The National on Pitchfork

One of my most prized discoveries of 2005 was The National's Alligator. "All the Wine" is battling for the top spot on my iTunes Top 25 Most Played, but Alligator might be one of the only albums where I can legitimately say that every song has been my favorite at some point. Matt Berninger's lyrics are somehow full of confidence, bravado, despair and self-doubt all at the same time, often in the same song. I find myself continually impressed, even after repeated listens.

This interview was posted on Pitchfork on Monday (2/6). I'm not sure how I missed it that day, but I'm glad to have found it now.

Berninger seems like a very thoughtful interview:

I think that one thing that I was trying do with Alligator is cut out any lyrics that sounded like obvious statements or big lyrical ideas. ... They might make sense and sound right for one day, then you'd realize that it's just not quite true, not quite right, that the truth is a little mushier than that.

This one seems like an apropos first real post. I might add a few quick hits later tonight from some interesting discusssions going on elsewhere. Stay tuned this weekend for some other stuff I've got planned, including two bonus tracks from Kicking Television.