Just posted, a profile/interview with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst. In this nearly 5,000-word story (yeah, it's really that long) Conor talks about the place Cassadaga, the record Cassadaga, the meaning behind a handful of its songs and how they tie to his life (from panic attacks to colon cleansing), politics (including the politics of talk shows), Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott and orchestras, Rolling Stone and (possible) gold records, and being comfortable right here in Omaha. Read it here.

As amazingly long and drawn-out as this story is, there's still thousands of words that didn't make the cut, which I'll be compiling as an addendum (or a Pt. 2) for next week's column (look for it here next Wednesday). Thanks go out to Robb Nansel and Jason Kulbel at Saddle Creek Records for helping arrange the interview, and of course to Oberst for doing it. In all honesty, I didn't think I'd get a shot at talking to him this time, especially after his publicist declined the initial interview request, saying that Conor was only taking international press this time. There are advantages, it seems, to being from Omaha as well as having written about him for a decade. In all honesty, he ain't that much different from the 18-year-old college guy I talked to back in '98. The stage is bigger, his sound is bigger, his life is bigger, but he's basically the same.

Tonight at The Waiting Room, coming straight to you from a garage in Tel Aviv, it's Monotonix with Lincoln's Rent Money Big and Omaha's The Lepers. Monotonix is a trio of Israeli dirt-heads who grew up with Sabbath and Deep Purple and who have a reputation for doing the unexpected on and off stage. It should make for some colorful hi-jinx. $7, 9 p.m.

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