Read Music/Speak Spanish

While Bright Eyes sent you on a cathartic, tear-jerking journey through the winding roads of interpersonal relationships, Desaparecidos charges and grumbles through the littered, Starbucks-friendly freeways of urban sprawl. With fellow Omaha musician and co-songwriter Denver Dalley by Oberst’s side on Read Music/Speak Spanish, Desaparecidos rocks steady and hard in true wall-of-sound style, capturing the primal power inherent in coming-of-age youth. But it’s not just youth in general — it’s those raised in America during the consumer-first, "Me"-minded commercial climate of the 1980s. With little bits of conversation and static woven into Read Music/Speak Spanish, Desaparecidos calls upon the television that raised them.