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Patti Smith has announced a tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of her landmark album Horses, during which she’ll perform the record in full across Europe, the UK, and the US in fall 2025.

Accompanying Smith on the tour will be guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, both of whom played on Horses. Her live band will also feature keyboardist/bassist Tony Shanahan and guitarist Jackson Smith.

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An artist ticket pre-sale is set for Wednesday, February 12th at 10:00 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster, with a public on-sale following on Friday, February 14th at 10:00 a.m. local time.

The upcoming tour will mark Smith’s first time playing Horses in full in 20 years. “Please join us to help celebrate the final ride of our irreverent thoroughbred,” she said in a press release.

Prior to the tour’s kick-off, Smith will be honored...

Patti Smith will perform her debut album Horses in full on tour to celebrate the LP’s 50 anniversary. The tour will feature feature guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, both of whom played on the original 1975 recording.

The anniversary trek will kick off on Oct. 6 at Dublin’s 3Arena, with dates in Madrid, Bergamo, Brussels, Oslo, London, and Paris. Smith will head to the U.S. the following month, with shows beginning Nov. 10 at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre. The U.S. segment will also stop in Oakland, San Francisco,...

Patti Smith has clarified that she is “fine” after collapsing on stage at Brazil’s Cultura Artística on Wednesday night and ending her show early.

“A grossly exaggerated account is being spread by the press and social media,” Smith wrote on Instagram. “I had some post migraine dizziness. Had a small incident, left the stage, and returned 10 minutes later and talked to the people, told them I was fine and sang them ‘Wing’ and ‘Because the Night.'”

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She continued. “I was checked out by an excellent doctor and was absolutely fine. Please do not accept any other story. With all the strife in the world, this explainable incident does not merit so much attention. Thank you everyone for your concern. Trust me I am fine.”

Smith’s collaborators Soundwalk Collective posted an Instagram Story explaining she had been suffering from “an intense migraine the past couple days.

The list of artists who will be saluting Patti Smith at an upcoming tribute show in New York just grew longer.

The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, director Jim Jarmusch, former Bangles frontperson Susanna Hoffs, Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, and New York rocker Jesse Malin have been added to an already eclectic lineup of singers and musicians partaking in “People Have the Power: Celebrating the Music of Patti Smith” at Carnegie Hall on March 26.

The concert, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Smith’s classic Horses album, was first announced last November.

Patti Smith will be honored with a tribute concert at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in March 2025.

The latest installment of City Winery founder and CEO Michael Dorf’s “Music Of” benefit series, the event is slated to take place on March 26th, with all net proceeds going to music education for underserved youth. Tickets are now on sale.

The confirmed lineup of performers includes Smith’s longtime friend and collaborator Michael Stipe of R.E.M., along with Kim Gordon, Matt Berninger of The National, Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, Ben Harper, Courtney Barnett, Alison Mosshart of The Kills, The Kronos Quartet, and other artists and actors still to be announced.

They’ll be backed by a house band featuring Smith’s bassist/keyboardist Tony Shanahan, plus Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and The Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan.

According to Rolling Stone,...

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Patti Smith’s debut album Horses. To commemorate that moment , an array of indie and alternative rockers will gather at New York’s Carnegie Hall on March 26 for a Smith tribute concert.

The lineup for “People Have the Power: Celebrating the Music of Patti Smith” will, so far, include Michael Stipe, Kim Gordon, Matt Berninger of the National, Karen O, Sharon Van Etten, Ben Harper, Courtney Barnett, the Kronos Quartet, Angel Olsen, and the Kills’ Alison Mosshart. Additional artists are expected to be announced in the months ahead.

Cover songs are a divisive topic in music, at once celebrated for their ability to bring new life to old material while also being decried as the provenance of schlocky tribute acts or wedding singers. Yet covers have been an integral part of rock and roll ever since the beginning, with many of rock's earliest stars relying heavily on old blues standards.

There's certainly no formula to what makes a good cover song. Some are great because they distill a song's essence into a stronger form of itself, relying on an artist's chops and passion to stand out from what came before, even if not much changes in the arrangement. Some are transformative, playing with genre and instrumentation to create something that would never otherwise have existed. Here, then, are ten rock covers that rocked way harder than the originals.

