The National - A Lot Of Sorrow [9xLP] (4 minute song played repeatedly and continuously for six hours)

http://thenational.sandbaghq.com/the-national-a-lot-of-sorrow-boxset.html

  Quote

On May 5, 2013 The National collaborated with Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson on A Lot of Sorrow, a durational performance presented as part of MoMA PS1’s Sunday Sessions. Kjartansson, who often uses repetitive performance to explore collective experience and emotion, invited The National to play their three-minute, twenty-five second song “Sorrow” live on stage, repeatedly and continuously, for six hours. This incredible feat of endurance has become legendary, and the audio recording of the performance will be released as a limited edition 1,500 run vinyl boxed set by 4AD on June 22, 2015.

 

Featuring nine pieces of clear vinyl in clear sleeves held in a translucent, screen printed box, A Lot of Sorrow is now available for pre-order. All profits will be donated to Partners in Health, an organization dedicated to improve the health of impoverished people worldwide.

...thoughts on this?

They must've been really tight at performing the song after 6 hours of it.

If they had played Mistaken For Strangers instead, I might be tempted to buy. Otherwise, a peculiar curio.

I hope Napalm Death do this with You Suffer.

Never really liked this band to be honest. Everything I've heard from them is just too cheesy, especially the vocals. Like they're trying too hard to be sad

is the music interesting beyond the gimmicky 'experimental' concept? *checks it out* nope absolutely not even remotely

the national releases parlance subrange 6.36.666

It's no Meditation On Wage Labor & The Death Of The Album (Canto V), which does this for 29 hours:

Shit, I thought this was a joke when I saw it on Twitter. They've read too much Don Delillo, these dudes.

Ironic twist: a misprint causes two of the vinyls in the set to be duplicated, i.e. have the same 'track'

  On 4/10/2015 at 1:27 AM, doublename said:

Shit, I thought this was a joke when I saw it on Twitter. They've read too much Don Delillo, these dudes.

Or you do.

this was cooler when satie did this a hundred years ago

  On 4/10/2015 at 1:45 AM, Amen Lare said:

 

  On 4/10/2015 at 1:27 AM, doublename said:

Shit, I thought this was a joke when I saw it on Twitter. They've read too much Don Delillo, these dudes.

 

Or you do.

 

*shreds masters thesis*

I like the national in small doses, but 8 hours of them would cause me irreparable psychological damage I think.

  On 4/10/2015 at 2:12 AM, Alcofribas said:

this was cooler when satie did this a hundred years ago

+1

I guess releasing it on vinyl is the closest they could get to actually replicating it as an endurance feat, since I'd have to be bothered to continuously flip and switch LPs.

I think I'll just stick to the 24 Hour Japanese Torture Comedy Marathon. At leas that adds an improvisational factor to the endurance feat, and is so long he was pissing in jugs he'd previously had water out of during the marathon.

  On 4/10/2015 at 2:12 AM, Alcofribas said:

this was cooler when satie did this a hundred years ago

  On 4/9/2015 at 10:32 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

is the music interesting beyond the gimmicky 'experimental' concept? *checks it out* nope absolutely not even remotely

the fact it's them repeating the same song and not playing an extended version is such a joke.

like, i acknowledge the music is not really to my liking here .. but like, i would appreciate it more if they at least were playing an 'extended' version of the song that seamlessly droned on for 6 hours. instead of literally playing the 4 minute track, kind of "fading out" in momentum and then swinging it back in to the start of the song, complete with audience laughing and clapping. ehh. who could be bothered listening to that ?

i remember finding the disintergration loops vinyl box set really dumb cos the long songs were obviously not in the slightest suited for the vinyl format .. n the idea of listening to those ambient loops over multiple discs seemed like a waste of energy and money to me. this makes disintegration loops look like a reasonable purchase.. which is saying a lot.

Would be infinitely more interesting if the band had been drinking heavily and/or taking drugs throughout. Would also be more interesting if The National weren't so uninteresting.

  On 4/10/2015 at 10:28 PM, donk said:

Would also be more interesting if The National weren't so uninteresting.

i think this is the most interesting thing about this whole thing. that such an uninteresting band so perfectly catered to the 4 minute song structure is breaking that and producing something so unfathomably uninteresting.

it's so fascinating .. but not in the slightest bit interesting !!

The National is like plain oatmeal on a rainy day while you think about being judged for wearing the wrong cuff links.

lol

life's too short for this shit *sits on WATMM for another four hours*

the apotheosis of normcore

an ironic self-referential statement about losing originality.