inwardlyspoken:

saysomethingperfect:

I was at a housewarming party when a friend of mine who plays in an indie rock group and I were talking about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and The National, who had just played a New Year’s Eve gig together that I had seen. He said, “You know, That National’s secret weapon is Bryan Devendorf, he’s the best drummer in rock right now”. Listening to The National’s latest album, Boxer, it’s easy to see where the estimation came form. Devendorf’s drumming is elegant, lyrical, melodic.  His drum parts are as distinctive as a guitar riff or a great piano line, and every song on Boxer relies as heavily on his drumming as it does Matt Berenger’s gruff disaffected baritone. The drums are so key to that album’s success that I heard someone scoffingly dismiss it as a fucking drummer’s album. (Why this would be a bad thing is beyond me but ah well).  Fake Empire, Mistaken For Strangers and Squalor Victoria in particular are totally shaped by Devendorf’s drumming, and on the latter two his use of the tom-toms lend the songs an urgency bordering on the fanatical. 

Live, The National perform with a kind of intensity rarely on display in their albums.  Berenger has a twitchy almost Ian Curtis-like stage presence made all the more dramatic for the fact that he appears to be roughly 15 feet tall and often performs in a suit and tie.  The intensity of their live act owes a lot to Devendorf as well as the speed and aggression with which he gets his job done pushes the rest of the band forward.

from http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2008/12/three-visions-of-the-drummer.html

amen to this.

:’)

I really enjoy how you have Matt, looking dapper and impeccably tailored and then you have beautiful Bryan in flannel and a headband. 

A moment of silence for every band t shirt I’ve ever lost, please.