Honorable Mention: The National - "Sailors in Your Mouth"(Originally...

Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey and more are among the notable figures headlining Kamala Harris’ final rallies in Pennsylvania on Election Eve as part of her and Tim Walz’s campaign’s last Get Out The Vote organizing effort.

The two rallies will include mostly musical guests: In Philadelphia, performances or remarks will be given by DJ Cassidy, Fat Joe, Freeway and Just Blaze, Lady Gaga, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ricky Martin, The Roots, Jazmine Sullivan and Adam Blackstone, as well as Oprah Winfrey. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh rally will include performances by D-Nice, Katy Perry and Andra Day.

The events, which will also feature Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, are part of a series of simultaneous organizing efforts the Harris-Walz campaign is spearheading in all seven battleground states.

Both rallies will be tied together in a produced national livestream to reach voters across the U.

Mumford & Sons, Gracie Abrams, and the National rallied behind Kamala Harris last night in Madison. The musicians, as well as Remi Wolf, performed for the crowd at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, with Abrams and Wolf also giving speeches in support of Harris.

Mumford & Sons performed four songs, “The Cave,” “Little Lion Man,” “Awake My Soul,” and “I Will Wait.”

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@Mumford & Sons perform “The Cave” at @Kamala Harris’ campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin #mumfordandsons #kamala #kamalaharris #thecave #livemusic #performance

♬ original sound – billboard

Before performing “I Love You, I’m Sorry” and “Free Now,...

Gracie Abrams, The National’s Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner, and Mumford & Sons are among the artists who will perform the Harris-Walz campaign’s When We Vote We Win rally next week in Madison, Wisconsin.

Remi Wolf is also set to play at the University of Wisconsin-Madison event on Wednesday, which Vice President Kamala Harris is also expected to attend.

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Visit the democrats.org event page for more information on the Wednesday rally, which takes place day that...

Bright Eyes have canceled the remainder of their 2024 tour dates due to singer Conor Oberst’s vocal issues.

Earlier this month, the band — on the road in support of their latest album Five Dice, All Threes — nixed a trio of dates after “warm up shows we played earlier this week resulted in Conor losing his voice.”

The rest of the tour plans remained intact, however, “Over the past week, Conor has undergone multiple tests to determine the cause of his recent vocal problems. It’s come to light that he...

Right in the midst of their co-headlining tour with The War on Drugs, The National have announced Rome, a new live album set for release on December 13th.

The album was recorded live, without any overdubs, during a June 3rd, 2024 show at Rome’s Cavea at Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone. It’s comprised of 21 tracks and will be released as both a digital and 2xLP vinyl set. Members of The National’s Cherry Tree fan club will also be able to purchase a red, green, and white triple LP (a la the Italian flag) with five additional songs.

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Mixed by Peter Katis, Rome is The National’s first live album since 2019’s Juicy Sonic Magic and spans 20-plus years of material — including tracks from the band’s pair of 2023 albums, First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track. Meanwhile, they’ve shared Rome...

Bright Eyes announced on Wednesday that they will be canceling their upcoming record release shows due to founder and lead vocalist Conor Oberst losing his voice.

In a statement shared to social media, the band said that they were “heartbroken” over the decision and that “warm up shows we played earlier this week resulted in Conor losing his voice.” They added that on “the advice of doctors, we’ve made the difficult but sensible decision to prioritize rest and recuperation for the remainder of the month.”

The canceled shows included...

The sad dad convention — or the Zen Diagram Tour, co-headlined by the War on Drugs and the National, featuring special guests Lucius — gathered at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York, on an idyllic mid-September evening recently. The tour name was coined by the National’s singer Matt Berninger, a humble, self-aware nod at the fact that the Venn diagram of the two bands’ fanbases is pretty much just a circle.

“The spirit of this tour is sort of just like, three great bands, night of music, end of the summer,...

Bright Eyes have mapped out a major 2025 North American tour in support of their upcoming new album Five Dice, All Threes. They’ve also shared the album’s second single, “Rainbow Overpass.”

The Conor Oberst-led trio is already set to support the September 20th release of Five Dice, All Threes with a handful of dates in New York, Omaha, and California, including shows at Chicago’s Riot Fest and Las Vegas’ new Best Friends Forever Festival. The run continues with a brief, nine-date European tour in November, followed by Bright Eyes’ North American run in early 2025.

