Download: Dirty Projectors “Ascending Melody”

(from the Temecula Sunrise EP out now on Domino)

The New York Times called him “indie rock’s workaholic mad genius,” but L.A. RECORD finds the measure of Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth somewhere between the most subtle implications of Philip Glass’ Music In Fifths and the sudden desire for a sandwich. This interview by Drew Denny.

People have decided they can call Dirty Projectors an ‘experimental’ rock band—does the term ‘experimental’ have any meaning for you?
David Longstreth: Not really. It’s sort of a dumb term. I don’t know what the experiments are really testing. I don’t know if there’s a control group. It’s not some Cage-ian thing of pushing against the notion of the socially acceptable or it’s not some chasing down of the—what’s that term? The Michael Crichton book?—the ‘event horizon’ of fucking modernism or something like that.
This would be an awful interview if it were about that.
David Longstreth: True!
Do you have a sense of humor about what you make?
David Longstreth: Fuck yeah. A lot of it is funny. I like the idea of something just being like imbued with this good humor. You know what I mean? I definitely look for that.
In your music and a lot of what’s popular right now, there’s a lot of co-opting of other traditions—African guitars, for example. As someone who has a background in academia, how do you critique the process of co-opting those forms? Do you think it borders on fetishization? Or at least gimmick?
David Longstreth: I guess I wouldn’t critique it along a political post-colonial line but just more… for me the thing that always pops one way or another is whether it seems legit on an artistic level, whether it seems interesting or whether it seems stock or kind of half-baked. I was listening to Music in Fifths—a really early Philip Glass piece from I think ‘69 the other day. I hadn’t listened to a lot of Philip Glass in a long time but that early shit from the early sixties and through like the Einstein on the Beach era I fucking love. And it occurred to me that Music in Fifths… Well, I was listening to that piece Atmospheres by Ligeti as well, and that’s from ’61 and Music in Fifths is from ’69, and I was thinking about how if you listen to pop music from ’61 and then pop music in ’69—even within a single band like the Beatles or something like that, you can really see the whole cultural arc of the ’60s. And how—superficially at least—you don’t see it at all in the Ligeti or the Glass. They both seem just about this weird terrifying gaping expanse of like—I don’t know—they both seem to approximate the end of civilization. But then I was thinking about it in a different way and it’s like, ‘Yes, the Ligeti does seem to be about this involvement with the Western art-music canon, but the Glass seems to be looking outward in this amazing way!’ I really recommend this piece! He’s trying really hard to synthesize all these different things—that kind of developmental aspect of Austro-Germanic music and the kind of modal weird raga explorations of the Indian music he had studied with Ravi Shankar. And it seems like the collective improvisational aspect of jazz and rock music at that time, too, because apparently it’s for a small combo and somehow the music is in parallel fifths the entire time. But the exact shape of it is improvised and the length of it is improvised. The music is so good because it doesn’t sound like any of those things. It doesn’t sound like classical music. It doesn’t sound like Indian music. It doesn’t sound like rock music or jazz. It’s completely its own new thing, but it really does draw from all these things and sum them together in this really fucking digested way. I guess that to me is more interesting than just like throwing a fucking humbucker pickup with like an 8th note delay on your thing and calling it African. But I don’t know. Whatever.
What was it like working with David Byrne?
David Longstreth: It was awesome working with him! I’ve been a fan of his music for like 10 years. It came about because the Dessner brothers from the National were curating this charity compilation, and they just wanted to put together artist collaborations that were surprising but logical in some way. I don’t know if I could put into words really what I learned or what we learned but it was definitely mind-blowing.
You’ve gotten to collaborate with such amazing people—Bjork for instance. What’s your connection to her?
