Bright Eyes Release Their Brand New 'Kids Table' EP

09-27-2025

(TOC) Hot on the heels of their extensive & acclaimed North American tour supporting 2024's Five Dice, All Threes, Bright Eyes have released its follow-up EP titled Kids Table via Dead Oceans. Comprised of eight tracks, Kids Table, is the latest project from Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott.

The EP release comes replete with focus track "Victory City," paired with a black-and-white visualizer fit for the introspective, melancholy closing tune. The focus track takes its title from Salman Rushdie's novel of the same name-an epic that narrates the tale of a state that forever fails to live up to its ideals. Rushdie's (who is namechecked in the song's opening line) criticism is a guiding tenet for Oberst, who explores this theme throughout Kids Table.

"Victory City" joins Bright Eyes' previously-released Kids Table singles "1st World Blues" and "Dyslexic Palindrome." Released in July, "1st World Blues" makes a case for a fourth wave of ska, as Oberst laments the current state of the world with a biting takedown of contemporary American capitalism, propelled by gang vocals and an infectious off-beat rhythm. Meanwhile, "Dyslexic Palindrome," featuring Hurray For The Riff Raff's Alynda Segarra, juxtaposes gritty and breezy vocals, coming together for a dynamic duet that examines the dark complacency of living in today's capitalistic culture.

"The Kids Table EP is a bit of Bright Eyes reverse-engineering," says Conor Oberst. "During the simpler times when we were putting out records on our own label, Saddle Creek, we'd release EPs as precursors to albums. They'd usually feature one song from the upcoming record, with up to five additional B-sides that didn't make the album (like with There Is No Beginning to the Story EP before Lifted & the Four Winds EP before Cassadaga).

"Kids Table is essentially the same concept, but a year after Five Dice, All Threes came out, instead of beforehand like we used to do. The song "Kids Table" was actually one of our ideas for a single for Five Dice, All Threes, but we were never very good at picking our own singles... so in the end we left it off the record knowing that we'd be making this EP and it would eventually get its day in the sun. The rest of the songs are pieces that we all loved, but didn't fit into the puzzle of Five Dice. So come eat off an ironing board with us. Every day is a holiday."

On Kids Table, Bright Eyes return in full force, sprinkling the EP with bons mots, wordplay and references to everyone from William Shakespeare and Salman Rushdie to Candice Bergen, Joe Strummer and even Mrs. Peacock from Clue. Sonically, Kids Table holds true to Bright Eyes' DNA with blood-on-the-tracks honesty as well as a haunting rendition of "Sharp Cutting Wings (Song to a Poet)," a cover of the Lucinda Williams song released the year that Oberst was born. The heart of Kids Table, "Sharp Cutting Wings (Song to a Poet)," was the first thing Oberst wanted to sing after recovering from a medical emergency in Fall of 2024 that left him battling vocal problems.

Meanwhile, landmark occasions such as sitting at the "kids table," going to prom, trying a new SSRI and more are inscribed on the board game-inspired cover of Kids Table. And therein lies the chiaroscuro of Bright Eyes' music, perpetually teetering between rogue optimism and pragmatic despair. Following the band's 2024 visceral and hook-filled Five Dice, All Threes by almost exactly a year, the new EP exists as both a partner-in-crime to that album and a self-contained world all of its own.