Archive for the ‘news’ Category

Azerrad show reports and audio; Domino Radio

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

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Reviews, photos and audio from Sunday night’s Our Band Could Be Your Concert show, curated by Michael Azerrad and with various Dirty Projectors in starring and supporting roles, are online now.  Dave, Nat and Brian played faithful cover versions of five Black Flag songs previously reimagined on Rise Above, and Nat and Brian also backed up other musicians on the bill.  As usual, Brooklyn Vegan has the greatest write-up, including YouTube clips and a feast of fabulous photos by Amanda M Hatfield (such as the one of Dave above).  NPR has streaming audio of the whole show, as well as clips of individual artists’ slots.  Songs played by the DP3 were Police Story, Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie, Spray Paint, Thirsty and Miserable and Rise Above.

Pitchfork reports that the Dirty Projectors track planned to be on the forthcoming Red Hot + Rio 2 compilation has not been completed in time for the release and is hoped to be made available as a digital bonus.

Dirty Projectors are slated to present a show on record label Domino’s radio station, Domino Radio, which will run for one week only, on 87.7FM in London between 6 and 12 June.  Other Domino artists will also be contributing, as will “friends and neighbours from the worldwide independent music community”.  Further ideas for programming are invited at the Domino Radio website and there’s a Twitter feed too.

It’s Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday.  If you’re a songwriter like Bob, or if you’re just interested to read about how songs come into being, the website Songwriters On Processs could be for you.  You can read their recent interview with DPs’ Nat Baldwin here.

STOP PRESS - stalwart music blog I Guess I’m Floating is offering and enthusing over a free mp3 of San Francisco band Painted Palms‘ cover of I Will Truck.

Spring 2011 news update

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

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Dave/Dirty Projectors is/are writing/recording the follow-up to Bitte/Mount Wittenberg Orca.  Meanwhile…

Dirty Projectors have contributed to AIDS charity the Red Hot Organization’s Red Hot + Rio 2, to be released 28 June.  As Pitchfork says “It pays tribute to the Brazilian Tropicália movement of the late 1960s, which combined traditional sounds with funk, psychedelic rock, and leftist politics, making cultural and musical waves.”  Os Mutantes, Beck, Beirut and other artists also appear on the record.

Dave, Nat and Brian will cover Black Flag at the Bowery Ballroom as part of author Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Concert on 22 May.  Tune-Yards, Dan Deacon and St Vincent are on the bill too.

Angel has released a double A-side 7″ single, Marichka, c/w Planetarium by Albert McCloud.  Both songs are available from digital outlets and you can catch Angel playing live on her forthcoming US and European dates.

Not to be outdone, Nat has a new solo record out on 24 May, People Changes, co-produced by Matt Walsh from The Forms, and has just begun a substantial North American tour.  See Brooklyn Vegan for full details and cover art.

Amber and Haley helped out The Roots at a Neil Young tribute show.

Finally, here are two links to some pro-filmed clips of Dirty Projectors 2010 acoustic radio sessions added to YouTube since our last update.  KeepVid is your friend.

CBC’s Qtv - Temecula Sunrise, No Intention and interview

ABC’s Triple J show - Cannibal Resource

Bitte Santa

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

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Gold, frankincense and myrrh?  No, it’s the cover of the No Intention / As I Went Out One Morning 7″ single, due for release on 6 December.   To see higher res artwork from both this and a promo cd featuring No Intention and CD2 of Bitte Orca Expanded, go to the website of artist Christian Oldham.  Incidentally, back in September, Dave mentioned that the band had just filmed a video for No Intention.  Anyone seen it?

Other recent goings on…

Dirty Projectors opened for Phoenix at Madison Square Garden on 20 October.  Daft Punk made an appearance during the encore.  Photos and write-up are at Brooklyn Vegan.

You might have come across interviews with Dirty Projectors being asked about working with Björk .  Here’s one with Björk talking about how it was for her.  Sample quote - “I have the feeling that they’ve only just begun making great records; that they have many to come.”

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a fan, too - “I really like their brave innovations to break down the boundaries.”

The tour is winding down, with just two UK dates remaining.  Nat has played a tour of his own and Angel has guested on the debut LP by Eric & Magill, which is available for free download here.

Last month I posted links to a couple of radio sessions.  Here’s one I missed, from Canada’s CBC - there’s a streaming version of the show (29 September) on this page (about 50 minutes into the programme), which features a short interview with Dave and Amber and an acoustic No Intention.  And there’s a separate recording of Temecula Sunrise here that’s not included in the programme.

So, December next week.  Where does the time go, eh?  Sheesh…  What’s that you say?  A Dirty Projectors Christmas song?  Now that would be something.

New radio sessions, competition result

Monday, October 4th, 2010

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Many thanks to everyone who entered last week’s competition - the two winners have been notified. Nearly everyone got it right. The correct answer was that the picture is reversed, as you can tell if you know Dave plays guitar left handed.

If you didn’t win, here are two more opportunities to hear some high quality music free of charge - two more radio sessions which you can hear online:

The Current (Minnesota Public Radio)

KEXP 90.3 FM Seattle

There are some professional photos from the KEXP session on photographer Kyle Johnson’s website.

The image above is how the Bitte Orca Expanded second CD looks on an Arcam CD73. CD-Text, people.

Bitte Orca expanded, Other Music vinyl

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

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A 2cd version of Bitte Orca is set for release 27 September.  It features five songs from DPs’ June 2009 acoustic show at NYC’s Other Music record store, plus some b-sides and a new recording of Bob Dylan’s As I Went Out One Morning.  Full tracklisting here.

