Pretty much any time a super group or musical collaboration is announced, I get giddy with anticipation, wholly waiting for my socks to be rocked off, but realistically, about 99% of the time, the project’s sum does not equal its far superior parts. And that’s too bad, because that 1% that nails it is something truly akin to approaching audio nirvana. The 2002 release of Home: Volume IV, the fourth in a series of collaborative EP’s put out by Post-Parlo Records during the 00’s, pairs Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst with Spoon’s Britt Daniel, and while that record never reaches the sublime as a whole, the EP’s closer, the Daniel-penned “Let the Distance Bring Us Together,” gets really damn close.
Recorded when both artists were still somewhat unknowns, and sounding like something of a Spoon castoff, a B-side that just didn’t quite make the cut, “Let the Distance Bring Us Together” is a stripped down and lo-fi pop nugget that feels like an intimate home recording made in an apartment living room by a group of friends. It begs for you to nod your head, to tap your foot, to clap along.
I was really into Bright Eyes for awhile in the '00s. My adulation of the group eventually waned after a few years, the 2007 track "Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed)" being the last song the band released that i truly adored. Soothing, melancholy alt-folk for the soul. Check it out below, our Daily Jam.
There was a time 20 years ago when i was the most devoted of Bright Eyes fans. Like most things, that's changed, my taste in music ebbing and flowing with whatever kind of niche sound feels most exciting at any given moment. But all these years later, and i still adore that era of the band, "Fevers and Mirrors" and "Lifted..." in particular. And going back and listening to them now is like a big ol' nostalgia bomb. Here's "The Center of The World," our Daily Jam.
There was a time about 20 years ago or so when the emo-tinged indie rock of Bright Eyes was one of my favorite things in the world. Right time right place kind of thing i suppose. Eventually, my tastes began to wander elsewhere, as did Conor Oberst's, his later projects never doing much for me. But now, it appears Bright Eyes is back on the scene, and i've gotta say, i'm digging the comeback single. Listen to "Persona Non Grata" below and dig on those bagpipes.
There was a time, almost 20 years ago, when i was a Bright Eyes devotee. For a couple of albums and EPs and then catching them perform as an opener for Stephen Malkmus, Oberst and Co. pretty much had me hanging on every word, as pretentious and melodramatic as they could sometimes be. And during that heyday, they recorded a Christmas album, called succinctly enough, "A Christmas Album." Check out their (his?) version of "Blue Christmas" below.
