Eels – “Baby Loves Me” (Stereogum Premiere) The previously “Looking Up” appears toward the close of Eels’ Tomorrow Morning. The endlessly optimistic “Baby Loves Me” shows up toward the beginning, immediately following “Spectacular Girl.” No matter where things fall on the 14-track collection, E’s staying positive. As mentioned, the 14-song collection completes the trilogy that began with hairy Hombre Lobo and then moved to the downcast End Times. “Baby Loves Me” suggests a number of areas for sadness — his neighbors even hate his flowers — but as long as Everett’s lady loves him, he isn’t so worried. Eels – “Baby Loves Me” Tomorrow Morning is out 8/24 via E Works. Their Tomorrow Morning tour starts tonight. 08/03 – Santa Ana, California @ Galaxy Theater (warm-up show) 08/07 – Tokyo, Japan @ Summersonic Festival 08/08 – Osaka, Japan @ Summersonic Festival 08/13 – Brisbane, Australia @ The Tivoli 08/14  – Sydney, Australia @ The Enmore Theater

08/15 – Melbourne, Australia @ The Palace Theater 08/19  – Utrecht, Holland @ Tivoli 08/20 – Hasselt, Belgium @ Pukkelpop Festival 08/21 –  Staffordshire, UK @ V Festival 08/22 – Chelmsford, UK @ V Festival 08/24 – Glasgow, UK @ Academy 08/25 – Edinburgh, UK @ Picturehousehow to make sushi rice just hungry 08/26 – Birmingham, UK @ Academywhere can i buy sushi pillows 08/28 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Winterhur Festivalsushi kit buy online 08/29 – Paris, France @ Rock en Seine Festivalwhat to order at sushi seki

08/30  – Amsterdam, Holland @ Paradiso 08/31 – Amsterdam, Holland @ Paradiso 09/01 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy 09/03 – Dublin, Ireland @ Electric Picnic Festival 09/04 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 09/05 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg @ Den Atelier 09/06 – Groningen, Holland @ Oosterpoortcooking sushi rice water ratio 09/07 – Hamburg, Germany @ Grosse Freiheitsushi that delivery in toronto 09/08 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vegabuy sushi ingredients ireland 09/10 – Berlin, Germany @ Astra 09/11 – Munich, Germany @ TonHalle 09/12 – Vienna, Austria @ Arena 09/13 – Graz, Austria  @ Orpheum 09/14 – Hohenems, Austria @ Eventcenter

09/15 – Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz 09/17 – Barcelona, Spain @ Bikini 09/18 – Madrid, Spain  @ La Riviera 09/19 – Lisbon, Portugal  @ Coliseum 09/22 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live 09/23 – Richmond, VA @ The National Theater 09/24 – Boston, MA @ The Royale 09/25 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 09/26 -Washington, DC  @ 9:30 Club 09/28 – Montreal, Canada  @ Le National 09/29 – Toronto, Canada @ The Mod Club Theater 09/30  – Detroit, MI  @ The Crofoot Ballroom 10/01 – Chicago, IL @ The Metro 10/02 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Pabst Theater 10/03 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue 10/05 – Denver, CO  @ The Odgen Theater 10/06 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex 10/08 – Portland, OR  @ Roseland 10/09 – Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theater 10/11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore 10/12 – Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda TheaterA helping hand for baby eels Dexter Kennedy seems an unlikely conservationist.

A one-time fashion designer, full-time bushman, horse trainer and former manager of singer Bunny Walters, the Lake Rotorangi man is now the saviour of every Patea River eel. Each morning with his two dogs, Fatty and Zoo, he follows a track to the bottom of the Patea dam to check and empty an elver trap there. More often than not it is teeming. On the fourth day of our trip from Patea to Waitara by paddle he invited us along to see for ourselves what happens to these thousands of baby eels once he gets hold of them. "It's a satisfying job. There's lot of satisfaction to this," he said as he collected the 8cm long wriggly elvers from the trap. About 12,000 on this occasion. From the scoop net they go into a bucket, then into a van and to the lake, where they are released, fanning out in lines like those on a whisky drinker's nose. "I'm not sure how many I released all up last year but the year before it was more than 1.25 million. And then there are the hundreds of migrating eels going the other way," he said.

Even with Dexter's help to get past the dam, it is not an easy life for an elver in Lake Rotorangi. A little bigger than a whitebait but obviously eels, they look tasty even to a reporter not inclined to the snake-like beasts. To a hungry fish they might just look like Christmas. To make sure the ever hungry carp in Lake Rotorangi don't get them straight away, Dexter changes his release spot each day. It gives them a fighting chance to hide. "It's a tough world under the water there. Carp eat carp, eat the elvers, the big eels eat the small eels. It's tough," he said. Sounds like any office I have ever worked in, I thought, even before you take paper cuts into account. "Once the kids find out what I am doing they love it. They follow me down to the lake, ask if they can release them or even if they can help collect them, all for a lollipop or a piece of apple or something." But yesterday morning our help, which was minimal to say the least, was rewarded with a slap up breakfast of bacon, sausages, mushrooms and toast.