Accompanying this will be a 500-only vinyl release of the Other Music set, which can be preordered from the Other Music online shop.

The never-ending tour continues, mostly in the US, with two UK dates in December - see Tour Dates.

A few more links for you…

Krist Novoselic, Nirvana’s bassist, has been listening to Two Sheeps Asleep

Is there a physical release of Mount Wittenberg Orca in the offing? This Clash Magazine feature on Bjork seems to suggest so.

Click Track has a new Dave interview, with Part 2 following tomorrow.

That up there is Dirty Projectors’ fall 2010 press photo by NYC photographer Tom Hines.

Summer news roundup

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

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A few recent happenings you might have missed…

New tour dates continue to be added, including a support slot at Phoenix’ show at Madison Square Garden and a Belle & Sebastian curated festival in the UK.

Hold On, by Rusko, with Amber providing “vocals of pure dance-floor sex“, has been released as a single on Diplo’s Mad Decent label, with a not-featuring-Amber video.

Domino released a 7″ single of Stillness Is The Move on 19 July.

Reviews of Mount Wittenberg Orca have appeared, including this one from Pitchfork.

Angel is to appear on the new Tyondai Braxton-produced, female vocals only, Prefuse 73 album, which also stars Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) and Trish Keenan (Broadcast).

And Dave reveals his highlight of the year so far in this Oxegen festival preview interview.

Dirty Projectors + Björk EP out next week

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

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Over a year after Björk and Dirty Projectors’ one-off collaboration at the Housing Works Bookstore in NYC, Dave has announced that the music specially written for that show has been recorded and is to be released next Wednesday (30 June).  It’s a seven song affair, called Mount Wittenberg Orca, available as a download only, with profits going to the National Geographic Society’s Oceans Initiative, a campaign to establish international marine protected areas.  The full story, including an explanatory letter from Dave is at Stereogum, whose Brandon Stosuy made it all happen.  And five teaser clips for MWO are on the new Dirty Projectors YouTube channel.

Buy Mount Wittenberg Orca ($7)

Also this week, The Roots album How I Got Over, which features Amber, Haley and Angel performing on an interlude track, is streaming on the band’s MySpace, ahead of its release next week.

The third ever, first ever in Europe, Getty Address show takes place tomorrow at the Barbican, London, with Alarm Will Sound, then it’s on to the Glastonbury Festival for a slot on Sunday.  For anyone in the UK, BBC2 and BBC3 are covering Glastonbury, so maybe there will be some DPs on tv this weekend.

Lastly, Dave has consented to a few more interviews in support of the groups current round of live dates…
T in the Park preview | Westword Music Showcase interview

New Dirty Projectors album this year

Friday, May 28th, 2010

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Whatever you do, don’t watch this YouTube clip of an interview with Brian and Nat. You’ll feel like you’ve been mugged for two minutes of your life by the interviewer. Just take my word for it that, at the end, Brian reveals that Dirty Projectors are in the studio working on a new album for release “this fall”.

Thanks to reader Sdorazi (who calls Brian and Nat “the non-dave guys”, reminding us of KITH’s The Daves I Know) for pointing this out.

Other news just in, Domino are releasing a 7″ single of Stillness Is The Move in the UK, to promote the London Barbican Centre Getty Address show.  The b-side will be the Lucky Dragons remix of Stillness.  As is also the case for Domino heavyweights Arctic Monkeys, Dirty Projectors don’t feature in the Domino/Uniqlo t-shirts range that was announced this week.

Finally, Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan have some photos of Wednesday’s David Byrne / Kitchen gala show.

Dylan cover, Kitchen gala show, Roots collab

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

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Dirty Projectors have contributed their cover of Bob Dylan’s I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine (previously heard at the LA Getty Address show) to the Levi’s Pioneer Sessions. The mp3 isn’t up yet but Pitchfork has details.

The band are playing a David Byrne-themed benefit show in NYC tonight. Bad news - it’s sold out.  Good news - it was $500 a ticket.

?uestlove has tweeted that The Roots are working with Haley, Amber and Angel on two interludes for their forthcoming album. See his photo, watch his video, anticipate.

Kris Ellestad, whose guitar tabs are linked from this site, has added another beautiful DPs cover version performance to YouTube, this time Spray Paint (The Walls).  Tabs for Depression and Useful Chamber are under way, we hear.

[Before you call Ticketmaster, the poster above, by Michael Neault, is from a 2007 show.  More archive gig posters are linked on the Past Shows page.]

Election eve news roundup

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

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- Dave DJ’d at the reportedly very hot Rites Of Spring Haiti benefit on Sunday night, along with Bjork, Tyondai Braxton and others.  Haven’t seen a list of what he played so far but some photos have surfaced.

- New shows continue to be added.  Academy 2, Manchester on 7 July and The Wiltern, LA on 24 September, to name two.  See Tour Dates for more.

- Amber provides vocals on dubstep artist Rusko’s new record, Hold On [listen on YouTube]

- The Deradoorian song, You Carry The Deed, has been remixed by Hidden Cat [info and 128kbps mp3] [320kbps mp3 (via Hidden Cat myspace blog)].  (Note - if you put it after Mind Raft in iTunes and set your playback to crossfade, you’ll be mixing like a pro.)

- Record label Domino has taken steps to remove some clips of Dirty Projectors’ Coachella performance from YouTube.  The clips were of full songs, professionally filmed, reputedly taken from a webcast (see Pitchfork).  Let’s hope this is in anticipation of an official release.

- The Coachella show opened with I Will Truck [passable YouTube audience clip] and was watched by Jay-Z and Beyonce.

- Angel played a rare solo show on Monday and Nat has lined up five solo U.S. dates this month.