The pitch for Conor Oberst’s 2008 self-titled release felt like a zen koan: “What is the sound of a one-man band’s solo project?” The answer was a pleasant surprise—fans finally got to hear how Bright Eyes would sound if the dude would lighten up for a minute. Outer South is a different beast. Read the rest of my review at Paper Magazine.

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Bright Eyes, “Hot Knives”

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Janet Weiss pulled her weight when she joined Sleater-Kinney; her drumming on 1997’s Dig Me Out crystallized a tightness and tautness that the band had only hinted at before, and over the course of four more records became as essential to their sound as anything dueling frontwomen Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein were coming up with. It’s nice to know, then, that her talents are still being put to use; a year after S-K announced an indefinite hiatus, Weiss popped up in the ever-rotating Bright Eyes backup band to keep time on the second single from 2007’s Cassadaga. “Hot Knives” is the kind of exact kind of sprawling, grandiose stuff we’ve all come to expect from Conor Oberst, and yet Weiss makes her influence amply felt with a beat that sounds like a hundred fills strung together. It’s something few drummers would dare to keep up for four and a half minutes.