David Longstreth: With Bjork—so many things, God—it’s a melodic sense, a harmonic sense… She’s just a great songwriter. The way she’s capable of combining really intricate and really kind of unique musical ideas with an immediate pop sense. It’s pretty amazing. Showing that those kinds of things aren’t opposite. That they belong together. It’s pretty cool.
It’s interesting that you’re having a hard time describing these collaborations and influences because writers seem to have difficulties describing Dirty Projectors. What do you think about that?
David Longstreth: I think music can get at something that can’t be talked about. That’s cool. I like the idea of it being more than the sum of its influences.
I’ve been doing some research into the use of memory in art making—could you describe the process of making an album by memory?
David Longstreth: It’s kind of like making an album that’s not from memory. I feel like most songwriting is just pulling something out that is a poorly remembered version of something else. So it’s kind of similar.
How would you feel if someone did that with a Dirty Projectors album?
David Longstreth: I don’t have a feeling about that that. It’d be kind of dumb.
My roommate is Austrian, and she says ‘Bitte Orca’ really nicely—
David Longstreth: Yeah! That’s it! I was really depressed when I got to the UK and I realized they pronounced it ‘Bita Rorka!’ It’s really ugly in the U.K. accent.
Do you think in the future you’ll make different versions of titles to compensate for potentially ugly pronunciations?
David Longstreth: Yeah—probably just phonetic spellings and lots of umlauts.
I’ve heard this album described as a ‘breakthrough’—what does that actually mean?
David Longstreth: In order for me to talk about what that would mean, I would probably have to agree with the premise. I don’t mean to be flippant. When they’re describing it like that, they’re referring to the fact that a lot more people hear this album than any of the others we’ve made. Whether it represents something more than that—some kind of artistic breakthrough—I would say yes and no. I kind of feel like I’ve just—in various Dirty Projector albums and with the band solidifying—my aims have always been the same. It just feels like more music.
Your aims have always been the same? This album sounds very different to me.
David Longstreth: In the past, once I had an idea I just put it down and that was that. This time I took a lot more time—rehearsing everything and recording it and making sure the ideas were brought to coherence rather than just being laid out there like a puzzle for someone who is really curious to put together on their own,
It reminds me of hip-hop in that way—everything seems like it was put in a place for a reason. It’s very produced.
David Longstreth: I know what you mean. The spaciousness of mainstream R&B production—particularly a few years ago—and how there are a few elements that can sit in this emptiness and just pop so big. I love that feeling.
What’s it like for you to write for other singers—especially women?
David Longstreth: It’s pretty cool. The register I tend to write things in is kind of a register that ends up being good for ladies. For me it’s pitched sort of where I go into falsetto but for them it’s really in their heart of their register. Pretty natural.
Do you feel like a puppeteer or a director?
David Longstreth: Not a puppeteer! Maybe a director. I just feel like a songwriter.
How much agency do the other band members have in terms of writing and performance?
David Longstreth: A fair amount. It really comes together—when we play it live it becomes its own beast. Takes on a whole different life. Becomes very collective. A different thing. This album I really tried to write for specific personalities, which I’d never done before. So I guess you could say they have agency in that sense as well.
Are you painting now?
David Longstreth: I’m doing a little bit of drawing. Right now we’re on tour so I’m not right now but before that I was drawing a bit. I love to make really flawed analogies between media all the time—comparing line quality to melodic shape and insisting that there are correspondences, and what that means when a line does one thing and a melody does another. You know—that kind of shit!
What are y’all gonna be for Halloween?
David Longstreth: We’re thinking about being Fleetwood Mac but we’d have to have some double Lindsay Buckinghams? And double Stevie Nicks.
Are there crazy romances in your band?
David Longstreth: No—nothing crazy.
Because if you’re Fleetwood Mac…
David Longstreth: That’s true… OK, I should go get a sandwich.

