Monster Of The Week: Conor Oberst
Admittedly, after we heard about those obviously horrible shootings in Omaha last week, our first thoughts -- beyond the weird realization that the 19-year old killer, Robert A. Hawkins, looked a lot like a young Lou Barlow -- is that it happened in Saddle Creek's stomping grounds. For better or for worse, for a lot of indie rock fans not from the area, Conor Oberst is the person who comes to mind when someone mentions Omaha (You mention Nebraska, it's Springsteen). This is shortsighted and whatever, but hey.
Perhaps moving along those lines, over at the Radar blog, journalist Tyler Gray crowns Oberst "the frog prince of the emo movement" then declares him "Monster Of The Week," linking his lyrics to the Hawkins shootings. This, of course, after setting it all up via Marilyn Manson's response to Columbine:
I once interviewed Marilyn Manson about being associated with the massacres at Columbine High School and the murderous teens who later inspired Gus Van Sant to do that movie with that Kurt Cobain lookalike who gives older homosexual gentlemen special feelings. What would he say to the kids who survived the Columbine massacre? I asked Manson. "I wouldn't say anything," he answered. "I would listen. If we were listening, it would have never happened." (He recycled the line two years later in Bowling for Columbine).Then it gets all WTF on us.
In the wake of Wednesday's massacre that left nine dead (including the 19-year-old shooter himself, Robert A. Hawkins) in Omaha, Nebraska, it's time to ask that question again. But not of Manson. I'm looking squarely at the frog prince of the emo movement, Conor Oberst.Yeah, he's no Jonathan Swift. This is pretty weak satire ... feels a lot like a Sasha Frere-Jones-style attempt to up readership. Or maybe he's being serious? Hence the WTF. Why not admire Conor's recent hair growth while you decide.He and his band Bright Eyes and record label Saddle Creek were conceived in Omaha's seething, angst-rich Petri dish. He put the burgh on the pop culture map with minor-key mopers and lyrics like:
Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned buildingAre we to believe that the man who single-handedly masterminded the hormones-and-Zoloft cocktail that is emo bears no responsibility in this latest example of adolescent anger-turned-deadly? Bad poetry and asymmetric haircuts can only contain an artful young man's angst for so long. He will escalate. Or, as you so eloquently put it, Conor: "A heart just can't contain all of that empty space. It breaks. It breaks. It breaks."
I wanted to ask Oberst how he feels hearing loaded words like "troubled" and "angst"—his calling cards—associated with shooter Hawkins and whether he feels like he's Nebraska's version of a Columbine scapegoat. (Also, whether he's been asked to play Hawkins in Van Sant's sure-to-be-forthcoming movie about the massacre). But his reps said he wouldn't be available. So, Conor Oberst, you just earned a spot as our inaugural Monster of the Week. Upshot: Marilyn Manson is totally free for collabs. Call me if you want his digits.
Posted at 10:35 AM
Tags: Bright Eyes | Conor Oberst
That might have been the dumbest thing I've ever read.
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Seriously WTF. A cursory glance at the shooter's ipod places the blame squarely on 311.
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I don't see what geography has to do with it. If some kid in Philadelphia blasts up a shopping mall, we don't blame Beanie Siegel. Anybody who thinks pop/indie culture is to blame for an individual's psychosis has quite a limited view of the world.
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That article made no sense whatsoever. He did not give even a half-ass believable arguement. Conor Oberst is the leader of emo? Since when.
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i think he has his gus van sant movies mixed up
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My guess is look at the parents and people around him. He may have had a mental disorder, but I guarantee the people that matter around him did not do a lot of things to help his psychosis.
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Bizarre in earnest or as satire...
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"that Kurt Cobain lookalike who gives older homosexual gentlemen special feelings"
Can someone explain this little detail?
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indeed weird thing to read.
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maybe the dumbest comparison ever.
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According to his argument, we should look at what records Charles Whitman was spinning before he killed 14 people from the University of Texas tower in 1966. Just speculating, but I think the blame should be squarely placed on Merle Haggard and Patsy Cline. Or better yet, since the shooting took place in Austin (location being highly relevant), we should look at a young Willie Nelson...
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What an irresponsible and stupid article. Ridiculous.
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What a LAME story and horrible comparison. Is there even a VALID point to it? Nope.
