Bright eyes

The title of this article is ambiguous. For more meanings, see Bright Eyes (disambiguation) .

Bright eyes
Bright Eyes at a concert in March 2005
General information
Genre (s)	Indie rock , folk , alternative country , indie folk
founding	1995
Website	thisisbrighteyes.com
Founding members
Conor Colonel
Current occupation
Mike Mogis , Nate Walcott
former members
Shane Aspegren, Clark Baechle, Jamie Forsyth, Kevin Barnes, Jake Bellows, Z Berg, Dan Bitney, Jason Boesel, Gretta Cohn, Jonathan Crawford, Britt Daniel, Stefanie Drootin, Sabrina Duim, Sherri DuPree, Stacy DuPree, Aaron Druery, Orenda Fink , Todd Fink , Margret Fish, Matt Focht, Cory Greenwood, Emmylou Harris , Jesse Harris, Jim James, Neely Jenkins, Simon Joyner, Matt Oberst, Tim Kasher, Joe Knapp, Tiffany Kowalski, Ben Kweller , Jiha Lee, Andy LeMaster , Clay Leverett, Jenny Lewis , Matt Maginn, John McEntire , Alex McManus, AJ Mogis, Matthew Olsen, Anton Patzner, Steve Pedersen, David Rawlings, Clint Schnase, Casey Scott, Blake Sennett, Ted Stevens, Jimmy Tamborello, Macy Taylor, Maria Taylor , M. Ward , Janet Weiss, Gillian Welch , Nick White, Jamie Pressnall, Rachael Yamagata , Nick Zinner

Bright Eyes is a band project from Omaha , Nebraska, founded in 1995 by Conor Oberst (born February 15, 1980) .

The band

Bright Eyes was founded as a one-man project by Conor Oberst . In the course of time, Mike Mogis and later Nate Walcott were added as de facto permanent band members. Mogis is also the producer of many Bright Eyes albums.

Musicians friends who are mostly from the environment of the independent label Saddle Creek are invited for the studio recordings and tours . Saddle Creek was founded in 1993 by the then 13-year-old Colonel, his brother, and some of his friends. Many of the studio and touring musicians play in successful bands such as Cursive , The Faint , Rilo Kiley or Azure Ray .

style

Bright Eyes is particularly characterized by very personal, melancholy-poetic lyrics and a shaky, emotional singing in connection with sometimes excessive, sometimes precise and ambitiously implemented songs, which often contain elements from American folk or country music.

biography

Conor Oberst wrote his first songs at the age of 13 and began recording them. The name "Bright Eyes" was first used in 1997. Early releases such as the album Letting Off the Happiness (1998), the EP Every Day and Every Night (1999) and the 2000 Fevers and Mirrors remained relatively unknown at the time of their release.

With the album Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground , released in 2002 , Bright Eyes hit the US album charts for the first time . Even MTV showed interest in the young singer / songwriter from Nebraska and wanted it in the show TRL invite. However, Colonel canceled. He also released an album with the Desaparecidos called Read Music / Speak Spanish .

In January 2005, Saddle Creek released the two new albums Digital Ash in a Digital Urn , a more electronic pop record, and I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning , which is more in the classic folk and country tradition. Both immediately conquered the top positions in the US charts. The singles Lua and Take It Easy (Love Nothing) even ranked 1 and 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 single sales at the same time .

To bridge the gap until the next album, Motion Sickness: Live Recordings and Noise Floor (Rarities 1998-2005) were released, a live album and a compilation with rare songs (e.g. B-sides ).

Bright Eyes in Wiesbaden 2005

In April 2007 the album Cassadaga was released . Then Conor Oberst released two more albums, but under the name Conor Oberst and Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band .

On February 15, 2011, Bright Eyes released The People's Key , a new album.

Discography

→ Main article : Bright Eyes / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1998	A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995–1997	-	-	-	-	-
	Letting Off the Happiness	-	-	-	-	-
2000	Fevers and Mirrors	-	-	-	-	-
2002	Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground	-	-	-	-	US161 (1 week) US
	A Christmas album	-	-	-	-	-
2005	Digital Ash in a Digital Urn	DE30 (3 weeks) DE	AT49 (2 weeks) AT	-	UK43 (2 weeks) UK	US15 (10 weeks) US
	I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning	DE21 (6 weeks) DE	AT46 (4 weeks) AT	-	UK23 gold (8 weeks)UK	US10 gold (17 weeks)US
	Motion sickness: live recordings	-	-	-	-	-
2006	Noise Floor (Rarities 1998-2005)	-	-	-	-	US107 (1 week) US
2007	Cassadaga	DE19 (4 weeks) DE	AT47 (3 weeks) AT	CH59 (2 weeks) CH	UK13 (4 weeks) UK	US4 (9 weeks) US
2011	The People's Key	DE42 (2 weeks) DE	AT36 (2 weeks) AT	CH50 (1 week) CH	UK46 (1 week) UK	US13 (5 weeks) US
2020	Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was	-	-	-	-	-

Web links

• Bright Eyes on Myspace
• Conor Colonel
• Saddle Creek, Bright Eyes home label
• Bright Eyes at Discogs (English)
• German fansite
• Bright Eyes at laut.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US