Beloved American indie rock band Bright Eyes have released a cover of Elliott Smith’s “St. Ides Heaven”, which is taken from the first in a forthcoming series entitled The Companion Series. The first of these is officially titled Letting Off Happiness: A Companion, which will be released alongside two other entries via Dead Oceans on May 27th. The release of this new cover comes just after the announcement that Bright Eyes will be embarking on their first full North American tour in eleven years. In addition to this, the band will embark on an EU/UK run in August and September. You can pre-order the Companion series here, and tickets for the band’s upcoming shows can be found here.
Last month, the band announced their plans to re-issue every single one of their past studio albums (nine in total) as a Companion series, with some additional recordings taken from their sessions at ARC Studios in Omaha, Nebrasksa. The forthcoming project will be accompanied by a release of a Companion E.P. consisting of five new recording of songs, as well as a cover version of an artist that they found to be inspiring at the time of the original recording.
Bright Eyes originally took its genesis as a moniker for then 15-year old Conor Oberst’s work with producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis. In 2006, composer and arranger Nathaniel Walcott became an official member of the band, as well as Mogis. Bright Eyes’ influence on indie music and music in general cannot be understated, as their work has been covered by the likes of Lorde, The Killers, Mac Miller, Phoebe Bridgers, Snow Patrol and beabadoobee.
The band was originally active until 2011, announcing a hiatus in November of that year, after which Walcott, Oberst and Mogis pursued other projects. The band returned in 2020, perhaps at an ill-fated time due to the then impending COVID-19 pandemic, however this did not stop them from rolling out new music, beginning with the single “Persona Non Grata”, their first single in nine years, and later on in August of that year, they released their newest album Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was. The album can be found on all streaming services, and you can listen to “Miracle of Life” featuring Phoebe Bridgers down below.
The dates for Bright Eyes’ upcoming UK shows can be seen down below.
30/08/2022- Eventim Apollo- London
31/08- O2 Apollo- Manchester
01/09- Vicar Street- Dublin
05/09- O2 Institute- Birmingham
06/09- Barrowland- Glasgow
