Musicians just can’t give their money to Hurricane Sandy victims fast enough.
Numerous benefit concerts have already taken place; earlier today, Dave Matthews pledged $1 million in aid; now a bevy of indie stars are joining forces in Brooklyn to help those ravaged by the storm.
This Saturday, Nov. 17, Vampire Weekend, Real Estate, members of the Walkmen and Dirty Projectors, and others will perform acoustic sets at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity, an Episcopal church in Brooklyn Heights, with all proceeds going to Occupy Sandy. There’s no set ticket price, but the organization suggests a minimum donation of $30.
Image Credit: Anna Webber/WireImage.comPhoenix saved the best part of their concert at Madison Square Garden last night for the very end of the final encore. That was when the band’s French frères, Daft Punk, showed up out of nowhere and drove the already-excited crowd into utter frenzy. Clad in their signature robot helmets, the reclusive duo stood silently on stage at a console and began unleashing serious beats. These soon resolved into a version of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” with Phoenix crunching gamely along, then a tantalizing snippet of “Around the World.” Finally, Daft Punk hung around and added some space-age laser synth buzz to “1901,” Phoenix’s last song of the night. According to Stereogum, it was the first time Daft Punk has performed in public since 2007. That, folks, is how you do a proper encore. (Check out shaky YouTube video of the whole thing at Pitchfork.) READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Getty ImagesSeveral ardent fans have already pre-emptively chastised me for underrating Coachella 2010′s night two headliners. As one commenter on yesterday’s Jay-Z post put it, “Muse will be by far the best act all weekend, learn about something before you talk about it.” Well, I’ve just come home from seeing Muse perform, and I can say I’ve learned that the British rockers might very well be the biggest, loudest, showiest act all weekend. But the best? That’s another question. Read why after the jump — plus my full report on seven other notable acts from Saturday afternoon and evening.
With festival season heading into full swing, Sasquatch—the indie music madness that takes place at the Gorge in George, Washington over Memorial Day weekend each year—announced the line-up for its festivities this year. According to Spinner.com, MGMT, Vampire Weekend (at left), and My Morning Jacket are the biggest acts to join the line-up, which includes the previously announced headliner,Pavement. The acts were announced at a show held at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle last night.
Also signed on: Broken Social Scene, the National, the Hold Steady, Band of Horses, the xx, Dirty Projectors, Passion Pit, Miike Snow, Ween, Public Enemy, Tegan & Sara, LCD Soundsystem, and Massive Attack.
Who’s missing, Music Mixers? Will you be gearing up for Sasquatch 2010? If you could choose one late-add (or several!), who would it be?
There’s no dearth of quality New York bands these days as recent spirit squads have pointed out, but few have developed their sound into such a unified front of deliberate weirdness as Brooklyn’s Dirty Projectors, who played a sold-out show at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg last night. This six-person experimental band’s approach to music and live performance brings to mind influences like David Byrne, Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass, but the complex soundscapes they’ve created seems to spring from nothing other than their collective creative quirks.
The Dirty Projectors are blessed with a fantastic mix of complementary vocalists. Lead singer and guitarist Dave Longstreth sounds somewhat like Antony Hegarty + testosterone, and he shares the voice-time equally with three female backup vocalists who also take turns singing lead. Check out Amber Coffman fronting the avant tinkerers on “the hit,” the synth-inflected “Stillness is the Move”:
Throughout their set, the DPs brought their hooks and melodies in staccato bursts — spindly, angular guitar riffs phase in and out while choral voices exploded with the force of a geyser, then disappeared just as suddenly.
The highlight of the night was “Useful Chamber,” which touched on a variety of weirdo rockers without ever sounding derivative. The wailing, cathartic background vocals brought to mind the Residents’ God In Three Persons album, while the stomping drums and Television-meets-Troggs guitar work made the audience shimmy and shake as much as is conceivable for music this esoteric.
Which isn’t to say you can’t move your body to their music, it’s simply that the band doesn’t invite the audience to let go. Dirty Projectors are about premeditated artistic expression, and their medium just happens to be music—unlike their borough brethren Animal Collective, who seem music lovers first and artists second. At the end of the night, it was easy to be impressed by this band, but hard to fall in love with them.
Are they too difficult? Too challenging? Nah. They could just use a friendly reminder of why they got into rock & roll in the first place.
