  eels (often typeset as eels or eels) is an american alternative rock band, formed in california in 1995 by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist mark oliver everett, better known as "e" (son of famous physicist hugh everett iii). band members have changed across the years, both in the studio and on stage, making everett the only official member for most of the band's work. often filled with themes about family, death and lost love, eels' music straddles a wide range of genres, which is evidenced by the distinct musical style of every album. since 1996, eels has made eleven major studio releases, the cautionary tales of mark oliver everett (2014) being their most recent release. eels appear on several film soundtracks, including scream 2, american beauty, road trip, holes, the anniversary party, knocked up, yes man, the end of violence, hellboy ii, hot fuzz, cirque du soleil: worlds away 3d, charlie bartlett, enough said, delivery man, and the first three shrek films. ==recording history== ===e solo records=== in 1992, polydor released a man called e under the name e. the single "hello cruel world" was a minor success. touring to support the album, e opened for tori amos. a man called e was followed by broken toy shop in 1993. this year also marked the beginning of e's collaboration with drummer jonathan "butch" norton. after broken toy shop, e was released from his record deal with polydor. e himself has recovered two of the songs ('the only thing i care about' and 'manchester girl') from broken toy shop for his own live shows with the eels. ===beautiful freak=== eels were officially founded when butch and e met tommy walter. the name "eels" was chosen so that the band's records would be close to e's solo records in an alphabetical ordering, although it was too late realized that numerous eagles and earth, wind and fire releases were in between.everett, mark oliver: [[things the g
1995_establishments_in_California Alternative_rock_groups_from_California American_indie_rock_groups Brit_Award_winners DreamWorks_Records_artists Eels_(band) Musical_collectives Musical_groups_established_in_1995 Musical_groups_from_Los_Angeles,_California Vagrant_Records_artists