Licenced To Eel
- 27 Nov 07, 10:28 AM
Many of you will be aware of an intense act called Eels. A fair amount of you may know that the core figure Matt ¡°E¡± Everett has used his music to document his sister¡¯s suicide and his mother¡¯s death from cancer.
His songs don¡¯t prettify the family story, but when he does grasp a sliver of optimism, you¡¯re cheering him all the way. Especially when you hear that his cousin was a flight attendant on a September 11 plane. Or that his bleak experiences had started with his father¡¯s fatal heart attack when Mark was only 19.
This latter relationship was covered in a ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½4 documentary last night, . Mark¡¯s dad Hugh Everett III was a loner in the family home, forever lost in scientific thought. We learn that the guy was actually a visionary in quantum mechanics, promoting the idea of parallel worlds for his 1957 dissertation at Princeton. And so we follow E on the trail of the man, taking in linear algebra, ¡°crazy laws¡± and double slit experiments.
There was much voyeurism as the boy unpacked Hugh¡¯s old notes and listened to Dictaphone messages from another century. While the dad expounds on cosmic issues, you can hear the young Matt playing drums in the basement.
¡°There¡¯s a little strain of crazy in the family¡±, he muses at one point. Near the close, when he¡¯s absorbing the information and sucking on a cigar, an almighty thunderclap interrupts the filming. Matt smiles. You couldn¡¯t have scripted any of this.
Stu Bailie presents The Late show on Radio Ulster, every Friday from 10pm until midnight. See his playlist here.
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