Hear Bright Eyes’ New Re-Recordings Featuring Phoebe Bridgers & Waxahatchee
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Shawn Brackbill
Almost one year after moving their entire catalog to Secretly Group, Bright Eyes are embarking on a massive reissue / re-recording project. Reissuing all nine of their studio albums as a “Companion” series, a press release explains that “Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nathaniel Walcott [will] revisit some of their earlier material and re-work it entirely — with the occasional addition of some talented friends.” Likewise, each Companion EP will include “a cover version of an artist they found particularly inspiring at the time of the original recording.” To that end, there are three songs out today: a re-worked “Falling Out of Love At This Volume,” “Contrast And Compare” featuring Waxahatchee, and “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh” featuring Conor Oberst’s Better Oblivion Community Center collaborator Phoebe Bridgers.
Opening up about the reissue project, Oberst said: “It’s a meaningful way to connect with the past that doesn’t feel totally nostalgic and self-indulgent. We are taking these songs and making them interesting to us all over again. I like that. I like a challenge. I like to be forced to do something that’s slightly hard, just to see if we can.”
Listen to all three tracks below, and also check out the project’s trailer.
A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997: A Companion
01 “Driving Fast Through A Big City At Night”
02 “Solid Jackson”
03 “A Celebration Upon Completion”
04 “Falling Out of Love At This Volume”
05 “Exaltation On A Cool Kitchen Floor”
06 “Double Joe” (Simon Joyner cover)
Letting Off The Happiness: A Companion
01 “The Difference In The Shades”
02 “The City Has Sex (feat. Waxahatchee)”
03 “Contrast And Compare (feat. Waxahatchee)”
04 “Kathy With A K’s Song (feat. M Ward)”
05 “St. Ides Heaven (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)” (Elliott Smith cover)
06 “June On The West Coast (feat. Becky Stark)”
Fevers and Mirrors: A Companion
01 “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
02 “A Scale, A Mirror, And Those Indifferent Clocks (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
03 “Arienette”
04 “Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H)” (Lullaby For The Working Class cover)
05 “When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
6 “A Spindle, A Darkness, A Fever, And A Necklace (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
A Collection Of Songs Written And Recorded 1995-1997:
01 “The Invisible Gardener”
02 “Patient Hope In New Snow”
03 “Saturday As Usual”
04 “Falling Out of Love At This Volume”
05 “Exaltation On A Cool Kitchen Floor”
06 “The Awful Sweetness Of Escaping Sweat”
07 “Puella Quam Amo Est Pulchra”
08 “Driving Fast Through A Big City At Night”
09 “How Many Lights Do You See?”
10 “I Watched You Taking Off”
11 “A Celebration Upon Completion”
12 “Emily, Sing Something Sweet”
13 “All Of The Truth”
14 “One Straw”
15 “Lila”
16 “A Few Minutes On Friday”
17 “Supriya”
18 “Solid Jackson
19 “Feb. 15th”
20 “The ‘Feel Good’ Revolution”
Letting Off The Happiness:
01 “If Winter Ends”
02 “Padraic My Prince”
03 “Contrast And Compare”
04 “The City Has Sex”
05 “The Difference In The Shades”
06 “Touch”
07 “June On The West Coast”
08 “Pull My Hair”
09 “A Poetic Retelling Of An Unfortunate Seduction”
10 “Tereza And Tomas”
Fevers And Mirrors:
01 “A Spindle, A Darkness, A Fever, And A Necklace”
02 “A Scale, A Mirror, And Those Indifferent Clocks”
03 “The Calendar Hung Itself…”
04 “Something Vague”
05 “The Movement Of A Hand”
06 “Arienette”
07 “When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass”
08 “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh”
09 “The Center Of The World”
10 “Sunrise, Sunset”
11 “An Attempt To Tip The Scales”
12 “A Song To Pass The Time”
TOURDATES:
03/23 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
03/24 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Riverside Theater
03/25 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
03/26 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre
03/27 – Detroit, MI @ The Cathedral Theatre at the Masonic
03/29 – Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room
03/30 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
03/31 – Louisville, KY @ Paristown Hall
04/01 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
04/02 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
04/03 – Columbus, OH @ Express Live!
04/05 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
04/06 – Port Chester, NY @ Capitol Theatre
04/07 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner
04/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met
04/09 – Washington, D.C. @ The Anthem
04/10 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
05/19 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Jones Assembly
05/20 – Dallas, TX @ The Factory in Deep Ellum
05/21 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater
05/22 – Houston, TX @ The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall
05/23 – New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater
05/25 – Charleston, SC @ Charleston Music Hall
05/26 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live
05/27 – Miami Beach, FL @ Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater
05/28 – St Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre
05/29 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
05/31 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
06/01 – Cincinatti, OH @ Brady Music Center *
06/02 – Richmond, VA @ Brown’s Island *
06/03 – Ashbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony Summerstage *
06/04 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall *
06/05 – Lafayette, NY @ Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards *
06/15 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
06/16 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory
06/17 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
06/18 – Troutdale, OR @ McMenamin’s Edgefield Amphitheatre
06/20 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic
06/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre
06/24 – San Diego, CA @ Soma
06/25 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
06/28 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union
06/30 – Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom
07/01 – Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
07/02 – Omaha, NE @ The Admiral
07/03 – Omaha, NE @ The Admiral
08/12 – Oslo, Norway @ Øyafestivalen 2022
08/14 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega
08/16 – Hamburg, Germany @ Fabrik
08/17 – Prague, Czech Republic @ Lucerna Music Bar
08/19 – Berlin, Germany @ Tempodrom
08/20 – Frankfurt, Germany @ Batschkapp
08/22 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
08/23 – Cologne, Germany @ Carlswerk Victoria
08/25 – Vienna, Austria @ Arena Open Air
08/26 – Munich, Germany @ Muffathalle
08/27 – Zurich, Switzerland @ X-Tra
08/30 – London, England @ Eventim Apollo
08/31 – Manchester, England @ O2 Apollo
09/01 – Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street
09/05 – Birmingham, England @ O2 Institute Birmingham
09/06 – Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowland
* Alex G supporting
The first three Companion albums — A Collection Of Songs Written And Recorded 1995-1997, Letting Off The Happiness, and Fevers And Mirror — are out on 5/27 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order them here.
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Rob Walters