Monsters of Folk, the indie supergroup comprised of Jim James, Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and M. Ward, will release its self-titled debut album on September 22 via Shangri-La Music. To accompany this epic event, the group is setting out on a tour of the world, touching down all over the place to blow people’s minds with their epic ways. As if such a possibility weren’t enticing enough, the band is partnering with Air Traffic Control, a organization focusing on musicians’ philanthropic and social change work, and will donate $1 from every ticket sold on the tour to local non-profits. Now you have personal and moral imperatives to attend.

Tour dates are as follows:

10.13.09 Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum
10.14.09 Portland, OR Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
10.15.09 Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
10.17.09 Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
10.18.09 Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
10.20.09 San Diego, CA @ Spreckels Theatre
10.21.09 Phoenix, AZ @ Orpheum Theater
10.22.09 Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl
10.28.09 Omaha, NE @ Holland Center
10.29.09 Minneapolis, MN @ Orpheum Theatre
10.30.09 Chicago, IL @ Auditorium Theatre
10.31.09 Louisville, KY @ Louisville Palace Theatre
11.02.09 Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
11.03.09 Boston, MA @ The Orpheum
11.06.09 New York, NY @ United Palace
11.08.09 New York, NY @ Beacon Theater
11.09.09 Philadelphia, PA @ Academy of Music
11.12.09 Stockholm, SE @ Philadelphia Church
11.14.09 Berlin, DE @ Huxleys
11.15.09 Copenhagen, DK @ Vega
11.17.09 London, UK @ Troxy
11.18.09 Paris, FR @ Elysee Montmartre
11.19.09 Koln, DE @ E-Werk
11.21.09 The Hague, NL @ Crossing Border
11.22.09 Antwerp, BE @ Crossing Border

As if the emo world needed something else to cry about: Bright Eyes, the emotive, long-standing project of Conor Oberst, is set to release its final album under that particular moniker in the fall of 2010, after recording tracks this coming fall and winter. Interviewed by the Omaha World Herald, Saddle Creek president Robb Nansel claims that Oberst “is closing the chapter on that moniker. I think he feels like Bright Eyes has a certain association, for better or worse. I think he’s trying to distance himself a little bit from what that means to people.” Whether or not this final Bright Eyes LP signals Oberst’s departure from Saddle Creek is unclear.

Monsters of Folk, bka Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward and Mike Mogis have just made available the first track off their forthcoming self-titled album. It is called “Say Please” and you can get it by submitting, and we do mean submitting, your email address to their web overlords. The B-side to “Say Please,” entitled “Small Fork on the Outside” can be had by anyone willing to cry like a baby as Conor Oberst gives them a purple nurple. Welcome to the Record Industry 3.0.

Conor Oberst and his Mystic Valley Band played a Fourth of July set this past weekend in New York’s Battery Park. People cheered. We would have had we been there. Before they leave town and continue their currently unfolding jaunt across the continent, they’ll all be stopping by the Late Show with David Letterman tonight to play “Spoiled” from their recent full-length jammer Outer South. Stay up late or set your DVR—show starts at 11:35 PM. People will be cheering at the dates below as well:

07.07 Baltimore, MD @ Otto Bar
07.08 Vienna, VA Wolf Trap
07.09 Morgantown, WV @ 123 Pleasant St
07.10 Wilmington, DE Frawley Stadium *
07.11 Lowell, MA Lelacheur Park*
07.12 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls
07.13 Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center for the Arts
07.14 Chicago, IL @ Metro
07.15 Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
07.17 Portland, ME Maine Street Pier*
07.18 Wappinger Falls, NY Dutchess Stadium*
07.19 Lewiston, NY Art Park*
07.20 Bloomington, IN @ Jakes Nightclub
07.21 Athens, GA @ 40 Watt
07.22 Los Angeles, CA @ Sunset Junction
07.27 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
07.28 San Diego, CA @ Street Scene
07.29 San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Festival

* = w/ Wilco

—Nikki Turner

The first mental images to come to the brain of the average Joe or Jane when mentioning Omaha, Nebraska, would likely be cornfields as far as the eye can see, Johnny Carson, steaks, a world zoo, Mutual of Omaha Insurance or tortured songsmith Conor Oberst. Now, if you happen upon a fan of the whacked out sub-genre of rock that I like to call surf Billy garage rock, Omaha conjures one prominent spector: the band that is Brimstone Howl.

