Former Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst will be playing tonight at the Kimmel Center in support of his 2012 release of One Of My Kind, his first record with the Mystic Valley Band. The six-piece collective wrote the album while on tour supporting Oberst’s 2008 self-titled record . The album remains true to the confessional folk rock style Oberst has become known for. Tickets for tonight’s 8 o’clock show are available here; below watch Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band perform “Nikorette” from 2008′s Conor Oberst below.
Conor Oberst
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Contest: Win a prize pack from Conor Oberst, including a pair of tickets to his show at The Kimmel Center on 11/18
Conor Oberst is coming to The Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall on November 18th for a special solo show with Daniel Johnston, presented by R5 Productions. Most notable for his role in Bright Eyes, Oberst finds his plate constantly full with solo projects and side projects including the recently re-banded Desaparecidos. He’s spent much of the last year touring, both with that reunited post-hardcore five-piece and as a solo act, following the release of Bright Eyes’ 2011 record The People’s Key.
This week we’ve a got a prize pack from the Bright Eyes singer loaded with a pair of tickets for the Philly show show, signed vinyl, a custom screen-printed poster and more. To enter the contest, leave a comment about your favorite Conor Oberst song. Winners will be notified by email so make sure to include your full name and an active e-mail address (your e-mail will not be public). Runner ups will also be chosen to win a pair of tickets for the Sunday night concert. Tickets and information can be found here. Check out the video for “Jejune Stars” off of the latest Bright Eyes disc below.
Meet Philly Folk Collective Roof Doctor (playing tonight at Church of the Advocate)
Photo by Abi Reimold | abireimold.wordpress.com/from-all-angles
Last December, Roof Doctor lead guitarist/vocalist Mark Harper looked to his friends’ bands for “the best musicians he knew,” and borrowed them record his own material. It was evident after only two practices with Alex Stackhouse (guitar), Chet Williams (bass), Sean Reilly (bass), and Kevin Paschall (drums) that the group possessed enough chemistry to identify as a band in its own right. Last week I sat down with Harper to discuss Roof Doctor’s path – from starting out at the notorious North Philadelphia Maggot House where Harper and guitarist Alex Stackhouse live, to the band’s current plans, and their recently crushed dreams of beefing with Conor Oberst.
TK: Have you been working on anything new since the release of your EP I Am Going To Die back in July?
MH: Yeah, yeah. I Am Going To Die was recorded from February to May in the basement of Maggot House, but we’ve been pretty busy playing and writing new stuff.
TK: Did starting the band inside Maggot House influence your style?
MH: Absolutely. I never listened to punk at all, I was totally new to the whole DIY thing. The people there had a big effect on me. I want to keep playing house shows—I’m not really big on playing a lot of bar gigs. When you play at house shows and colleges people are more enthusiastic.
TK: What’s your favorite show you’ve played?
MH: Oh, just last weekend we played a show at Rowan University. It was really crowded and super energetic. It was just cool because you could see all these kids from the suburbs who had never experienced shows like this, whereas in Philly kids are used to these kinds of shows and places.
TK: What do you love about smaller performances like that?
MH: When the energy of the band matches the energy of the room Continue reading
Listen to two new Desaparecidos tracks (frontman Conor Oberst plays The Kimmel Center in November)
Conor Oberst has always been a musician with a full plate of projects; in the early aughts, he took a brief break from Bright Eyes to front the short-lived post-hardcore band Desaparecidos, which set Obert’s signature howl to crunching, crushing arrangements. Its 2002 album Read Music / Speak Spanish was an exciting mix of incisive, socially-conscious lyrics and loud rock aggression, but short of a couple compilation appearances, that was the last we heard from the band until recently. Desaparecidos reunited for a one-off concert in its home base of Omaha in 2010, with talk of more to come. Today, Alternative Press premiered one new track called “Backsell” – streaming on the magazine’s homepage here – while another, “MariKKKopa,” was posted to YouTube. You can listen to it in the player below, and read a Huffington Post interview with Oberst about the immigration-themed song here. Desaparecidos also announced a fall tour that, right now, is sticking to the west coast; Oberst, however, will play a solo show at The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia on Sunday, Nov. 18. Tickets to the all-ages concert are available now.
Just announced: Conor Oberst playing Kimmel Center Verizon Hall in November
Conor Oberst is playing Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center on Sunday, November 18th. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 22nd at 10 AM. Go here for more information.