February 2nd, 2010
Pitchfork yesterday broke the news that Dirty Projectors will play their 2005 album, The Getty Address, in full, at two special shows this month. They’ll be assisted in both performances by NY chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound. There’s another minimalist official website, too, featuring Dave’s letter to Don Henley. More details at Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan.
If that puts you in the mood for some more Getty era DPs music, WNYC are still streaming a show that Dave and cohorts recorded nearly five years ago for the Spinning On Air programme. It’s a real treat, somewhere around an hour long with a bit of chat but mostly just astonishing music. Thanks to Murray Levy and other readers for pointing this out.
WNYC - Spinning On Air: Dirty Projectors (April 08, 2005)
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January 11th, 2010
Ascending Melody and Emblem Of The World, formerly extra tracks on the shelved Temecula Sunrise EP, and hitherto unavailable except on the internet, are released today as a free download and 7″ single. What’s more, this news comes via the new, official Dirty Projectors website, at dirtyprojectors.net Go see, but unexpect the expected. There’s a brief explanation of the release on the band’s myspace page, too.
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December 9th, 2009
(Actually, Audacity was used for the mastering, not the recording. But why let facts get in the way of a laboured pun?)
New York’s live music archivist and generous soul nyctaper has an early Christmas present for you - a Domino/D-Lo approved recording of Dirty Projectors’ end of US tour Bowery Ballroom show from 22 November. That’s right, the one with The Roots and David Byrne. It sounds amazing and it’s yours for nothing. nyctaper is similarly generous in his praise for Bitte Orca - ”Not since Kid A has a band moved rock music this far forward this quickly, and, like Kid A, challenged the most basic notions about what ‘rock’ music is - and could be.”
Dirty Projectors: November 22, 2009 Bowery - Flac and MP3 Downloads (by nyctaper)
You can show your appreciation by donating to nyctaper and/or by buying an official Dirty Projectors recording. Hey, if you haven’t heard Fluorescent Half Dome on cassette, you haven’t truly heard it.
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November 27th, 2009
Dirty Projectors rounded off their 2009 US tour last Sunday at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. They were joined by The Roots for two songs then, for the encore, by David Byrne. Details and plenty pics at Brooklyn Vegan. The following Wednesday saw a return to the Jimmy Fallon Show for Amber and Hayley, joining house band The Roots in backing up Mos Def and Talib Kweli. If past experience is anything to go by, the YouTube clip of this appearance won’t be around for very long.
Further live shows are scheduled in 2010 including a very special one in Los Angeles with the LA Symphony Orchestra, followed by the group’s first ever dates in New Zealand and Australia. Before that, there are three shows at the end of this year in Brazil. Details on the Tour Dates page.
The UK’s Uncut magazine has placed Bitte Orca at #3 in its end of year Top 50, just behind Animal Collective and Super Furry Animals. The magazine also carries a feature on the Brooklyn scene (described as a “mutual support network”), with a lead quote from D-Lo and short interviews with him and assorted Grizzlies and Collectivists. Elsewhere in the magazine are some effusive endorsements of Bitte Orca from other musicians - Rachel Unthank (”Every time I put it on it sets my pulse racing. It’s just so bold and strident and fearless.”), Aaron Dessner of The National (”Dave Longstreth is the guitar god of our generation. Bitte Orca is his first masterpiece.”) and Hayden Thorpe of Wild Beasts (”It may seem like an inside job, we being labelmates and all, but truthfully, even if it were released by venereal disease, I’d have loved Bitte Orca all the same.”).
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November 12th, 2009
Solange Knowles has recorded a cover of Stillness Is The Move. Full story and mp3 at Stereogum.
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November 11th, 2009
A potential revenue stream appeared to dry up at the end of last month, or someone pulled the plug - the Temecula Sunrise EP, twice postponed, leaked so hard you wonder whether it will ever see an official release at all. This New York Magazine feature is unusual in discussing the economics of keeping the Dirty Projectors show on the road - in both senses. It’s a very worthwhile read, with new insights for the initiated as well as being an excellent introduction for anyone new to the band. Great photos too. Just what you want from a magazine piece.
