My interview with Matt Berninger of The National is up over on DCist. Matt was extremely nice during our interview and he really opened up and talked about how much he hates me, D.C., Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Yankees, the follow up to Alligator, Bruce Springsteen, touring and Nethers*. I can't wait for their D.C. show on Thursday!

* Disclaimer: Matt doesn't hate any of those things at all. In fact, he really likes them. Except for the Yankees. The whole band hates the Yankees. Sweet!

Here's an excerpt:
I remember reading about the tour you did together [with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah] when they were opening for you and supposedly everyone was coming to see them. What was that like? I know you guys are friends...

The first few shows of that tour were really awkward because between when we set up the tour and when we hit the road, they blew up and became a phenomenon...I'd say there were four or five shows where that happened and you could really tell that half the crowd had left. But at the rest of them, we didn't get that feeling at all. But we kind of just swallowed it and said that's the way it's going to be and I think we played really well. I think ultimately we ended up getting more attention than we would have if we'd have gone out without them...And after that tour, we suddenly started getting the feeling that more people were paying attention to us than before. But during the tour, between the two bands, it was just constant joking. They were ribbing us and it was a really playful thing. We've been talking about potentially doing another tour in the Spring with them.

Go read the whole thing. I'll (hopefully)be back later today with The Linkage.