conor_oberst_bright_eyes frAnk conor oberst, the hard playing guitar strumming boy with the wailing, heart-crunching voice behind the band bright eyes is like the indie equivalent to the film-maker, paul thomas anderson. his records are works of genius, but splattered with ego, massive undertakings that run borderline to becoming pop-cultural hubris. essentially, it's bloodletting a bleeding heart, then throwing in the musical similarity of raining frogs into the event, right out of the film, "magnolia." when he came on to the scene in '99 with the record, "letting off the happiness," lyrics like,"i give myself three days to feel better or else. i swear i'm driving off a fucking cliff because i can't make myself feel better, then how can i expect anyone else to give a shit," revealed him as a spokesperson for his troubled generation and he gained the same kind of underground following from his infatuated fans that dashboard confessional's carraba does. on the next record, "fevers and mirrors," oberst started experimenting with spooky field recordings, answering machine messages, performance art faux rock radio interviews and a lot of yelling and it sounds like he believed in it. it was fucking greatness. and the new record, "lifted, or the story is in the soil, keep your ear to the ground," portrays bright eyes as profound and utterly magnificent, capturing the attention of rolling stone magazine. using a veritable orchestra of players, oberst combines the gimmickry and audio-fidelity games with his blackened heart. "and i know what must change. fuck my face. fuck my name. they are brief and false advertisements for a soul i don't have. something true i have lacked and spent my whole life trying to make up for." 020922 ... silentbob i read about bright eyes on the internet and requested a friend burn me some things. word of mouth. i told all my friends about it. my friends danny and jesse in particular like it now even more than i do. maybe thats why i stopped liking it. i would listen to conor's voice and i realized i couldn't listen anymore. it isn't something i can just put in and have as background music. its complicated and depressing. not something i want to really fill my life with all the time. chris carabba says his music doesn't hold a candle to bright eyes. conor is like... dashboard with self mutilation scars. 020922 ... paste! i had a chance to meet him in february after a show at the nearby hotel/bar he was staying at and i said something like "hey conor, thanks for putting out some quality stuff, it's really been shaping my life" or something nervous silly like that and he smiled and said "thanks" and looked down at the ground. he was really shy in person but during his sets he played his heart out. i haven't gotten into lifted yet but i'm still really curious to watch his career unfold. he put his first album out when he was 14(!) in commander venus (a band which featured fellow omahan, tim kasher, of 'cursive' and 'the good life'; he's got a voice like the indie version of robert smith.). it's insane how much range of life oberst has to display within his music. the guy is an absolute prodigy -- he's our generation's dylan. 020922 ... silentbob yeah danny said he was talking to a record store guy and he said, "He kind of reminds me of the cure--" and the guy said, "No." Danny awkwardly said, "He-- he just reminds ME of--" "No." people are dumb. 020922 ... daxle HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I would do that then I'd act all serious and sorry when they got all upset and say "no really, what were you saying?" and they's start and I'd do it again 020922 ... silentbob oh my god, you made me laugh really hard. that sounds like something i would do as a joke. but i'd be laughing too hard 020922 ... GirlNamedLover but once you knew a girl and you named her Lover danced with her in kitchens through the greenest summer but autumn came, she dissapeared, you cant remember where she said she was going to but you know that she's gone cause she left you a song that you dont want to sing 020923 ... sweetheart of the song tra bong featured player in emo_game 020930 ... squint likes bright eyes youaremysunshine my only s u n s h i n e you make me happy so fuckin happy when skies are g r a y. 020930 ... squint has a heart of glass hate to ruin this but. I think i fucked that last quote up. I'm listening to blondie and its so distracting. arghihvkdnlkn 020930 ... blamethesky i'm sorry but the fact that he has a slight lisp is so fucking hot 020930 ... ilovepatsajak yes it is! 020930 ... GirlNamedLover and I hang like a star fuckin glow in the dark for the starving eyes to see 020930 ... girl_jane His music is the only music that's ever made me really want to cry after ripping out my burning, acidy stomach with its ulcers and saving it in a jar and naming it Amber. My eyes did water...I'm addicted. 021222 ... hott4scott he is WONDERFuLLL...his songs truly touch me..you can FEEL his voice in your heart and throughout your whole body...it's increeedible! It's truly like he's singing to you.. 3 conor! 030731 ... silentbob in reference to what i said earlier about disliking bright_eyes after i heard Lifted i liked some songs off it, and listened more and kept listening and now i can listen to everything and enjoy. my brain works in stupid ways. 030801 ... crimson Oh my. He is BRILLIANT. I can't even verbalize it. His trembling, emotional voice rips me open and fills me up up up with beautiful, desirable words. 031001 ... misstree you know, i've read both this and the conor_oberst page, and i *still* have no idea what his stuff sounds like, except that it's depressing, he's got a good voice, and he sounds a little like robert smith but not really. throw me a bone, here, the last time i downloaded stuff that was this lauded hereabouts i ended up with crappy emo. (no offense to anyone who likes emo; that's another one that's not my cup of tea.) 031001 ... Syrope hmm the way i got one of my friends to stop thinking they were horrible was to send them "a perfect sonnet", "haligh, haligh...", and "no lies, just love" ...apparently "kathy with a k..." - the first one i ever heard after seeing the lyrics posted on here (thanks silentbob!) - was too much for them :)...but after a while they learn to love all of it 031002 ... silentbob which is funny, because kathy with a k's song was too much for me when i first heard it too. i grew to love it though. you have to get used to it. misstree: its likely you got the right band, and the right song and everything, and still thought it was crappy emo. I know a lot of people who hate them for this reason. The rest of the people hate him for being a cocky asshole who doesn't say no to interviews with girlie magazies, like SEVENTEEN. If i was in a band, i wouldn't say no either... and i doubt any one of those people who hates him for this reason would either. 031002 ... misstree actually, it wasn't conor_oberst that i downloaded, it was, "the s..." something. i dunno but the fact that the issue was easily confused warns me not to grab more than a song or two, get a sample before signing away some drive space. 031002 ... girl_jane Kathy with a K was one of my favorites when I first heard Bright Eyes... 031002 ... .lauren can't stand listening to him unless i am horribly sad. then i don't want to hear anything else. 040812 ... silentbob for me its not sadness, just in the mood to appreciate lyrics and music, especially when i want to sing along 040812 ... mippy moo moo i first heard of bright eyes about a year and a half ago, and have only heard em on radioiorock i found this website through my search to learn more anyone kno of the slats? or well anyway. i havent bought a cd r anything, but i think i would like to yea 040911 what's it to you? who go blather from