DIRTY PROJECTORS WITH LITTLE WINGS ON SAT., OCT. 31, AT THE JENSEN REC CENTER, 1161 LOGAN ST., ECHO PARK. 7 PM AND 9:30 PM / $20 / ALL AGES. ATTHEECHO.COM. DIRTY PROJECTORS’ TEMECULA SUNRISE EP IS OUT NOW ON DOMINO. VISIT DIRTY PROJECTORS AT MYSPACE.COM/DIRTYPROJECTORS.

Download: The Cave Singers “At The Cut”

(from Welcome Joy out now on Matador)

Pete Quirk and the Cave Singers are touring with Lightning Dust—whose Amber and Ashley Webber contributed to the Cave Singers’ new Welcome Joy—and recovering half-written songs from dim memories og singing into phones in 7-11 parking lots. Quirk speaks now about riding bikes into rivers and Kid Rock’s lackluster Myspace discipline. This interview by Rachel Rufrano.

I’ve heard that your new LP, Welcome Joy, is named from the Keats poem ‘A Song of Opposites,’ about loving both the good and the bad, especially when they juxtapose each other. Is that sentiment something you try to achieve with The Cave Singers?
Pete Quirk (vocals/guitar): I guess that’d be appropriate. I mean, I think that it’s kind of inevitable that you address both and I think we try to do that.
Welcome Joy seems to be a lot more optimistic, whereas in Invitation Songs—even where the songs were upbeat—there was something darker laying just beneath the surface.
Pete Quirk: I think we were in a brighter and more positive place while writing Welcome Joy. A lot of the songs were written in the summertime as opposed to the winter—we did write outside a lot more instead [of being] stuck inside the house because of the rain.
The song ‘At the Cut’ sounds so influenced by Lindsey Buckingham, even the way you project your voice. Who do you hope people will hear in your music?
Pete Quirk: Well, I don’t know. I’ve always listened to Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac and stuff like that. It’s funny because I never thought my voice sounded much like his, but I get that a lot, which is definitely a compliment because he’s got a great voice. But he’s an influence for sure. That’s just what I sound like.
Even the little ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ on that song though…
Pete Quirk: The little yelps and everything—it’s just something to do instead of singing words or sitting through breaks, using your voice more for rhythm than carrying a message. I don’t really try to sound like anybody because I think if you try you just end up sounding bad, you know? I think in other bands it was different because I was trying to sound like someone else, whereas now I’m just trying to sing as honestly as possible.
On ‘VV’ there’s a really simple and sweet chord progression but your voice is so gritty that you’re able to hint at something more. Do you think you utilize your voice as an instrument?
Pete Quirk: I try to! For me, the writing process is a lot of me and Derek just kind of riffing. He’ll start a guitar melody and basically I’ll just try to figure out another line where my voice can be an additional melody instead of singing exactly what he’s playing. I want to somehow carry a message, but I also want it to sound good so it can be its own line without words—it can sound like an instrument. It’d be nice to just read some amazing poem, but it’s got to sound good, too. It’s hard to fit a lot of words in there, but that’s the fun of it. Trying to figure out something that’s half comprehensible.
Your songs seem to build as they go along and it’s almost as if they’re becoming complete as you listen to them. I was wondering what the songwriting process is like for you guys.
Pete Quirk: On Welcome Joy there’s a lot of different approaches. Usually Derek and I or Marty and I will go downstairs to one of our bedrooms and Derek will play something. I’ll just basically scat over it, for lack of a better word, and just kind of make up a melody which is usually half-English, half-gibberish and then I’ll go back later and write out lyrics that kind of go along with the melody I found.
Is it important for you to have the melody before you write the lyrics?
Pete Quirk: Yeah, usually. Maybe I’ll have a couple lines written, but I find that when the whole thing is written out it just sounds like it’s being read. I like to find different words or settings when we’re just kind of jamming.
I’ve read that growing up in New Jersey has really influenced your songwriting, but how do you think Seattle has influenced you?
Pete Quirk: Seattle has changed me a lot in terms of songwriting. I’ve lived here for way longer than I thought I was going to. I met Derek here. Seattle is a cool place because it feels free and mellow and you can kind of just do what … do what you feel like. That doesn’t sound right …
You can do whatever you want in Seattle!
Pete Quirk: [Laughs] I don’t know, yeah. Some people do! I just like it here. I feel comfortable here. I lived in Philadelphia before I lived here and that was rad, but I was in my twenties—total mayhem, you know? Jumping into garbage cans and riding our bikes into the river. Which I guess we still do here but, I don’t know, I just like it here.
When I saw you guys at the Echo in December 2007, Derek was playing bass pedals. Why did you guys choose the pedals over a bass?
Pete Quirk: It fits better in the van! No, Derek just found them on Craigslist and one day he just had them on the table and I came home from work and was like, ‘Whoa, we should try and use those.’ I like them because I like droning sounds and it adds a sort of big bass pulse. For me, it’s nicer than just a bass.
It’s been two years since Invitation Songs. Did you spend a lot of that time writing the new songs or did they just kind of come to you over time?
Pete Quirk: We just always write because that’s what we like to do. It’s not like a chore. We really enjoy writing songs because we’ll just hang out and play music, but then we’ll go outside and drink beer, go to the bar and have a shot and bullshit, and then go back and keep playing. But over the two years we wrote about 80 different things. Not all those were songs, but they were ideas like, ‘Oh, remember when we recorded that thing in the 7-Eleven parking lot on your phone?’ and stuff like that. But we’ll go record and narrow those things down to an album’s worth.
You guys have been ‘up-and-coming’ for a while now. I think I even saw ‘Elephant Clouds’ on a Starbucks mix.
Pete Quirk: Really? That’s cool. As long as we’re not on some U.S. Army compilation.
You mean you guys don’t want to be in those recruiting commercials with Kid Rock and Three Doors Down?
Pete Quirk: [Laughs] We’re trying to get some kind of thing going with Kid Rock, but I don’t think he answers his own MySpace messages, which is a problem. So we’ve been having a hard time.
Are you happy being the ‘buzz band,’ or do you look forward to playing bigger venues in L.A. at some point?
Pete Quirk: Well, I’m happy and I try not to think about it too much. In terms of ‘buzz bands,’ I don’t feel like we’re very buzzed—not that I can tell—but it seems like people are slowly [catching on]. Hopefully the people that come to our show want to come because they have a connection with our music and that way we can connect back and forth. That’s the way I am with music—I like to go see a band because I know and like their music and not because they’re some huge band I’ve been hearing about. It’s fun to play in front of a lot of people and I’m not against that, for sure.
What are you listening to right now?
Pete Quirk: I’m listening to that Fever Ray album, which I think is really good. Her lyrics are really amazing. And it’s really creepy. I’ve been listening to that at nighttime a lot. I’ve been listening to Tinariwen, which I guess came out a couple years ago. And I’ve been listening to John Lennon’s Mind Games, which is one of my favorite records.
Are you where you want to be as an artist? I know all three of you seemed to move on to the Cave Singers for something more acoustic, so are you looking to do anything different now?
Pete Quirk: I just want to keep making albums and find out how they differ from one another. As far as playing music and being an artist, I couldn’t be happier where I’m at. I never thought I would be at this point. Starting in the bedroom with Derek and one guitar I bought at Salvation Army on a whim to now where we’re going on tour and we have two albums out. It’s pretty crazy to me.