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jesus, people, stop being dense. it's obviously satire. you can question its quality or taste, but he is not making a serious argument connecting geography to random ass killing, and if he is making an argument at all it is ridiculing the idea that there is such a connection.
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Gurk, I can see that it a possibility, but when talking about subject matter like this, it should be a little more obvious. Either way, it is irresponsible journalism.
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has no one ever read yeats or elliot?
http://www.mcabee.org/~lcm/lines/slouch.html
for crying out loud.
Connor cries about some of the same issues that existential philosophers have been dealing with for years...
go read camus.
if any monster exists, it would be the idiot at Radar who would translate those lyrics into a call for murder...
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Nooooo. Why was this posted? Now more bullshit like this will come about because you are giving the writer exactly what he wanted, controversy and hits.
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is it satire? isn't satire funny?
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The thing with Satire is people usually KNOW it's satire when they read it. If this is satire, it fails miserably.
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Speak for yourself ... I hear Omaha, I think 311.
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What complete and utter bullshit!
Although if I were Conor Oberst, I might be slightly flattered that people kept giving me credit for a genre (however shitty it may be) that I didn't create, nor was ever really apart of. But then again, it's more likely that he doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks anyway.
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You guys, chastising satire for not being obvious enough to you says a lot more about you than it does about the satire in question (which was extremely obvious to many - draw your own conclusions.) One good thing to ask yourself when you read a "ridiculous" idea on a smart website is this: "Is this SO ridiculous that it could be drawing our attention to the ridiculousness of a culturally accepted idea or tradition?" It'll save you a lot of outrage and confusion! I highly recommend it!
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wow. yes, this guy did confuse two gus van sant movies. he obviously hasnt seen either one because he somehow managed to fuse "last days" and "elephant" together when he said: those "murderous teens who later inspired Gus Van Sant to do that movie with that Kurt Cobain lookalike." That is just the most ill-informed statement i've heard in a while.
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retarded. gray needs to go back to orlando and write for their piece of shit weekly - he'll fit in nicely.
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Ben, please recognize that I say this respectfully, but you are an idiot. He's obviously making a joke, he's jokily conflating the two films. It's probably not a funny joke, but c'mon stereogum readers!!! Stop embarrassing yurselves!
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sweet mother of christ; you poor, poor kids; what an audience! i just took a two hour, empirically utterly worthless foreign language final and THIS, --reading these fucking ignorant comments of yours--, THIS was significantly more painful. may god have mercy on your souls; sweet fucking Christ, you adorable imbeciles!
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1. FUCK RADAR!
2. I think it is really fucking stupid of that dickhead to write an entire article about something that is not real, and have no sense at all!
What the fuck? why does some people always have the need to blame others for things they don't have nothing to do with, I mean, yeah, it sucks what the kid did, but it just happened, I really don't think that cassadaga album would make anyone want to shoot 9 people and then kill themselves, what the fuck was that kid doing with that gun in the first place? where were his parents to ignore the issues their child was having his whole life?
no matter how funny you think it is to write such a stupid article, it is not, it is irresponsable, and posibly in the same level of stupidity that the poor idiot kid had to do such horrible thing.
God, I hate stupid people who think they're smart and funny!
ps. I think Conor cut his hair a while ago....
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i think tyler gray was busy smokin' the dust and almost missed his deadline for the Monster Of The Week and had to come up with SOMETHING FAST!!!
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if it were satire he wouldn't reference the manson bit.
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What do oberst songs have anything to do with the shootings? This is ridiculous.
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wait, i don't get it. are the commenters claiming they're upset about this article doing a satire of the satire? if so, congrats... i was entirely convinced that we were in the presence of morons. bonus points to the guy who referenced yeats, elliot, and camus in the same comment. that shit was hilarious! hopefully next week's freshman english class will cover swift. (spoiler: he didn't actually think people should eat babies)
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Haha all of you Bright Eyes fans are ridiculous.
Also, I think Oberst is guilty as charged.
But his hair looks GREAT
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Reading through the comments on this post makes me think stereogum readers might be retarded. I don't see how the author could have made it any clearer that he is not being serious. Anyone who is still not convinced needs to peruse the comments where he blames the Minnesota bridge collapse on Husker Du. How old are you people? Twelve?
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So yeah, that was mean.
And what the hell does a shooting in Nebraska have to do with Conor anyway? Shooting go on everywhere. And I love his hair and his music. So if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all.