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The North American tour kicks off in Phoenix, Arizona on January 16th and continues through April, hitting cities such as Vancouver, Seattle, Austin, Orlando, Atlanta, Memphis, St. Louis, Cleveland, Toronto, Philadelphia, Louisville, and many more. The tour ends with an April 26th show in west Des Moines, Iowa. See...

Taylor Swift’s collaborative partnership with Aaron Dessner has led some Swifties from the Eras tour straight to the National’s concerts. The pair first began collaborating on 2020’s Folklore, which featured the band’s instrumentalist and producer on nearly a dozen songs. They most recently teamed up on selections from The Tortured Poets Department. Observing the growing overlap in their audiences, the National frontman Matt Berninger has noticed an influx of bemused fans — and way more women.

“We see a lot of Taylor Swift fans coming to shows and...

Taylor Swift’s working relationship with Aaron Dessner has not only generated some of the most celebrated pop music of modern times, but it’s also brought Swifties’ attention to something they otherwise might not care about: Dessner’s band, The National. Now, according to frontman Matt Berninger, Swifties are coming to their shows, and some seem a bit “bewildered” by the band.

Speaking about it in a new interview with NME, Berninger explained that Dessner’s collaboration with Swift has been “a really, really fruitful thing for our whole band, not just Aaron.” Continuing, he denied a suggestion that the band would ever be brought out as special guests at a Swift concert, but revealed that he’s noticed Swifties in the crowds at The National gigs.

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“We see a lot of Taylor Swift fans coming to shows and being bewildered by the first 25 minutes or so,...

Bright Eyes have returned with their first album in four years. Five Dice, All Threes is slated for release on Sept. 20.

Cat Power, the National’s Matt Berninger, and the So So Glos’ Alex Orange Drink join Bright Eyes’ members Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott on their upcoming 10th studio album.

Alongside the album announcement, the band shared the LP’s lead single, “Bells and Whistles,” and music video for the track, which features them rocking on stage, a magical photo booth sprouting show attendees, and a bar fight.

Bright Eyes are back. On Tuesday, the Conor Oberst-led outfit announced a new album — Five Dice, All Threes, due on September 20th via Dead Oceans — released a new single titled “Bells and Whistles,” and announced a world tour.

Spanning 13 new tracks, Five Dice, All Threes is Bright Eyes’ first album since their 2020 comeback Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was, and features contributions by Cat Power, The National’s Matt Berninger, and The So So Glos’ Alex Orange Drink.

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Speaking about it in a statement, the band’s Nate Walcott explained that Five Dice, All Threes “revisits the spirit of our older records. There is a real quality of chaos and ecstatic urgency in the performances.” Comparing it to their 2005 album I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, Mike Mogis said “It took us 20 years to make another record that sounds like a band playing live.

The Offspring’s “Come Out and Play” (you know, the “gotta keep ’em separated” song) was all over MTV in 1994 — with a video that cost all of $5,000. The Nineties were full of unlikely breakthrough acts, but the Offspring were one of the few bands of the era who made it to the mainstream without even leaving their indie label, Epitaph.

In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Offspring frontman Dexter Holland looks back on his band’s hit-packed 1994 album Smash, which turns 30 this year. Go here for the podcast provider of your choice,...

The Grammys love Jack Antonoff, but so far mostly for his work with other artists like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and St. Vincent. He has won Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, for the last three years in a row. That ties him with David Foster, Quincy Jones and Pharrell Williams as the second most awarded individual in the category (Babyface leads with four career wins). But so far his own band Bleachers hasn’t gotten on the academy’s radar. Can their latest self-titled release, which dropped March 8, earn them recognition?

Well, so far the reviews are somewhat inconsistent for this, their fourth studio album. It has a MetaCritic score of 67 based on 14 reviews counted as of this writing: nine positive, four mixed and just one outright negative. Ben Tipple (DIY Magazine) raves about it, calling it “sublime … It’s built on a nostalgia to a time that never was,...

