The National: finally.

Finally, I get some agreeance.  I really feel the National could very well be one of our biggest and most important bands.  Since the release of Boxer, I was hoping.  Since the release of newer LP High Violet, I was believing.  Q readers have called High Violet the album of the year.  More here via Neil McCormick and LHB:

I think the National are one of those groups (like REM and Radiohead in their moment) who have stumbled into a zone where the magical confluence between genuinely poetic language and the songcraft of melody, arrangement and performance creates something actually greater than the sum of its parts. The rise of High Violet reminds me of how albums like REM’s Automatic For The People and Radiohead’s The Bends just sort of floated up to the pop surface, with a texture of originality and depth and melodious purposefulness that was all but irresistible to anyone exposed to it, with the result that very left-field arty bands became household favourites.

Remember remember Mr. November.

High Violet.

This is the album of the season.  I find I usually have about 4 albums per year that really do it.  I just wish The National released this new record during the proper sound-season schedule.  You know.  Marley in the summer, Nick Drake in the fall, the music just feels like weather.  Most bands I listen to have a justifiable time of year attached to their sound.   This record is a November record, their old single does not kid around.

I am a bona fide National enthusiast.  First and favourite album was Boxer [2007]. Most purists prefer Alligator [2005]. Usually first = favourite, because you feel so rewarded for hacking through jungles of monotoned, minimalist melody for at least a few listens.  Then one walks the worn path to working through it until one song clicks into place.  Then another song three days later.  And so it goes.  Like a slowly exposed 3D Magic Eye puzzle.

I’m lucky I get to see them next week, here.  This record was made for that space.  Here’s “Lemonworld”, the clear first song that clicked into place for me this time around.  The great thing about new National records is that once you’ve tackled previous LPs, the learning curve can be virtually instant for the new ones.

The National - Lemonworld

Clear nods to Bruce Springsteen ballads, R.E.M. romanticism, NY darkness, and proof that the simplest of melodies can feel revelatory, honest, and refined.  It’s pop music with a very special voice and pretty things to say.  It’s a staid move away from irony.  It’s that wise nag on your shoulder that encourages you to pull a song back rather than force it higher.   That gets me excited.

So yeah uh… The National were unreal.  Similar set to Toronto, but they comedically noted how much better the night in Montreal felt compared to Kool Haus.  Eat it !  The band played beautifully together, and all of my friends loved how Matt Berninger sings.  I just wish he melodicized his lyrics a bit more, but that’s just me.  I feel like he’s just afraid of being off pitch and every sung note is brief.

They also could have jammed out their songs more for some major impact, but they did a decent job of that already.  Every time I go to a packed show at Metropolis, I always feel like Montreal crowds are loud and supportive.  They seemed happy to play to us, and by golly we liked that.

The National tonight.

Thank you to Chromewaves.net for providing last night’s setlist of The National at Kool Haus.  If tonight at Metropolis is similar, I will turn into a liquefied cookie.  Been looking forward to this long time, and can’t wait to see how these songs stand up live.

Start A War
Brainy
Secret Meeting
Baby We’ll Be Fine
Slow Show
Squalor Victoria
Vanderlylle
Abel
All The Wine
Mistaken For Strangers
Ada
Blood Buzz
Apartment Story
Fake Empire

Runaway
Mr November
About Today

Hear one of my faves and show opener, Start a War, below.

The National – Start a War

The National.

My #2 favourite band of the last 2 years (after the clear mammalian granola cruncher victors).  Just found out yesterday they are coming to Montreal in May! They’re doing a small spring tour, Montreal and Toronto are lucking out.  2007′s Boxer is one of the best records of the past 5 years.  They have found a unique way to tell rock stories, mainly through bari vocalist Matt Berninger.

The songs are romantic, direct, intelligent, dark with pretty/simple melodies.  The melodies are so understated that you drive by them at first, but they stay on your block, and they stay like Crips and Bloods.   Virtuosic (yet understated) drumming, great New Yorkish darkguitars, truly provocative lyrics. They ooze B&W.

I feel like Boxer explores themes of self-deprecation, apprehensive romanticism, and a cold reluctance to settle into warmly waded status quo.  And isn’t that most of us urban 20 somethings in a nutshell?  Even better, they don’t make it sound cliché, at all.  The ubiquitous term for this music has been chronically documented as “grower”.  You won’t love these songs on first chomp, but trust you will swallow something sublime.  Promise.

If you’re interested, here are some videos.  First is the Interpol inspired “Mistaken for Strangers”.

Supplementary single “Apartment Story”.

Lots more where that came from.

05-21 Toronto, Ontario – Kool Haus
05-22 Montreal, Quebec – Metropolis
05-23 Boston, MA – House of Blues
05-24 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
05-25 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
05-27 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
05-28 Raleigh, NC – Maymendi Concert Hall
05-29 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory

À commencer.

Hello. I feel like a debutante. Or a debut ant.

I guess the best way to start is to let you know what I’m listening to and what I’m reading.

I’ve been spinning these tracks for the last month, and they both keep getting better and better.

The National‘s Boxer is about a year old and on virtually every rock critic’s top 10 list of 2007, deservedly so. The bandwagon is warm. Matt Berninger’s vocal delivery is something very special. Don’t let the baritone get you down – it grows on you like Chia.

I think of (good intersection mellow) Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, Interpol, Leonard Cohen. They are notoriously known for being a “grower” band. Remember when you and your friends always say “My favourite albums are the ones that grow on me. You have to earn it.”? Yes, it’s how we all feel, it’s probably the most important sign of a good song, at least to me. This is how the National frames their writing, and this record completely displays it. Not too many bands have this as their mandate, and I have no reasonable idea as to how Matt Berninger writes with that in mind, it’s boggling. Give it a small period of time, you’ll find Waldo.

Fleet Foxes is another deserved bandwagon jump. Say what you want about the almighty Pitchforkmedia.com, they are responsible for distinguishing this band for me, and I appreciated their promotion of Fleet Foxes. Think old Jim James from My Morning Jacket (one of my heroes) goes Great Lake Swimmers. The late bloomer “Blue Ridge Mountains” has really solidified this band as a group who really gets great melody and moody/intelligent arrangements.

” In the quivering forest / Where the shivering dog rests // I will do it grandfather / Wilt to wood and end”

” I was following the pack all swallowed in their coats / with scarves of red tied ’round their throats //
to keep their little heads from fallin’ in the snow / And I turned ’round and there you go”

Check out 4 awesome tracks on their MySpizz. Their songs are so good, it’s actually worth going to their MySpace and tolerating the most blood-boilingly annoying talking emoticon banner ads, trust me.

SAY SOMETHING.

Ok. I’ve also been reading a not-so-new book, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. My mumsy was the main reason why I decided to read it.

Really cool narratives, sporadic, train of thought style dialogue. Fun and complex and disturbing. A cool read so far.

More personal updates will follow soon, but this is more important. Right?