Bright Eyes have announced an extensive re-release/re-recording project on Dead Oceans for 2022. The revered band, who transferred their entire catalog of recordings to the Secretly Group label last year, have revealed plans to re-release all nine from their studio albums. as a “Companion” series with additional recordings created together at their ARC studios in Omaha.
The series of album reissues will be paired with the release of a Companion EP of five new recordings of songs contained in the original release as well as a cover version by an artist they found particularly inspiring at the time of release. original recording. The Companion Series gives Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nathaniel Walcott a chance to revisit some of their earlier material and rework it from scratch – with the occasional addition of a few talented friends. This ambitious project will see the release of 54 new recordings over the coming year.
First to receive the Companion treatment on May 27 are Bright Eyes’ first three albums – A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997, Letting Off The Happiness (originally released in 1998) and the now iconic 2000 LP Fevers and Mirrors.
Today’s announcement comes with the release of three new recordings from the Companion Series: “Falling Out of Love At This Volume”, “Contrast And Compare” (featuring Waxahatchee) and “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie , Haligh” (with Phoebe Bridgers).
Additionally, Bright Eyes have added more dates to their 2022 tour schedule. All dates below.
Bright Eyes began in 1995 as a recording nickname for then 15-year-old Conor Oberst’s work with producer/multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis. Mogis and composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Nathaniel Walcott became full members in 2006. Over the past 23 years, the impact and influence of music has been significant; Bright Eyes songs have been covered by dozens of artists including Lorde, The Killers, Mac Miller, Dave Rawlings & Gillian Welch, Phoebe Bridgers, Snow Patrol, Jason Mraz and beabadoobee.
For a group that has often been seen as an outlier, the depth, breadth and impact of the Bright Eyes canon is remarkable. Over the past two decades and counting, as Bright Eyes have released one time capsule album after another – urgent dispatches from transcendent and fleeting times in our collective lives – they have also simultaneously assembled a robust discography , mature and narratively coherent.
“It’s a meaningful way to connect with the past that doesn’t feel totally nostalgic and indulgent,” says Conor Oberst of the ambitious series. “We take these songs and make them interesting for us again. I like it. I like the challenges. I like being forced to do something a little difficult, just to see if we can.”
It was the desire to celebrate this sonic bounty that first excited Oberst and the band to the idea of full-length reissues. But it wouldn’t be a Bright Eyes project if a moment spent appreciating the past wasn’t transformed into an opportunity to connect with the future. That’s where the nine companion EPs come in. Or, as Oberst puts it, “the extra reading” for master reissues: a six-track EP per reissued album, each containing five reworked songs from that album.
“My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to play with them in a substantial way.” Plus a cover that sounded “from the era” this particular album was made in – a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help bring the EPs to life in the fullest way, Bright Eyes enlisted some old friends; for the first batch of releases, guest stars are Waxahatchee, Phoebe Bridgers, Mr. Ward and Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond).
Tour dates
03-23 St. Paul, MN – Palace Theater
03-24 Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Theater
03-25 Madison, WI – La Sylvee
03-26 Chicago, Illinois – Chicago Theater
03-27 Detroit, MI – The Cathedral Theater at the Masonic
03-29 Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room
03-30 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
03-31 Louisville, KY – Paris City Hall
04-01 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
04-02 Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater
04-03 Columbus, OH – Express Live!
04-05 Pittsburgh, PA – Internship AE
04-06 Port Chester, NY – Capitol Theater
04-07 Boston, MA – Roadrunner
04-08 Philadelphia, PA – The Met
04-09 Washington, DC – The Anthem
04-10 Norfolk, Virginia – La NorVa
05-19 Oklahoma City, OK – The Jones Assembly
05-20 Dallas, TX – The Deep Ellum Plant
05-21 Austin, TX – ACL Live at the Moody Theater
05-22 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall Lawn
05-23 New Orleans, LA – Orpheum Theater
05-25 Charleston, SC – Charleston Music Hall
05-26 Orlando, Florida – Hard Rock Live
05-27 Miami Beach, FL – Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater
05-28 St Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheater
05-29 Atlanta, Georgia – East
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, Connecticut – College Street Music Hall*
06-05 Lafayette, NY – Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards*
06-15 Boise, ID – Knitting Mill
06-16 Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
06-17 Seattle, Washington – Paramount Theater
06-18 Troutdale, OR – McMenamin’s Edgefield Amphitheater
06-20 San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
06-23 Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theater
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
