Dirty Projectors

I don't necessarily mean it's over-composed

I know.

Really though, I think the "look at me!" with acts like this is more in the listener who's threatened by like the flamboyant content or something.

I mean wouldn't saying a rapper gave off the vibe "lok at me, I'm an eclectic self-expressive genius" usually be a compliment?

i listened to some of this. i didn't even get the black flag thing at all. sometimes stuff like this seems like it was written with a press release first, just to bait rock writers, then do the album after it.

there's also the possibility that people WANT to make music that sounds different

not that this is the differentest band ever... but compared to a good deal of indie rock they are

i really like this band, but lately the lyrics really bug me. not even his weird singing voice, just the lyrics themselves. the rest of it is so meticulous and then that part is just kind of phoned in...

wait the black flag part of the lyrics ?

uhh what? not all of their songs are black flag covers...i haven't even listened to the one that is

err the one album that is. i was mostly talking about getty address and the glad fact.

When I saw them live I kept thinking "Jesus, shut that guy up and let the girls sing." Then I got a promo of the album (whatever one was before the Black Flag thing) and kept thinking, "Oh, you precious fuck, shut the hell up and let the girls sing."

Oh, and to answer the years-old question: No, the reason that no one wrote about this is not because it was too complicated. It was because if you like complicated music, this is disappointing and if you like poppy music, this is annoying. It hits the same dilettante weirdness level as Animal Collective.

i'm kind of afraid to listen to the black flag covers.

<i>i'm kind of afraid to listen to the black flag covers.</i>

You should be...it's awful stuff.

I mean wouldn't saying a rapper gave off the vibe "lok at me, I'm an eclectic self-expressive genius" usually be a compliment?

-- vadx, Friday, October 5, 2007 4:06 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

http://a50.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/57/l_0b1d00fb0cbac50784cbdde0b6718d59.jpg

NO

C'mon, ILM! No love for Rise Above? This is a kick-ass record.

Oh yeah, I played Six Pack on my radio show about a month ago.
Really cool.

i'm revisiting this now (it's getting a whole lot of love around montreal, randomly) and i've decided it's great. more the beginning than the end, though, i think.

"Rise Above" is the best thing on it.

i too had my misgivings about this band but the absolutely killed it last night in portland. fuck. like why do i even try to make music?? one of those shows ...

interesting fact: apparently ezra koenig of vampire weekend was a dirty projector between 2002-05. the fuck?~!?

I read this http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6538 article in the newspaper. I didn't know until just now that Dirty Projectors were supposed to be fake afropop. I thought they were supposed to be Don Caballero with sick lyrics and harmonies over it.

Has the singer guy from Dirty Projectors ever said himself that he is ripping off black people, or is it just a music journalist overlay? I always thought their sound was just math rock. (Or is it that math rock is ripping off black people??)

Please clarify, thanks.

he does use some afro-pop guitar work on his records, guitar picking techniques and such, but it's not like it's anything new in rock to do this.

Has the singer guy from Dirty Projectors ever said himself that he is ripping off black people

haha, no, i don't think so

also this :

Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

for an indepth discussion that would prove interesting to you, if you take issue with that article

Has the singer guy from Dirty Projectors ever said himself that he is ripping off black people, or is it just a music journalist overlay? I always thought their sound was just math rock. (Or is it that math rock is ripping off black people??)

All I know of Dirty Projectors is whatever the ~hour long animated thing on pitchfork.tv is (which is pretty consistently great, actually) and a live show I caught in Ithaca a few months back. Neither one of those sounded remotely like what you're describing.

Seeing them live just solidified how fucking great they are for me.. They did mostly 'Rise Above' stuff and it all sounded stunning...the amazing harmonies, the gobsmacking guitar work...it just sounded effortless and brilliant.

I get the feeling they've yet to do their best stuff though. And folks who lump 'em in with Vampire Weekend are just wrong, if anyone actually does who has heard them both.

There's some sproingy guitar that suggests they've listened to a few afropop records, but to lump them in with a movement like that is selling them way short--they are playing with the full musical deck and have been for a few albums now.

How is Dirty Projectors anything like Vampire Weekend? I mean, they're both indie Ivy League bands in New York City, but Dirty Projectors is somewhere in the "weirdy beardy" brand whereas Vampire Weekend's more like MTV pop.

I've had Rise Above for a few months. "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" is very good and the title track is nice, but the rest doesn't do much to tickle my giblets. Is any of their other stuff worth getting?

I love the way this guy wails. im not too keen on how some of 'The Getty Address' sounds. I find the plonker percussion really grating, but the arrangements are mostly great. 'New Attitude' is my pick. The track 'Fucked For Life' is incredible. You get a sense that with such a strong voice, and the ability to find those snatches of awesome melodic counterparts that there is an ability to just not be so damn difficult with the songs, but i adore how it just is.

Slaves' Graves and Ballads!

new album has leaked and is pretty amazing

That Phoenix compilation with the Rise Above cover (while I was in the middle of rediscovering Damaged) made me curious enough to want to hear this. The Getty Address was pretty great imo.

