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Bright Eyes frontman taking care of business


Conor Oberst sits in a dive bar, pulling on Winston Lights and throwing back intermittent gulps from a beer bottle. This isn’t the downtown New York- or Los Angeles-variety “dive” with the beautiful people and the perfectly curated juke box. This is the suburban Omaha sort, where a handful of pear-shaped, geriatric regulars sit drinking, solo, at two in the afternoon, mumbling conversations to themselves. The juke box plays only AC/DC. Oberst, better-known as Bright Eyes, is here — away from his handlers, bandmates and friends that dot the frigid Omaha landscape — to confront the perception, more or less,… Read more »

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Bright Eyes Slim Down With Single LP


After all the work entailed by the simultaneous release of the analog-sounding I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and the electronica-tinged Digital Ash in a Digital Urn a little more than two years ago, Bright Eyes mastermind Conor Oberst says he wised up. “I think we had enough of the double record last time,” he laughed. “It was pretty hectic, and the tour that followed, to promote both albums, ended up being a lot on us. We’re trying to be a little smarter this time around. The idea was definitely to make one strong album that made sense.” That album, Cassadaga,… Read more »

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Coldplay Kick Off 36-City Twisted Logic Tour In August


After months of speculation and a smattering of semi-secret “buzz gigs” throughout North America, Coldplay have finally confirmed a full slate of dates in support of their upcoming third album, X&Y. The Twisted Logic Tour kicks off August 2 in Toronto and will hit an additional 35 cities before coming to a close on September 30. Punky alt-country act Rilo Kiley will serve as the opening act. Tickets go on sale June 4 for all shows except the September 23 gig in Dallas – those will be available on June 11 – and fans who are registered at Coldplay.com will… Read more »

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Indies Vs. Majors: Artists Face Tough Choices


Los Angeles – Before they made the jump to Atlantic Records in 2004, the members of Death Cab for Cutie thought long and hard about leaving Seattle’s Barsuk Records. But after six years of deliberation, and the ultimate satisfaction the band took in its decision, manager Jordan Kurland grants that there has been a twinge of remorse. “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that after I saw Bright Eyes debut in the top 10, I didn’t think, ‘Ah, we should have done that…’ But we’re having a great time.” Indeed, the band Bright Eyes bolted to No. 10 on… Read more »

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Death Cab For Cutie Live EP Due March 1


Maybe you can blame it on some indie-minded guilt. On March 1, Death Cab for Cutie – longtime independent stalwarts recently inked to Atlantic Records – will drop The John Byrd EP, the final release for them on tiny Seattle label Barsuk Records. The EP will only be available in two places: on Barsuk’s Web site or in record stores who are members of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores. It could be the result of a guilty conscience. But it’s more than likely not. “We just wanted to have a properly recorded live record out there, because bootlegs show… Read more »

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Ben Lee Avoids Penning Claire Danes-Breakup LP


What do you do if you’ve been touring the world for the past decade and, at 25, you’re having what amounts to your first midlife crisis? If you are coming off a very public breakup with your longtime movie-star girlfriend? If you are headline news at home, but just another face in the crowd in your adopted hometown of New York? If you’re Ben Lee, you write an album of existential pop songs and call it Awake Is the New Sleep (February 22) and enjoy how you’ve turned heartbreak and the search for life’s big answers into the strongest album… Read more »

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