Helping marine life is certainly a worthwhile cause, but as much as Bjork and Dirty Projectors want to raise awareness about whales, Mount Wittenberg Orca will ultimately raise awareness about. Dirty Projectors + Bjork - Mount Wittenberg Orca EP (2010). Has become the blueprint for a generation of creative musicians—and with Mount Wittenberg Orca, Dirty Projectors prove themselves at the forefront of that generation. Via; National Geographic Society Tracklist: 1. On and Ever Onward 3.
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Dave Longstreth
Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York City, New York, formed in 2002. The band currently consists of primary recording artist and core member David Longstreth (vocals, guitar), alongside longtime bass guitarist Nat Baldwin, Mike Daniel Johnson (drums), Maia Friedman (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Felicia Douglass (percussion, keyboards, backing vocals) and Kristin Slipp (keyboards, backing vocals).
Since its formation the band has released eight full-length studio albums, and has had numerous lineup changes, with major contributions from guitarist and vocalist Amber Coffman from 2006 to 2013.[2][3] In 2018, the band released its eighth studio album, Lamp Lit Prose.
History[edit]Early years and Rise Above (2002–07)[edit]
While studying at Yale, Longstreth spent part of the years 2001 and 2002 working on a number of musical ideas, together with his brother Jake.[4] This resulted in the album, The Graceful Fallen Mango, that was released in 2002 under his own name and introduced his distinctive use of song arrangements and his combination of lo-fi and hi-fi production.[5] With the help of Adam Forkner of Yume Bitsu, Longstreth recorded and released The Glad Fact on the Western Vinyl label under the name 'The Dirty Projectors' in 2003. Two years later, the band released The Getty Address, a concept album about the musician Don Henley that features extensive orchestral and choral accompaniment. The stripped-down New Attitude EP followed in 2006 and featured inklings of the band's later vocal interplay and guitar work.
In 2007, the band released Rise Above, an album of Black Flag songs as re-imagined from memory. The album introduced the band's distinctive contrast between Longstreth's vocals and the hocketed harmonies of Amber Coffman and Susanna Waiche, who was later replaced by Angel Deradoorian. In support of the album, the band performed songs for a Take Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon.
Domino Records, Bitte Orca, and Mount Wittenberg Orca (2008–11)[edit]
In April 2008, Dirty Projectors signed with Domino Records, and the label announced the release of their fifth full-length album, Bitte Orca, for June 9, 2009. Bitte Orca introduced additional backing vocalist/auxiliary percussionist Haley Dekle as a new member and bassist Nat Baldwin returning to the band (he previously was a member of Dirty Projectors from 2005 to 2006). That year, the band also collaborated with David Byrne on the song 'Knotty Pine' for the compilation album Dark Was the Night produced by the Red Hot Organization. Byrne joined the Dirty Projectors onstage to perform this song, along with 'Ambulance Man,' another collaborative track not included on the compilation, at the 'Dark Was the Night Live' concert at New York City's Radio City Music Hall on May 3, 2009.
“Stillness Is the Move' was the first single released from Bitte Orca, a West African and alternative R&B-influenced hybrid, sung by Coffman and inspired by the Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire.[6]Bitte Orca was met with positive reviews,[7] including Rolling Stone magazine rating the album as number 6 on their best 25 albums of 2009.[8]
Dirty Projectors were to release a new EP in September 2009 titled Temecula Sunrise.[9] While the EP was never released, two of its tracks, 'Ascending Melody' and 'Emblem of the World', were instead offered for free download on the Dirty Projectors website in early 2010.[10]
On May 8, 2009, members of Dirty Projectors collaborated with Björk to perform an original composition by Longstreth, written for five voices and acoustic guitar, as part of a charity concert to benefit Housing Works, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing shelter for homeless men, women, and children suffering from AIDS. The concert was held at the Housing Works Bookstore & Café in downtown New York City.[11] On June 30, 2010, Dirty Projectors announced the release of Mount Wittenberg Orca, a digital-only EP with Björk based on the artists' collaboration.[12]Mount Wittenberg Orca was released physically by Domino Records in 2011.
Swing Lo Magellan (2012–2015)[edit]
On March 30, 2012, Dirty Projectors released the first single from their sixth album, Swing Lo Magellan, 'Gun Has No Trigger'. The album was released on July 10 in the United States and on July 9 internationally.[13][14]
On September 7, 2012, Dirty Projectors released a short film, directed by Longstreth, called 'Hi Custodian'.[15]
On November 6, 2012, Dirty Projectors released About to Die EP, a digital- and vinyl-release EP featuring several new tracks.[16]
In 2015, members of Dirty Projectors made a cameo appearance as themselves in the Noah Baumbach film Mistress America.
