#9: Alligator

The National: Alligator
From one NYC band to another (and tourmates, no less)... As I mentioned in a previous column, I will always associate Alligator with one of the more bizarre experiences of my life, which is reading Raymond Carver stories on a beach in Rincon, Puerto Rico after my last round of law school exams, having deciding to go there on a half-drunken whim and riding largely on the dime of a friend. I'm not sure, but i think it's fitting.

The National's work conjures what I would call, were I a bad community college professor, the "modern urban human condition." This consists of: (1) regular but unstimulating work, (2) intellectual pursuits outside of regular work that are satisfying but rarely pay, (3) being social and "going out," even if you don't want to, because that's how people here meet other people outside of the cubicle world, (3a) drinking, (4) the simultaneous over- and under-importance of the little things in day-to-day life, and (5) enough time to reflect on all of it. I can't believe I just wrote that. I'll stop now.