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Artist News
The National debut new songs, duet with Bon Iver
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 12 December 2011
The National have aired two brand new tracks, entitled ‘Rylan’ and ‘I Need My Girl’, during an appearance at a CBC Radio event called Q LIVE in Toronto.
This follows an interview with The National’s frontman Matt Berninger in which he said the Brooklyn five-piece felt “ready” to begin working on a new album, also billing new pieces penned by bandmate Aaron Dessner as “some of the best things he’s ever written”. On that auspicious note, you can stream live versions of ‘Rylan’ and ‘I Need My Girl’ here. Whether or not they’re really “much less cerebral and academic and much more immediate and visceral than usual” – as Berninger described Dessner’s new songs – I’m not sure, but they are certainly very good.
In the course of the same Q show, the band also invited Bon Iver fitness fiend Justin Vernon to join them for a rendition of ‘High Violet’ finale, ‘Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks’. Watch that here: