Dirty Projectors

"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.

yeah, I always think these guys albums are just too long, too much sprawl, which is part of their charm, but come on.

i love great, short albums

^^^^

always leave 'em wanting more

usually, but with DP its like the excess of it, the messy swerve of the songs and drunken runtimes

would i like these guys

i think so, louis

there's a live video of 'stillness is the move' too but it doesn't sound as good without the doubled vocals

these dudes are such good musicians that it pisses me off

groovy, will check 'em (was probably going to anyway, as volcano! who are pretty much my favourite new(ish) American band have received DP comparisons)

p.s. great short albums are awesome but so are sprawling 50-minute thrillrides ^_^

cheers n/a!

srsly mention volcano one more fucking time

these dudes are such good musicians that it pisses me off

seriously, as a dude who cannot really play and sing at the same time i got mad jealous when i saw them.

uh 50 minutes is still a pretty short album

there's a live video of 'stillness is the move' too but it doesn't sound as good without the doubled vocals

That's interesting. When I heard studio "Stillness", I said, "Why the doubled vocals? Amber's a better singer than Janet Jackson, you don't need this."

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.