The first time I ever heard of The National was how most people heard about them "Hey! Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is playing my town!!! Wait a second, they're OPENING?!? For WHO?!? The National!? I never even heard of them". Sad but true. I was ignorant. I had a friend tell me for the past couple of years that Alligator was brilliant. Whatever. He said that the Dismemberment Plan was brilliant too. I brushed him off. I might have at some point come into contact with Alligator. I probably downloaded it (RIP Oinks), listened to two or three songs then got distracted and wandered off. Hey, with a 30GB ipod and a 160GB hard drive, I have a lot of music. If you don't grab me fast, I'm liable to wander off.
Then came the girl and her offer of tickets to see the Arcade Fire. "Who's opening?" "I don't know...some band called The National" " You know, I never got into them but I've heard good things...."
So they opened and they were good. I liked them as much as probably is possible to like an opening band that you've never heard before (unless of course it's Man Man). I probably went back, listened to Alligator again, probably downloaded Boxer as well. By that point I think Alligator had made it onto my ipod but still, that's not saying much.
And yet, as the summer progressed, I began to make a transition in life. My college career has begun to wind down. My life as a business major is beginning to start up. I started to spend more time in offices than I did in class rooms. More time wandering dark cobblestone city streets than I did grassy campuses. I began to be less of a teenager and more of a twenty something. And Alligator began to make sense.
As the summer turned into fall turned into winter and I managed to score the internship in the city that I most wanted, as relationships began to fall apart only to be resuscitated only to fall apart again, as I began to spend much of my time packed into commuter trains or in empty subway cars or in office buildings 5 floors above the trash strewn streets, as I no longer looked upon college students with any sort of connection, Alligator began to look positively genius to me. Secret Meeting scored an interstate drive to see a friend. Mr. November was the soundtrack to efforts to save a failing relationship. I remember driving around back country Dutchess County one night, staring at the infinite night sky listening to Looking For Astronauts.
Then as soon as my dalliance with Alligator began to reach it's peak, another lover, Boxer, began to try to steal my attention away. Mr. November marked one pole of my life and Fake Empire the other and everything that I do, everything I feel, and everything that I think happens on that axis.
I saw it written somewhere that Bruce Springsteen wrote songs for the blue collar American worker and that The National write songs for the white collar American worker. That's exactly how I feel. Me, the new blue blood, in my beloved white shirt with the tie I tied all by myself, have found my spokesperson. The National speaks for those of us who despite putting our college degrees to good use, despite the daily commute and the daily grind, still harbor dreams of being an indie rock star. After all, if Robert Pollard can lead the double life, why can't we. And if that indie rock stardom fails than we'll just settle for a nice apartment and somebody else who returns out love and lets us listen to our vinyl as loudly as we want.
This is who the The National sing for and that is why I think they're my new favorite band.
No comments:
Post a Comment