Conor Oberst's prolific indie rock project that grew from Omaha bedroom tapes into a nationally celebrated songwriting force.
MOODS · introspective · confessional · literary · melancholic · folk-rooted · orchestral swells · lo-fi beginnings · wistful · earnest · shifting styles · bittersweet · restless
BIOGRAPHY
Conor Oberst founded Bright Eyes after his first band, Commander Venus, disbanded in 1997. In 1998 he compiled early home recordings into the debut album A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997. The project grew to include multi-instrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis and arranger/composer Nate Walcott, alongside a rotating cast of collaborators from Omaha's indie music scene.
With 2002's Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, Bright Eyes drew national attention, with The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Time and Spin naming Oberst a significant new artist. In January 2005 the band simultaneously released the folk-leaning I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and the electronic Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. Cassadaga later became their highest-charting album, and Rolling Stone named Oberst Best Songwriter of 2008. Albums arrived through Saddle Creek Records from 1998 to 2011; the band returned in 2020 on Dead Oceans and released Five Dice, All Threes in 2024.
WHY THEY'RE COOL
Bright Eyes is the vehicle for one of indie rock's most restless songwriting careers, moving from scrappy four-track folk to orchestral arrangements and electronic experiments without losing its confessional core. The band's dual 2005 release of the acoustic I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning alongside the glitchy Digital Ash in a Digital Urn showed a willingness to pursue opposite sonic directions at once, a gambit that press outlets like The New York Times and Rolling Stone singled out as evidence of Conor Oberst's range. Two decades on, the group's return with Five Dice, All Threes in 2024 extended a catalog built on constant reinvention rather than repetition.
GEORGE'S PLAYS
First time on the station.
PLAYED ON WOKE1