THE CAVE SINGERS WITH LIGHTNING DUST AND BIG SEARCH ON THURS., OCT. 1, AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30 PM / $12 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. THE CAVE SINGERS’ WELCOME JOY IS OUT NOW ON MATADOR. VISIT THE CAVE SINGERS AT THECAVESINGERS.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/THECAVESINGERS.

Download: “Oh Yes, Los Angeles” mixtape by When You Awake

Jody from the fantastic blog When You Awake—your sympathetic destination if homesick, lonesome, riled, fiery or any mindstates in between—presents us with this week’s mixtape, dedicated to cosmic cowboy/cowgirl rock songs about the city of Los Angeles. (City of doom and freeways, too.) Listen to Jody’s radio show Mondays 2-4 PM on Little Radio and go see her DJ at Gold Dust at Footsie’s in Highland Park one lucky day each month! And now to the tape…

1. John Mayall “Vacations”
“Ten hours in a plane – England left behind / Back here in L.A. – Wonder what I’ll find / Summertime, my plane is coming down / I’m a wandering man and this is gonna be my town.” An ode to Los Angeles from the man that gave us Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and more.

2. Gene Clark “Los Angeles”
Gene Clark was one of the original Byrds who ended up leaving the group because of—get ready for the irony—a fear of flying. Roger McGuinn famously (or infamously) told him, “You can’t be a Byrd, Gene,
if you can’t fly.” He went on to release a number of amazing solo records and some amazingly beautiful and haunting songs that have been covered by everyone like “Through The Morning, Through The Night” (which also happens to be one of my favorite songs ever) and “Train Leaves Here This Morning.”

3. Jim Ford “Working My Way To L.A.”
Country soul! Kentucky born Jim Ford was living in New Orleans when he decided to make the move out to L.A. I, too, moved to Los Angeles from the South (Nashville, Tennessee, to be exact), so this tune holds a
special place in my heart.

4. Flying Burrito Brothers “Sin City”
Nothing says Southern California Country quite like Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Sing it, boys.

