By Mike Breen

Brooklyn’s The National have drawn critical acclaim with their smoky, intense Indie Rock

"Think of St. X vs. Moeller, Country Day vs. Summit Country Day, Gold Star vs. Skyline, the annual Crosstown Shootout'" says Bryan Devendorf, drummer for the Cincinnati-bred/Brooklyn-based group The National, running through a laundry list of Queen City landmarks and rites of passage, past and present. "Sunlite Pool, Oktoberfest, the 'EBN Fireworks, the Bengals, the Reds, the Stingers, Nick Clooney, Uncle Al, LaRosa's, the Cut in the Hill, the Playhouse in the Park, the Spaghetti Factory, Carew Tower, Serpentine Wall, Pete Rose's bowl cut ..."

Ah, the things Cincinnatians live for. Which is precisely one of the reasons Devendorf and his National brethren (guitarist and Bryan's bro Scott Devendorf, Aaron Dessner and his brother Bryce Dessner on bass and guitar, respectively, and singer Matt Berninger) picked up shop and relocated to the Brooklyn area a few years ago.

"I cared for none of these," Devendorf continues. "Instead, I devoted my waking hours to playing drums in the basement, leaving my oubliette only to mow the lawn and attend drum lessons."

The National's self-titled debut for Brassland Records (which two of the band members help run) has drawn a respectable cache of positive reviews since its release earlier this year, including a pat on the back from The New York Times. The two sets of siblings and their singing pal made the move to New York in the mid-to-late '90s, realizing that the city would be more conducive to their professional skills (publishing, graphic design, etc.).

The group members eventually settled in Brooklyn, a haven for artistic types and multitudes of Indie Rock bands looking for proximity to Manhattan without selling spare organs for rent. (For evidence of the musical talent in the area, check out the recent two-disc set This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-based Compilation, which features 42 acts, including Ida, Enon, Nada Surf, Les Savy Fav and Clem Snide).

"I think it's become such a hub, to use airline parlance, because elitism and talent will always attract devotees, hangers-on, etc.," Devendorf says. "That's what we've got. Throw in the broken pieces of our recent Golden Age -- left-over cash, egoism, optimism trading as ennui -- and you've got a healthy mix. Plus it's cheaper than Manhattan."

Of course, the entire NYC area is still reeling from the attacks of Sept. 11 on the World Trade Center. While life goes on, Devendorf says that a lot of music venues in the area have been struggling of late.

"Maybe the urge is to shut yourself away, waiting for the all-clear signal," he suggests.

Aaron Dessner says he feels lucky to have not personally known anyone who perished in the tragedy, though some of his co-workers and cousins did lose friends and family. Still, while most of the world got a look at the horror on television, Dessner got a first-hand look as he drank his morning coffee on his terrace.

"I climbed up onto my roof, a perfect vantage point, and watched everything unfold with neighbors," Dessner says. "When the first tower collapsed, we huddled together and prayed as a dust storm engulfed us. The wind blew a great deal of smoke, dust and burnt paper directly through my neighborhood in Brooklyn (Cobble Hill). The acrid smoke smell persisted until mid-October and made it very hard to think about anything else. Music has been a welcome distraction."

The band's debut is shadowy and organic, with the musicians creating a subtle, dusky soundscape for Berninger's low-register, provocative croon. The songs move with a visceral yet low-key swagger, punctuated by poetic lyrics and highly memorable choruses, especially on highlight cuts like "Cold Girl Fever" and "Anna Freud."

The music's plaintive, rootsy qualities have led some music critics to label the band Americana or Alt-Country, a descriptor that can be a bit misleading. While there's a trace of Roots music in there, The National is hardly the next Uncle Tupelo, sharing more common ground with Tindersticks, early Pulp or Nick Cave. Though elusive as to what actual influences helped shape their sound, Devendorf suggests the labeling could be a result of Brassland's promo agitprop.

"Perhaps that grouping grew out of our record label's promotional efforts and the fact that their logo features a silhouette of the lower 48 states," Devendorf speculates. "And writers want others to do for them sometimes, but I suppose it's a service they provide to echo publicity materials in their work, in the interest of helping small timers vying for a position to reach a specific audience, whom they feel will respond to their material. Plus some of our songs have slide guitar and feature doleful lyrics about separation and loss. I suppose Country's got a corner on these things."

The comparisons could also be a result of promo materials playing up the band's Midwestern roots, something that Devendorf bristles at.

"I hate to keep quibbling, but what's nagged me for years is Cincinnati being termed Midwestern," he says. "Frankly, this is a label perpetuated by an East Coast map-making cadre that is set on reducing huge swaths of the interior of our country to single regions, perhaps to save on ink costs and to make it possible for New Yorkers to dismiss greater numbers of people with fewer words. Instead of, 'Those Ohioans, so out-of-date, will they never learn?' they can insert 'Midwesterners' and cover several million more dilettantes."

"Really, I think our sound is placeless, suburban. Picture a keg party on a deck overlooking a stand of buckeyes, oaks and maples. The beer flows, cigarette butts are jammed in the spaces between the planks of the deck. Over the white noise of voices, keg sounds, lighters igniting, music peals from a ghetto blaster. That's the music we hear."

After their current tour (with fellow Brooklynites Elk City), The National will head into the studio to record their sophomore effort. Aaron Dessner says that the first record was put together before the band had even performed live and the new one will likely reflect a new dynamic they discovered playing gigs.

"I love the first album, but the next one will have more firepower for us," Dessner says. "If the debut is kinda smoky and somber, the next one will be more explosive, more like a punch in the face. Maybe we should call it Fuck Osama or something."

E-mail Mike Breen

Out Takes (November 8, 2001)
Locals Only (November 8, 2001)
Spill It (November 8, 2001)
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