Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The National “Boxer”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The National
Album Title: Boxer
Year released: 2007
Year reissued: 2011
Details: yellow

The skinny: The last post in this series featured the just purchased brand new album by The National, “I am easy to find”, and it’s been on regular rotation on the turntable ever since. The American alternative rock band has consistently put out excellent records, at least since I picked up on them. And the record that started it off for me was this one, “Boxer”, an album I ranked at number four for 2007 when I counted down that year’s best album many months ago now. In that same post, I talked about how I fed an MP3 version of the album through my stereo so that I could record it to cassette tape in order to listen to it in my car. Good times. Now I just spin it on my turntable in pretty pretty yellow.

Standout track: “Mistaken for strangers”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The National “I am easy to find”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The National
Album Title: I am easy to find
Year released: 2019
Details: black, 180 gram, gatefold sleeve

The skinny: As promised on Thursday, I headed out to one of my local record shops on Friday to procure myself a copy of The National’s eighth and latest studio album, “I am easy to find”. I’ve seen a lot of pics on Instagram already this weekend of the special coloured and clear versions and of course, the expanded multi-coloured set but I opted to get the 180-gram, double album pressing in black for my collection, though I did hold the expanded set in my hand for a few minutes. The album is another change in direction for the five-piece, this time enlisting a platoon of female vocalists to add their touch to the lush instrumentation and to Matt Berninger’s by-now-well-known baritone. I am just now on my third spin through and will likely give it a few more goes on this May long weekend.

Standout track: “Rylan”

Categories
Live music galleries

Live music galleries: The National [2014]

(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

The National live @ Ottawa Folk Festival, 2014

Artist: The National
When: September 12th, 2014
Where: Eh! Stage, Ottawa Folk Festival, Hog’s Back Park, Ottawa
Context: I had almost forgotten that tomorrow is the day The National is due to release their eighth studio album, “I am easy to find”. They have become one of my favourite bands still regularly releasing music and one of the few that are so reliable, I feel confident purchasing each new album for my vinyl collection without first hearing any of its tunes. I got into them with their fourth album, 2007’s “Boxer”, and by the time 2013 and their sixth album, “Trouble will find me”, rolled around, things had gotten serious between me and the band. While they were touring in support of that album, they headlined the third night of Ottawa’s Folk Festival, for which I had purchased a pass, mostly because The National were appearing there. That year was the final year the festival was held at the pastoral Hog’s Back Park and and the final year before it was rebranded as “CityFolk”. The National’s set on September 12th was mind blowing, my favourite of the festival and likely, of all the sets I had witnessed that year. All of that to say, the release date is remembered. See you all at the record stores tomorrow.
Point of reference song: I need my girl

Matt Berninger and Scott Devendorf of The National
Bryce Dessner of The National
Matt Berninger and the brothers Devendorf of The National
Aaron Dessner of The National
Bryce Dessner again
Matt Berninger and Scott Devendorf close up