Like the National’s Matt Berninger, Future Islands frontman Samuel F. Herring sounded jaded and long in the tooth years before he actually was. Part of the appeal of songs like the Baltimore band’s 2014 viral smash “Seasons” was the incongruity of hearing a cookie-monster growl from a man who looked more like a milquetoast accountant than a rock star.

Future Islands’s People Who Aren’t There Anymore, then, sounds divided against its own impulses toward accessibility, with Herring’s voice—which often chokes words off and battles against the songs’ melodies—subverting the band’s instincts to write simple, catchy pop music. What’s more, their blend of ’80s pop and arena rock is starting to feel formulaic.

Although a familiar quiet-verse/loud-chorus structure is used too frequently throughout the album—“Say Goodbye” features a verse where Herring sings over a minimal arrangement of bass, drums, and keyboards...

On New Year’s Eve, we learned the improbable fact that a trio of middle-aged, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted punks in notably well-tailored suits can somehow still shock and offend the masses. For Green Day, all it took was changing the “American Idiot” lyric “I’m not part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not part of the Maga agenda” during their performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rocking Eve with Ryan Seacrest — a lyric tweak they’ve been using for years.

The ensuing freakout...

“I found a piece of my peace right here in Georgia,” says Chaka Khan, who just started a new life in the big rural property she purchased in that state. She recently sat in her bedroom there, gazing at the trees outside, and looked back at her life and career for our new interview with her, which you can hear on the latest episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. Some highlights follow; to hear the full interview, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify,...

“We didn’t know what we were doing,” says Josh Schwartz, creator of The O.C. For the show’s first few episodes, the music choices were simply plucked from his own iPod. But once the now-legendary music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas came aboard, the show turned into a weekly showcase for some of the best music of the ’00s — and a key force behind the mainstream rise of a certain brand of indie-leaning rock in that decade, from Death Cab for Cutie to the Killers. It didn’t hurt that...

For 28 years, it was a holiday tradition for Darlene Love to perform her signature hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on David Letterman’s late night shows, but that all came to an end when he went off air in 2015. Now, they’ve reunited for Letterman’s YouTube channel to pick up where they left off.

Before Love sang “Christmas” with accompaniment from Letterman’s longtime band leader Paul Shaffer on piano, they all had a chat about the tradition. Letterman also asked Love about recently performing the song with Cher during the Rockefeller Center tree lighting special.

This prompted Love to air out her feelings about never being asked to play the song solo for the annual ceremony. “Do you know they wouldn’t hire me for that?” she said, noting that other artists have performed the track instead.

Letterman responded with disbelief, saying “That’s bullshit, and I...

The National superfan David Letterman got the chance to sit down with the band’s frontman Matt Berninger for a long conversation about music, songwriting, and their individual battles with depression.

The conversation debuted Friday, and immediately got right to the heavy stuff. Berninger opened up about the deep phase of depression he was in during the pandemic and even shared the doubts he had about touring, or even playing in a band again. Letterman, in turn, spoke about some of his own bouts of depression, as well as cycles of feeling “moody or blue,...

Earlier this year, The National superfan, David Letterman, said that there is “nobody cooler” than the band’s frontman, Matt Berninger. Now, the two have come together for a 27-minute-long conversation, in which they discuss The National’s latest albums, Berninger’s creative process, shared experiences of depression, and more.

Arriving as both a podcast and a YouTube video, the chat begins with Letterman interviewing Berninger, but soon develops into a full-fledged conversation, with both men sharing stories from their respective time in the spotlight. Letterman talks a bit about seeing The National live this past year, and praises the band’s tightness. Then, the two discuss the band’s 2023 releases: First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track.

Touching on the creative origin of those records, Berninger steered the conversation towards the depression he experienced during the pandemic, which has informed his recent writing. Relating to the experiences, Letterman...

David Letterman appeared as a guest on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night. It marked the television icon’s first visit to the Ed Sullivan Theatre since ending his 23-year run as host of the Late Show in April 2015.

At Letterman’s personal request, The National appeared as the evening’s musical guest. The band is currently on tour, but they made a special trip to New York to fulfill Letterman’s wishes. “This is the second time in my life that this has happened to me,” Letterman noted, as Foo Fighters previously interrupted a South American tour to play Letterman’s first show back from heart surgery in 2000. “Those two groups — I’ll love them forever,” Letterman declared.

