License to Eel

Yeah, 'cause they're more interesting.

They're more interesting, and they've got a story to tell -- and they've got some character "built up." But "Bus Stop Boxer" was based on this recording engineer who made the mistake of telling me about his childhood while we were working on something. He had this really fucked-up childhood. His father was this monster who'd drive him and his brother up to random school-bus stops and say, "Okay, go out there and beat up that kid!" Like, Show me you're a man, little man!

You know, it struck me, listening to the record, that this is not the greatest time for songwriters, period -- people writing anything serious, much less funny. Am I right?

Yeah, definitely. The thing that's kept us afloat all this time is Europe and the rest of the world, because in America, it's a very small part of their day, if anyone even cares about music. Whereas in Europe, it's something that they reserve their day for; they've gotta eat, sleep, drink and enjoy art, or pop music or whatever. But in America it's all just about entertainment, obviously, and there are so many other ways to be entertained at this point. I'm playing a video game right now.

Pong?

Yeah, this great new game called Pong! You're gonna love it! It's like super Ping-Pong!

What would you like to say in praise of John Parish?

Well, we have a similar love for those sounds that make people get up and see if their stereo's broken. But he does something really unique that's hard to put into words; it's almost like you have to say about a song, "It's been John Parished."

Whose voice is that on "Hidden Track" on the bonus EP? It sounds like he's reciting a pastiche of newspaper ads.

That's Butch. And I'm glad you brought this up, 'cause this is one song that really needs explaining. We had a contest on our Web site [eelstheband.com] to name a B-side. And because our fans are these twisted, crazy people, they all sent in so many great, bizarre titles that we couldn't decide on one, so I, uh, kinda changed the rules to the contest and just used a hundred of the titles as the lyrics to a song.

So that's what those are.

That's what those are. I guess we should've put this in the liner notes. People must be thinking, "What the fuck was that?" I'm here to explain.