The National

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Olympia, Dublin 15/5/08

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Biography

Cincinnati, United States (1999 – present)

The National is a Brooklyn-based band formed in 1999, by friends from Cincinnati, Ohio. The band’s lyrics are written and sung by Matt Berninger in a distinctive, deep baritone. The rest of the band is composed of two pairs of brothers: Aaron Dessner (guitar, bass, keyboards), Bryce Dessner (guitar), Scott Devendorf (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums).

Their self-titled debut album”The National” (Brassland 2001) was recorded and released before they had played even a single show. They cut the album with engineer Nick Lloyd and formed a label with writer Alec Bemis, so those recordings could be released. Kerrang! magazine gave it four Ks, calling it “the stuff underground legends are made of.”

The National made a second album, “Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers” (Brassland/Talitres 2003). The staff was the same, though Peter Katis, who produced “Turn on The Bright Lights” and “Antics” by Interpol, helped produce and mix, and Australian composer Padma Newsome from Clogs collaborated on arrangements and strings.

Following the first session of several for Bernard Lenoir on France’s Radio Inter, an in-between EP was released, Cherry Tree, containing what would become the blueprint for the sound on their next record and the session of Sad Song’s standout Murder Me Rachael. After these accolades and being impressed by their live show, Roger Trust signed them to Beggars Banquet.
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  • puzzlee

    Amazing <3

    5 hours ago Reply

  • chad1792

    The National has done it again.

    8 hours ago Reply

  • rezozero

    Sound of may

    yesterday evening Reply

  • greene1994

    "If it aint broke, why fix it?" the mindset of the forgotten

    Yesterday 8:32pm Reply

  • padavanGreg

    Those are really nice songs for cats and meerkats.

    Yesterday 8:01pm Reply

  • vakentimmar

    A review in swedish: http://www.vakentimmar.com/2013/05/the-national-trouble-will-find-me.html

    Yesterday 7:27pm Reply

  • Irryco

    Brilliant new album!

    Yesterday 4:05pm Reply

  • kick_yr_crutch

    Given the new one a few listens, agree with Archprophet they always take a bit of time before something clicks and the songs sound somehow different, looking forward to that, on first listen Humiliation and Don't Swallow the Cap stand out to me :) hard to pick a favourite album over all, they all have their moments

    Yesterday 2:10pm Reply

  • Laa-Brent

    istanbulda buluşmak üzere bebeklerim <3

    Yesterday 12:49pm Reply

  • J-to-da-Z

    BNM incoming today or tomorrow?

    Yesterday 4:41am Reply

  • ZioBobby

    i hate when someone says that, but old sound was way better.

    Yesterday 9:51pm Reply

  • Phones666

    But isn't critique opinion-based anyway? Their synthwork could be terrible technique-wise and one can point it out, but another might pinpoint that it matches the song and that it does the song justice or so.

    19 May 8:42pm Reply

  • copiousbred

    that beat is awful, stop yo production game immediately.

    19 May 5:37pm Reply

  • theatmosphere

    @ Trexacious: The numerous ways in which you say you don't like them don't really equate to criticisms. It's fair enough to think those things, just like it's fair enough for me to think that Nightwish are the aural equivalent of a wet fart, but it's not really critiquing their music, just saying why it doesn't do anything for you.

    19 May 2:09pm Reply

  • Tool__

    Album of the year

    19 May 1:37pm Reply

  • MissSmack

    Loving it more and more each time I listen to it.

    19 May 1:02pm Reply

  • andreysoloviev

    I suppose, the new album is their best one.

    19 May 10:58am Reply

  • Archprophet

    I think the new album sounds pretty great so far. I've listened a couple of times, and though the song-to-song flow isn't as smooth as on their previous three, there seemed to be no bad tracks on the album. Don't Swallow the Cap is a perfect song imo, and tracks like Graceless and Fireproof are seriously nice. Not sure whether this'll have the same impact that Alligator, Boxer and High Violet had on me, but it sounds like a return to form so far; every National album has taken a while to sink in for me.

    19 May 9:33am Reply

  • jerkjones

    bro do you even spin

    19 May 9:27am Reply

  • SpinningVinyl

    If anyone here has the intelligence or capabilities to discuss the new album, I'd be happy to do so. I wasn't quite keen on it at first, but after repeated listenings, I discovered something had awakened in me that made me truly appreciate the genius. The National have done it again. I didn't know one band could make so many masterpieces.

    19 May 9:19am Reply
    • All 7747 shouts

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