Letterman previously gushed over The National in a YouTube video earlier this year, saying: “I wish I could be [frontman] Matt Berninger because there’s nobody cooler than Matt Berninger.

The National delivered a heartfelt performance of “Space Invader” to welcome back David Letterman to the Late Show on Monday.

Matt Berninger performed the single, from their newly released album Laugh Track, as the stage flooded with blue light and the paintings featured in the song’s music video flashed behind the band. “What if I’d never written the letter/I slipped in the sleeve of the record I gave you? What if I’d stayed on the C train to Lafayette? What if we’d never met?” sang Berninger from the lonely chorus.

David Letterman will make his long-awaited return to the Ed Sullivan Theater for the first time since he departed The Late Show in 2015 when appears as Stephen Colbert’s guest on Monday, Nov. 20.

The current host of the Late Show announced the return of the former host earlier this week. “On Monday, I will be joined, right there, in that chair, by a man who is no stranger to the Ed Sullivan Theater, though I know for a fact he has not been here for eight-and-a-half years, because my guest is Mr.

The National and Phoebe Bridgers are cracking up to stave off falling apart in the new animated music video for their recent collaboration, “Laugh Track.”

The video was directed and animated by Bernard Derriman, who recently helmed The Bob’s Burgers Movie. In it, a couple sit down for a grave conversation but are soon overwhelmed by a rising tide of chuckling faces. Before the couple nearly drowns in bleak hilarity, however, they launch into the sky, escaping the deluge and eventually landing back at the table for a clear-eyed conversation.

The National stopped by BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland recently to perform “Space Invader” and “Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces),” two highlights from their latest album Laugh Track.

The recently-renovated Alexandra Palace Theatre made a pretty good backdrop for The National, who are just a few weeks out from their surprise-released LP. “Space Invader” — which The National released back in August — filled up the auditorium with Matt Berninger’s booming vocals and the Dessner brothers’ sweeping shredding; meanwhile, “Deep End” offered a contrasting blast of high-energy. Both sound wonderful!

Watch The National perform “Space Invader” and “Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces)” on BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland below.

Laugh Track follows The National’s April 2023 album First Two Pages of Frankenstein.

The National Perform “Space Invader” and “Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces)” on Later… with Jools Holland: Watch

Abby Jones...

The National’s Matt Berninger has confirmed that he is still working on a long-gestating sitcom with his director/actor brother, Tom Berninger. In an interview with NME, he spilled details about the semi-autobiographical series, including its working title: Dos Apes.

According to Berninger, he tabled the project while dealing with writer’s block and depression during lockdown, but now it’s back on. “Not unlike Frankenstein, a lightning bolt has started its heart again!” he said. “It’s called Dos Apes, and with the pandemic, we had to put it down. Dos Apes is alive, and that’s all I can say. There was nothing happening because of the writers strikes and stuff like that, but we’ll see. I’m not going to drown in projects like I was before, but that it is one of them that I really want to do and it might happen.”

Berninger...

The National have returned with Laugh Track, a surprise new album that serves as “the second half of a double album” which began this past April with the band’s previous release, First Two Pages of Frankenstein. The new record is out now, and features appearances by Phoebe Bridgers, Rosanne Cash, and Bon Iver. Stream it below.

The band announced the album onstage this past weekend at their own Homecoming Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. Last month, they shared the singles “Space Invader” and “Alphabet City,” which both appear on the new album, along with “Weird Goodbyes,” the single with Bon Iver that the band shared in August 2022. Earlier this year, the band hinted that “Weird Goodbyes” wouldn’t appear on Frankenstein, alluding to a “future home” for it. Now, we know what that “future home” is.

According to the press release, the songs on Laugh Track were written alongside those on Frankenstein,...

The National announced the impending release of a new album titled Laugh Track during the band’s opening night set at their Homecoming Festival in Cincinnati.

Arriving just five months after the band’s 2023 LP First Two Pages of Frankenstein, Laugh Track will be released digitally on Sunday, singer Matt Berninger told the crowd, with a vinyl release to follow in November.

“We have a new record coming out, it comes out Sunday night at midnight,” Berninger said. “The new record is called Laugh Track, and we have some pre-pressed...

