Matt Berninger (The National) on The Queen is Dead

matt of the national grows up listening to queen is dead

https://pitchfork.com/features/podcast/the-national-matt-berninger-explains-his-biggest-influences/

Excerpt:

...Jump to high school, and my sister joined a Columbia record house or something like that. It was great, it was a lot of music for really cheap. And my sister brought home—I remember in that first batch—she had The Queen Is Dead, she had Under a Blood Red Sky, by U2.

SS: The live one?

MB: Yeah, the live one. I think she also had Violent Femmes. And so I remember it wasn’t until I was like a sophomore or something that I then heard Violent Femmes and then I heard The Queen Is Dead.

When I was riding around on a golf cart, picking up—I worked at a driving range. And so I worked the front, you know, I washed the balls. I worked at the front counter, I worked at the candy desk, I fixed the video game. This was right down the road from where I lived in Miamitown, Ohio, and it was called Green Tee Golf Range and it was my first job job.

And I would have to go around and pick up all the balls, with a cage over this golf cart that was souped up with a better engine so it would go faster and it could push the racks that picked up on the balls. I would drive around listening to The Queen Is Dead nonstop.

And so there’s all these douchebag golfers trying to hit me. ’Cause that’s what you do when when you’re at a golf range and the guy in the cart goes out to pick up the balls. It’s like, “Finally, a target!” And the cage was like just regular fencing. So the balls, the holes were this big, so if they hit a line drive it could hit me right in the face anytime. Because the balls were much smaller than the holes in the f***ing cage were. Dads from the parish, who I’d see in church, are up there trying to nail me with their drivers. They pull out their 2-irons so they could get a nice low shot to take out one of my tail lights.

And I was listening to “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” the whole time.

SS: Which is a real album with a kind of persecution complex to it.

MB: I totally connected with Morrissey and all his frustration and his desperate need for everybody just to listen to what he’s trying to say.
 
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His name is Tony
 
 
Just found out why some of The National songs appeal so much to me.

" Terrible love " lyrics could have been written by Morrissey.
 
The last two National albums were disappointing, but "Alligator", "High Violet", and "Trouble Will Find Me" are masterpieces. He also references "Bona Drag" in the lyric to the song "Pink Rabbits."

Surprised the extreme leftist Berringer didn't include a gratuitous slap at Morrissey's alleged racism, just to make sure to signal to all his Brooklyn hipster friends that talking about his admiration for "The Queen is Dead" should not be taken as an endorsement of Moz's "right-wing racist turn" in recent years.
 
The last two National albums were disappointing, but "Alligator", "High Violet", and "Trouble Will Find Me" are masterpieces. He also references "Bona Drag" in the lyric to the song "Pink Rabbits."

Surprised the extreme leftist Berringer didn't include a gratuitous slap at Morrissey's alleged racism, just to make sure to signal to all his Brooklyn hipster friends that talking about his admiration for "The Queen is Dead" should not be taken as an endorsement of Moz's "right-wing racist turn" in recent years.

Sleep Well Beast was an amazing album, I finally managed to get tickets to see them last December and thought they were superb live.
 
Matt's cool and The National are excellent. I actually like their latest album, I Am Easy To Find, which is not well liked by their fans. And yes, they are a fantastic live band:

 
Sleep Well Beast was an amazing album, I finally managed to get tickets to see them last December and thought they were superb live.
I thought about half of Sleep Well Beast was up to the standards of those others, but parts of it fell flat. Only liked abut 3 or 4 songs on I Am Easy to Find, but even those marred by the production and excessive use of guest co-vocalists. Ex: This live verison of Rylan on KEXP much better than album version:
 
I thought about half of Sleep Well Beast was up to the standards of those others, but parts of it fell flat. Only liked abut 3 or 4 songs on I Am Easy to Find, but even those marred by the production and excessive use of guest co-vocalists. Ex: This live verison of Rylan on KEXP much better than album version:


Personally I thought Sleep well Beast was brilliant but have similar views to you about I am Easy To Find, it never really gets going and the guest vocalist don't work at all for me as Matts voice is part of the charm.
 

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