While The National hangs its hat on a distinctly brooding brand of indie rock, EL VY, a side project that consists of The National frontman Matt Berninger and Menomena’s Brent Knopf, is noticeably more cheerful. In fact, they’re so peaceful that their… male parts… are in sunlight, if the chorus of their new song “I’m The Man To Be” is taken at face value. Check out the lyric video–which was directed by Berninger’s brother and The National documentarian Tom–above, or listen via Spotify below. The lyric video censors the written words but your ears won’t, so profanity-sensitive listeners should keep that in mind.
Beyond its more overtly tongue-in-cheek and goofy lyrics, EL VY–which Berninger previously explained is “pronounced like a plural of Elvis; rhymes with ‘hell pie.’‖is a departure from The National in other ways, from its more unhinged-but-controlled sound to Berninger’s dance moves, which are Thom Yorke-like (but not quite as good, because Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower” music video is legendary). Anyway, Berninger also spoke about the song’s origins this morning, saying:
“There’s this great Schoolboy Q song ‘There He Go’ which samples Menomena’s ‘Wet and Rusting’. I thought it would be funny to re-sample the same sample and do it from the perspective of a pathetic self-aggrandizing rocker alone in a hotel room. Something I know a lot about. That’s how it started but then Brent took the sample out and we wrote an entirely new song.”
EL VY’s debut album, Return To The Moon, will be released on October 30 and is currently available for pre-order at the band’s website.
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Featured image courtesy of 4AD/EL VY
