Pitchfork: Eels to Tour in Support of New Album

Hey European alt-pop fans, not enough tongue-in-cheek mopiness on your schedule this spring? Eels (no "the") are set to embark on an 18-date tour in support of their upcoming sixth studio album, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. But before you kids stock up on the Coors and start growing out the mullet again, the band's official website has promised a slightly different take on the typical Eels live show, as abbreviated frontman E discusses a more subdued, string section-totin' trek.

"The past few Eels tours had taken a physical and emotional toll on me. I decided it was time to stop. But then one night I was in the backyard smoking a cigar with Bobby, Jr. and I was thinking about how we've been pummeling the audiences with variations on a distorted, rocking theme for the past few tours and wouldn't it be nice to do something really different? So here we come again. If you're looking for rock-- turn back. You've come to the wrong place. This is a whole other thing."

"A whole other thing," he says? I don't know about you, but frankly, we're gobsmacked at the proposition! U.S. fans will have a brief 2-date taste of said "thing", as they will play a pair of mid-May "warm up" shows before the bulk of the tour gets rolling in Dublin a week later. Full dates:

05-11 Santa Ana, CA - Galaxy Theatre
05-12 Hollywood, CA - Roxy Theatre
05-18 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street
05-19 Birmingham, England - Butterworth Hall/ Warwick Arts Centre
05-20 Manchester, England - Bridgewater Hall
05-22 Glasgow, Scotland - Academy
05-23 London, England - Royal Festival Hall
05-24 Paris, France - Bataclan
05-26 Koln, Germany - Live Music Hall
05-27 Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royale
05-28 Groningen, Netherlands - De Oosterpoort
05-29 Rotterdam, Netherlands - Schouwburg
05-30 Utrecht, Netherlands - Vredenburg
06-01 Munich, Germany - Tonhalle
06-02 Zurich, Switzerland - Volkshaus
06-04 Berlin, Germany - Postbanhof
06-05 Hamburg, Germany - Kleine Musikhalle
06-07 Stockholm, Sweden - Sodratheater
06-08 Oslo, Norway - Cosmopolite
06-09 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega

As previously reported, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations is a 33-track monster (be sure to stock up on your Paxil), and features guest spots by Tom Waits, John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful, and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. This is the outfit's first LP since 2003's Shootenanny!, and will mark their debut for Vagrant Records when it hits stores on April 26. Tracks:

>> Disc 1:
01 Theme From Blinking Lights
02 From Which I Came/A Magic World
03 Son of a Bitch
04 Blinking Lights (For Me)
05 Trouble with Dreams
06 Marie Floating Over the Backyard
07 Suicide Life
08 In the Yard, Behind the Church
09 Railroad Man
10 The Other Shoe
11 Last Time We Spoke
12 Mother Mary
13 Going Fetal
14 Understanding Salesmen
15 Theme for a Pretty Girl That Makes You Believe God Exists
16 Checkout Blues
17 Blinking Lights (For You)

>> Disc 2:
01 Dust of Ages
02 Old Shit/New Shit
03 Bride of Theme from Blinking Lights
04 Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)
05 I'm Going to Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart
06 To Lick Your Boots
07 If You See Natalie
08 Sweet Li'l Thing
09 Dusk: A Peach in the Orchard
10 Whatever Happened to Soy Bomb
11 Ugly Love
12 God's Silence
13 Losing Streak
14 Last Days of My Bitter Heart
15 The Stars Shine in the Sky Tonight
16 Things the Grandchildren Should Know

And finally, Eels have also posted an exclusive 4-track EP on Apple's iTunes this month. The Hey Man EP features the Blinking Lights track "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)", as well as three previously unreleased ditties.

01 Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)
02 After the Operation
03 The Bright Side
04 Love of the Loveless (Live)