an open letter to bright eyes fans

dear fans of conor oberst,

are you deaf? seriously. are you?

before you suspect that i am someone who has never actually listened to mr. oberst and am just making judgments because he is a critic's darling , let me tell you that i did, in fact, try very hard to like bright eyes. in late 2000, one of my two best friends bought fevers and mirrors and loved it; he proclaimed it to be the best thing he'd ever heard. he burned me a copy and i listened to it and just didn't get it. some whiney boy from omaha talking about his dead brother in a bathtub and other such nonsense? it didn't hit me the way that oh so many other albums have. but, i didn't want to give up, and went to see bright eyes play live in february of 2001. and you know what? it was totally crap. like, among the worst shows that i have ever been to actually. oberst oozes pretension, and that, my friends, is something that i cannot handle.

plus, after seeing him live, i realized that his voice had the ability to make me physically ill.

for example, how is this any good? ooh, he's making a political statement and does not like our president! he is so in tune with today's culture!

and, he's from nebraska! do i even need to say anymore?

his lyrics are not good. his sense of melody is not good. he cannot sing, he kind of whines. his voice is shakey, at best. his songs are crap. his albums are crap. and yet, somehow, he has legions of fans!

if you could please explain to me, in ten sentences or less, why he is good, that would be most helpful. i would really like to understand the appeal, though i must say that i will probably never be a fan of his music.

in the meantime, i am going to go sit outside by a tree and ponder life.



love!
erin