What band is the musical vehicle of Conor Oberst?

The musical vehicle of Conor Oberst is Bright Eyes.

Oberst began Bright Eyes as a solo recording project in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1995. The name soon grew into a collaborative band featuring musicians such as Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, with Oberst remaining its principal singer, songwriter, and creative center.

Bright Eyes became widely known in the early 2000s through albums including Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, the acoustic folk record I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, and the more electronic Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. Those two 2005 albums were released on the same day and showed the project's striking stylistic range.

Oberst has also worked with Desaparecidos, the Mystic Valley Band, Monsters of Folk, and Better Oblivion Community Center. That wider career can cause confusion, but Bright Eyes is the specific band most closely identified with him. The group went on hiatus after 2011 and returned with new music in 2020.