El Vy

"I'm the Man to Be"

BY Sarah MurphyPublished Sep 3, 2015

Matt Berninger recently revealed that the National have begun work on their next record, but before anything comes of that, he's shared a new song from his El Vy project. The two-man group also features Menomena's Brent Knopf and they'll be releasing a debut record titled Return to the Moon next month.
 
They've unveiled album cut "I'm the Man to Be," and it's a groove-heavy jam. A thumping bass line, occasional blasts of guitar and lackadaisically crooned oneliners like "Erin Brockovich is not my wife" and "I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want it to hurt." There's also a slew of f-bombs thrown in for good measure.
 
"This record is more autobiographical than anything else I've written, but the details aren't true," Berninger previously said. "It's written in the voices of a few invented characters, composites of different people—myself, my wife, and other people I was thinking about."

As for the inspiration behind this particular song, Berninger explained via a press release: "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."
 
You can listen to the funked-out psychedelic tune in the player below.
 
Return to the Moon is due out on October 30 via 4AD.
 

Latest Coverage