Hey National Fans,

See below for a list of screenings being set up in your area for The National's A Skin, A Night (a film by Vincent Moon).

Don't see a screening in your neighborhood?Want to set one up? Drop a line to clairetaylor(at)beggars.com with National Screening in the subject line. It's that easy.

**Proceeding all screenings will be a special listening session to the new Shearwater album "Rook" that streets June 3 (via Matador Records)**

TOWER THEATER - Salt Lake City, UT
Monday, May 19th

6:00 PM - Shearwater Rook outdoor listening session with film projections outside of Tower Theater & Coffee Garden
7:00 PM - A Skin, A Night screening at Tower Theater

Tower Theater / SLC Film Society
876 East 900 South
Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.saltlakefilmsociety.org/
(Coffee Garden right next door to Tower Theater)

Admission: $2 at the door

MAJESTIC THEATRE - Madison, WI
Tuesday, May 20th
Muzzle of Bees Presents! (www.muzzleofbees.com)

Majestic Theatre
115 King Street
Madison, WI
http://www.majesticmadison.com/

8:00pm Shearwater Rook listening session (w/ film projections) & National Screening to follow

$3 at the door

SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN - SAVANNAH, GA

Wednesday, May 21st

Presented by SCAD Radio (http://www.scadradio.org) 

Savannah College of Art and Design - Pei Ling Chan Garden for the Arts
324 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Savannah, GA
Gallery Space and Time TBA Soon!!

8:00 pm Shearwater Rook listening session 

8:30 pm National screening 

FREE / OPEN TO THE PUBLIC 

MARY RIEPMA ROSS MEDIA ARTS CENTER - LINCOLN, NE
Thursday, May 22nd

Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
313 N. 13th Street
P.O. Box 880253
Lincoln, NE 68588-0253
http://www.theross.org/

7:00 pm (get there early to hear Shearwater's Rook!).

THE RIVERSIDE ART MUSEUM - RIVERSIDE, CA
Friday, May 23rd

Riverside Art Museum
3425 Mission Inn Ave.
Riverside CA 92501
http://www.riversideartmuseum.org/
Time TBA Soon!!!

SLUGGO'S - PENSACOLA, FL
Friday, May 30th

Sluggo's
2403 W Cervantes St.
Pensacola, fl.
http://www.myspace.com/sluggos

6:30pm - Shearwater Rook outdoor listening session with film projections
7:30 - A Skin, A Night Screening
Admission: Donations at the door

MORE DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED!

Click the image to watch the trailer for A Skin, A Night

Starting off Wed, 5/14 at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia.

Followed by Thurs, 5/15 at Brooklyn's Studio B and Friday, 5/16 at the Bowery Ballroom . Tour Routing Here .

The new album by THE LONG BLONDES is out today! Our favorite Sheffieldians have returned with a kick ass new record - "Couples" that shakes up any thoughts you hay have had about them before!

Have a little taste:

LISTEN to "Here Comes The Serious Bit"

WATCH the video for "Guilt"

These glamorous folks are going on tour soon, and hopefully coming to a town near YOU!

• 14 May 2008 Johnny Brenda'sPhiladelphia Pennsylvania US
• 15 May 2008 Studio BBrooklyn New York US
• 16 May 2008 Bowery BallroomNew York New York US
• 17 May 2008 Rock And Roll HotelWashington District Of Columbia US
• 19 May 2008 Great ScottAllston Massachusetts US
• 20 May 2008 Cabaret Du MuseeMontreal Quebec US
• 22 May 2008 Lee's PalaceToronto Ontario CA
• 23 May 2008 Magic StickDetroit Michigan US
• 24 May 2008 Logan Square AuditoriumChicago Illinois US
• 25 May 2008 7th Street EntryMinneapolis Minnesota US
• 28 May 2008 Neumo'sSeattle Washington US
• 30 May 2008 Richards On RichardsVancouver British Columbia CA
• 31 May 2008 Doug FirPortland Oregon US
• 02 June 2008 Great American Music HallSan Francisco California US
• 03 June 2008 GlasshousePomona California US
• 04 June 2008 TroubadourLos Angeles California US

We all know how talented John Darnielle is musically, with the hundreds of songs he's written for his band The Mountain Goats and, anyone that likes metal knows he is a hell of a writer about that genre. He's written for several metal mags and has a regular column in decibel , oh - and his own blog, Last Plane To Jakarta is a favorite bookmark for many.

