DIRTY PROJECTORS at the Opera House (735 Queen East), November 14. $16. 416-870-8000.
Yeah, we know. Dirty Projectors have already come through Toronto twice this year in support of their vocal-harmony-saturated experimental indie rock gem Bitte Orca (Domino). But chances are you hadn’t heard of them the first couple of times and tragically missed out.
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Since those earlier shows – a June date opening for TV on the Radio at Sound Academy and a July one at Lee’s Palace – the Brooklyn six-piece have blown up. They earned gushing praise for their early-fall appearances at Austin City Limits and on the Jimmy Fallon Show, where they made a new fan in the Roots’ ?uestlove, who drums in Fallon’s house band and videotaped backstage footage that’s making its way through cyberspace.
“I can’t say enough awesome stuff about that show,” enthuses main man Dave Longstreth over the phone from New York. “Everyone is so relaxed, especially given the fact that they’re spontaneously making entertainment for, like, 3 million people. There’s a party happening in the hallway the whole time.”
No strangers to famous folk, back in May the Projectors collaborated with elfin Icelandic superstar Björk for a charity concert benefiting Housing Works, a Manhattan non-profit that assists homeless people living with HIV and AIDS. Prolific Longstreth penned a new work for five voices and acoustic guitar just for the occasion.
“Rehearsing those songs with her was a big learning experience for all of us,” he says thoughtfully. “Going through the melody with her for the first time was kind of like watching water figure out how to go downstream. It just trickles at first, but then, boom, it’s carving through the sediments and suddenly the river is there.”
While 2009 may seem to us like a breakthrough year for the band, it looks a little different to Longstreth, who started the project alone in 2002 and has enlisted 17 or so musicians along the way, though he points out that the current formation has stayed nearly constant for the last few years.
“We’ve been doing this for a real long time, so whatever shift is occurring in people who listen to the band and in the kind of venues we play just feels natural. Still, it’s really, really cool. By no means is it expected or anything like that. We feel lucky.”
Can’t wait for the Opera House show? Get your paws on Temecula Sunrise (Domino), the band’s brand-new four-song EP.
Interview Clips
On travelling with six band members:
On being prolific:
On his love of vocal harmonies:
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