Sometimes it behooves you to revisit things you really love that may have been put by the wayside in favor of things new and flashy. I'm not sure why I got on a jag to listen to The National today, but that's pretty much what I've done for the past few hours. Listening to their self-titled debut album, I'm amazed, in comparison to the huge number of debut albums I listen to nowadays, how incredible it was -- and even more spectacularly, how much they've grown and developed since then.

I didn't think that much of The National before last year, despite all the buzz -- and yet they made the last half of 2005 bearable for me -- and I'm really not exaggerating when I say that. I just didn't get them until I saw the live show. (Much like my experience with The Wrens...) Not to be melodramatic, I credit them for opening up a floodgate holding back a serious amount of pent-up emotions I'd been carrying with me for years.

Thing one: Vincent Moon's gorgeous video for "Sons and Daughters of the Soho Riots." I'd love to know more about the technicalities of this video (cameras and film stock used, etc.), though I assume it's probably 16mm and not Super8...



Thing two: More from Vincent Moon, live videos from Paris in late 2005. (his site) (youtube: about today, abel, baby we'll be fine)

Thing three: A few songs.

The National -- Mr. November
The National -- Cardinal Song
The National -- 90-Mile Water Wall
The National -- Son

(even! more! at their site! wasp nest/slipping husband/murder me rachael/cold girl fever)

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The National is playing the Pitchfork Music Festival next weekend (along with like, a huge number of my other favorite bands), a festival in France in September, and a limited number of dates across the country in October. More info at their site.

ps -- OMG, they're just silly. Love it. These are, after all, the men who gave me a cut-out of Bono's nose from the cover of Rolling Stone...