Alternative rock heroes of the 2000s, reassemble! My Chemical Romance is back together, The Strokes have a new album on the way, and it looks like Bright Eyes have something special planned for the new year.
On Thursday afternoon (Jan. 9), the Conor Oberst-led indie-folk band — inactive for almost a decade — launched a brand-new Instagram account flaunting “#BrightEyes2020.” The same hashtag, along with an animation (see below) was also shared on the Bright Eyes Twitter account (which has only posted sparingly in recent years) and on the band’s Facebook and website.
Oberst and bandmates Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott were last active in 2011, the same year Bright Eyes released their most recent full-length, The People's Key. In the years since, Oberst released several solo albums, reunited his 2000s punk band Desaparecidos for a 2015 LP, and joined forces with Phoebe Bridgers last year to form the super-duo Better Oblivion Community Center.
Now, it appears Oberst will be devoting a good deal of the new year to the band that made him of one of indie's most critically acclaimed figures and inspired countless more alt-folk projects in the early years of the new millennium.
It's not yet known what exactly Bright Eyes has in store for 2020 — a new album? touring? "When the President Talks to God" 2.0? — but Billboard has reached out to a rep for the band's longtime label Saddle Creek for more information.
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