RIP Bright Eyes (Not Conor Oberst, Just Bright Eyes)

We'll always have I'm Wide Awake It's Morning...and that other album that came out that day

Sad story friends...Conor Oberst is disbanding Bright Eyes. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, he said "It does feel like it needs to stop at some point. I'd like to clean it up, lock the door, say goodbye" in regards to his long time musical pseudonym. It was a long, beautiful and usually heartbroken journey, and although I am sad to see the end of Bright Eyes, I respect his desire to distance himself from a musical project he started at the age of 15. Rumor has it that he is in the midst of recording his final Bright Eyes album and that it will be released some time next year. In related news, Oberst has teamed up with My Morning Jacket's singer/guitarist Jim James and bad-ass-indie-mother-folker M. Ward for a new project aptly titled Monsters of Folk. Their debut album is due September 22 and you can download the single "Say Please" if you to the bands website. In order to do so, you will first have to say 'please'. It sounds like a bad joke, but its really what you have to do to get the track.

Of Montreal? Of Course!

Of Montreal is a pretty nutty band, so I shouldn't have been so surprised when I found out that they are releasing their forthcoming album Skeletal Lamping (check the nutty album art here) in a variety of formats such as CD, vinyl, t-shirt, wall decal, sticker set and paper lamp. For those objects less inclined to store music, a digital download will also be included. Like I said, nutty. Also, nutty, if not bat-shit crazy, is Nonpareil of Favor, the first single from the album. Download the track here, courtesy of P-Fork.


Furthermore, I've decided to, in honor of this insanity, list my top five albume release gimmick/packaging


THE TOP FIVE CRAZIEST ALBUM RELEASES SCHEMES (in order)

5. Bright Eyes - Digital Ash In The Digital Urn/I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Why release a double-album when you can release two single albums on the same day? Indie-neo-Dylan-singersonger-savior-wonderchild Connor Oberst is also not above cashing in on some sweet marketing ploys. I'll admit that material is substantially different and artistically speaking, it was probably the right call...but still.

4. Nine Inch Nails -Year Zero, YEAR&()(&ZE()*_)*R_)E(*M#$%@IX@@errwhatever, Ghosts I-5, The Slip

Trent Reznor is nuts. He makes two albums in like a decade and then goes crazy and starts releasing albums on a daily basis. The crazy starts when the Rezonator leaks Year Zero on a USB drive by dropping it in a bathroom in Europe. I mean with technology being what it is, what difference does it make if you start your marketing campeign in a European bathroom. Then come a ton of viral websites that all are in weird codes and shit. Then the remix album, months later, then come the Ghosts. Part one of the 5 part, two-disc epic was released for free with the other four parts availble as a download, a two-disc set and even some crazy super expensive thing. Then comes the Slip. For free, released as a thank you to all of fans for buying the last bunch of albums. Then that was rereleased as a two disc dvd thingamabob. Nutty.


3. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping

Scroll up.

2. Beck - The Information

Blank album cover and a bunch of stickers that let you design your own album cover.
Weird? Yes. Awesome? Obviously. Jams? Sick.

1. Radiohead - In Rainbows

Announced mere days before the release, Radiohead's incredible 7th LP In Rainbows was released for the price of free-ninety-nine, or how ever much you wanted to pay for it. This concept lead for other artists such as the aformention NIN, Girl Talk and plenty of other artists who have started releasing albums for free, with the option to pay. As an added bonus AmpLive made a remix album and released it for free to anyone who actually paid for In Rainbows. Like most things Radiohead does, this was as innovative as it was awesome. Oh yeah, and the album itself is just shy of perfect.