So again, I’m not going to apologize for taking most of my videos off Pitchfork’s website, they just have so many damn good ones to choose from, including this performance by The National of “So Far Around the Bend” from the Dark Was the Night compilation we reviewed a couple weeks ago. It also includes some conceptual talk about the compilation from producers, National band members, and brothers, Bryce and Aaron Dessner, as well as Red Hot Organization founder John Carlin. The performance is typical of The National, impassioned and emotional, played in front of a small crowd in what appears to be a Brooklyn loft space. We didn’t mention “So Far Around the Bend” in our review, so now we give it the attention it rightly deserves. On an album that has so many good songs, its not easy to spread the love.
Dark Was The Night : The National – “So Far Around The Bend”
Track Reviews: Dark Was the Night
The Red Hot Organization has put together a stunning, 31 track, double sided compilation entitled Dark Was the Night, released in stores, digitally, and triple vinyl formats on February 13. The Red Hot Organization is the leading international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture, according to their website. Since 1989, they have produced over fourteen groundbreaking albums with compiled music ranging from jazz to country to world music.
Dark Was the Night boasts a track list that includes new and covered material from more crazy good independent artists than you can shake a stick at. The album features such mind-bottling collaborations as The Books and Jose Gonzalez (Cello Song), Feist and Ben Gibbard (Train Song), The Dirty Projectors and David Byrne (Knotty Pine), and Cat Power with Dirty Delta Blues (Amazing Song). Glancing through this monumental track list, I can’t help but pick out a couple favorites and share them all with you fine people, so sit back and enjoy as I give you a tour of this mammothly important album.
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