[font=Arial]<span style='font-family:Impact'>What does The National mean to you????

My friend asked me that the other day and it was a bit difficult to answer. Not in the fashion of I didnt know...just that its hard to explain such a vast terrain of emotion or feeling in just a few words.

I thought i'd put this topic up for all of you to discuss what they mean to you. The things that you identify most with them, and the things you felt when you first heard them. How you first heard them. And The National song that sums you up the most as a person.

Great artists tempt each other. To take more and more risks, always discovering something they'd perhaps had in mind but couldnt quite bring home before. They dare and thrill each other, because they have nothing to lose, yet everything to lose.

In the end, when it's all said and done, thats when the best things happen. You may never hear it, its hard to locate, and its hard to get the right people in the right place at the right time. But if its done...it can hold your heart fugitive.

This is what The National means to me.

I missed the boat on Alligator. I missed it completely. To this day, I still dont understand how such a great record flew under my radar.

One day, around the third week of living with my new wife, i was listening to an album i had bought on a whim based on a review in some magazine i read. And it was with those opening piano chords of Fake Empire that my love of The National was born.

My life was new, surreal and uncertain...but in Boxer laid a comfort for me. An identifiable high watermark of a new beginning, and THAT comfort. Comfort in an uncertain future.

I discovered The National by complete accident as well. I saw Abel on You Tube and the impact was instant. I was knocked out by some nutcase yelling "my mind's not right" over and over.

I got to see them at Double Door here in Chicago. I met them and had conversations with Scott, Bryan, and Matt. I think that cannot be overstated in my experience. They were as nice of guys as I could possibly ask to meet. There's a lack of ego and pretension that is refreshing.

Mistaken, I think you hit it on the head with this: "In the end, when it's all said and done, thats when the best things happen. You may never hear it, its hard to locate, and its hard to get the right people in the right place at the right time. But if its done...it can hold your heart fugitive."

Since I've discovered them, my answer to people about why I love them so much is that it's the exact band I would be in if I could form one.

I was recovering from a painful divorce and starting to find my feet when I discovered Alligator. Val Jester and City Middle were on repeat for the better part of a month.

Overall, I think there's such a normalcy about them. The lyrics are not pedestrian but they reflect an every-dayness that is hard to capture. It's obvious to say but the music compliment the lyrics and the lyrics complement the music. They've got something special here. We're lucky.

that's what appeals to me as well. the down to earthness and the fact that they look and talk (lyric wise) like the people i know and like.

the national write music for humans.

people like you, people like me. people that sit on the internet and read the news, people that pick up the newspaper, people that watch tv.

people whose minds aren't right, people who want winter to leave, people who just want to turn the light out and say goodnight.

deviants, miscreants, kids and adults. from abel to virginia.

there's always something you can relate to in a national song. a lyric that resonates personally, a lyric that makes you laugh, a lyric that makes you say 'i wish i had that'. the national can inspire any variety of emotions in any person.

i was a latecomer to the band, too. heard (guess it. seriously, guess!) 'driver, surprise me' on pandora radio in february of last year, and was hooked. from one song. i knew every verse, every bit of timing, from the first time i heard it.

i managed to get their entire discography just a little album called 'boxer' was hitting stores. for the first time ever, my favorite band was changed.

june 7th last year, a good friend and i stumbled around chicago, and finally found our way to their show at the metro. bought tickets two days before. he'd never heard them before, and he was absolutely floored. seeing them live was like nothing i'd ever seen before. i'd only heard recordings, never watched a video. it's a damn-near religious experience.

on june 19th last year, i met the girl i want to spend the rest of my life with. on that day, we sat on my bed, and we sang 'apartment story' together. her favorite band changed for the first time ever, too.

the national tend to follow you around, a little bit. it's amazing music for anybody with a pulse and functional ear drums.

(long winded, i know. but i get a little amped talking about these guys.)

(i'll stop now.)

--d

I, for one, don't mind your "long windedness". I think it's great and completely appropriate in a forum about The National that we can stretch our points out.

One thing I like about this forum is that we all share a passion about the band. I must interrupt my own post and reveal another reason I love The National. At the 4:40 mark of Cardinal Song, the piano and violin materialize and take the whole song in a completely different different direction and Matt sings, "Jesus Christ, you have confused me." Perfect.

Anyway, this is a good community. Not too rabid to be exclusive. I like it.

This might be the best thread ever.
The first National song I ever heard was "Mr. November." It was the last song on an Uncut compilation and upon first hearing it I immediately knew that I had to have the album. It connected with me in an immediate and visceral way. (Digression: The last time I felt that instant and intense a rapport with a band was when I first heard the first Clash album - drums, guitar, and "He's in love with rock'n'roll woaahhh" and for the first time in my life this was EXACTLY how music was supposed to sound. End digression.) After hearing Alligator, I knew that, number one, I had to get all their other albums, and number two, that they would be incredible to see live. There are very few albums I have ever listened to with the frequency and intensity that I've listened to Alligator and probably none that still sound as fresh and interesting to me as they did the first time I put them on.
A few of the things I love about the National, in no order:
1. Fucking incredible drumming.
2. Smart lyrics that I can think about for hours.
3. They never do the predictable thing musically, which keeps them fresh and interesting.
4. The band members seem like people you would want to hang out with.
5. Matt Berninger's voice.
6. The most incredible live presence of any band I have ever seen.
I could go on and on, but the short version is that it all adds up to an intensity of feeling that I've only gotten from a few bands in my life. There's definitely no other band that would inspire me to buy...a team scarf.

