Quantum Physics and Indie Rock: The Parallel Worlds of Mark Oliver Everett

Back in April of ’08 I saw Eels perform at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater in San Francisco. The start time of 8 seemed too early to get there, but as there was no opening act listed I wasn’t quite sure what to do. So I decided to show up fairly early (for me), around 8:30, to make sure I didn’t miss anything if Eels decided to play an early set. As I entered the lobby I heard something inside that surely wasn’t music, and after wandering into the seating bowl and taking my chair it became apparent that a night at the movies was substituting for an opening band. But whatever was on the screen seemed more like an educational video for a junior college physics class than something that should be playing at a rock concert.

As it turns out, I was partially right. What I watched for the next hour or so was actually a BBC documentary (later aired as a NOVA program on PBS in the US) on one Hugh Everett, the father of Eels’ sole constituent member Mark Oliver Everett, AKA Mr. E. Turns out both father and son shared similar problems with esotericism; Mark in the world of music, and Hugh in the world of physics. The documentary, aptly titled Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, is a search, led by Mark, to discover the contributions his father made to quantum physics -- the introduction of the parallel universe theory -- as well as to learn things about, and find a connection with his father he never knew they shared. Asked how it must have felt for Hugh to come up with such a revolutionary theory and have his peers, the academic community, effectively sigh, E replies “Happens every time I put an album out.”

The focus of the documentary is largely to highlight the latent rising interest in Hugh and his work, and it’s not hard to draw similarities between that sort of under-appreciation and, well, most any indie rock band, but for anyone familiar with E’s back story, this sort of revelation has a particular pertinence. One of the common complaints about Eels is that their music isn’t exactly cheery, drawing from very personal and very tragic details of Mark’s life -- for those who don’t know, in brief: a reclusive father who died at the age of 51, a schizophrenic sister who committed suicide, and a mother who died of cancer -- but while overwrought calamity might be done to death in indie rock, if anyone has the resume to pull it off it would certainly be E.

So while Parallel Worlds is mostly about Hugh and his work, it also focuses heavily on the undertones of a son not just posthumously coming to terms with his father, but in many ways meeting the man for the first time. This is what makes the documentary worth watching, and what makes it particularly apt for Eels fans: in many ways Mark’s search for and finding of his father, along with Eels’ last album, Blinking Lights and Revelations, signify an end of an era for the band. For all the work E has done protecting his shtick, framing a picture of himself as the out-of-place “Railroad Man” who feels alienated from this time and in his own skin, it’s hard to keep that up once you’ve supposedly found some form of inner peace. Therefore, the fact that Eels’ new album, Hombre Lobo (12 Songs of Desire), evidences a newfound confidence and attitude is its most satisfying quality.

The album is very much what it advertises itself to be: 12 songs about wanting someone you haven’t got. And though it may seem paradoxical to talk about evoking confidence and forlorn love simultaneously, somehow, awkwardly enough, it all stumbles towards working. But perhaps that is the album’s major fault, that E’s songwriting hasn’t quite caught up to his new self image. While Eels’ lyrics have never been particularly poetic -- at times verging on uncomfortably straightforward -- doozies like “But now I found you and I know that we would be / So very happy if you could only see / That I was made for you, and you were made for me,” are all too prevalent on this record. Nonetheless, other tracks, such as opener “Prizefighter” do hint at renewed ego; though these may be songs about not getting the girl, at least here E sounds like he believes he deserves the girl.

However, in many ways the record is still vintage Eels, full of lo-fi blues riffs, clean-tone electric guitars backed by strings, and E’s signature croaking voice. In fact, it’s all too easy to draw stark similarities between songs from Hombre Lobo and others from just one album ago. Compare the following: “The Longing” = “The Suicide Life”, “Lilac Breeze” = “Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)”, and “Lilac Breeze” = “Going Fetal”. While E has always carried a distinct sound that he has more or less ridden throughout, now, seven studio albums and a couple ‘solo’ releases, if you caught his two-man-band live show last spring he’s proven that he’s a talented enough musician to diversify. Even if just a little bit.

There’s no denying that Mark Oliver Everett is something of a polarizing musician. You likely either find his shtick charming and unique or a classic example of hipster douchebaggery. But either way, I encourage you to watch the documentary, Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, if you ever manage to catch it on the outskirts of public broadcasting. Though it is admittedly a self-serving voyage, I for one found the story of a man who has had a legitimately hard life finding such a striking common ground with his father legitimately compelling, and only the most hardened cynics could deny that.

Though his new album at times trips over itself and suffers from the unfamiliarity and apprehension of beginning anew, it still harbors the same charm that has always made Mr. E such an interesting figure: the fact that he is, indeed, “no ordinary man.”