Dirty Projectors

Psyched to hear this. Last one was recorded upstairs from my bedroom (loudly) at totally weird hours for me so by the time it was done I was in no way inclined to revisit. These new songs are insane live and i got great faith.

"Your hair is like an an eagle/ your two eyes are like two doves/But our bed is like a failure."

(xpost)

― I'm crossing over into enterprise (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:44 PM (1 hour ago)

yeah that's what i think i hear too, but sometimes i hear "feather" and i remember someone quoting it somewhere as "feather" too recently. i definitely want it to be "failure"

that song, though. it's amazing to me that no one has written that song before, i feel like it belongs in an old ass romance movie

my fav song i think is "no intention"

Nico seems like a really weird point of reference for these guys, especially such a lovingly crafted homage.

my fav song i think is "no intention"

― starsky and what (J0rdan S.), Thursday, April 16, 2009 3:18 PM (1 hour ago)

yeah two doves -> useful chamber -> no intention is something else

I've listened again and there is no way it's not "failure." I think.

i cant make out any of the lyrics

"two doves" is just about the best song i've heard this year. i don't think this is the lyric, but i like to pretend the second verse goes "but our bed is like a failure". that's the way i heard it the first few times, and it's a pretty devastating thing to hear in the context of that song

― europeen handball (k3vin k.), Thursday, April 16, 2009 5:42 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

Dave asked her specifically to sing "feath-a-yur". (But I prefer "Don't confront me with my feathers" and "This bed is a failure".)

okay it's definitely "don't confront me with my failures." (i have not forgotten that)

owen this is gonna seem really weird but you're the person i was referring to upthread! i googled "our bed is like a failure" to see if that was the lyric and your twitter was the only result. i agree with what you said, if i remember it now

also hi, i didnt know you posted here

there's a real r&b influence on the vocals right? or am i the only one hearing it

..as opposed to before?

no attitude there, sorry, just feel like that's been kind of a DP constant for the last few years

o ok yeah i havent really listened to them much before, will check out their other stuff tho - this album's rad.

in spots definitely. also, that is a really tough lyric to make out, which is always enjoyable. (i guess i'd lean toward "feather".) hope they do another round at Daytrotter.

(it is totally feather)

since i'm about as happy as i've been in a long time today, i kinda want to hear it as feather. but just for today

Somehow missed Mr. Pallett's clarification upthread. So much for lively songmeanings.net debate.

i like this record a lot but man does listening to it on headphones make me walk down the street like a dick.

http://base58.com/ilx/lizmuppet.gif

haha yeah ive gone to the library every day this week, and i usually finish this record on my way there + way back (been listening to it nonstop). walking back is great because it's like 2am and i can sing as i walk

i now agree with mr. pallett. this album should be longer.

This is absolutely the best record I've heard all year. Lyrics to Stillness are awesome too.

i've only recently been acquainted with the band through their new album, but i feel like the dirty projectors are one of the bands that fit into the category of bands who are the only band in the world who could possibly make the music they make. the vocal range of all three singers and the complexity of the songwriting surely help, but there's something undeniably inimitable about their sound. i'm trying to think of other examples of this, there aren't many.

there are a couple of things that the record picks up on to me; his voice seems to have got to this really comfortable david-byrne-ish place, not soundwise but in terms of its dexterity and how comfortable it is (cf no intention), and his guitar playing, or the guitar playing on the record has got to this michael karoli esque peak: not that it sounds like mk, just that it's this really fluid integral melodic satisfying but not explicit part of the record.

i could revive the thing about how feather sounds like failure (and man it does: if you listen on headphones it's feather, but out loud there's that extra syllable: like it's "feathiure"), and how it's kind of something you need to hear at certain times, but the super 100% positivity of the stillness is the move lyrics is blowing my mind.

i also want BITTE ORCA ORCA BITTE! on my gravestone, repeated from top to bottom carved in stone.

this just gets better with every spin. you really hit it on the head wrt the versatility of their voices...the chorus to "no intention" is one of the best moments in music i've heard so far this year

i also want BITTE ORCA ORCA BITTE! on my gravestone, repeated from top to bottom carved in stone.

what does it mean by the way? my guess is "little whale."

good guess, einstein

in what language does bitte mean 'little'

penis whale whale penis

amazing how the pop begins to rise out of the weirdo arrangements. all of these songs have the ability to get stuck in your head over time. very memorable stuff here.

this is the kind of album that transforms over time, i'm sure. album of the year probably.

A good record, despite the title ("lol indie").

This had been sitting on my desk for two weeks and I stupidly only just got round to listening to it. Wow!

"there's something undeniably inimitable about their sound."

i think a big part of their uniqueness is simply the songwriting, instead of the arrangments or instrumentation, which seems to be how many bands get by these days.(/all the time). those wide intervallic leaps in the vocal melodies, the little rubato passages that are often thrown into DP songs -- these are a few things that to my ears sound 'longstrethian' at this point. that's why two doves struck me immediately as just being a DP song w/o longstreth singing. upthread remarks to the contrary are wildly oFFtm.

i think a big part of their uniqueness is simply the songwriting

i agree. however i think what i was unsuccessfully trying to say was not just that they're original, but that the dirty projectors can't be imitated, and maybe even that no one would want/dare to imitate them. i imagine an album like loveless, for example, coming seemingly out of nowhere and then spawning a shitload of bands who spent their whole careers just rewriting those songs. bitte orca, though, which i think is equally unprecedented, i don't see having the same effect. is it because it isn't as good as loveless? probably it isn't as good, but worse albums have been equally influential. i think maybe it's because their formula isn't as fruitful in itself. it would be hard to write a good dirty projectors song (r&b tinged octave-reaching vocal melodies, complex guitar picking/strumming patterns, "rubato passages") whereas it's relatively easy to write a good my bloody valentine song (layered distorted guitar, build/release blablabla). just a tought.

Menomena - Friend and Foe

Taking Sides: Pop Scritti Politti v. Post-Punk Scritti Politti

The part that really blows my mind is the breakdown in Useful Chamber. The girls sing this incredibly complex harmony, and then they repeat it in a much softer style (it sounds like a synth pad) -- it's beyond description! This is such a great record. The run of tracks from Stillness to No Intention is awesome.

Feathliur.

I was trying to dissect just what was going on with my session ace guitar teacher. To his ears, he heard either some tricky harmonizer work or tracks recorded (sampled?) then sped up. The pop aspect of this album has gotten more and more apparent to me with each listen, but the genius lies in all the tricky ways he/they disguise it. They make you work for you pleasure, which makes it that much more interesting/affecting when it finally clicks.

yeah "useful chamber"'s great. reminds me a little of the song they did with david byrne for the dark was the night thing, "knotty pine"

still digging this

i don't think it's even come out yet bro

release date is june 9. pretty scary that people could be done "digging" an album before it's even out.

There's something called the internet, see.

that's not the point.

i'm not done, though. i'll probably even listen to it after it's released. might even pay money for it.

still have not heard it. i don't think i know where to get leaks lately

when i saw these guys (march?) they were flogging 'bitte orca' t shirts

presumably after june 9 you have to stop wearing them

it does seem like a pretty long lag time between when they must have finished it (+ the inevitable leak) and the release date