Better Oblivion Community Center is an American
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
superduo consisting of musicians
Conor Oberst
Conor Mullen Oberst (born February 15, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his work in Bright Eyes. He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos, the Faint (previously named Norman Bailer), Commander Venu ...
and
Phoebe Bridgers
Phoebe Lucille Bridgers (born August 17, 1994) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She has released two solo albums, ''Stranger in the Alps'' (2017) and ''Punisher'' (2020), both of which received critical acclaim ...
. They released their
self-titled debut album on January 24, 2019, through
Dead Oceans
Dead Oceans is an American independent record label formed in 2007 and based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Dead Oceans is part of Secretly Group, which also ...
.
Background
Oberst and Bridgers first met in July 2016, when she performed at a secret showcase he was hosting at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles.
A mutual friend of theirs was helping organize the event and told Oberst that Bridgers was his favorite songwriter in LA at the time, so he invited her to play and was so impressed that he immediately asked her to send him the record she was working on.
She then opened for him on his European ''
Ruminations'' tour in January 2017,
and they continued to collaborate consistently over the following two years. He brought her onstage to sing the
Bright Eyes song "Lua" at
WXPN
WXPN (88.5 FM) is a non-commercial, public radio station licensed to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that broadcasts an adult album alternative (AAA) radio format, along with many other format shows ...
's Xponential Music Festival that July, he sang on the duet "Would You Rather" from her debut ''
Stranger in the Alps
''Stranger in the Alps'' is the debut studio album by American musician Phoebe Bridgers, released by Dead Oceans on September 22, 2017.
Background and recording
''Stranger in the Alps'' was produced by Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska. Bridgers record ...
'' in September, they covered Sheryl Crow with
Soccer Mommy
Sophia Regina Allison (born May 27, 1997), better known by her stage name Soccer Mommy, is an American singer-songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee.
History
Born in Zürich, Switzerland in 1997 to Michelle, an elementary school teacher, and Jo ...
at the
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Music Hall of Williamsburg (formerly Northsix) is a New York City venue located at 66 North 6th Street in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The venue is operated by The Bowery Presents, a group stemming from Bowery Ballroom. It has a c ...
in February 2018, and they worked together on a new version of his song "LAX" for Amazon Music in October, among numerous other joint appearances at each other's shows across the U.S.
The initial idea of forming the band apparently stemmed from Bridgers complimenting a cover Oberst had done of a
Replacements song one night, and him replying that they should start a band and sound like the Replacements.
When they first started writing together, they hadn't planned on putting out a record, and they thought they might be writing for one of each other's solo efforts or for a third party. Bridgers has said that it's common for Oberst to dream up "fake bands", so she didn't know that he was being serious until they had written "like, five songs".
They mentioned that they wanted to create a separate project with its own name so that they could feel free to create a sound different than their individual solo acts.
Career
![Better Oblivion Community Center at the Showbox](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Better_Oblivion_Community_Center_at_the_Showbox.jpg)
The duo released ''
Better Oblivion Community Center
Better Oblivion Community Center is an American indie rock superduo consisting of musicians Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers. They released their self-titled debut album on January 24, 2019, through Dead Oceans.
Background
Oberst and Bridgers ...
'' on January 24, 2019, through
Dead Oceans
Dead Oceans is an American independent record label formed in 2007 and based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Dead Oceans is part of Secretly Group, which also ...
to generally positive reviews.
The album was teased with "cryptic brochures" and a phone hotline, but was released with only a day of official notice and featured no promotional singles beforehand, which Bridgers explains was an effort to avoid people "
akingassumptions about what the entire record sounds like", since the songs are each so different.
They performed "Dylan Thomas" on ''
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second it ...
'' the day before the album's release, and on January 26 appeared on ''
CBS This Morning
''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...
'', where they performed "Dylan Thomas," "Didn't Know What I Was in For" and "My City." They also filmed a segment at the
NPR Tiny Desk.
On January 29, 2019, the band announced their expansive concert tour of the U.S. and Europe, along with releasing a music video for their single, "Dylan Thomas," directed by Michelle Zauner, otherwise known as
Japanese Breakfast
Japanese Breakfast is an indie pop band headed by Korean-American musician Michelle Zauner.
Zauner started the band as a side project in 2013, when she was leading the Philadelphia-based emo group Little Big League. She has said that she named ...
.
Toward the end of their U.S. tour in April 2019, they released the single "Little Trouble," a song not featured on the album that had previously only been available as a
7-inch
In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
they'd been selling at their shows.
Discography
Studio albums
Singles
Accolades
References
{{Conor Oberst
2019 establishments in California
Musical groups established in 2019
Rock music supergroups
American musical duos
Musical groups from Los Angeles
Indie rock musical groups from California
Conor Oberst
Dead Oceans artists