When it comes to music, a little mystery goes a long way. For fans of the band The National, they were surrounded by mystery when the band released a strange video, the mysterious video that may hint to new music in the close future.
The video is a weird on that last only 30 seconds and features black and white grainy footage. Images of windows and shots of an exterior home continuous play throughout the running time. On the bottom of the screen is a continuous loop of phrases that include “Sleep Well Beast” and “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness” streaming across the video as though they are graphics being used in a news program. The grainy footage is similar to homemade movies that you may find featured in those ghost hunting reality shows you pretend not to watch.
Along with the black and white images, there is instrumental music that fills the background of the video. It is ominous and somewhat uneasy while mixed in with the grainy images but the sound is compeltely The National.
The National’s vocalist, Matt Berninger sat down with NME and said; “We’re playing together in a room, which means we’re jamming more.” According to Berninger, “it’s not a jam record at all – the songs are much more like weird, math-y, electronic-y stuff.” Basically unlike anything we have heard from them.
He then added: “A lot of songs are going in completely different directions. But that’s a really fun place to be. We’re in the middle of the wilderness, in a rainforest full of really fun noises.”
The band has been around since 1999 and has a discography that will blow any music lover’s mind.
The last time, the band released an album was back in 2013. Their sixth album titled Trouble Will Find Me went on to be nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 2014 Grammys.
During the Planned Parenthood Benefit show earlier this year in Washington D.C, the Nationals debuted a new song titled, Turtleneck. The song is an unreleased track that will appear on the upcoming album.
Fans will be excited to know that The National will be one of many that will be performing at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival located in Paris at the La Grande Halle de La Villette on November 2-4. Some of the other bands that will appear include, Run The Jewels and Ride as well as appearances from Taloboman, BADBADNOTGOOD, The Blaze and Polo & Pan.
As well as the Pitchfork Music Festival, The National will appear alongside St. Vincent, Cyndi Lauper and others on the soundtrack of the animated show Bob’s Burgers. The soundtrack will be available sometime this month.
Take a peek at the mysterious teaser video below and tell us what you think.
UPDATE (5/10): The National have released a second teaser, this one captioned “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness.” The music itself appears to be a looped guitar riff with some synths in the background.
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