I've had "Stillness is the Move" on repeat since yesterday

new one is pretty pretty good. very schizophrenic.

new album has leaked and is pretty amazing

― congratulations (n/a), Friday, April 10, 2009 6:23 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark

love this. "no intention" and "two doves" are each magnificent

it's like if matthew friedberger wrote vampire weekend an album

i just realized that it reminds me most menomena, but much better

i really can't tell if those descriptions should make me excited or not

i hate all the bands j0rdan mentioned but i like this album

not saying those aren't appropriate sonic comparisons, just saying that not liking those dudes isn't a guarantee you won't be into this

this music is insane

it's like if matthew friedberger wrote vampire weekend an album

― the sultan of ban (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, April 15, 2009 12:33 AM (9 hours ago)

i've never really gotten the parallels people draw between VW and dirty projectors, even after learning that koenig was a dirty projector for a few years. some of the vocal inflections he and longstreth do are similar, maybe

i can hear it in the guitars a little bit

did not know that is v. surprising

funny, i've just been getting around to rise above. does the new stuff have all kinds of crazy-ass tempo changes?

here and there, i guess, but that's not really what i took from it

yes it does

sweet

http://stereogum.com/archives/premature-evaluation/premature-evaluation-dirty-projectors-bitte-orca_063902.html?utm_source=ss&utm_medium=tw

I wish the album were longer. It was great, then Flourescent Half-Dome made my head explode, then it was over.

glad this is getting a lot of hype

i don't know about longer. it's a lot to digest as it is.

And the orchestral record is done - https://dirtyprojectors.bandcamp.com/album/song-of-the-earth

first is — i’m moving the newsletter over to substack! i’ve become a big fan of the platform and am excited to be a part of it. if you’ve been subscribed to the newsletter, there will be no change. the substack is called well-tempered zealot

Honestly everything about this is just screams 'red flag.'

Why??

Listening parties for new alb, also incl solo performances live

https://www.dirtyprojectors.net/concerts?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

after the album, i’ll play a solo set of songs old and new. if you have requests, throw ‘em in the comments or message to me on this platform. (i brook no requests from instagram or twitter. only substack).
dirtyprojectors at substack dot com

we’re only doing this in new york and los angeles for now, and attendance to each event is limited to 155 (nyc) and 250 (la). ticket is at the close-to-fugazi-adjusted-for-inflation price of $20.

...the soundsystem will be very good. (in brooklyn, in particular — it’s an OJAS). we’re gonna chill and listen to this crazy thing. See ya there!

Anyone read that New Yorker profile?

I found the profile fascinating though I’ve never knowingly heard the band and don’t intend to change that.

I read it. Must admit that my first reaction to seeing it was "a Dirty Projectors profile? in *2025*??"

Ha...I'm a fan of the music, and having been online in the Hipster Runoff/Pitchfork era I was familiar with all the beats. Not super surprised to see it since they have a prestige orchestral climate change-themed record coming out. I guess I was a tiny bit surprised that the tone was so, idk, skeptical? Mostly house NYer style, and all the quotes from his former collaborators where interesting, but then the bits like this:

At one point, trying to convey the song’s intended energy, he played me the opening to Nirvana’s “Floyd the Barber,” then pulled up photographs of a Butoh performance. This was inscrutable.

Idk, that doesn't seem particularly inscrutable to me, using artistic comparisons to capture the feeling of what someone is trying to capture in music.

Had, I had the same thought Jordan, he's clearly showing two influences, not really that inscrutable to me.

I knew the vague outlines of the split from Coffman, but I didn't realize quite how many bridges Longstreth has managed to burn. It seems like very few wanted to talk about him at all, the quote of "I will no long perform unpaid labor on Dave's behalf" was telling.

For sure. I did enjoy the snapshot of late '00s Brooklyn, where getting your indie prog band to rehearse for 12 hours a day to become insanely proficient was both economically viable and a worthwhile investment.

(although today you would just put it on social media and could probably spin it into something, chops are maybe more popular than ever).

that reminds me of that Grizzly Bear feature that Nabisco wrote for NYMag in 2012 that asked how indie-rock success at that time actually translated economically. (conclusion essentially being that they were by no means starving but also not doing as well as some people might have thought.)

Whole alb is on Bandcamp (and elsewhere)
https://dirtyprojectors.bandcamp.com/album/song-of-the-earth?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

https://pwelverumandsun.substack.com/p/live-with-dirty-projectors?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=1177739&post_id=160811859&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=clgib&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(I confess that I didn't get very far with that).

Song of the Earth Instrumentals out now---haven't listened to this version yet, but strongly suspect I'll enjoy it more than when I had to lean around those vocals--whole thing is here (and on other streamers)
https://dirtyprojectors.bandcamp.com/album/song-of-the-earth-instrumentals?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2255969643_10.jpg

Dave sez:

painting by kyle thomas

song of the earth instrumentals

they say a song is a landscape, but if you add even a single voice it becomes a portrait. so we’re rewilding the meadows. for an album inspired by natural places, this is an organic development. Song of the Earth Without Us.

i love listening this way because it feels closer to the experience of dreaming. melody floats, harmony shimmers, rhythms swirl. words, those tethers into the hard world of discrete materials, are nowhere.