Watch the National’s Matt Berninger Cover the Velvet Underground on Fallon

The National’s Matt Berninger appeared on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon yesterday to perform “I’m Waiting for the Man”—a cover of the Velvet Underground classic (not, as Fallon relayed, a track from his recent solo album Serpentine Prison). Check it out below.

Berninger has history with the Velvet Underground: In 2016, he and Andrew Bird covered Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” Berninger also recorded (and, on Booker T.’s advice, scrapped) a cover of “European Son,” from The Velvet Underground and Nico, for Serpentine Prison. 

Earlier this month, Future Islands remixed Berninger’s “One More Second.” The National released their last LP, I Am Easy to Find, last year, and are reissuing parts of their early catalog on vinyl and CD early next year. 

Check out “The National’s Matt Berninger on the Music That Made Him” on the Pitchfork Review podcast: