Conor Oberst

Conor Oberst

Conor Mullen Oberst (born February 15, 1980) is an American songwriter, singer, poet, best known for his work in Bright Eyes. He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos, Norman Bailer, Commander Venus, Park Ave., and his newest project Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.

Early years

Oberst was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born to Matthew Oberst, Sr., an information manager for Mutual of Omaha, and Nancy Oberst, an inner-city elementary school principal. He grew up with two older brothers, Justin Oberst, a lawyer, and Matthew Oberst, Jr., a teacher, and part time musician best known for his band Sorry About Dresden. Oberst's mother claims that he was banging on a piano since he was two years old. Besides his brother Matt, Oberst's father was also a musician who played guitar and piano for various cover bands in his youth, and together they began teaching Conor to play guitar at the age of 10. By the time he knew only two chords, he was already writing songs. Around that time, he also found the Antiquarium, a record store in Omaha.

Musical career

Oberst began his musical career at age 13 while attending 7th grade at St. Pius X/ St. Leo School. He was in the showchoir and other musical groups at the school. One night in 1992, Ted Stevens (of Mayday and Cursive) invited Oberst onstage to close his set. Bill Hoover, who was in attendance, invited Oberst to come back to play with him a couple of weeks later. In that short amount of time, Oberst wrote enough songs to fill out the set, establishing himself as a songwriter and performer. Shortly thereafter, Oberst began committing his new repertoire to tape in his parents' basement with his father's four track cassette recorder and an acoustic guitar.

In mid-1993, Oberst self-released his debut album Water on cassette tape. The release of the album was financed by his brother Justin on what they called Lumberjack Records, the indie label that would become Saddle Creek Records, making them founders and present day executives of the label.

Shortly after his two solo recordings, Oberst began playing with Tim Kasher (of Cursive and The Good Life), Robb Nansel and Todd Fink (of The Faint). The four formed Commander Venus in mid-1995.

Here's to Special Treatment was followed by 1996's The Soundtrack to My Movie, a cassette only released on Sing Eunuchs!. Kill the Monster Before It Eats Baby, a split 7" vinyl with Bill Hoover, was also released around this time.

Norman Bailer (The Faint)

In 1994, following a Slowdown Virginia show, Oberst, along with friends Joel Petersen, Todd Fink (formerly Todd Baechle) and Clark Baechle, formed a band called Norman Bailer, later known as The Faint. A few days later, Oberst told the other members of the band that they had a show in two weeks at Kilgore's. Despite having never performed together, they managed to produce nine songs to perform. These songs were more oriented towards light rock, rather than the then-popular aggressive rock.

Commander Venus

Main article: Commander Venus

Oberst formed the rock band Commander Venus in 1994 with Tim Kasher, Todd Baechle and Robb Nansel. Kasher later went on to form Cursive, Baechle became the vocalist for The Faint and Nansel was the co-founder of Saddle Creek Records. Comparisons to The Pixies and Sunny Day Real Estate were often made. They recorded two albums: Do You Feel at Home? (1995) and The Uneventful Vacation. The latter is considered by many to be a seminal work in the emo genre. Kasher left the group as they were about to go in to the studio to record their second album, and was replaced by Ben Armstrong. In 1998, just as the band was beginning to receive some attention, Commander Venus broke up.

The Magnetas

Main article: The Magnetas

The Magnetas were only active for a very brief period of time in 1996 in Omaha, Nebraska. Along with Oberst, band members included Todd Fink (The Faint) and Chris Hughes (Beep Beep). They recorded three songs, only one of which (Anex Anex) was released on Ghostmeat Records' Parts compilation album.

Park Ave.

Main article: Park Ave.

In January 1996, Oberst began flexing his multi-instrumentalism by playing drums in a group named Park Ave., alongside Baechle, Jenn Bernard, Neely Jenkins (now in the band Tilly and the Wall), and Jamie Williams (also in Tilly and the Wall). Although Conor and Clark were both in their early teens, the rest of the band was well in to their college years. The group only played between 10 and 15 shows and made a handful of recordings (several of them with Mike Mogis as producer). The group disbanded in 1998 when Williams, the singer and primary songwriter, moved to London, England. In 1999, Urinine Records released their only album, When Jamie Went to London...We Broke Up, which has also now been re-released under Team Love.

Bright Eyes

Main article: Bright Eyes (band)

Bright Eyes at Kulturmejeriet in Lund, Sweden. July 16, 2005

Oberst's television performances with Bright Eyes have included a spot on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where he performed "When the President Talks to God" in May 2005. The performance drew notice for the song's political overtones. Oberst has also appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, where he performed "Trees Get Wheeled Away" , and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, where he sang "Road to Joy" (which included an abrupt smashing of instruments and an interview with Conor Oberst promoting the bands two new CD's: Digital Ash in a Digital Urn,and I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning).

