by Jason Ankeny
E was the alias of quirk-pop singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, born April 9, 1963 in Virginia. The 1971 death of his physicist father sent him into a prolonged tailspin, and after battling drug and alcohol problems throughout his teens, he dropped out of school and took a job pumping gas. Everett's interest in music eventually inspired him to turn to record reviewing, and from there he moved into engineering and production. Settling in California, he adopted the E moniker and began pursuing a solo career, debuting in 1992 with A Man Called (E), a collection of richly-textured yet poignantly fractured pop songs which drew heavily upon his own life experiences. Broken Toy Shop followed a year later, but despite good reviews, both records sold poorly, and E was dropped by his label, Polydor. He then formed the band the Eels, whose 1996 debut Beautiful Freak earned significant media exposure with its lead single, "Novacaine for the Soul"; however, on the eve of the album's release, Everett's sister committed suicide, and her death -- along with the subsequent cancer-related passing of his mother -- informed 1998's bleak Electro-Shock Blues. Daisies of the Galaxy followed two years later.