Dirty Projectors are an experimental indie rock collective led by Dave Longstreth accompanied by a shifting cast of band members.
Longstreth's first album, The Graceful Fallen Mango, was released under his own name and introduced his distinctive arrangements of both lo-fi and hi-fi production. The next year Longstreth fully minted the "Dirty Projectors" moniker with the release of The Glad Fact on the Western Vinyl label. In 2005, the band released The Getty Address, a concept album about musician Don Henley that features extensive orchestral and choral accompaniment. The diverse, more stripped-down New Attitude EP followed in 2006 and featured inklings of the band's later vocal interplay and use of intricate guitar work reminiscent of Ali Farka Touré's.
In 2007 the band released Rise Above, an album of Black Flag songs as reimagined from memory. The album introduced the band's distinctive contrast between Longstreth's soaring vocals and the tight harmonies of Amber Coffman and Susanna Waiche (later replaced by Angel Deradoorian). In 2007 the band also performed songs from that album for a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon.
In April 2008, Dirty Projectors signed with Domino Records, and the label announced the release of Bitte Orca for June 9, 2009. That year also found the band collaborating with David Byrne on the song "Knotty Pine" for the compilation album, Dark Was the Night. 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.
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.
Their new album, Bitte Orca, is Dirty Projectors’ most complete effort to date. Reprising the lineup of Amber Coffman (vocals, guitar), Angel Deradoorian (vocals, keyboard, guitar, bass), and drummer Brian Mcomber from 2007’s Rise Above, Bitte Orca also adds bassist Nat Baldwin and vocalist Haley Dekle to the fold, resulting in what sounds like Dirty Projectors' first fully collaborative band record. In fact, it features the first solo vocal pieces by Coffman (R&B anthem "Stillness Is The Move") and Deradoorian (elegantly spare, stringed "Two Doves"). Each was written especially for the singer, representing her specific temperament.
It’s Dirty Projectors at their most seductive and elusive. You wouldn’t be faulted for thinking the title’s about whales, but it’s about the sound of the words, a little bit sweet, a little bit barbed, like “Please Please Me.” The cover featuring Coffman and Deradoorian indeed references 2004’s Slaves' Graves & Ballads, but at the same time it reintroduces a literalized Dirty Projection, the band’s emblem, thereby giving the entire oeuvre a connecting thread. Unlike past releases, Bitte Orca can't be broken down into a conceptual statement. Instead of following a narrative or historical map, Longstreth used individual songs as the units of measure, making sure each was strong enough to stand on its own terms. And it works. From curtain-raising opener "Cannibal Resource" to "Temecula Sunrise”’s metal-jazz spin on sunny ‘70s rock, and "Useful Chamber"'s minimal electronics, ornate vocal harmonies, and Beefheart does Graceland instrumentation, Bitte Orca contains the Projectors' best songs to date.
*Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Projectors, http://www.dominorecordco.com/artists/dirty-projectors/
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Slaves Graves And Ballads (2004)
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