Just a few months after they dropped their most recent album First Two Pages of Frankenstein, The National are back with two new singles called “Space Invader” and “Alphabet City.”

It’s unclear whether or not these tracks are Frankenstein outtakes, but their atmospheric production and melodramatic instrumentation feel right in line with the album’s ethos. “Space Invader” clocks in at just under seven minutes, giving Matt Berninger plenty of time to pore over endless “what if”s: “What if we’d never met?/ What if I’d only just done what you told me?” he wonders over thunderous drums, before the song swells into a rollicking coda.

Meanwhile, “Alphabet City” is a mellower, piano-driven breakup track where Berninger’s narrator gets nostalgic about a lost love and wandering the titular Manhattan neighborhood: “I’m not over it, don’t know what it is/ I can’t get there...

The National have released two new songs, “Alphabet City” and “Space Invader.” The latter arrived with a moody visualizer directed by Noah Sacré and Pauline de Lassus, with animation and drawings by de Lassus.

The melancholy, seven-minute track sees frontman Matt Berninger imagining alternate scenarios. “What if I stayed on the/ C train until Lafayette?” he croons. “What if we never met?/ What if I only had done what you/ Told me and never looked back?/ What if I’d only ducked away down/ The hallway and faded to black?...

David Letterman has made his love for Warren Zevon and The National very clear, declaring that both artists ought to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and that he wishes he “could be Matt Berninger.”

Sitting down for a YouTube conversation with Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay — longtime colleagues from the Late Show days — the 70-year-old television icon shared some of his thoughts on the 2023 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, starting with his disappointment over the snubbing of Zevon.

“Warren Zevon was on the ballot for the first time, and was not voted in,” he explained. “I will say that I’m disappointed. I’m not angry, because I would’ve been surprised had it gone the other way. I think to be angry would’ve been 30 years ago, when he should’ve been inducted.” Zevon currently sits at No. 2 on Consequence‘s...

One night before releasing their ninth album, The National appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to deliver a stirring rendition of “Eucalyptus.” Watch the performance below.

The appearance coincided with the release of The National’s new album, The First Two Pages of Frankenstein (out today), and comes nearly two months after they last appeared on Fallon, when they performed “Tropic Morning News.” This time, vocalist Matt Berninger gave an particularly evocative performance, especially as he belted the song’s main refrain: “You should take it/ ‘Cause I’m not gonna take it.”

The First Two Pages of Frankenstein is the band’s first album since 2019’s I Am Easy to Find. Embracing themes of reflection while setting into a familiar sonic palette, the record is another example of The National’s signature introspection, but features some of their first big-name collaborations. Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers, and Taylor Swift all make appearances.

The National’s ninth album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, has arrived. Read our review of the LP, and stream it in full below.

Born out of a writing slump frontman Matt Berninger experienced post–I Am Easy to Find, First Two Pages of Frankenstein is inspired by what got him out of that slump — quite literally the pages of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. “I was in a very dark spot where I couldn’t come up with lyrics or melodies at all, and that period lasted for over a year,” Berninger recalled in a press release. “Even though we’d always been anxious and argued quite a lot whenever we were working on a record, this was the first time it ever felt like maybe things really had come to an end.”

First Two Pages also features the biggest outside voices in The National’s discography, with Phoebe Bridgers,...

The National have been so good at producing National songs for so long that it’s been easy to take them for granted. Whenever the Brooklyn indie-rock institution passed a career point at which a lesser band might start breaking down — albums five, six, seven — they just got stronger, releasing some of their best work well into their second decade. In hindsight, this longevity seems obvious. The hallmarks of a National song — wry, affective lyrics; earthquake-proof song structures; painterly arrangements — seem tailor-built to sound more graceful with age.

And yet,...

Frequent Taylor Swift collaborator Aaron Dessner had some lofty praise for the superstar in a recent interview with The Telegraph, comparing her “lyrical prowess” to Joni Mitchell and her abilities as an entertainer to those of Beyoncé.

“She is an incredibly gifted writer, with the lyrical prowess of a Joni Mitchell but also an entertainer on this level of, like, Beyoncé, and I don’t think we’ve seen that before,” The National member said. “She made me so much better than I could have ever imagined on my own. It felt like a lightning bolt hit the house. Because I just do what I do. And then she would be like, ‘Here’s this elaborately written narrative to your sad piano that you played on Cardigan.'”

