THE NATIONAL formed in 1999, when five friends from Cincinnati, Ohio met again after all of them had relocated to Brooklyn, NY. For years, the band had received critical praise but it wasn't until 2005's Alligator that a wider audience finally discovered them. Alligator ended up in the higher echelons of scores of year-end critics' lists and the band found themselves selling out large venues across Europe, the UK and the US. Written over the course of thirteen months 'Boxer' is the result of a lot of hard work and marks a new chapter in the band's career. Mostly recorded at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT (some additional recording was done by the band and Brandon Reid in Brooklyn, NY and White Sulphur Springs, WV), it was then produced and mixed by the band and Peter Katis (Interpol, Spoon). Boxer hits as high as Alligator but is a different record - just another classic album from a band on top form.