Dekkagar, the debut album by the National Trust, is impressive sheerly on a technical level–its assured, sybaritic sprawl encompasses lush orchestration, sumptuous slinky soul grooves, and loads of inventive vocal harmonies. Released this past Tuesday on Thrill Jockey, it’s a stunning leap forward for its creator, Neil Rosario, whose rock “career” in the 90s could generously be described as meandering.
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Dolomite played its last show in the summer of 1995, and Rosario spent some time bartending at the Empty Bottle, where “seeing the histrionics and prima donna syndrome and stuff” of touring bands soured his enthusiasm for the scene. Still, he briefly served as Red Red Meat’s second guitarist, going on the road with them as a replacement for Glenn Girard and contributing to their second-to-last album, Bunny Gets Paid. The following year he started a loose outfit called Fifteen Couples with bassist Matt Fields (another latter-day Red Red Meat member), drummer Kim Ambriz, and fellow songwriter and guitarist Andy Cunningham. “It was nice to have a band that has no ambition to make records,” he says. “Everything was sort of nebulous, and it was fine that way. I think we played live five times, something pretty large like that.”
“You can’t talk about the National Trust without talking about Fifteen Couples,” says Deck. “I’m not really sure when I pulled out a Fifteen Couples tape and Neil said, Oh, let’s relabel that ‘National Trust.’” Rosario gave a tape of two songs, featuring Cunningham, DeMers, and new recruit Mark Henning on vocals and guitar, to Thrill Jockey owner Bettina Richards, who’d put out the Dolomite album. She released them as a single in the summer of 1999. The record captured Rosario’s developing pop sensibilities and interest in orchestration, but it was nice at best.
Deck estimates that they spent over 500 hours at Clava and Engine studios, where Deck became a partner last fall–a staggering amount of time for a self-financed indie release. Last spring Rosario played some rough mixes for Richards, who offered to release the album. She gave Rosario an advance, but by her own admission it covered only a third of what he’d ultimately spend making it–it took him and Deck another six months to finish.
