Dirty Projectors

I caught Dirty Projectors at Sala Rossa in Montreal the other night with Cong For Brums and Xiu Xiu. Here's some thoughts on the show.

I was fortunate enough to catch the Dirty Projectors with Xiu Xiu and Cong For Brums the other night at Sala Rossa in Montreal. The door guy hassled me about getting in because the Dirty Projectors were held up at the border and hadn't yet given him a guest list so I unfortunately missed most of Ches Smith's Cong For Brums.

A damn shame because the last two pieces that I heard – one solo vibraphpone piece and one solo drum piece – were stunning. I expected nothing late based on all that I'd heard of Smith. One friend in Vancouver had been blown away by a show he did with Good For Cows at Chroma Books and another friend played a gig with Ches and was deeply impressed.

You generally don't think of solo drum pieces as working in a rock club and while it's true that the crowd was way too rude, Smith pulled it off with panache. It made me very eager to hear some recorded work by this gifted artist.

Dirty Projectors were up next and I was pretty excited to check them out after learning how brilliant the band was from their New Attitude EP on Marriage Records. I didn't know what to expect as it really sounds like a one-man recording project – very personal and idiosyncratic. So I was surprised to learn that frontman David Longstreth was had a BIG band consisting of three guitar players, a bass player, a drummer, and a female singer/percussionist. One of the other guitar players doubled as a female vocalist, giving the band three vocalists including Longstreth's distinctly bizarre Elvis-meets-Charlie Parker-at an Islamic religious festival voice.

Very complex, melismatic vocals from all three vocalists dazzled the crowd. Longstreth is a dynamic front man and he really held centre stage but he received a great deal of help from the two female vocalists who clearly had great deal of talent – at one time they managed to achieve a phasing sound reminiscent of Steve Reich – extremely cool, and I imagine a fairly complex feat to pull off.

In addition to the complicated interweaving vocal parts were three guitars that threw in parts reminiscent of a variety of influences – Hendrix, african guitar styles, Steve Vai, Zappa, Steve Reich – all over the map. A very exciting band for guitar players to check out. The drums were remarkably restrained – the few moments that they exploded into rhythm were that much more impressive as a result.

Song themes have a strangely puzzling tendency to recur in the Dirty Projectors canon – greed, sheep.... What does it all mean? Although their is a sort of political feeling to much of the new album and, in turn, the live show, I can't help but feeling like the lyrics are almost just a necessity to give voice to Longstreth's musical vision but this may just be me projecting my idea that a band this sophisticated musically is probably not focused as much on the words.

In addition to Longstreth's own brilliant compositions the band turned in a killer reggae version of Black Flag's "Rise Above". Something felt familiar about the song but I didn't realize what they were doing until halfway through the song and then it seemed truly dazzling - their version managed to be funny, beautiful, inspiring, and extremely different from the original all at the same time.

Dirty Projectors may not be for everyone – Longstreth's voice is a tad peculiar, and the music is very complex – goes way way way beyond standard indie rock into influences from a variety of ethnic musics and a spectrum of genres. Truly fascinating stuff. Their live show is positively electrifying and their records are equally good. Highly highly recommended - both live and on record.

I stuck around for half of Xiu Xiu – long enough to hear Carallee sing "Hello From Eau Claire" – the prettiest song off their new album, The Air Force. The band is so interesting from a conceptual perspective, but their last few albums have left me wanting and I just didn't feel enthused about their live set, especially after seeing the Dirty Projectors totally destroy just minutes before. I saw Xiu XIu in Vancouver a couple of years ago and they were positively on fire – Jamie was super passionate and Caralee was doing some really great percussion parts. This was around the time of Fabulous Muscles. In comparison, the band I saw on stage the other night was lifeless. It was disappointing and felt weird to leave halfway through the headlining act, but there it is. Just my opinion though cause I should point out that the crowd was loving Xiu Xiu in a big way.

The Dirty Projectors – you owe it to yourself to check this band out.

http://www.westernvinyl.com/dirty_projectors.htm

Gordon B. Isnor