Is Better Oblivion Community Center a new Conor Oberst/Phoebe Bridgers band?
UPDATE: It’s all true and you can listen now!
A month ago, a whole bunch of connected music industry people and artists — Conor Oberst included — retweeted this:
Brochures for our 2019 program are almost ready. Contact us:
(785) 433-5534 pic.twitter.com/ERTAVts98p— Better Oblivion Community Center (@better_oblivion) December 14, 2018
Today, people that signed up got a brochure in the mail, Conor Oberst’s record label Team Love included:
this came in the mail today: @better_oblivion pic.twitter.com/aUNTCGG3QO
— Team Love Records (@teamloverecords) January 14, 2019
Maybe you’ve seen their ads on a bench:
According to the internet, a session musician recently posted on Facebook (now deleted) that they were recording with Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers for a new project. The internet is pretty convinced that’s what this is, and it wouldn’t be the first time Conor and Phoebe collaborated.
Here’s a better look at the complete brochure:
Forgot I signed up for @better_oblivion and got creeped tf out when this came in the mail today pic.twitter.com/KOtksUDx4o
— meg bacon and cheese (@meganhurtz) January 14, 2019
It advertises a website and the social media accounts for Better Oblivion Community Center.
Look close at the mysterious cult-like flyer and you’ll also see the name “Reverend Christian Lee Hutson.” Christian Lee Hutson may look like a reverend, but I know him as a singer-songwriter who often performs with Jenny Lewis and Phoebe Bridgers. Phoebe often calls him her favorite songwriter. Here they are together:
Phoebe recently mentioned in an interview — one of the many she, Julien Baker & Lucy Dacus (who follows the Better Oblivion Community Center social media accounts already) did for boygenius — that she has been producing some music. My first guess was that it was for Christian.
Is the internet correct that this is a new Conor and Phoebe project? Is Christian involved? Perhaps we’ll find out on 1/23, which is the date printed on the brochure. Or perhaps we’ll find out when — according to a link I found on the internet — pre-orders begin on 1/21 for a self-titled LP by Better Oblivion Community Center (the link I found also says this album has a release date of 2/22). Oh, and there’s already a cryptic audio file on Spotify:
Stay tuned!
UPDATE: It’s all true and you can listen now!