The NY mag isn’t the first to write about the difficulties of living in Brooklyn and supporting yourself as a musician. Around the time of the South By Southwest festival, Wired Magazine (not the difficult music magazine) spoke to Motel Motel, one of the relatively unknown bands on the bill, about just this subject: SXSW: Sweat, E-Mail and Online Sales Are DIY Secrets to Band’s Success. It’s another great read and even includes a unique and surprising anecdote about Dirty Projectors - although you might wonder whether it would pass The New Yorker’s fact checking test.
Finally, a shorter piece from the San Diego Union-Tribune, Timing fortuitous for Dirty Projectors’ Coffman, again touching on the subject of hard work. There’s also some history about how Amber joined Dirty Projectors and, like the NY mag piece, more suggestions that Dave’s current band can feel more secure in their jobs than their predecessors.
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November 5th, 2009
A quick heads up - Dirty Projectors have recorded a 30 minute session for Sirius XMU, a North American indie rock radio station.
The show is broadcast today at 4:00 pm ET, then again on Sunday at 12:00 pm ET. The No Intention performance is already on YouTube.
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October 13th, 2009
Kids, eh? The earliest footage of Dirty Projectors on YouTube is a 2006 performance from SXSW. It’s just a couple of minutes of Not Having Found, but astonishing and thrilling nonetheless. The same lineup recorded a session for Austin’s KVRX Radio on 17 March 2006 and two of the songs - Not Having Found and Fucked For Life - are available from KVRX as mp3 downloads. There are pictures too, including one of guitarist Spencer Kingman eating an onion as if it were an apple. In other words, this is another essential addition to the Dirty Projectors canon.
Back in 2009, the Temecula Sunrise EP looks like it could go either way. Manchester’s Piccadilly Records shows it as a very specific 400-copies-only 12″ single coming out on Monday, whereas it seems to have disappeared from the Domino release schedule altogether. Over on Pitchfork, Bitte Orca was voted the 56th best album of the decade in their Top 200 albums of the 2000s feature. Cue a retread of the “This list is sooo WRONG!” / “Come on, it’s only a poll” debate. Hey, it is only a poll.
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September 29th, 2009
Dirty Projectors debuted a new song on yesterday’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon show, When The World Comes To An End. If you’ve seen them on tour recently, you might have heard it already. The tv clip is already on YouTube, as are performances of the song from Berlin and Amsterdam. There’s even backstage rehearsal footage on Twitvid.
The Temecula Sunrise EP release date has gone back to 19 October, so there’s a bit longer to wait to hear those other two unreleased songs, Ascending Melody and Emblem Of The World. If that news puts you in the mood for a sad song, well, you’re in luck. Fader has a clip of Angel duetting with Phosphorescent, aka Matthew Houck, on his version of It’s Not Supposed To Be That Way. The song is from the 2009 Phosphorescent album, To Willie, a collection of Willie Nelson covers, out now on Dead Oceans.
Transcribed lyrics for these three new DPs songs, but not the Willie Nelson one, are on the Useful Chamber lyrics page.
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September 21st, 2009
So, despite sounding like ‘kangaroo’, it turns out Bonnaroo isn’t in Australia but Tennessee. Who knew? Dirty Projectors’ appearance at the festival there earlier this year ended with a guest appearance from David Byrne, joining the band for Knotty Pine. There’s a nice audience recording of this and the rest of the set by, confusingly, an Aussie guy called Morris, here.
Definitely located in Australia is ABC - the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. A few weeks back, Dave did a phone interview with the ABC/Triple J’s Mornings With Zan radio programme. No surprises - who wants to delve too deep at nine in the morning? - but it’s worth a listen.
For more depth, and some surface, try Pitchfork’s Take Cover interview with Rob Carmichael, discussing his design of the Bitte Orca album cover. The piece touches on, but doesn’t explain, Nietzsche’s appearance opposite Dave on the back cover. Maybe unconnected but in the Making Music interview, Dave mentioned being into Wagner whilst at college. Nietzsche was a contemporary of Wagner and, for a time, a big advocate of Wagner’s music, with characteristically strong ideas about art and its role as a palliative against the chaos of the world. If you’re still in need of something to listen to after Bonnaroo and ABC, Philosophy Bites has two excellent podcasts covering Nietzsche’s take on art, truth and morality.
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