Bright Eyes Announce Catalog 'Companion' Series

Bright Eyes have announced an extensive reissue / re-recording project on Dead Oceans for 2022. The revered band, who moved their entire recording catalog over to the Secretly Group label last year, have unveiled plans to re-issue all nine of their studio albums as a 'Companion' series with additional recordings created together at their ARC Studios in Omaha.

The album reissue series will be partnered with the release of a Companion EP of five new recordings of songs contained on the original release plus a cover version from an artist they found particularly inspiring at the time of the original recording. The Companion series gives Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nathaniel Walcott a chance to revisit some of their earlier material and re-work it entirely - with the occasional addition of some 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 27th are Bright Eyes' first three albums - A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997, Letting Off The Happiness (initially released in 1998) and the now iconic 2000 LP Fevers and Mirrors.

Today's announcement comes with the release of three new Companion series recordings: "Falling Out of Love At This Volume," "Contrast And Compare" (feat. Waxahatchee) and "Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh" (feat. Phoebe Bridgers).

In addition, Bright Eyes have added more dates to their 2022 touring schedule. All dates below.

Bright Eyes began in 1995 as a recording moniker for a then 15-year old Conor Oberst's work with producer/multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis. Mogis and composer/ arranger/ multi-instrumentalist Nathaniel Walcott became fully fledged members in 2006. Over the course of 23 years the music's impact and influence 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 band that's often been perceived as an outlier, the depth, breadth, and impact of the Bright Eyes canon is remarkable. Over the last two-plus decades, as Bright Eyes has released one after another time capsule LP's - urgent dispatches from transcendent, fleeting eras of our collective lives - they've also simultaneously been assembling a robust, mature, narratively cohesive discography.

"It's a meaningful way to connect with the past that doesn't feel totally nostalgic and self-indulgent," says Conor Oberst of the ambitious series. "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."

It's the desire to celebrate that sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldn't be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren't turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That's where the nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, "the supplemental reading" for the primary reissues: One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album.

"My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way." Plus one cover that felt "of the era" in which that particular album was made - a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in some old friends; for the first batch of releases the featured guests are Waxahatchee, Phoebe Bridgers, M. Ward and Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond).

Tour Dates

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

To post a comment, you must register and login.