5. Arlo Guthrie “Coming Into Los Angeles”
I’ve always loved the way he says “Los Angeleeeeze”. It’s like that Swiss Dairy ad I see all around town: you can’t say “Los Angeleeeeze” without smiling. Forced L.A. positivity!

6. New Riders of the Purple Sage “L.A. Lady”
I’m a total sucker for male/female vocals and the background vocals on this tune by Grateful Dead member Donna Jean Godchaux are no exception. She’s kind of low in the mix and only comes in for a short stint right at the end, but she straight-up sounds like a young Loretta Lynn with the way she sings “cry.”

7. Leslie and the Badgers “Los Angeles”
The only song on this mix recorded post-1980, this beautiful tune was released last week on their first full length record, Roomful of Smoke. When I truly like a song, it goes on repeat in my car, on my
computer, everywhere and well…let’s just say I’ve only had it for a week and it’s already in my Top 25 Most Played Songs in iTunes.

8. Guy Clark “L.A. Freeway”
I first heard this song in the movie Heartworn Highways, which is a must-see documentary that covers a handful of country troubadours like Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, David Allan Coe and more. All versions of this tune are great, but I much prefer Clark’s understated version that appears at the beginning of the film to his proper studio recording or Jerry Jeff Walker‘s version.

9. John Phillips “Topanga Canyon”
Papa John Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas) wrote a number of love songs to Los Angeles, including “California Dreamin’” and “Twelve Thirty”, but I decided to choose this from his 1970 solo record John The Wolf King of L.A. which focuses on Topanga Canyon. I love how this song builds from a single guitar to a full on sing-a-long.

10. Jimmy Payne “L.A. Angels”
When I was putting this mix together, I found that a number of musicians have a love/hate relationship with L.A. There are so many songs about coming to L.A. to find fame and fortune and then failing and moving home. My experience of L.A. has been so different, however, and I really wanted to end this mix with a song that perfectly describes my feelings for this vastly underrated town. I mentioned this desire to my friend Chad Brown (of local L.A. band C.B. Brand), and he told me he had just the track to ease my troubled mind. Ease it he did with this brilliant little gem of a tune. I just want to say, I love you L.A. Thanks for all the wonderful years.

Other notable L.A. tunes:
The Beatles’ “Blue Jay Way”, the Kinks’ “Celluloid Heroes”, Joni Mitchell’s “Ladies of the Canyon”, Rosewood Thieves’ “Los Angeles”, Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land”, Neil Young’s “L.A.”, Love’s “Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale.”

Download: Giant Drag “Kevin Is Gay”

(from Hearts and Unicorns on Kickball)

Annie from Giant Drag is auctioning off their issue, which is Vol. 1 No. 16 (Nov. 2005 or so?) and the winner in that year’s reader poll for best cover, narrowly beating Busdriver as Elvis Costello. This is the first actual L.A. RECORD we have seen on eBay! Despite what Annie says below, we can confirm that—after two studio floods and two or three archive relocations—that it is definitely fair to call these “extremely rare.” If you are curious, the rarest (as far as we can tell) issues are the Grabs (Vol. 1 No. 11) and Bad Dudes (Vol. 1 No. 4) but it’s been a long time since any of these were even around so honestly they’re all probably scarce. And if you have a complete run of all 75 poster issues you are in a very very exclusive club.

This is a Poster from a Los Angeles magazine type thing. It’s called LA Record and basically the cover is a band doing a reproduction of an album cover. This one is us (Giant Drag) doing the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” and on the back side there are a few more pictures of us and an interview. I had to scour my apartment to find this because I thought I only had one copy and I didn’t want to give it away because it’s so cool. It can be framed to look all nice and stuff, or not. It does have a fold mark as it comes out as a magazine and opens into a poster but it can be flattened out. you can go to LARecord.com to learn more about what this publication is if you’re interested, it’s pretty cool. Our cover got voted as the best one for some competition they had. This comes with a Giant Drag Sticker and Autographed Press Photo and can be personally Autographed upon request. Thanks for shopping at the official Giant Drag Ebay Store! xo Annie P.S. the shipping is more expensive since it’s in one of those special poster round package thingies. if you don’t mind it to be folded (you can flatten it at home) then let me know and I will make the invoice so it’s much cheaper. P.P.S. i just found a couple more of these in the corner of my apartment. Lucky day! so I guess they’re just pretty rare, but not extremely rare. sorry about that.