MP3: E (of Eels) Solo Career Rarities Compilation

Okay I posted something about this bootleg earlier on Drowned In Sound, and so I don't have to retype it, here's my message. Please excuse the spelling/grammar/general spontaneity:

i sort of miss the non-internet world of music fandom. i remember a time when i really savoured reading an interview, when i counted down the days to hear a bands new bsides, when there were totally obscure songs that were released 10 years ago and that were amazing when you finally heard them. i miss tape trading!

nowadays being able to hear every song a band ever recorded within seconds and read a thousand interviews and see every picture and video takes away a lot of the fun from the hunt, also from the mystery of certain bands. certain bands used to have an aura around them, and now its removed by the overabundance of media and access. you can't really preserve an aura of mystery if you can read the daily blog of a singer/musician.

so anyway this post came about because i tracked down, ironically in mp3, a copy of an Eels tape i used to have years ago. eels were one of the first bands i ever got into it. i bought beautiful freak on the day of release and it touched me in a way that a record never had before. i had every bside and was amazed to hear the E solo albums. so anyway i somehow got in touch with a dutch guy who had about 20 eels tapes and he slowly sent them to me. one of them was a compilation of radio sessions and rarities from the E solo years. tons of live tracks, demos, outtakes, rarities. i couldnt believe this stuff existed, and it let me into a new world of tape trading, and it also let me feel closer to an artist who i felt a real affinity with as a typically depressed lonely teenager (emo). i'm listening to it now and the nostalgia is uberbig, but its also kind of sad because i dont feel lke its really possible to have such a close feeling of connection with a band or artist now that access is so easy and now that you get the idea that everyone can have the same access. fandom feels devalued. i MISS stinking record fairs and paying £7 for a copy of idlewild - film for the future on cd single to hear mince showercap part 1.

So here is the aforementioned bootleg. I listened to it all today, and it remains one of my favourite bootlegs ever, and one of the best insights into the spotted beginnings of a musical career that i've heard. It is available on the Eels FTP, but as some people are still too ludditish to use that, I thought i'd stick it up here for them. Hope you like it!

E - 01 Intro (KFOG 104.5)
E - 02 Angel (Madonna cover)
E - 03 Shine It All On (KFOG 104.5)
E - 04 Broken Toy Shop Radio Ad
E - 05 Live chatter, Tim
E - 06 Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas (live)
E - 07 Live Nonsense #1 (live Salt Lake City)
E - 08 The Only Thing I Cared About (live)
E - 09 A Man Called E Intro (live Salt Lake City)
E - 10 Ooh Child (Fairfield cover)
E - 11 Live Nonsense #2 (live Salt Lake City)
E - 12 Manchester Girl (live)
E - 13 Butch Fucking Up (outtake)
E - 14 Mrs Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter (Monkees cover)
E - 15 Woah There's A Mouse (outtake)
E - 16 I'm Only Sleeping (live)
E - 17 I've Been Kicked Around (outtake)
E - 18 Nowheresville (outtake #1)
E - 19 Nowheresville (outtake #2)
E - 20 Nowheresville (outtake #3)
E - 21 Nowheresville (acoustic)
E - 22 Screw-up (outtake)
E - 23 Sweet Home Alabama (live)
E - 24 Freebird & Strawberry Fields Forever (live)
E - 25 The Great Pretender
E - 26 Strawberry Blonde
E - 27 Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas
E - 28 Jeniffer Eccles (Hollies cover)
E - 29 Sorry Suzanne (Hollies cover with Jon Brion)
E - 30 Friends (Elton John cover)