Dessner is clearly biased, but he’s seen Swift’s work up close as well as anyone else. Since co-writing and co-producing...

The National’s Matt Berninger and his brother Tom frolic in a park and depress tween children by skulking around a playground in the video for their new song, “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend,” which also features Phoebe Bridgers. Sensibly, Bridgers plays a concerned mom or babysitter in the clip, removing a toddler from the disturbing imagery of Matt and Tom stuffing flowers into ill-fitting suits and bumbling around a rope bridge, likely tripping on acid. (Bridgers’ brother Jackson directed the clip.)

On the tune, which comes off the...

The National have joined forced with Phoebe Bridgers for “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” — the latest single off the band’s upcoming album First Two Pages of Frankenstein — along with its accompanying music video.

The National have crossed creative paths with Bridgers before. In 2019, she joined the band for the live debut of their song “Where Is Her Head,” and she also teamed up with vocalist Matt Berninger for “Walking On a String” from Netflix’s Between Two Ferns: The Movie. But “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” is somehow the first proper collaboration The National have released with Bridgers.

The music video is also a fraternal affair, directed by Bridgers’ brother Jackson and starring Berninger’s brother (and frequent National collaborator) Tom. Check it out below.

“Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” is one of two Bridgers collaborations we’ll hear on First Two Pages of Frankenstein, which...

The National have dropped another new song, “Eucalyptus,” from their upcoming album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, out April 28 via 4Ad.

The track came about somewhat unexpectedly while the band was preparing for a show at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. Bryce Dessner had sent the instrumental to frontman Matt Berninger so long ago he’d forgotten about it; but before the gig, Berninger said he’d written lyrics and asked if they could perform it during soundcheck.

“We rehearsed it twice without ever having had a...

The National have revealed another track from their upcoming album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, with the new single “Eucalyptus.”

Though the song has been teased in the band’s live set since last year, the official studio recording brings a greater vastness to the Dessners’ soaring production and a clearer depth to lead vocalist Matt Berninger’s nostalgia as his narrator ruminates on the logistical aftermath of a breakup. He debates whether to destroy or leave behind precious belongings they once shared, and how to reckon with music they bonded over like Cowboy Junkies and The Afghan Whigs.

“Throughout the record there’s a lot of looking into the abyss and wondering if a relationship has run its course,” Berninger said in a statement. “‘Eucalyptus’ is about a couple splitting up their possessions after a breakup — like, ‘What are we going to do with the spring water we get delivered,...

Kanye West was at the beginning of what would become a complete self-immolation of his career and image, and made… Ye. Burnt out in the mid-Eighties, Bob Dylan dropped the half-assed Knocked Out Loaded. George Harrison ran out of ideas in 1982, and ended up with the flaccid Gone Troppo. And when Carole King decided she could make a hit new wave album, the result was 1983’s unlistenable Speeding Time.

In the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Andy Greene shares all those stories and more as he...

The National appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday, where they gave a rousing performance of their new single “Tropic Morning News.” Watch a replay below.

“Tropic Morning News” — a former Consequence Song of the Week — has a bit of a melancholy air in its official recording, but The National brought palpable excitement to their Fallon performance. Live percussion, trumpet, and a guitar solo split between brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner uplift Matt Berninger’s wordy lyrics, which are, appropriately, all about stumbling through conversations and not feeling comfortable in your own skin.

The song joins latest single “New Order T-Shirt” in previewing First Two Pages of Frankenstein, The National’s upcoming ninth album. Featuring Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers, and Taylor Swift, the album is out April 28th via 4Ad. Pre-orders are ongoing.

The National will be on the road from May to October. The tour features...

The National took to the late night stage Friday to perform “Tropic Morning News” on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Frontman Matt Berninger led the vocals while backed with bandmates Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Bryan Devendorf, and Scott Devendorf.

In January, the group announced their upcoming album First Two Pages of Frankenstein, sharing “Tropic Morning News” as the project’s lead single. The following month, they released “New Order T-Shirt,” the second pre-release track from their ninth studio album set for release on April 28.

The album is the band...