Brooklyn-based quintet The National have spent the last nine years slowly and steadily evolving from bar-band hobby to indie rock royalty, a success built out of old fashioned techniques like laborious songwriting, tireless gigging and the organic cultivation of their own distinct sound: a bruised, moody elegance that swells and crashes under the dreamy baritone of front man Matt Berninger. Their fourth and most recent album, Boxer, was a usual suspect on critical top ten......

We sincerely hope that people get to know The National as more than just the band that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah opened for on their first big tour. They released one of the most earnest, heartfelt and genuine records of 2005, and we were thrilled to see that they were able to exude an equal amount of emotion in the corporate confines of the SPIN Magazine offices. The band acts like they care. Whereas......

The National...