The National - First Two Pages... & Laugh Track Album • Page 39

For sure, just kind of worrying that we're three songs in for this new era and they've been not super present or at least prominent in the mix. I'm thinking of their first singles from previous albums and it's like Conversation 16, Demons, System, and You had your soul with you (all with great drums). We'll see, I agree I'm very sure he'll have drum heavy songs somewhere on the album, it's just that we're three songs in now and...yeah

 

I just noticed that there are First Two Pages of Frankenstein drumsticks on their online store. That confirms it. All electronics on the album. You want real drums? Buy the fucking sticks and get to work, buddy.

 

Bryan didn’t need them anymore

 

How in trouble would someone get if they leaked the isolated original Bryan drum tracks that the rest of the band violently censored?

 

Sleep Well Beast (album) is a great example of the drum samples / electronic drums being used extremely well and sounding not only purposeful but absolutely integral to the songs themselves. The electronic drums in Tropic Morning News sound like something you'd come up with messing around with a keyboard for like 30 seconds bored in an electronics store. They honestly sound like Bryan Devendorf wasn't present and the Dessners slapped something on so there would be something on the track.

I'm not saying all acoustic drumming > all electronic drumming.

Inoffensive honestly strikes me as damning with faint praise for a band that has one of the most exciting drummers going.

 

As a drummer who loves Bryan’s style, I am not bothered at all by the prominence of drum samples in this band’s new stuff. It’s not damning and it’s not a big deal

 

I’m listening to Tropic Morning News now and I think the programmed drums just fit in with the atmosphere that’s aided by synth/keys and delicate guitar work

 

The National was never a band about Bryan’s drumming. It is merely a framing device for what the band is truly about: little Dessner instrumentals, Matt old-man freestyling, and love.

 

and Bryan is definitely more present on this song, samples or no samples

 

Exactly. This band, to me, has always been more focused on creating an atmosphere and serving that and Matt’s vocals. Bryan flexes his mind from time to time, but, as I’ve said before, just serves the song most of the time. You watch videos of this band live and you see Bryan let loose more often (Don’t Swallow the Cap is a great example), but he reigns it in much more when it comes time to record.

 

To each their own opinion but not sure we're listening to the same band if you don't think Bryan's drumming isn't a huge part of what has historically made this band special (obviously he doesn't go crazy on every song, and in some cases, he's pretty much absent). Maybe the problem with some of this new stuff is the atmosphere they're creating feels like a changing room in Old Navy

 

I was making a silly joke using the device of explaining how the Last of Us is not a show about zombies etc but I like your sincere reply a lot.

 

Lol yeah you’re right I guess the band I’ve been listening to for a decade now is not the same one as you

Take a walk

 

I’m not familiar with the show so that one went straight over my head lol

 

......and is the lynchpin of the band in the room with us right now?

 

lol

 

If Bryan wants to quiet quit the band by submitting 11 low res programmed drum files from home, who are we to judge?

 

CTC

Cash those checks baby

 

No one wants to drum anymore.

 

These so called “drummers” just want others to do all the hard work for them and bail them out in the end

 

WELL BACK IN MY DAY…

 

Matt wrote an entire song about Bryan being depressed—the band even released a box set where they played it 4,000 times in a row—and fans still can’t understand if the man might be feeling a little too blue to drum weird.

 

I think it’s more weird people seem upset that other people like the new songs.

 

heard he switched to pads/samples because it was just too much shit to carry

 

He’s thinking the long game and I respect the hell out of it