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MATT BERNINGER

Matt Berninger

Type It Up

Matt Berninger, the singular voice at the center of The National new EP 'Type It Up', releasing via Book/Concord Records. The collection brings together three new original songs alongside two previously released covers, with the vinyl edition featuring a bonus acoustic live recording.

This release follows Berninger's critically lauded second solo album, 'Get Sunk', released last year via Book/Concord Records. 

'Type It Up’s tracklist moves through tones both personal and expansive — from the unforgettable EP opener 'Martini Me Fatso' that was released earlier this summer to the title track's searching quality, before arriving at the stillness of 'Ask For Water'. The EP also features Berninger's rendition of New Order's iconic 'Blue Monday', previously released as an Amazon Music Original track, and a cover of Velvet Underground's 'Who Loves the Sun' with Rosanne Cash, as featured on the Australian television show Sunny Nights.

“These songs came out of the momentum and energy of the 'Get Sunk' tour,” Berninger shares. “I was changing lyrics and forms night after night, and we were getting real time feedback from audiences and social media comments. On the song ‘Type It Up’ (originally titled ‘Black Letter Font’), people were mishearing the lyric, ‘That would look good in a black letter font’ as ‘I would look good in a black leather thong,’ so I decided to swap the chorus. I’m more of a black linen suit guy.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Martini Me Fatso
2. Type It Up
3. Ask For Water
4. Blue Monday
5. Who Loves The Sun?
6. Martini Me Fatso (Acoustic Live In Australia)

Matt Berninger

Get Sunk At Union Chapel: Live - Black Friday 2025 Edition

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28th FROM 10AM ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 29th).

Live trio show from Matt Berninger's trio performance at London Union Chapel, April 5, 2025 Including a song from his debut album, which has not been played live due to his tour getting canceled in 2020 (COVID). Plus three songs from his new album 'Get Sunk'. Trio format is not commercially available anywhere else. Union Chapel is in Islington, London a live venue and charity drop in center for the unhomed built in the 19th Century.

Matt Berninger

Get Sunk

'Get Sunk' is an ode to the infinite. It brings brush-stroked, blurry memories to the surface, amassing in a heap of colors and connections that stretches beyond individuality and into an endless altering. Under water, everything moves in slow motion and for Matt Berninger, he saw his creative voice slipping away with the current. But sometimes we have to drown to remember how to breathe. 'Get Sunk' is the purgative inhale. It’s seeing the undulating reflection in the water and realizing that you are not yourself without a thousand others: parents, friends, siblings, spouses and exes, college roommates, childhood best friends, cousins and kids, strangers even––all of it––make up the spirit of 'Get Sunk’s narrator. Berninger wanted to figure out why he loves what he does and it’s in the album’s collaborative spirit and loose, unfurling attitude that Berninger looked up and felt the warmth on his face. When we sink into ourselves, we’ll often find that we are actually swimming with others. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Matt Berninger finds his latest LP draped in the sort of thoughtful solemnity we find in the work of his parent band, but 'Get Sunk' has reaped the sonic benefits from crackly, saturated drift and staggered syncopated wooze.

TRACK LISTING

1. Inland Ocean
2. No Love
3. Bonnet Of Pins
4. Frozen Oranges
5. Breaking Into Acting Feat. Hand Habits
6. Nowhere Special
7. Little By Little
8. Junk
9. Silver Jeep Feat. Ronboy
10. Times Of Difficulty 

Matt Berninger

Serpentine Prison

Serpentine Prison is the debut solo record from Matt Berninger front man of The National. The album, produced by renowned Memphis multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones (of Booker T. & The MG’s fame) will be released via Book Records, a new imprint formed by Berninger and Jones in conjunction with Concord Records.

“The song ‘Serpentine Prison’ was written in December 2018, about a week after recording The National’s I Am Easy to Find,” Berninger explains about the new track. “For a long time, I had been writing songs for movies and musicals and other projects where I needed to get inside someone else’s head and convey another person’s feelings. I liked doing that, but I was ready to dig back into my own garbage and this was the first thing that came out.”

Berninger continues, “The title is from a twisting sewer pipe that drains into the ocean near LAX. There’s a cage on the pipe to keep people from climbing out to sea. I worked on the song with Sean O’Brien and Harrison Whitford and recorded it about six months later with Booker T. Jones producing. It feels like an epilogue, so I named the record after it and put it last.”

The album features contributions from a wide array of notable artists, including Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire*Eater), Andrew Bird, Mike Brewer, Hayden Desser, Scott Devendorf (The National), Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie, Lenny Kravitz), Booker T. Jones, Teddy Jones, Brent Knopf (EL VY, Menomena), Ben Lanz (The National, Beirut), Walter Martin (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire*Eater), Sean O'Brien, Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan), Kyle Resnick (The National, Beirut), Matt Sheehy (EL VY, Lost Lander) and Harrison Whitford (Phoebe Bridgers). Additional production on the album was provided by Sean O’Brien.


STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Matt Berninger has had our attention for a long time, fronting and writing songs for The National. It comes as a little surprise then, that he's smashed out a solo album with the band still fully intact (just not the done thing is it?). Anyway, he's forgiven because what we have here is a beautifully emotive but comfortingly different creative path than his 'Day Job'. How the songs keep flowing at this quality is beyond me, let's just hope they keep flowing.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Eyes Are T-Shirts
2. Distant Axis
3. One More Second
4. Loved So Little
5. Silver Springs
6. Oh Dearie
7. Take Me Out Of Town
8. Collar Of Your Shirt
9. All For Nothing
10. Serpentine Prison


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