7.26.2007
The National
"'Cause they're gonna be cool happy genius heroes. I'm gonna miss them so much."

The National! Why, oh why, did it take me so long to get turned on to the National. Maybe I overlooked them because I was already a listener of Grand National. I'm prone to doing things like that -- I thought Rise Against was a watered-down version of Rage Against the Machine with less members or something. Fuck, bands should make distinctive names. Like have you realized how many bands have days of the week in them? Taking Back Sunday, Thursday, Sunday's Best (whoot)... Hmm... I'm sure there's more...

Anyway, none of that really matters because, in the end, The National and I are now bosom buddies in my head. The first thing that got me was the almost Grandpa Cash-mature voice. Like that one song Johnny came out with right before he died... the one that got nominated for a Grammy... The second thing that got me was the lyrics. I'll admit that a lot of the time it's hard to decipher what the lyrics really are, 'cause sometimes Grandpa Cash doesn't enunciate all too well, but the words I could pull out of the song are really poignant. Case in point: "Don't make me cry/Everything you say has water under it." Sung in that deep, Mr. Man voice, all the lyrics sound almost Shakespearean.

Well The National's touring a lot this year. Check their Myspace and official site for more info. Also, their newest album Boxer is out now, and I highly recommend it. Listen to the posted mp3s ("Green Gloves" and "Squalor Victoria" are off of Boxer; the others are B-sides/demos) and get turned on to another great "national" band.

Haven't posted four songs in a while...
mp3 Squalor Victoria
mp3 Santa Clara
mp3 Blank Slate
mp3 Green Gloves

[The National's Myspace][The National's Official site]
Extensive tour listing on both sites. Too long to put up here.

--

Soyea August 2nd. Emo's. Great Northern & The Comas. Be there. We will be.

Soyea Animal Collective's recent performance at London's Coronet Theatre is sitting in its entirety in a convenient little zip file at IGIF.
Published at 11:16 AM by Alina.
0 comments