Not as awful as High VIolet but no Boxer either...

I reviewed the new National a couple of days ago for Blurt, enjoying it but wishing it were more than it is.

First Look: The National’s “Trouble Will Find Me”

More songs about mid-life crises and food: “done this well, even dad rock has its charms,” writes our reviewer, awarding 3 (out of 5) stars. Out this week, on venerable label 4AD. Watch a video, below.

BY JENNIFER KELLY

Trouble Will Find Me has a smooth, cool finish, polished like a stone in the bottom of a river until all the weird stuff has been worn away. Other people may throw around terms like “mature,” “assured” and “restrained,” but I’m leaning towards the idea of chamois-cloth erosion, a process of spitting and rubbing and polishing until you can see your reflection in the surface, until it’s hardly a rock at all anymore.

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Hey, look I'm back at Philly Weekly

I have a little blurb this week about Saturday's War on Drugs show.

The War on Drugs
With this year’s Slave Ambient, the War on Drugs moved up into a select group of alternative universe stars, bands that might be huge except that, these days, rock bands don’t ever swell to Zeppelin-esque proportions. Aaron Dessner, who plays guitar in the National (clearly another of thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifese outfits), called the record “ridiculously good” and “incredibly ambitious sonically,” pointing to the way that simple song structures got blown to outsized, anthemic scale. And indeed, WOD frontman Adam Granduciel has a way of hitching road-toughened, working man’s rock to a knob twiddler’s smorgasbord of interesting effects. Live, the band emphasizes its arena-rocking, blue-collar tendencies, though they’re swirled in drone and dipped in haze. -Jennifer Kelly

Sat., Dec. 17, 8pm. $14. With Sun Airway + Ape School. Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St. 215.232.1200. utphilly.com

I really like "Baby Missiles"

And here's the Aaron Dessner interview I referenced.

Everybody likes High Violet but me

Reviews are up today at Pitchfork (8.7) and PopMatters (my friend Ian Mathers), and probably a lot of other places, universally positive...what can I say, out of touch again.

Meanwhile, I picked up a copy of Harlem's Hippies on Saturday...a Matador promo, which I had to buy, because Matador apparently sends promos only to the most important writers in the greater Keene, NH area, not me. But it was only $5, and kinda fun, so why not?

Here's the giveaway, which is called "Friendly Ghost."


Pretty sure they're from Austin, which connects, vaguely, to my new obsession, Friday Night Lights. We're watching Season One on DVD and totally, totally hooked, what a good show. Good music, too.

Okay, off to interview Matthew Houck, whom I think I've talked to before, and I think he was sort of monosyllabic, but maybe this time will be better.

I fall off the back of the National truck…

My decidedly ambivalent review of High Violet runs today at Dusted. It’s complicated, as are my feelings about this move to the mainstream by one of my very favorite (possibly ex-very favorite) bands, so I’m not going to summarize…you can read the whole thing right here.



Or just skip to the giveaway track, the best on the album in my view, which is called “Bloodbuzz, Ohio”.