Bright Eyes & Neva Dinova Release One Jug Of Wine, Two Vessels

Bright Eyes

Back in 2004 two Nebraskan songwriters, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and Jake Bellows of Neva Dinova brought their respective bands together to record an EP for indie label Crank!

The collaboration, One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels, had Conor and Jake dividing the songwriting duties. The original tracks were recorded by both bands in basements of houses on quiet, leafy streets in Omaha in the fall of 2003.

Six years later it has been given a re-working and a re-release by Omaha independent Saddle Creek. Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova reconvened in the fall of 2009 to write and record four brand new tracks at Mogis’ ARC Studios, creating an album-length work that includes the first new Bright Eyes material since 2007′s Cassadaga.

Back in 2004 both bands’ front men explained their collaboration:

Jake Bellows:
“I think it was 1996 when we met for the first time. We played a show with Norman Bailer and Commander Venus and I forgot the words to one of our songs. Conor was in the audience and hollered out the next line of the song. I couldn’t believe that someone in town knew our music. Maybe it was a year or two ago that we first talked about doing some kind of split or something. This was our first time collaborating with anyone and we wanted to see if we could make some music with our friends. We think Conor is a great songwriter and we were honored to work with him. Also, we had a shit-ton of fun.”

Conor Oberst:
“There’s a feeling I get when I hear Jake sing that is rather addictive. It runs the length of my spine and makes me feel as if I were living some wonderful life long ago… maybe the roaring twenties… smoking strong cigarettes in red a tinted parlor with a record player you have that winds like a watch by turning a crank, but the music beneath that voice is more familiar. It sounds like Omaha – a decade of house shows and warped seven inches and drunken band practices that we have all shared.

“Making this record was something Jake and I had talked about many times over the last few years but every time our schedules allowed we preferred glorious drinking binges and nonsense conversations over getting anything done… But finally we did it. Recording Jake singing one of my songs is one of the most special things that has ever happened to me musically. It was so much fun recording these songs. We seamlessly moved from Heath and Jake’s basement to mine to Presto! the whole time feeling motivated by the songs and having a great laugh along the way.”

Track Listing:

1. Rollerskating*
2. Happy Accident*
3. Someone’s Love*
4. I Know You*
5. Tripped
6. Black Comedy
7. Poison
8. I’ll Be Your Friend
9. Get Back
10. Spring Cleaning

* brand new song featured only on this release