Eels - Rags to Rags

And one day I'll come through my American Dream

But it won't mean a fuckin' thing

The Eels are a band I found out about sort of randomly. I won't get into the details of it but my friend named them while playing a game and neither of us were sure if such a band even existed. He was a little more certain than I was. In fact, I was sure they didn't exist. The next day he proved it to me via, I believe, a link to their Last.fm page. Anyway, I ended up listening to their debut album, Beautiful Freak, and enjoyed it. Moral of the story: there isn't one!

Mark Oliver Everett, better known as simply "E," is the mastermind behind the Eels. His story, at first, sounds like something we've heard before. He grew up tinkering with the instruments in his home and developed a love for music thanks to his sister's record collection. However, E has had a life filled with several tragedies. His father died while he was a teenager, which only further fueled his already "troubled" life. After releasing Beautiful Freak, both his sister and mother died.

Despite these unfortunate circumstances, E continued to write music and has released several LPs. The Eels songs also comprise most of the soundtrack to Jim Carrey's Yes Man. As a matter of fact, their songs appear on a lot of soundtracks including all three Shrek movies, American Beauty, Hot Fuzz, Hell Boy II, etc. "Rags to Rags" is a great number reminiscent of '90s alt rock because that is, in fact, what it is.

Favourite Part: When the music pauses around 2:43 and the drums and electric guitar come crashing back down.