Dirty Projectors (2016–2018)[edit]
On September 19, 2016, Dirty Projectors began releasing videos and images on social media teasing new music.[17] After the release of tracks 'Keep Your Name', 'Little Bubble' and 'Up in Hudson', it was announced that the seventh, self-titled album, would be released on February 24, 2017 via Domino. The album was ultimately released three days early, on February 21, 2017. It marked a return to the group's solo roots for Longstreth (who at this point relocated to Los Angeles, California to build a recording studio called 'Ivo Shandor'), introduced a more electronic-basedalternative R&B sound, and addressed his breakup with Coffman, his former bandmate and girlfriend.[3]
Lamp Lit Prose (2018)[edit]
On July 13, 2018, Dirty Projectors released their eighth album, Lamp Lit Prose, after teasing three singles, 'Break Thru', 'That's a Lifestyle', and 'I Feel Energy'. This album marked the revival of Dirty Projectors as a group project, with David Longstreth on lead vocals and guitar; returning members Nat Baldwin and Mike Daniel Johnson on bass/bass synth and drums, respectively; and introducing Maia Friedman on guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals, Felicia Douglass on percussion, keyboards, and backing vocals, and Kristin Slipp on keyboards and backing vocals.
Musical style[edit]
While often associated with the late 2000s New York indie rock scene, critics have linked Dirty Projectors to musicians from many genres, including new wave artists David Byrne and Squeeze, pop stars Beyoncé and Mariah Carey, and progressive rock musicians Frank Zappa and Yes.[18][19] In a 2009 interview, Longstreth embraced some of these comparisons but expressed a dislike for several of those musicians, commenting, 'Steely Dan is a band I’m not that into,' 'I’m not a huge Yes guy,' and 'Frank Zappa I fucking hate.'[18]
Members[edit]
Discography[edit]Studio albums[edit]
EPs[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dirty_Projectors&oldid=936488113'
I though Sufjan had fallen off the face of the Earth. Releasing obscurities ever since his blockbuster 2005 album, including a collection of takes and extras from Illinoise, an instrumental song cycle, a soundtrack to the movie Babies, and a 5-disc Christmas album, I wasn't sure what direction he wanted to pursue.After listening to The Age of Adz, I'm still not sure.
One one hand, I appreciate his disappear-from-the-mainstream-to-experiment, then-come-back-with-an-evolved-sound approach (he's the Bobby Fischer of indie). This record embraces an 80's synth aesthetic that shows a willingness to push the envelope. A really, really big envelope.Track 2, 'Now That I'm Older', assesses these qualities. It sounds like Sufjan, alright-Protestant choirs, piani, harp-but with a slightly wiser demeanor.On the other hand, Adz sounds like a kid who sees an inspiring documentary and changes his life for a few days before resorting back to habit.He did a good job pacing.the first half. Adz begins in the vein of his Dark Was The Night contribution with electro beats inspired by dance rhythms, only this time he's embraced the reverb-and-echo vocal trend. And at five minutes in length, the average listener might actually get through the whole track.He follows a pattern: fun dance tune followed by intimate reflective melody, until 'Vesuvius' where the record starts to lose steam.
'All for Myself' is an interesting spin, but still in a choreful way. The orchestration gets muddy at the end, where he layers everything on top of itself.The part that really stucks in my craw is 'Impossible Soul', the 25-minute closing track.
It begins with a piano ostinato over a melody sounding like 'UFO Sighting' meets 'Casimir Pulaski Day'. Thus begins another all-encompassing Sufjan audionovel, including B96-esque drone beats, autotune, and a melody at 14:00 that sounds frighteningly like The Final Countdown.It's an overall noisier production with less woodwind choirs and more drum machines/electro sounds, and a dreamier vocal quality. Going back to his earlier catalog, his voice sounds more naked than here and-Seriously??
A 25 minute closer??It's cool of Sufjan to embrace a new direction, but it seems like he's not sure what he wants altogether, resulting in tangential meandering, especially on 'Soul'. I'd rather hear this than a new record that sounds exactly like his previous ones, but The Age of Adz doesn't quite hit home. No Age got things going with a 28-minute opening set. Boasting a new member to their ensemble, the California noise trio did a justice to their studio work onstage. I last saw them in November of 2009 opening for The Pixies, and the guitar/drums orchestration wore at my patience (and tolerance for sound in general). Playing outdoors and freeing up drummer Dean Allen Spunt from his sampling work to focus solely on drumming (oh yeah, and being the lead singer.) this new instrumentation seemed to work. For Paves, the audience shot out of their seats for their opener, 'Silence Kit', or as Steve Malkmus called it, 'you'll know this one'.
