this mix peaks at “Baby Jesus: Born to Rock” declared by Mr E in ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas’.

So here is is folks. Gather your loved ones around, mull something up real nice, grab some stollen and listen to THIS:

Brian’s Mixtape #19: The Goose is Getting Fat

Laura Marling – Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)
Jona Lewie – Stop The Cavalry
Sufjan Stevens – Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
Low – Just Like Christmas
The Leisure Society – The Last Of The Melting Snow
Slow Club – Christmas TV
Mumford & Sons – Winter Winds
Eels – Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas
Iain Archer – Little Drummer Boy – Black Forest Version
Fiona Apple – Frosty The Snowman
Martha Wainwright – Rebel Jesus
Emmy The Great – Christmas In Prison
Aimee Mann – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

For Folk's Sake » Eels

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