The National

Formed in 1999, The National have established themselves as mainstays of arenas and festivals with sold-out performances and headlining slots around the world. The band has scored five top 10 albums on The Billboard 200, multiple Grammy nominations with 2017’s Sleep Well Beastearning the award for Best Alternative Album.

The National dropped not one but two new albums in 2023. First Two Pages of Frankenstein was released in April, followed by a surprise album Laugh Track in September, both on 4AD. Across two albums worth of new material they were joined by Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift, Roseanne Cash, Bon Iver and Sufjian Stevens. 2023 was their best live year yet, selling out shows in North America and Europe, including Madison Square Garden, LA’s Greek Theatre and Alexandra Palace in London.

Named one of their “Best Albums of 2023”, Rolling Stone called First Two Pages of Frankenstein ”…a remarkable reassertion of their potency and shared commitment…Nine albums deep, the National found new energy by conjuring not just a great, suffocating fog but also the far light that guides the way out.” They were also named Forbes’s “Band of the Year”, with the article stating, “All The National did in 2023 was release two superb albums … have a brilliant sold-out tour, deliver the festival set of the year with their riveting performance at BottleRock and collaborated with the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Swift and Sufjan Stevens. The National are so consistently great it becomes easy to take for granted they will be at the top of their game. But even by their lofty standards this was an incredible year.” And The New Yorker’s Amanda Petrusich named it as one of her favorites of the year, saying if you already like “what the National has been doing for the past two-plus decades – making brooding, fraught, atmospheric rock and roll, marked by careful, resonant production and a ribbon of debauched humor—you are likely to also savor First Two Pages of Frankenstein, a heady encapsulation of the band’s entire gestalt.”

The National is Matt Berninger (vocals) fronting two pairs of brothers: Aaron (guitar, bass, piano) and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano), and Scott (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums).

The War On Drugs

The War on Drugs have steadily emerged as one of this century’s great rock and roll synthesists, removing the gaps between the underground and the mainstream, between the obtuse and the anthemic, making records that wrestle a fractured past into a unified and engrossing present. Led by Adam Granduciel, The New Yorker called them “the best American ‘rock’ band of this decade” in support of their album, A Deeper Understanding, for which they won the 2018 Grammy for Best Rock Album and were nominated for a BRIT Award for International Group of the Year. 2020 saw the release of LIVE DRUGS featuring live interpretations of songs throughout their career, including off their 2014 breakthrough, Lost In The Dream. Co-produced by Granduciel and Shawn Everett, their fifth studio album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, chips away some of their hazier edges in favor of sharper melodies, broadening the borders of the meticulous yet joyously simple sound [Granduciel] has perfected” (Pitchfork, Best New Music). It landed on numerous 2021 best albums of the year lists and garnered a second GRAMMY Award nomination (Best Rock Song) and BRIT Award nomination. The band headlined Madison Square Garden in support of its release.

Lucius

Acclaimed indie band Lucius has been turning heads since the start thanks to their irrepressibly catchy songs, explosive harmonies, and bold aesthetic. Formed by Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, the Los Angeles group got rolling with their 2013 debut album Wildewoman — featuring long-standing hits like “Two of Us on the Run”. Rolling Stone hailed the record for “an updated ’60s girl-group sound at once fresh and thrilling.” Lucius shifted towards a folk rock sound with 2016’s Good Grief before taking a break from the studio to join Roger Waters on his Us + Them Tour in 2017-18. Lucius returned to the studio in 2022 with the dance-ready collection Second Nature, which features singles “Next to Normal”, one of NPR Music’s top songs of the year and “Dance Around It” the pulsing song with Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile. In addition to their own work, the GRAMMY-nominated Wolfe and Laessig are singers in demand: their voices have graced songs by a host of other artists, including Carlile, The War on Drugs, John Legend, Harry Styles, Jeff Tweedy and Ozzy Osbourne.