Conor Mullen Oberst (born February 15, 1980) is an indie singer best known for his work in Bright Eyes. He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos, Commander Venus and Park Ave.

Musical career

Timeline

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 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 that served as a Mecca for other musicians.

Oberst began his musical career at age 13 while attending 7th grade at St. Pius X. 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. [1] 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 Oberst's brother Justin on what they called Lumberjack Records, the very same indie label that would become Saddle Creek, 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.

Allegedly, Oberst quit the band shortly after their establishment, and was not allowed back in, despite his attempts to re-join. Todd Fink would later state in an interview, "He's always been a good songwriter, but it just wasn't a good fit. He was real sloppy and he would scream all the time when we would be sitting down and trying to play mellow music."[2] Contrary to the band's explanation of this, Oberst claims he was kicked out, although that did not stop them from touring with Conor as an opener during Bright Eyes' Digital Ash in a Digital Urn tour in 2005.

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.

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

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).

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.[3] 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.

Bright Eyes are touring beginning February of 2007, and just recently released Four Winds EP March 6,2007 and Cassadaga April 10,2007.

Desaparecidos

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.

Unnamed M. Ward Project.

After Positive touring with M. Ward during Bright Eyes' Lifted tour, the two had been seen playing on Letterman, and several other live shows. Pitchfork Media reported on November 27th, 2007 that Conor Oberst and M. Ward would start a yet-to-be-named band and perform two live shows. [[4]]

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, 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,^[1] 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."[5]

His biggest influences and favorite songwriters are local musicians David Dondero and Simon Joyner.[6] 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 in a few tracks on Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.

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

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

In bands

Trivia

• Oberst used to be a vegan and has supported PETA^[2]. He is now a pescetarian^{[citation needed]}.
• He was satirized in The Onion.^[3]
• My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way said in a recent Buzznet interview that Conor Oberst is important to the future of music. "His lyrics are phenomenal. I think he speaks for our generation. He started out as an angry young man from Omaha, Nebraska. From there he went out into the world and toured, and then that stuff crept into his lyrics, and now he's going back to being a little more human, with less social commentary. I love it all. He speaks to me." ^[4]

References

External links

• Saddle Creek Records official record label website
• Conor Oberst Tribute fansite
• The Story in the Soil fansite

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)