April 12th, 2010
Dave will be DJing at a Brooklyn Haiti benefit night on May 2 with Bjork, Battles’ Tyondai Braxton and others. Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan have the details.
In this short feature from before the just-happened Cape Cinema shows, Dave says Dirty Projectors have been “camped out… working on taking the songs apart and putting them back together in a new way. A tighter way.” Pitchfork reports that a new song, Scrappy Nephew, was debuted at Cape Cinema and there’s a YouTube recording of the performance here.
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March 19th, 2010
Good news for anyone in Europe who looked longingly at the Disney Center and Allen Room reviews and pictures - Dirty Projectors and Alarm Will Sound are to play a Getty Address show at the Barbican, London on 25 June…
http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=10551
Thanks to Harry for this info.
Stereogum has an mp3 of Dirty Projectors’ cover of Bob Dylan’s Dark Eyes, taken from an Australian radio session they played earlier. (That’s two Bob covers in a month, by my reckoning - I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine was part of the Disney Center encore.) Go here to hear the whole show.
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March 4th, 2010
Unless this is the only music site you ever read (hey, you could do worse) you’ll have heard that Dirty Projectors played their two special Getty Address shows at the Lincoln Center, NY and the Disney Concert Hall, LA. There’s only one YouTube clip so far, of two songs from the Disney encore - perhaps a blessing, given the quality of most YouTube content. There are, however, links to reviews, features and photos on the new UC ‘Past Shows‘ page. Take a scroll down this virtual Memory Lane for further link goodness, with more to be added as we go along.
The past fortnight also saw the Bang On A Can All-Stars‘ performance of three new and intriguingly named DL compositions. WQXR streamed it live but aren’t able to release the recording at present. As Joey from Portland says in the comments, “Hopefully someday [we] will get to hear the great sounds of Matt Damon, Breakfast At J&M, and Instructional Video“.
Meanwhile, the group are no doubt looking forward to sampling vegemite sandwiches and stocking up on Paul Hogan Show videos as the tour rolls into Australia this weekend. Great shame about the Lost Weekend, though.
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February 16th, 2010
Last Saturday night, Solange Knowles joined Dirty Projectors for a run through Stillness Is The Move at the launch party for Opening Ceremony’s new boutique at the Ace Hotel, NYC. DPs were playing as the house band, Solange was DJ. Who could have possibly foreseen what transpired?
Go to the Opening Ceremony site for YouTube clips, including a DPs cover of Tell Me by Groove Theory.
A photo slideshow and write-up are here. Look out for Michael Stipe’s moustache and Walker’s Crisps described as ‘British Walker Potato Chips’.
Thanks to Mike in San Francisco for being first with this news. The photo above is by Steve Eichner.
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February 10th, 2010
Too good to last, UK-published Plan B Magazine closed down last year. It always seemed more of a labour of love than money making exercise, and its founders have provided further evidence of their philanthropic intentions, making the entire archive (46 issues) available as a free download. Go to the Plan B website for download details (torrent client software required).
As a taster, try this PDF of the Dirty Projectors cover feature from January 2008. It’s from a few months after the release of Rise Above, halcyon days when it seemed there was a DPs show in London every other week.
Several former Plan B writers now contribute to The Quietus, a music and culture website not afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve and, occasionally, its foot in its mouth. The Quietus’ sister publication, The Stool Pigeon, is now available electronically and you can read a short Stool Pigeon interview with Dirty Projectors on the Useful Chamber interviews page.
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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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