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Election issues with a melody: An interview with The National

Indie rockers The National take a break from a recording session in upstate New York to talk politics and election issues, and perform a version of their economically inspired "Bloodbuzz Ohio"

By this point in the 2012 presidential campaign, you’ve probably had just about enough of candidates and talking heads saturating the airwaves with partisan talking points. So we decided to do something a little bit different today on Marketplace: talk policy, add a melody. Kind of like an election mix-tape.

Marketplace reporter Krissy Clark goes back a long way with some of the guys in the indie rock band The National, five guys who are all big Obama supporters and who all grew up in a certain midwestern swing state that’s getting a whole lot of attention right now. That state — and its election-year politics — is also the subject of one of the band’s hit songs, “Bloodbuzz Ohio.”

Krissy spent a day with the band at a Rhinebeck, N.Y., recording studio last week. She sat down with lead singer Matt Berninger to talk about the music and the politics behind it. Read the complete interview with the band, and watch an exclusive music video of the band performing “Bloodbuzz Ohio” for Marketplace.

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