Now, John has finally written a book ! It's part of the 33 1/3 series of books on classic albums. His is on Master of Reality by Black Sabbath .

If you live in NYC, you are lucky, for 2 reasons.

1) because John will be reading from his book at Housing Works Bookstore as part of their 10th anniversary celebration. His reading is on May 17th, and more info is here !

2) John is also playing a benefit for Aids Walk NYC the day prior, May 16th at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. More info/tickets here!

SO....get out, support bookstores, give to charities and support independent music!

Vampire Weekend will be perfoming on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday 4/23. Be sure to tune in! Other guests are Bill Hader (he was so nice to us at SNL!) and Eric Dane (mc steamy or mc dreamy or mc dude from grey's anatomy that's NOT they guy in all the rom com movies). Oh....also, Vampire Weekend will be joined by some special guests! You'll just have to watch and see :)

To celebrate the mighty presence of Beggars bands at this year’s Coachella we decided to put all of their albums in our catalogue on sale! This includes albums from The Breeders, Vampire Weekend, The National, Holy Fuck , St. Vincent, The Teenagers our ENTIRE Love & Rockets catalogue in every format we offer (Digital, CD and LP)!!!!

Just add the album you want to your shopping cart and enter the code "coachella" in the Promotional Code section during checkout. Pretty simple and bam! next thing you know you’ve got 10% off.

Click HERE to see the participating artists.

A SKIN, A NIGHT
A FILM BY VINCENT MOON

A Skin, A Night is a film about THE NATIONAL made by French filmmaker Vincent Moon.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE! http://www.thenationalboxer.com/film/

It will be released on DVD by Beggars Banquet on May 20th and will be packaged with a bonus cd, The Virginia EP.

What goes on in A Skin, A Night, though, is not the stuff of well-rehearsed insider history. Nor is it a series of rock’n’roll clichés. Nor is it specifically concerned with the making of The National’s fourth full-length album, Boxer, even though much of it was filmed during sessions for that record at Peter Katis’s Bridgeport, Connecticut studio. A Skin, A Night is less a movie about The National than a movie about how music is made today -- not with classic rock bravado, or debauched indulgence, but through novelistic attention to detail, a collective implosion of personality, and worried worried nights.

When the association between Vincent and The National began, he wasn’t yet known as the auteur behind Le Blogotheque’s Les Concerts A Emporter aka The Take Away Shows. It was well before his tenure as image maker for R.E.M and Arcade Fire. And The National had yet to become one of the most beloved of the current crop of independent rock bands.

A Skin, A Night is a sixty-minute portrait of impressions, mutual affection, and intimate moments you’d never otherwise see. If The National’s lyrics seem to take us inside the human condition, Vincent Moon’s images take us outside, documenting the beauty of the sounds made by our human skin.

A Skin, A Night will be packaged with The Virginia EP, which contains 12 tracks of demos, live versions, radio sessions and b-sides.

The Virginia EP tracklisting:

1) YOU’VE DONE IT AGAIN, VIRGINIA (previously unreleased)
2) SANTA CLARA (UK b-side)
3) BLANK SLATE (UK b-side)
4) TALL SAINT (demo)
5) WITHOUT PERMISSION (unreleased cover of Caroline Martin song)
6) FOREVER AFTER DAYS (demo)
7) REST OF YEARS (demo)
8) SLOW SHOW (demo)
9) LUCKY YOU (daytrotter session)
10) MANSION ON THE HILL (live)
11) FAKE EMPIRE (live)
12) ABOUT TODAY (live)

Go see Adam Green live at Town Hall on May 10. Get your tickets here . And speaking of live, Adam recently went to Australia and we have a song from those shows for download here:

Salty Candy - Live From Australia (MP3)

Oh, and if you missed it, our first single "Morning After Midnight" can be downloaded here too:

Morning After Midnight (MP3)