Digest - The Morning News

Listening • For a Bigger City

The Dirty Projectors sound weird. Not weird like never letting your children celebrate their birthday, or like an extensive collection of Beanie Babies. The Dirty Projectors are weird like people who refold their napkins when getting up from the table, if only for a bathroom break, or like a bunch of guys who grows mustaches together, or David Byrne. Fitting then, that the Dave Longstreth-led revolving cast of a band recorded a song with Mr. Byrne earlier this year for the Dark Was the Night charity compilation.

Late last week, a new Projectors album (Bitte Orca, which I believe is German for “please kill a whale”) was leaked on the internet. The band’s label, Domino Records, is doing a bit of damage control by going ahead and releasing the track “Stillness Is the Move” on their site. The music on this new album is somewhat of a departure from their last, 2007’s Rise Above, but that’s to be expected considering that it was a cover of Black Flag’s Damaged entirely from memory. Practically everything is a departure for these guys, which is refreshing. On the single, singers Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian seem to take a more central role in the proceedings, but Longstreth’s mashed up, herky jerky songwriting makes it all possible. His guitar sounds kinda weird, too. —Erik Bryan, Apr. 14, 2009

» Listen to "Stillness Is the Move" at Pop Tarts Suck Toasted

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian, Black Flag, Dark Was the Night, Dave Longstreth, David Byrne, Dirty Projectors, Domino Records

Listening • King’s Lead Hat

David Byrne on Imaginary Cultures

“The idea of making music from an imaginary culture was to give ourselves a set of restrictions and parameters within which to work. Otherwise, we might have just gone on all kinds of creative detours, some of which might have been interesting. But better we confine ourselves to something. Which kind of worked. At least it kept us within bounds for a while, [and] by the time we abandoned that whole idea, which was pretty early on, we already had a direction.” [source]

Fresh off of a tear of high-concept and highly touted public art projects, David Byrne has also been busy finishing up Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, his first collaboration with Brian Eno since 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Where music on its predecessor was dissociative and experimental, incorporating samples from music and sound clips the world over, Eno describes Everything’s sound as “electronic gospel,” which is more evocative of the Talking Heads’ best work—much of which Eno produced. Twenty-seven years later, Byrne and Eno aren’t merely relevant; this is what studio perfection sounds like. —Erik Bryan, Aug. 29, 2008

» Listen to “Strange Overtones” at Aquarium Drunkard

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Brian Eno, David Byrne

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Sunday, November 8, 2009