Aside from his Tonight Show performance, Oberst has made other political statements as a band member of Bright Eyes along with fellow band member Mike Mogis. A longtime opponent of Clear Channel, Oberst in September 2005 cancelled a show the band was scheduled to play at The Pageant in St. Louis due to the venue's ties with the media giant. Before the last presidential election, he took Bright Eyes on the road with Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. as part of the "Vote for Change" tour in 2004.

Desaparecidos

Main article: Desaparecidos (band)

Oberst was a guitarist and singer for Desaparecidos. The music and lyrics of Desaparecidos differ greatly from Bright Eyes, having more in common with punk rock than Oberst's usual folk rock. The lyrics are generally social commentary on the state of affairs in America and the pitfalls of suburban lifestyle, as opposed to the more introspective lyrics of Bright Eyes.

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

Main article: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

In November 2007, it was reported that Oberst would work on a solo record with Jake Bellows, and that he and M. Ward would start a band and perform two late December shows in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Contrary to what was believed, the shows were not played with M. Ward, but rather with Nik Freitas and Jason Boesel. They played 13 new songs and 3 Bright Eyes songs. They also played a show in February in Mexico City, Mexico.

On March 31st 2008, it was announced that Conor Oberst will be playing at the 2008 Reading and Leeds Festivals. In addition, he will also be performing at the Electric Picnic, in County Laois, Ireland on August 31st 2008, Austin City Limits in late September 2008 and shows accross Australia in early October 2008.

Conor Oberst released the self titled album Conor Oberst, which was recorded in Mexico City with Taylor Hollingsworth on guitar and Macey Taylor on bass, on August 5th, '08 on Merge Records.

Songwriting

Oberst is known for the diversity of his work, and has been compared to Bob Dylan and related artists. He prefers immediacy over perfection and continually constructs verses rather than repeat hooks or write them down, feeling that his songs are never completed.

Oberst has written poetry and many short stories in addition to songs, but has not published any due to lack of devotion and confidence, preferring to stick to his songwriting abilities. He was recently named the best songwriter of 2008 by Rolling Stone magazine.

Saddle Creek and Team Love

Oberst is one of the founding members of the independent record label Saddle Creek Records, which hosts and has hosted bands including Cursive, Desaparecidos, The Faint (who left to start their own label Blank.wav), Rilo Kiley (who left to start their own label Brute/Beaute Records), Bright Eyes, Two Gallants, Son Ambulance, Azure Ray, The Good Life, Sorry About Dresden, among others.

Oberst founded the Team Love record label to "do different things, or smaller things, that we couldn't get everyone to be into at the same time" at Saddle Creek, such as Tilly and the Wall, and Jenny Lewis' solo album with The Watson Twins.

Influences

Oberst was drawn to music at a very early age, due in part to his older brother's penchant for bands like The Cure. He has cited their first singles collection, Staring at the Sea, as the first record he ever bought, as well as being one of his favorites. "It must have been third grade...I bought the cassette at a local record store chain called Homer's in Omaha. I just loved the sound of Robert Smith's voice. It just sounded good." At a live concert at the Red Rocks venue in Denver, Colorado Oberst stated that Alec Newby (of St. Louis, Missouri) sounded exactly like him and was the inspiration to a lot of his music. Source: (truefacts.org) Some of his biggest influences and favorite songwriters are local musicians David Dondero and Simon Joyner. Joyner wrote the song "Burn Rubber", which Bright Eyes covered on the "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)" single. The two used to do mini-tours together, usually on weekends due to Joyner having a family.

Oberst has also been heavily influenced by the 1960s folk revival, mentioning Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and country singers Emmylou Harris and Townes Van Zandt. He covered Neil Young's "Out on the Weekend", collaborating with Jim James and M. Ward in concert. Harris sang on a few tracks on Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.

Oberst was also greatly influenced by Daniel Johnston. A cover of "Devil Town" is featured on Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998-2005).

=FUCK YOU

Discography

As Conor Oberst

Title	Year	Label	Format(s)	Notes
Water	1993	Lumberjack	cassette
Here's to Special Treatment	1994	Sing, Eunuchs!	cassette
The Soundtrack to My Movie	1996	Sing, Eunuchs!	cassette
Kill the Monster Before It Eats Baby	1996	Sing, Eunuchs!	7"	Split EP with Bill Hoover
Conor Oberst	2008	Merge Records	cd, vinyl

Further information: List of songs with Conor Oberst

In bands

Further information: Bright Eyes discography

Further information: Commander Venus § Discography

Further information: Desaparecidos (band) § Discography

Further information: Park Ave. § Discography

Guest work

• Criteria - En Garde (2003)
• Cursive - The Ugly Organ (2003)
• Mayday - Old Blood (2002)
• Son, Ambulance - Key (2004, Saddle Creek Records)

External links

• Team Love Records
• Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
• Saddle Creek Records
• Conor Oberst in the Yahoo! Directory

Interviews

• New York Magazine: Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst Finds Inspiration in New York (01.07.05)
• NPR: A Chat with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes (01.14.05)
• Huffington Post: Conor Oberst on Politics, The Presidency, and Purple States (06.26.08)