On Saturday May 15th, ZYNC from American Express presents an evening with The National benefiting Red Hot. This VEVO event on YouTube will be streamed LIVE at http://www.youtube.com/thenationalvevo from the Brooklyn Academy of Music at 8PM EST / 5PM PST. We are excited to announce that D.A. Pennebaker (director of DON'T LOOK BACK, MONTEREY POP, and THE WAR ROOM, among other amazing films) and Chris Hegedus (http://phfilms.com/ ) will be directing a LIVE-to-the-internet, webcast of the show.

two friends of mine are going to this. they're pretty amped.

They were giving away tickets for this on KCRW. Would SO love to be there.

I saw them free at Fountain Square in Cincinnati playing an Obama rally with Natalie Portman. The band was pretty tight.

for a far superior version of "terrible love" (courtesy of magiska):

Did anyone catch them on Letterman last night or know what they played?

I was too busy jizzing my pants over their incredible super-awesomeness to even hear a note.

hey look, rads is unhappy that we're happy guys.

psst, hey... man... dunno if you've heard or not? But there's this ka-razy thing called the internet and an even CRAZIER search engine called Google. You type things into it, like "david letterman the national" and cool things come up... LIKE THIS VIDEO.

http://www.shallownation.com/2010/05/14 ... o-5-13-10/

Thanks d (ass) , I was at work and didn't have access to all those things. I've since seen the YouTube of their appearance on Letterman last night. It was striking.

They're a pretty good band. Go fuck yourself.

That said, I just realised what the new record is lacking: a little humor.

The last couple had some really fucking funny lines, but this one is just morose from start to finish, and it kinda drags and grates after a while.

I'm a reasonable man, I like a little humor with my sadsack pity songs.

Awesome.

Man, I don't think I could disagree more. The lines I'm assuming you find humorous, i.e. "Can I get a minute of not being nervous and not thinking of my dick," I found awkward and off putting. I'm glad they knocked that shit off.

I haven't paid any attention to the lyrics of the new album yet, but overall I'm starting to think it is their best one yet.

I'm thinking more like the lyrics to "Karen".

shit, you're right...he needs to talk about his cock more.

Hmmm. This will probably make no sense, but let's see. There are bands who are "postmodern" (yes) and bands who are "modern" (no). "Postmodern" - though it itself is a tired, worn term - are those whose music, in some way, is about music - self-referential, and ironic (c.f. humor above), not just or even in lyrics, but some framing of the "narrative" of the music and band, both the marketed filtered story of how they sound and someway the actual sounds of the guitars, the melodic lines, the broken and pulled apart and fragmentary shards of the popular song, at least to some degree acknowledges the loss of innocence, the Fall from Grace that consciousness forces, the loss of God, and disintegration of cultural norms and signposts, and is music about this layeredness. Jane's Addiction yes, Guns and Roses no. Cure yes, Echo and the Bunnymen no. Pavement yes, Pearl Jam no. X yes, Black Flag no. The Stones yes, Led Zep no. Kraftwerk yes, Can no. You see where I am going with this. More recently: My Morning Jacket yes, Band of Horses no. The "nos" have their appeal, are Romantic with a big R.

In this framing: The National, with lovely toons, and clean guitar world sound, is a no.

You sure you don't have this one backwards?

Ha. Someone actually reads and understands. When I read it after posting it I thought "an argument could be made both ways on this one."

I think I rank 'em this way
Alligator>>>>High Violet>Boxer>>Cherry Tree=Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers>>>>>Self Titled=The Virginia EP

I opened this thread probably 10 times before I read Dalen's original post.

I mean, it sounds awesome, but unless you're a middle school girl, there's no need for that many exclamation poonts.

yeah, dalen is often plagued with excessive exclamation mark usage

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Drinky's post above is a "yes"

4th thread about the National by dalen this year.