When the Eels initially came to the attention of the music-consuming public in 1996 with debut album Beautiful Freak, the alterna-explosion was, for the most part, still in effect. Meaning that hip-yet-accessible, melodic-but-with-twists, quirkysexycool songs could still get onto the radio and MTV, therefore shifting a few units. Meaning that the Eels were able to mount a substantial hit in the way of “Novocaine For The Soul” (which landed three MTV Video Music Award nominations as well) and have a none-too-shabby follow-up via “Your Lucky Day In Hell.” Often compared to the then-sound of boy wonder Beck, the album went on to win a Brit Award and no doubt would have done likewise with the Shortlist Awards, had they been in existence at the time.

The Eels didn’t come out of nowhere, however; mainman Mark Oliver Everett had already issued a pair of solo albums under his nom du rock E (actually a childhood nickname): 1992’s A Man Called E, which spawned its own moderate hit, “Hello Cruel World,” and 1993’s Broken Toy Shop. (Side trivia note: One of E’s chief collaborators on those albums was his Silverlake, Calif., neighbor Parthenon Huxley, who has issued a string of excellent pop records himself, both under his name and P.Hux; North Carolinians such as myself, however, remember Huxley from his Chapel Hill as Rick Miller, a.k.a. Rick Rock, and in fact Mr. Rock, also a rock scribe, was partly responsible for helping yours truly turn pro as a music journalist. So you can blame him.) For whatever reason, however, Everett felt the need to place his musical vision into the context of a real, live, recording and touring band that included him on guitar, keyboards and vocals; Butch on drums and vocals; and Tommy on bass and vocals.

Since Beautiful Freak, the Eels’ commercial fortunes haven’t been quite so notable; SoundScan figures reveal a slow-but-steady decline in sales for each successive studio album, a subject I attempted to bring up in my interview with Everett but which he quickly rebuked me for (see below), despite my “angle” being that, once the Eels were no longer the flavor of the month, the quality of the music itself began making some impressive artistic advances. To its credit, DreamWorks has kept the Eels on the label roster, an impressive display of faith in one of its most talented acts.

After two more studio albums—along the way there have also been two live releases sold exclusively via www.eelstheband.com—came the astounding 2002 album Souljacker, produced by John Parish. Its canny marriage of big-beat glam, brittle blues and baroque pop seemed the perfect rock fix to help cure the post-9/11 hangover, although a lot of people no doubt scratched their heads at Everett’s adopting a kind of Unabomber-chic visual look at the time. During this period, the Eels concentrated more on their overseas market than the American one (which by this stage had pretty much forgotten the group), but as you’ll read below, when the tour returned to home soil, a funny thing happened: the normally reclusive Everett suddenly began enjoying himself on the road. Newly energized, he took his Eels into the studio and quickly put together the material that became Shootenanny!.

Just a baker’s-dozen songs, all of ‘em damn tuneful. No concepts or angles a la 1998’s harrowing Electro-shock Blues or the cynically existentialist Souljacker. Although with Everett, there are always twists. Backed by most of the Souljacker players plus Lisa Germano on violin and vocals and a small horn section. Everett shunts between naked self-examination and arch character studies. In the former category: “Lone Wolf,” a strutting blues about accepting one’s personal foibles, and the positivity-inclined, orchestral bliss-pop of “Somebody Loves You.” In the latter: full-tilt powerpopper “Saturday Morning” revisits the feeling of being a kid waking up to a wide-open weekend, while on the mournful waltz “Restraining Order Blues” one whiffs pure heartbreak in the lines “Everybody knows that I’m not a violent man/Just someone who knows he’s in love.” And speaking of twists: the album title connotes an old-time hootenanny for a streetwise MTV generation—less dancing and joviality, more posturing and gunplay.

As a side note, Eels fans will no doubt want to pick up the soundtrack to the film Levity, recently issued by Pleximusic; it was scored by Everett (and is credited to Mark Oliver Everett) and contains mostly dreamy/ambient instrumentals but includes two new Eels songs. Also, the trip-hoppy “self-help rock” of Everett’s alter ego MC Honky is out now on the spinART label; I Am The Messiah is rap music for white folks and is good, almost clean, family fun. Actually, I can’t say with 100-percent verification that MC Honky is an alter ego, for during my conversation with Everett he steadfastly denied the assertion. Go to the Eels Web site mentioned above for more details and decide for yourself if MC Honky is in fact a 50-year-old studio veteran or just a very clever shtick. Meanwhile, the telephone is a-ringing. Everett spoke from France, where he was depressurizing after two weeks of European press.

