Archive for the ‘audio’ Category

Getty Address revisited

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Getty cover

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)

Posted in audio, live shows, news | 2 Comments »

Ascending 7″ and free download, official website

Monday, January 11th, 2010

ascending_melody_7

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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NYC Taper has Audacity to record Bowery Ballroom US tour finale

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

dirty_projectors_cassette

(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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Beyonce’s sis covers Stillness Is The Move

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

solange_knowles

Solange Knowles has recorded a cover of Stillness Is The Move.  Full story and mp3 at Stereogum.

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Dirty Projectors in session on Sirius XMU

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

dirty-projectors-on-sirius-xmu

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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Back in the day (2006)

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

dirty_projectors_at_kvrx_2006

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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Minor treats: Bonnaroo, ABC radio, Take Cover

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Dave and Amber

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.

Posted in audio, interviews | 2 Comments »

Cloak & Dagger Radio session, 2007

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

cloak_and_dagger_logo

OK, here’s a real gem for you. You might have seen Dave’s contribution to Pitchfork’s P2K Guest List 2000s Edition wherein various musicians list their favourite albums of the decade. Dave’s is a diverse list, ranging from Radiohead to Usher to Group Doueh. But a pick that won’t come as a surprise to close DPs followers is B’Day by Beyonce.

This 2007 session contains further evidence of B’Day’s place in the Dirty Projectors canon - track one consists of two minutes of the girls warming up their voices and Suga Mama from B’Day is joyfully prominent.

As if that’s not enough, the session was recorded outdoors, in an Ann Arbor parking lot, and was followed by some funny business with a stranger playing piano in the back of a truck. Angel accompanied him on flute (did you think she only sang and played guitar, bass and keyboards?) and, this being the uh-ohs, someone captured it all on video and posted it on myspace.

It looks as if this was the penultimate session that Cloak & Dagger ever did - among the most recent content on the site is a 2007 top ten page in which Rise Above is #1 for three out of four of the staff. Let’s hope they are putting their talents to good use elsewhere.

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Dirty Projectors in session on WXPN

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

bygones_cover_feat_amber_coffman

Be sure to stop by at WXPN’s World Cafe and listen to Dirty Projectors in session and in conversation with a slightly awed-sounding host.  The Daytrotter sessions set a very high standard but the four Bitte Orca songs here maintain the hit rate, beautifully played and recorded.  The acoustic version of No Intention is a particular highlight.

Meanwhile over on YouTube there’s a ton more clips from the tour including some good ones from Williamsburg Waterfront and the full set from San Diego Casbah, a show notable for a guest appearance by Susanna Waiche, who sang on Rise Above before Angel joined the band.  The cameraman maybe needs reminding that stillness is also the move when it comes to recording gig footage but he gets a good spot down the front and we are grateful.  Nat fanciers may want to skip to the later songs for some bare chest bass playing action.

Lastly, Pitchfork has a Director’s Cut interview with Matthew Lessner, talking about the Stillness Is The Move music video and Amber appears on the cover of Bygones‘ debut album, By-.  Yes, that’s the title and that’s the cover at the top of this post.

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