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I'm surprised this douche didn't try to make a Rage Against The Machine - 9/11 connection. I don't advocate violence at all and he probably wrote this for shock value but this piece of shit deserves to get punched in the face ....... multiple times.
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A+++ would LOL again.
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by which i mean this is WAY too ridiculous to ever take seriously.
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Man, y'all do yourselves a favor and don't read "The Onion." Sh*t gets BLEAK in that newspaper.
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Doesn't matter if it was Satire or not.
It was dumb.
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I know why that kid shot all of those people, and it has nothing to do with Conor Oberst. Have you ever been fired from MacDonald's? No? Exactly.
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Wow, if you have to mine murder scenes for comedic gold, you should probably just give up on trying to be funny.
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Ugh I'm so sick of people making fun of Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes. Not in a "how could they!?" way, but in more of a "get over it" kind of way.
We get it. Alot of people don't like emotional music. But making fun of Bright Eyes for that reason is like bullying the crybaby in middle school. Way to go, bro.
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i still don't think he meant to confuse the two gus van sant movies. i actually do understand this article as satire - however asinine it may be, but i see no point in the incorrect reference to a movie. makes no sense.
ps. thanks for calling me an idiot, jive.
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tyler gray just wasted my time.
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Gray posted this in the comments below:
"No. But I am looking into the link between Twin Cities power punk pioneers Husker Du and the Mississippi bridge collapse that happened recently in Minneapolis. I'm not ready to pull the trigger yet, but let's just say that Bob Mould, a man responsible for a song called "Dead Set on Destruction" and "She Floated Away," has blood on his hands. Come to think of it, he wrote "Guns at My School," too. I have to go make a call."
Terrible satirist.
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nice timing for "satire" ass clown.
lemon out.
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any time something goes wrong in omaha, i blame adam duritz.
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It's terrible, mostly because Bob Mould didn't write any of those songs.
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School shootings, mall shootings? What do you expect in a country where guns are easier for retards, morons and other whack jobs to get than proper care?
Manson? Oberst? After all, it was you and me.
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If only Tyler Gray were funny it may have been worth my time.
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the movie is called "elephant," the 'kurt cobain look-alike' is john robinson, though i think that comparison is seriously off kilter.
here's hoping this is a work of satire, but it would be more convincing framed into an argument against manson's role in violent crimes. this is a failed attempt at, well, anything.
anyone interested should watch "spend an evening with saddle creek".. an nice look at oberst, bright eyes and the rest of the fraternal, tight-knit omaha music scene.
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i get the feeling this guy often chooses his subject matter based on whether or not it will afford him the opportunity to remind people that: HEY I INTERVIEWED MARILYN MANSON ONCE!
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that was the most ignorant thing ever said.
i agree, geography shouldn't play a part in that mentally ill kids actions. just because conor is the most well known from omaha doesn't mean he should be blamed for someone else's actions. what about cursive and they're
"emo" lyrics.. seriously that is pure ignorance.
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Ok, I read that article again and stepping outside of my own personal Bright Eyes addiction, I can see that it was indeed a satirical piece. That said, it was in bad taste. Not only does it come in on the coattails of tragedy, it really desecrates one of the most poignant and poetic voices of our time. It's just not funny.
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Besides, why would you pick on him? He is one of the sweetest people in existence.
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seriously, this is garbage. we should be listening to kids, listening to music, and embracing angst for what it is, a life process. if all we keep moving towards is a continuous oppression of negative and rebellious feelings, through over-medicating and instilling guilt, we are only setting ourselves up for larger, more explosive problems (a la Columbine and the Omaha mall shootings). pain is real, as is love, as is the ability to listen. read this and realize what is really driving this movement to quell normal teenage emotions and overall individualism...big pharmaceutical companies
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/75081/
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i really think you need to read a book or something because that was the worst attempt at an article involving some form of substance ever.
conor oberst isn't the reason. its because they live in a country with open accessibility to firearms and a large concentration (especially at that age) on image and social status.
america....tut tut. what have you become?
Ben Greene
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what a joker!!
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okayy so this IS a joke right?
right????
if it is lol well done
but if your serious then what the fuck is wrong with you,you paraphrasing art butchering son of a-fucking-neo conservative bastard??
fuck you dude if you have nothing better to do than pick on poetic geniuses
than you know why not fuck with the pussycat dolls or the jonas brothers ??
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