MAGNET: Where are you calling from?
Everett: Paris. I just did my last European interview.

I understand that overseas interviews can be trying sometimes, particularly when the journalists fixate on “Americanisms” in the music or lyrics that you constantly have to explain.
Well, one thing I gotta stop doing is making album titles that no one understands outside my country.

Um, that makes Shootenanny! a prime candidate. Let me guess: You’re sick of the Shootenanny! question by now.
Man, I’m gonna go on a shootenanny if I have to explain that one more time to a foreign journalist.

I’ve read the bio so I’m down with the lingo.
Well, in America it’s easy because everyone knows the word “hootenanny.” But in Europe, no one knows that word, so “shootenanny” was a complete mystery to them.

Aside from the Replacements album title, I’m thinking that if we had a TV show like Hootenanny but more of a Shootenanny, its ratings might’ve gone through the roof.
I think it’s only a matter of time before that’s an MTV show. They gotta turn up the heat for Jackass, so it’ll be a combination of that, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Fear Factor.

Throw in some snuff-film fetishism into the reality show mix as well.
Yeah—you got a Shootenanny: MTV’s New Hit Series.

Your new bio, with the extensive Q&A with journalist Charles M. Young, pretty much hands the whole thing on a plate to the rest of us writers. [Note: Along with advance CDs of Shootenanny!, DreamWorks included a five-page Eels Q&A conducted by writer Charles M. Young in which Everett and Young painstakingly picked apart the lyrical themes for most of the album’s songs.] An unscrupulous sort—not me, of course—could simply paraphrase wholescale from that and not worry about doing the homework.
I would welcome that! It’s an artist’s dream, to give just one interview.

How about just recording the interview answers onto CD or album like they used to do for the radio DJs, who in turn get to sound like they’re doing this smooth, erudite interview?
An open-ended interview—yeah! That’s exactly what I should do! A great idea. No one does that anymore. We need more of it. I think I should do that.

Are journalists following the script, then, since it’s all there in the press kit? Or are they hammering you with questions they should already know the answers to?
It’s, um, tough, because in some countries like Germany, where I spent two days doing interviews, they apparently don’t have any sense of humor and take everything I say at face value. And if I am making a joke they don’t understand it and just take it verbatim as fact. They’re interesting people; I think they take all the energy they don’t use in having a sense of humor and put it into their deviant sex lives. And if I hear one more German journalist say [in exaggerated Euro voice], “Do you like Red Hot Chili Peppers?” Man ... [laughing]

OK, what’s the one recurring question I need to not ask in this interview?
The one question that I’ve been asked in every interview in my life, at least in Europe, is, they say, “Is songwriting like a therapy for you?”

Uh, OK. I’ll scratch questions 9, 9a and 9b off my list here.
[Laughing] So now that I’ve foolishly brought it up myself ... it is, yeah, on one level.

Well, it should be for any writer, musician, novelist or whoever.
Yeah, I mean, it is such an obvious thing.

Although I can see where that comes from, with album titles like Electro-shock Blues. And referring to what I said about following the script, I think we journalists sometimes adhere to the bio script just a little too closely and pick out the most obvious, and therefore laziest, angles.
That’s why I put all the answers into the bio, in case that’s what somebody wants to do. [laughs]

Yo La Tengo used to deliberately put disinformation into its bios.
I’ve learned that that can backfire.

Yeah, but they took great pride in seeing the falsehoods being regurgitated, sometimes near-verbatim, in the resulting reviews or concert previews.
Ah! I’ve built my career around that premise. I totally understand.

You have a very entertaining Web site as well. Are you actively involved with it?
Well, there are several capable people pulling strings, but I do, contrary to rumor, answer all the “Dear Uncle E” e-mail. I do all that. [Note: “Dear Uncle E” is a column wherein Everett dispenses advice on love, life, rock ‘n’ roll and metaphysics. Some physics, too.]

Uncle E’s column seems to dovetail somewhat into MC Honky’s so-called “self-help rock.” Is that a coincidence?
Yeah, well, that might be why I was interested in MC Honky, because of his thing for helping people. I have that, obviously. You know, you get older, and it’s time “to give back to the community.” The MC Honky project has turned out to be a real ... something.

Is MC Honky there now? Could you put him on the phone?
No, no, he’s not here! He’s in Los Angeles. [In serious voice] There has been a lot of misunderstanding about MC Honky, honestly. What happened was, you know, that record was made three years ago, and he didn’t want to put it out, didn’t want to be part of all the bullshit. He’s an older guy, like fiftysomething.