Dirty Projectors
July 7th at the Independent, San Francisco

Electro beats are rattling the contemporary music scene. From Animal Collective’s dance party-ready Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009) to Major Lazer’s catalytic fanbase following the release of Guns Don’t Kill People-Lazers Do (2009), a familiar cast of indie artists are producing disco-infused tracks faster than the BPMs on their newest records. So, is there a future for traditional, full band arrangements in contemporary music?

“Look around at everyone / Everyone looks alive and waiting / The wind is up, the stars out / The sun is calm, the light is fading / But we are.” The Independent bubbles with experimental enthusiasts, the 400-plus attendees move in unison, the stage glows a green and purple, and mastermind behind the Dirty Projectors, Dave Longstreth, warbles his poetry to the crowd. Longstreth, one of indie music’s most innovative composers—accompanied on stage by a shaggy-haired bassist, a multi-tasking drummer (as he switches off between drums and a tambourine), a fresh-faced female on analog synth, and two dolls whose harmonic melodies are convincing enough to be taken as instruments—jolts the crowd with his moving lyrics and orchestrations. And movement, as in progression, is one of the hottest trends in indie music today.

Whether it’s through their layered mantras, their ‘horizontal’ compositions, or their bouquet of borrowed genres (from reggaeton to new wave to folk to Malian guitar music), the Dirty Projectors are complex. And their delivery only inflates their complexities. At their gig a couple of nights ago, Longstreth and his band belted a handful of songs from their newest album, Bitte Orca (2009); songs that pulse across the thinning divide between indie rock and experimental electro, between formula and fad, between imitation and innovation. His self-aware tunes insight discourse on contemporary music. Meditating on indie listeners’ infatuation with mechanical, beat-heavy tracks, the Dirty Projectors ask of contemporary music in “Cannibal Resource”, “Can it ask a question? Can it sing a melody? Can it be interpreted?”

As if prescribing a code of morals, the Dirty Projectors exude a disposition of stature with descending notes juxtaposed against climbing vocals, angular chords, frenetic percussion, and celestial harmonies. Their frolicking, yet grave demeanor cannot be restricted to paper. Asking the questions we’ve yet to consider, the Dirty Projectors are painting a new frontier in an exhausted indie world.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

Read past installments of It Shows:

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone at the First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia

David Byrne at the Greek Theater, Berkeley and the Hunches at the Hemlock, San Francisco

King Sunny Adé and Papercuts at the Independent and Starfucker at Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco