"Bright Eyes Goes Ska" is a headline that fans might have read when the band released their recent album Five Dice, All Threes — if only Conor Oberst's label hadn't talked him out of releasing the song "First-World Blues."
Speaking with the podcast Broken Record earlier this month (December 10), Oberst revealed that, when Bright Eyes sent the new album to Dead Oceans, the label objected to two of the songs: "Hate," due to its potentially controversial lyrics decrying religion, and an unreleased cut called "First-World Blues."
"I actually like it a lot and I think it's catchy, but it's a ska song," Oberst said. "It didn't make the record, because they [the label reps] were like, 'If you put this on the record, all anyone's going to say is, "Bright Eyes goes ska,"' or something. I don't know."
He added, "I capitulated on the ska song, and then I was like, 'Hate' is going on the record." As fans already know, "Hate" does indeed appear on Five Dice, All Threes.
Even if "First-World Blues" didn't make the album, "Bright Eyes Goes Ska" will likely still make headlines, since Oberst promised that the song is "definitely going to see the light of day one of these days." He estimated that the band recorded about eight songs that didn't make the final tracklist but will come out at some point in the future.