i guess my story is a classic tale of subconscious. It started as with so many records i've fallen in love with int he past 4 years. Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music going "and this is the National" and playing Secret Meeting back in Spring 2006.
Despite having heard "Lit Up" a bunch of times but not knowing the song or the artist, this time there was a mental connection. I was off seeing Editors in a few weeks for the 8th or whatever time and The National were supporting. The gig came and we were pretty amazed. I remembered they opened with "Lit Up" and "Secret Meeting" and i thought 'well theres the two songs i know'. The set went on and was relatively subdued - Matt chainsmoked the entire set - it must have been one of the bigger venues they'd played - Brixton Academy holds 5000 and its Editors first big stint of big gigs. The set climated spectacularly - the tension, the yelling, the beauty of what is now so familiar among Mr November and About Today. I remember one of my friends saying she wanted marry the voilin player

Summer came and a lot of my issues were really grinding me down. I put on Alligator and as the days all blended into one it became the unknowing soundtrack. Every word was written on my brain... I needed something in my life to cushion everything and Alligator was the record that did that for me. The last time i got so into a bands lyrics were back when i was 15 and my bible was actually a Manic Street Preachers record.

Eventually i found Sad Songs in a second-hand record shop - probably around October '06. And everything followed.

I've been thinking a lot about Monday 21st May 2007 a lot lately. Not only was it Boxer's release but a special day for us Londoners... The National playing in the basement bar of a record shop (RIP), showcasing Boxer's understated majesty. Whilst we were fortunate that the band simply hung about the bar following the set and willing to chat to the few obessed fans present, the key moment of the night was about 7 minutes into the set when they hit the coda of "Slow Show" and we're thinking 'where is this going?'. Well, where are they now?

umm, in answering the question - I think this band mean everything to me and have done for the past few years. Unhealthy maybe, but I know at the end of every bad day I can go home with a bottle of wine and put on Boxer, or fall asleep to Cherry Tree.

Fantastic use of the word fucking.

Anyhow, the first song I ever heard by The National was Secret Meeting, because I gambled on Alligator after Planet Sound's gushing review. I thought "I think this place is full of spies" was the greatest first line I had ever heard and listened to that song only for about a week, because the rest of the album took me quite a lot longer to get.

Conveniently they happened to be coming to Leeds (a UK city 20 miles from where I lived at the time) a month from then, so having got a few friends into the band we went and the conversion was complete. Later in 2005 I saw them again, and it was the best gig of my life.

What do the National mean to me? Well I'm one of those awful people who are always trying to find the latest new music and become obsessed with new bands all the time, at the same time casting away yesterday's news. I know, one of those . The difference with the National is that I have never become tired of them. I've never been this obsessed with a band for so long, or cared this much about a band. I will sit and analyse every part of a National song so that I know it inside out. The band is brilliant both musically and lyrically, and on every song a different member shines.

Here goes the first post...

I love the sensational feeling from a song when a lyric really connects with you almost as if its written exclusively for you, when i heard Boxer the first album of theirs i checked out there were so many lines that had that connection. The imagery he can create and emotions Berninger can evoke in just one line is astounding. There is a nostalgic quality to each of the songs aswell helped by the vocals which manage to sound deep and full of regret yet inexplicably uplifting at the same time.

Having learnt Boxer and Alligator back to back i went to see them last november. As a drummer myself, i seized an opportunity to talk to Bryan (fucking incredible drumming is right) i hurriedly shook his hand and then slipped away nervously. By the end of start a war i felt my eyes fill with tears and it was only the first song. I heard my brother master of the understatement say "...so beautiful".

There music and lyrics really have given so much to me - comforting, uplifting or just rocking.

I don't even like making grand statements about bands but there it is...

thank you so much, everybody. these stories are exactly what i had in mind. please keep em coming.

1. the music is given me, GIVEN ME THAAA SHIVVVVERS!
2. also, matts words are like the book of my life. he seems like a dude i could sit around and chill with all day. he seems even more fucked up in the head than i am. which is hawt.

I found another "National" moment. Toward the end of "Cherry Tree" when Matt sings, "Can we show, a little discipline.......can we?" It's that repeat of "can we" that takes the song somewhere else for me. Awesome.

I like the build at the end of "Slipping Husband," where the phrase, "Dear, we better get a drink in you before you start to bore us," builds from a conversational tone into a scream.

I stumbled upon these guys while surfing thru Emusic.

I'm a metal freak at heart but love a lot of different music. All the way from Crowbar on the heavy side to Wilco who is running neck and neck for the lead as my favorite band right now.

When I found these guys about three weeks ago I was completely floored. Some of the most haunting and easiest music I've ever connected with. I haven't quite pegged down why yet and I don't know if I ever want too. It's too good of a "run" to be screwed up by me over analyzing it. I haven't been pulled in by an album (Boxer) like this in a long time.

I do know I'll be investing in more music from The National and finding a show to see as soon as possible.

DonnM


"Atheist make terrible suicide bombers"

Because I have a playlist of 122 national songs that have been recorded live or in studio, and though they frequently share the same name each one is completely unique.

Also because I can put that playlist on shuffle, hug a pillow and get lost in a shadow of my life when times seem to much, which they do more and more lately. It's like some one is singing a brother's biography, with chapters that reflect my own life, and constantly reverberate it's themes.


Because it's the best way to lose an afternoon.

And a The National concert is hands down the best way to spend a night.


And because anyone who has met them knows they're great guys.

but most of all because they make me feel that I'm not alone when I want to scream "I'm so sorry for everything"

current personal favorite lyric

And how is the water of the rain
and how is the air of the wind
and how are the arms of your mother
She's holdin' you in.