The next two hours journeyed throughout the band's catalogue, which spanned from 1992-1999. They managed to knock out 'Cut Your Hair', 'Gold Soundz', 'Elevate Me Later', 'Stereo', 'Shadey Lane', 'Rattled by the Rush', 'Grounded', 'Stop Breathing' and a bunch of others during their set. Tag on 2 encores: 7 songs, featuring 'Spit on a Stranger', 'Conduit for Sale!' , and 'Range Life', among others. At the transition, the guitar moves to the fore and begins laying down heavier strummed sounds. Tare begins repeating, 'Officer please let us know if were offending anyone/we were trying to have fun/we were just politely drinking'. Then, through a filtered mic, he becomes more raucous, almost sounding like a track from The Vines' Highly Evolved.
After six or seven listens I've grown to dig it, although I still feel the first half grows tiresome and most of the payoff comes after the fifth minute. Anyway, the show started with this amazing band Ezra Furman and the Harpoons. I'd never heard of them, but since then I've recognized them on XRT as well as Ezra's solo stuff.
Golem, the next group, was way different. They had a handful of chamber instruments and played a fun bunch of eclectic Eastern European folk tunes.
Mazurkas, polkas, gypsy dances, the works. I can't describe it, but the crowd absolutely loved it. And as they took stage, we realized the core members were the crazy people next to which we had dinner an hour before. They guy wearing lady jeans played drums.
My favorite track falls the album's 8-slot, 'Don't Fight the Darkness'. An ominous, digitally enhanced train horn begins the electric ambience, which soon gives way to an LCD-influenced hip-pop. The lyrics hypnotically repeat, 'Don't fight the darkness, bring the light and darkess'. The charmingly ironic vocal delivery alternate phrases with an homage to Yello ('Ooooooh Yeah'-Ferris Bueller). The percussive orchestration builds to a Latin-inspired beat before yielding to more unsettling electronics.
A particularly rewarding track, 'Don't Be Frightened by the Devil', begins with (what appear to be) electronically-manipulated strings setting up Thomas Allen's innocent head voice consoling the listener. Sacred Renaissance harmonies help to dispel the lingering evil, probably lurking in the vibraphone. The dichotomy between Allen's dry voice and a deep reverb over Cronin's contrast Hell from Heaven in a curious way. Marimbas and a cathedral ambiance over chromatic progressions make for an interesting listen.
' You know the documentary Grey Gardens? It's set in a house out in the Hamptons, it's about this crazy mother and daughter who live there in their own little world. It's also very depressing and odd and beautiful.
Anyways, I had this sense of a Lemonworld as a place where these two sexy sisters who wear bathing suits all the time and drink a lot, y'know, 'put flowers in my mouth and we can say we invented a summer lovin' torture party' – that's awesome! That's sexy, weird, and fun. My wife and her sister are very close in age, they're both hilarious and sexy and brilliant, so I think I was channeling them a little bit. It's a fun world '. Well Hans is back to his old tricks again in Inception, the summer 2010's biggest blockbuster.
Without getting into spoilers, the action in Inception involves traveling from one dream down further into another. Leo tells us that in a dream, more time elapses than in the dreamer's real life, and that time increases exponentially in the next level of dreaming. For example, a person sleeping for 6 hours could exist in a dream at layer 1 for, say.3 days, and if traveling into a dream-within-a-dream, could stay in that dream for what feels like 2 months. Sure, there were some drawbacks to the show. The audience faced west for an afternoon concert. If it weren't for the frequent clouds, my eyes would still be burning.
Also, security acted pretty harsh to people standing in isles. The management placed chairs in front of the stage, which only got in the way. But the high energy maintained throughout, and a remarkable dedication to preserve a CD quality during a live performance (an achilles heel for many studio-based electronic artists, i.e. Animal Collective) trumped any hang ups. Freshman year I took a class on the Chicago music scene, and the consensus from my peers was that there really isn't one. At least not a readily definable one. Sure, we have mobsters, deep dish, and (in a week) LeBron James, but where is the substance?
I see a lot of hipster doofuses walking around day-to-day, and it would seem that the sheer number of skinny jeans alone would speak for something. But it doesn't. I say it's about time we break out of 'The City That Wilco Came From's shell and do something bigger.
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