With the Manhattan skyline in the distance and a light breeze cooling down the late-afternoon heat, the arty rock jams of Dirty Projectors provided the ideal soundtrack for yesterday's pristine summer Sunday.
EW's Must Indie Experimenters played for more than an hour at the second of this year's JellyNYCPool Party concert series (named after the old venue, which was an actual — albeit empty — pool), translating their innovative indie pop-rock from one of our favorite new releases (June's Bitte Orca) to an even more satisfying live experience.
The Brooklyn-based band sounded less precise live — a little looser (except for the tight harmonies of the band's female members), a little more melodic, a little easier to dance to. The group started their set slowly with the stripped-down ''Two Doves,'' featuring only band mastermind Dave Longstreth and multi-instrumentalist Angel Deradoorian, but picked up once the rest of the band hit the stage for ''Cannibal Resource,'' followed by a mix of old and new material. Highlights included the breezy, anthemic re-imagining of Black Flag's ''Rise Above,'' and the melodic '90s R&B-over-an-indie-rock-beat of Bitte Orca's first single ''Stillness Is the Move.''
Did anyone else catch the Dirty Projectors yesterday (or at any point during their summer tour with TV on the Radio)? How did you think the band fared live? You can cheat by watching a YouTube clip of yesterday's "Stillness" performance below:
It's the song singled out by almost every listener — including our own Simon V-Z — as the takeaway "hit" from Brooklyn collective Dirty Projector'sredonkulously hyped Bitte Orca. And now, the eery, Prince-in-an-indie-funhouse-mirror track "Stillness Is the Move" finally has an official video.
I don't know about you, Music Mixers, but I was half-expecting unicorns and wizard sticks to start flying through the Elvin air in this Lord of the Rings meets Lord Byron kook-fest (Noble llama! Swirly cowl-capes! Spinning hilltop guitarist in puffy jodphurs!).
Franky, I'm not exactly surprised, given frontman/mastermind David Longstreth's well-documented penchant for esoteric (and at times, insufferable) cultural references, though I'm still figuring out whether my final verdict is "enjoyably odd!" or "oh, can it, you silly little Ivy League lemurs."
But you tell me, readers, does the clip do the song justice? Or were you over the DP hype before you were even under it?
There's a reason why Bitte Orca, the new album from Brooklyn artistes Dirty Projectors, is generating a lot of buzz in indie circles. Reason: This record rocks! It definitely fell into the "grower" category for me, though. Curveballs and risks are what make this band great, and that means that Bitte Orca can take a few listens to reveal itself. Good thing NPR is hosting a free stream of the entire album right now. That gives you a whole week to start getting into Bitte Orca before its June 9 release. What are you waiting for? Go stream it now and let us know what you think!
The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Red Hot Organization’s John Carlin have plenty to be proud of. Their years of hard work not only produced Dark Was the Night, a 31-track double album featuring brand-new songs from some of the biggest names in indie rock (including Bon Iver, pictured), but also a terrific benefit concert last night at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. (At the show, Carlin said they have collectively raised over $10 million benefitting HIV/AIDS awareness and research.) So, how was last night’s concert? In a word: fantastic. In another word: collaborative. Click through the jump for an artist-by-artist breakdown of the night’s festivities.
The indie blogosphere has been collectively flipping over Dirty Projectors’ new single "Stillness Is the Move" ever since the band debuted it at SXSW last month. I’ll be the first to admit that I did not 100 percent get this song after hearing a live recording, but I stand corrected: The studio version of "Stillness Is the Move" is a total jam. Right now Domino Records is giving away a free MP3 of "Stillness Is the Move" to anyone who signs up for an email newsletter. Take them up on that offer ASAP so you, too, can appreciate the very weird but fairly wonderful combination of Amber Coffman’s Mariah-esque trills with a distorted, jangly art-rock groove.
What’s more, this isn’t even the best song on Dirty Projectors’ album Bitte Orca, due June 9. (For my money that’s the sad, lovely "Two Doves," which I fully intend to place right after Antony and the Johnsons‘ also-excellent "One Dove" on a mixtape at the soonest opportunity.) Anyway, click over to Domino to hear "Stillness Is the Move" now, then let us know: What do you think of this song?
The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner and 
The indie blogosphere has been collectively flipping over Dirty Projectors’ new single "Stillness Is the Move" ever since the band debuted it at 