With one of the many severe thunderstorms to shit on Missouri in the last few weeks raging outside my office window, I felt it was the opportune time to stay up into the wee hours of the morning, risk electrocution at my computer and review Brimstone Howl’s latest We Came In Peace. Actually, the conditions are perfect for a critique of this record; the weather is violent and unrelenting, reminiscent of those old Hammer Studios horror flicks from the 1950s and 1960s, add to that the creepy Jim Diamond of Detroit garage gods The Dirt Bombs production (Peace sounds a bit like it was recorded at the bottom of a metal trash can in a well at the very back of an immense cavern) and Peace, though ironically named, could easily be its soundtrack.

There are many moments of eerie greatness to be found here. The songwriting, delivery, setup and all around raw slickness of the songs are not unlike the gems on the classic Nuggets compilation. Every track has flashes of this, all made nearly perfect by the manically fantastic lead guitar savagery of Nick Waggoner. His wicked slide and effects drenched flamethrower is especially prominent on the track “Child Of Perdition”, a roadhouse jam that bows to Chuck Berry as much as it does X’s Billy Zoom. In fact, it could quite possibly be some of the best playing in rock and “They Call Me Hopeless Destroyer” is open nerve blues like Jack White used to play before he spread himself thin jamming in 47 different bands. Complimenting the guitar chops is vocalist/ guitarist John Ziegler. What stands out most for me about Zeigler on this record is not his playing, though it is topnotch, is his vocals. He is a strange alien creature mix of the late Lux Interior, John Doe and the swagger of a juvenile delinquent from The Blackboard Jungle if said delinquent would have had access to LSD and William S. Burroughs novels.

Perhaps the best thing about Peace is that, with it, Brimstone Howl are at the very least attempting to bring rock back to its blues, rebellious and bare boots, raw roots. Just like The Ramones did in the 1970’s, Howl borrowing from 1960’s groups like The Shirelles, The Shangri-Las and The Ronettes to hone a sound that is as much a tribute as it is original. Goddamn, there’s even a song on the disc named “Shangri La”. If that isn’t a apparent case of fandom I don’t know what is.

The only crystal clear ape of any bands on this disc is the track “Easy to Dream”. If they could have gotten Sweet Lou Reed to do (I won’t say sing) the lines, it could have been sold as a companion piece to “Venus In Furs” and The Doors exorcism that is “The World Will Never Know.” But is that a crime? Borrowing from your heroes? Burying you enemies in flattery? Brimstone Howl are one of the best of the new crop of garage punks that loot and pillage music history like so many guitar wielding Vikings. It’s clear that they walk in the footsteps of their forefathers but luckily they don’t seem content to merely be a cover band like some others that shall remain nameless here.

The drumming of Calvin Retzlaff is pounding, stick splintering playing at it’s finest. He is Dick Dale with a drum set instead of a Strat. The first sound the listener hears on Peace is the steady, lightning fast, flaw free time and it only gets more aggressive with every progressive track thereafter. The bass of Chauncey Patton is as dense as a trucker’s midnight cup of coffee. In short, the band is in top form, showing an improved confidence since 2007 Guts of Steel. They mix the different elements within the band expertly. There’s slower tracks (“Easy To Dream”), speedy blues numbers (“Catamite Blues”, “They Call Me Hopeless Destroyer”) and the just plan weird random tune (“The World Will Never Know”).

Brimstone Howl are like the strange friend that lives in his mom’s basement and talks at length about UFOs, The Twilight Zone, going to Buenos Aires and government conspiracies. As you sit there listening you think to yourself, “this cat is totally fucked in the head. I should split.” But you don’t. You sit there, you listen, you get sucked in because, after awhile, it starts making sense. That’s what it’s like listening to We Came in Peace. This Omaha band is the crop circles, Bigfoot, ghosts and alien abductions of rock; a far out phenomenon that gathers steam and a flock of new believers the more their name is whispered. Brimstone Howl… Brimstone Howl…… Brimstone Howl……..

With Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Franz Ferdinand, Morrissey and Buraka Som Sistema.


[Leonard Cohen]

[Conor Oberst]

[Franz Ferdinand]

[Morrissey]

[Buraka Som Sistema]

Conor Oberst has been quite busy over the past year and a half. The songwriter has dropped his Bright Eyes alias, picked up the Mystic Valley Band, and is releasing yet another album on May 5, but even better, Oberst is giving us an inside scoop into the past 18 months of his life on the road and recording with his new project, with his new documentary that will be released online on April 15.

One Of My Kind was shot by Phil Schaffart, the band’s guitar-tech, and follows the band touring and recording over the past year and a half. The hour-long DVD is free, and can be downloaded from numerous websites, including IFC.com, Conoroberst.com, and Causecast.org. Instead of charging fans for the documentary, Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band are encouraging fans to donate to charities and non-profit organizations affiliated with Causecast. 

Outer South, Oberst’s latest record, will be available off of Merge Records on May 5, and the band will be touring across the country throughout April, June and July, making stops at the XXMerge festival, and Coachella.

The line up for the five-day-long Merge Records 20th Anniversary Celebration has been announced, and the event to bound to be nothing but stellar with headliners like label-founders Superchunk topping the bill.

The festival — XXMerge as they’ve dubbed it — is set to take place on July 22 through the 26, in Carrboro, N.C. at the Cat’s Cradle and one night at UNC. Along with the previously mentioned headliners, M. Ward, Spoon, Conor Oberst, The Rosebuds, Destroyer, Guv’ner, Polvo, Pipe and The Broken West, are all scheduled to perform at the event. More bands will be added to the line up at a later date, and we’re hoping we’ll get to see the Arcade Fire or Camera Obscura add their musical stylings to the already stacked line up.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. After the success of last year’s self-titled album, Conor Oberst is back with The Mystic Valley Band and releasing a new album May 5 on Merge Records called Outer South.

The album features the same group of musicians from 2008’s Conor Oberst LP, and was recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillio, outside El Paso, Texas. The Mystic Valley Band are Taylor Hollingsworth, Nik Freitas, Macey Taylor, Nathaniel Walcott and Jason Boesel.

Outer South features songs written by Oberst, Nik Boesel, Nik Freitas and Taylor Hollingsworth, including “Nikorette,” which they performed on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in November.

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band on tour
04.09.09 – Omaha, Neb. (Slowdown)
04.10.09 – Denver, Colo. (Ogden Theatre)
04.11.09 – Aspen, Colo. (Belly Up)
04.12.09 – El Paso, Texas (Barnett Harley Davidson – Hands of Love and Hope Benefit)
04.13.09 – Albuquergue, NM (Sunshine Theatre)
04.14.09 – Tempe, Ariz. (Marquee Theatre)
04.15.09 – Pomona, Calif. (Glass House)
04.17.09 – Indio, Calif. (Coachella)
06.18.09 – Telluride, Colo. (Telluride Bluegrass Festival)

After taking a temporary break from his main musical project Bright Eyes, singer/songwriter Conor Oberst released his first solo album and coinciding tour in 12 years last summer. The quirky, bright-eyed musician known for his help launching Saddle Creek Records to prominence, will be heading out on the road with The Mystic Valley Band starting in early April for one more go at a “solo” tour.

Oberst, a Nebraska native, will kick off the tour on April 9 at the Slowdown in his home town of Omaha and according to his website, Conor and the band will be making stops in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona throughout the month. The Mystic Valley Band backed Oberst on his self-titled album that was released on Merge Records last August.

In promotion for the album, Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band launched a 21-city tour last summer, branching throughout the U.S. and Europe. Word of new material from Oberst has yet to surface, but we look forward to hearing what the quiet-mannered musician has to showcase this time around.

Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band tour dates
04.09.09 – Omaha, NE (Slowdown)
04.10.09 – Denver, CO (The Ogden Theater)
04.11.09 – Aspen, CO (Belly Up)
04.12.09 – El Paso, TX (Barnett Harley Davidson)
04.13.09 – Albuquerque, NM (Sunshine Theater)
04.14.09 – Tempe, AZ (Marquee Theater)