Eels, “With Strings: Live at Town Hall”

The Los Angeles 90s-styled rock band Eels has recently released a best-of collection under the title, Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996-2006.

Despite its strength, the band has yet to top its most recent full-length record, With Strongs: Live at Town Hall.

In 2006, the multi-talented rock artist behind Eels, Mark Oliver Everette produced a remarkable success—combining a soft 90’s alternative sound similar to Cake, Weezer, and Beck.

Any yet, Everette’s decision to tour with a small string-ensemble made the album a masterpiece comparable to Nirvana’s Unplugged live album.

Here, Everette reinvents his previously released work, a majority from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, 2005, combining them to form an impressively well-written album.

Watch and listen to a clip from the album’s DVD documentary below, or listen to “Dirty Girl,” in a powerfully-sad performance by Everette.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xVTI1IozwtA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=urdKYYTLU74&feature=related

They’re Probably Drinking Right Now: “White Denim”

Rolling Stone recently featured this potentially-promising three-man garage band from Austin, Texas on its Breaking Artists page.

The band has yet to release a full-length album—currently offering its fans only one record, the EP Let’s Talk About It. The wild and semi-psychedelic trio owes this swift achievement to the experimentation done by Jimi Hendrix, the Stooges, and the White Stripes.

The punchy, free-styled guitar and bass riffs on singles, “Let’s Talk About it,”and “All You Really Have to Do,” although not entirely satisfying, have high points that distinguish them as a band we must keep an eye on. Notable are the verses in “Let’s Talk About It,” and the choruses in “All You Really Have to Do.”

Should the band learn to embrace a small amount cleaning-technique while preparing for their next record, we might find something truly special.

That said, such clarity might also expose White Denim as lacking the lyrical depth necessary to survive more than a handful of years in the popular media.

Check them out on their MySpace page at:

http://www.myspace.com/bopenglish

Lost in the 90’s: Jeff Buckley’s “Grace”

Rock fans today must live off a steady diet of the 90’s.

When Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic has lost it’s buzz, when Cake’s Nugget begins to irritate you because that, as long as your Pearl Jam records and 90’s rock radio-single collection needs a break, try Jeff Buckley.

Today Jeff Buckley is a true hidden treasure—overlooked after a sudden death that ended his career before it could begin.

Buckley performs the soul of 90’s rock. He is the melodic-grunge in Nirvana, the vocal talent of Bob Dylan, the innovative electric guitar that is Eddie Vedder. He is the next step in your career as a listener. He will hold your attention.

Grace, Buckley’s first and only studio album, is the next and perhaps final album for your essentials collection.

Discover “Grace,” Buckley’s first hit, and “Lover, You Should of Come Over”—two songs, two very-different moods, to make the 90’s plaid-shirted, long-haired, rock-enthusiast within you twist and sing out loud.

Listen to two of his songs on YouTube below.

“Grace”

“Lover, You Should of Come Over”

Read about him here in Rolling Stone, which nominated him as artist of the year in 1995