Bloodbuzz Ohio

The National is a Brooklyn-based indie rock band who formed in Ohio in 1999. The group comprises lead singer Matt Berninger and two pairs of brothers, Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Scott and Bryan Devendorf. This regret-tinged reminiscence is the lead single from their fifth album, High Violet.

This song originally featured a horn fanfare, which some members of the band felt was too like the one on "Fake Empire." However the decision to remove it caused some dissension within the band as Aaron Dessner explained to The Quietus: "We had to do away with a horn fanfare that's no longer there, but if you listen to the live version you'll hear this "ba-ba-ba!" section, which was cool, but not unlike 'Fake Empire'. It was too similar, and so Matt and I wanted to get rid of it, but others, especially Peter Katis [the band's long-term producer] and to some extent our drummer really loved it, so there was a battle being fought right then! The interview was mostly about that… There were other songs that we pulled back, but that was the main one. Eventually we took it out.
Berringer added: "There were a lot of things about that song that suddenly weren't working at that point. The version we had then was not going to be on the record. It was over muscled-up and kind of annoying, and it was too long. We'd been trying to figure it out and solve it for a long time, and sometimes I was like, y'know what, this can't be saved. So it's not totally untrue – we all had every intention of trying to save it – but you never know what can happen."

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, The National lead singer Matt Berninger moved to Brooklyn, New York, along with his bandmates in the 1990s. This song finds him drunkenly reminiscing about his home state. I'm on a blood buzz I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees I never married but Ohio don't remember me Said Berninger: "Y'know when you have a wine buzz, you're drunk. And I think it's a little bit, y'know, like something about like your history or family or what's in your blood. Ohio's in your blood. I don't know, it sounds good."