Eels

Eels is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995 by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett, famously known as "E". Operating primarily as a musical vehicle for Everett alongside a frequently rotating lineup of collaborators, the project became known for bridging off-kilter, eccentric pop melodies with deeply introspective lyrics. They surged into international prominence with their 1996 debut album Beautiful Freak, which yielded the alternative radio hit "Novocaine for the Soul" and won a BRIT Award. The band's early career was profoundly shaped by immense personal hardships in Everett's life, including the loss of his immediate family to illness and suicide, inspiring their starkly melancholic yet critically revered 1998 masterpiece Electro-Shock Blues.