Nietzsche wrote Thus Spake Zarathustra and no-one gave a flyin' gypsy's fuck till long after he was fertilizing Nuremberg wi the soil caught 'midst his whiskers.
Had Conor Oberst written it, chances are Germany woulda buckled at the teeth with the immensity of it all the second the typewriter ceased clackin'. Not only this, he'd a flung two a the magnificent bastards into the world simultaneously; one written on papyrus an one as an ebook, a darker, more experimental take on it all.
(An towards the end of the year, a gorgeous live reading granted limited release and as achingly heart-molesting as the twilight bleeding velvet cross the heavens.)
Because fuck you, Nietzsche, on account of neither your moustache, like a cupboard held tween the knees of Zeus, nor your reams of gloriously antagonistic banter can hold a culture's attention when Conor, with the fringe and the eyes all headlight-afeared, with the unspeakable melodious beauty rising from the insufferably talented troubadour with every step trodden cross the winter-scarred streets, when this cherub with the sun behind the tongue sees fit to offer a word or two by way of the old "interview".
Tina Whelski of StarPolish recently sat down with Conor Oberst, he of popular beat combo Bright Eyes, for to discuss the writing, the perks of success (thank god, analysts predict another tale of woe from out the yaps a poor ol' singers done got heard an the economy a Japan'll eat itself from the bollocks out) and the reasons behind releasing the two best records of the year on the same damn morning.
Thus Spake Conor (with bits in brackets added later by yours truly);
"We did the folk record first (I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, being a record to glance awkwardly at o'er the bar, all the while cursin; if only I could articulate these lovelorn notions, these skippin waves of adoration) and it was a really short process by our standards, just a couple of weeks recording a lot of it live. Those were the songs that I had sitting around for a while that had been written over the course of a couple years. Then there were a bunch of these other ideas and these half-finished things that I was working on and Mike Mogis, who's sort of the other guy in the band, had musical ideas so I guess we were really excited and wanted to work on the Digital Ash record (Being the record you wake up beside the following afternoon, having given up hope of ever touching the other, and then, amazingly, you start to realize that this one knows you better, is a bit more interesting, and however gorgeous and intelligent the other may be, you made the right choice).
Article comments
1 - Aaron Fleming
A worthy commentary there Duke, Nietzsche woulda been proud!
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
thank you Sir Fleming! i've often thought, what would Nietzsche have made of Conor? i think he'd a detested him, except maybe some of Digital Ash In A Digital Urn. he'd a ranted on the same as he does in Birth Of Tragedy about flinging words over music and the horrors of articulating petty nonsense at the expense of all the sweeping grandeur of music, which addresses all there is to address anyhow, so shut your bastard yaps and let me listen. when i feel secure enough to come back into the realm of the thinking, i'll ponder it at length.