Make all the Williamsburg hipster jokes you want, but there have been few sweeter deals in recent memory than the Jelly Pool Parties. They’ve resided in parks within Brooklyn’s music mecca for a half-decade now, but are in jeopardy at the moment because the New York State Parks Department and the Open Space Alliance says their current home at the East River State Park may not be available next summer.

Among others, U.S. Senator (and BK native) Charles Schumer is fighting to keep the concert series alive. He even invites you to give him a ring at 212-486-4430 or email him at phil@schumer.senate.gov to support his efforts. So maybe leave out the details about all the stuff you were hopped up on when you saw Girl Talk, but tell him how the Dirty Projectors show changed your life. Otherwise, while No Age and Dan Deacon may be on the same bill at some point in the future, you may ahve to (gasp) pay for it. (Via: Paste)

Bitte Orca is a good enough record to tour off of at least four or five times, if not more. So the news that Dave Longstreth and his bandmates are hitting the road again this fall is certainly welcome. Aside from their tour through October and November, the band will also play Letterman on Monday, August 31. You know, for a while there, Letterman seemed like he was getting a little “grumpy old man” on us, but with his recent ratings boost plus the soothing harmonies of “Stillness Is The Move,” it seems likely even ole’ Dave will be peacefully swaying his goofy head to this one. Dates are as follows.

10.20 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
10.21 Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
10.22 Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat
10.24 Atlanta, GA @ Mesquerade
10.25 Lafayette, LA @ Nitetown
10.26 Austin, TX @ Antones
10.28 Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
10.30 San Diego, CA @ North Park Theatre
11.01 San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s
11.03 Portland, OR @ Aladdin
11.04 Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s
11.07 Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
11.08 Denver, CO @ Bluebird
11.09 Lawrence, KS @ The Granada
11.11 Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
11.13 Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
11.14 Toronto, ON @ Opera House
11.15 Montreal, PQ @ National
11.17 Boston, MA @ Paradise
11.18 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroon
11.19 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall
11.21 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall
11.22 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroon

Brooklyn buzz band Dirty Projectors will release a new EP, titled Temecula Sunrise, on September 28. While it does contain tracks from the band’s latest LP, Bitte Orca, the EP also includes some new tracks that were recorded alongside the album. Temecula Sunrise will be released on 12″. The title is derived from a Californian city with a population of 100,000. Now you know.

Tracklisting:

A1 – Temecula Sunrise
A2 – Cannibal Resource
B1 – Ascending Melody
B2 – Emblem Of The World

The awesomely weird new video for Dirty Projectors’ “Stillness Is The Move” has been circulating and percolating on the web this week. But we’re not sure anyone’s digital applause boasts as much weight as Kanye West, who posted the video on his blog today. The clip forBitte Orca’s first single boasts a llama and crane-shot choreography, the former something you’ll probably be seeing in West’s new live show now that he’s gotten wise to Dave Longstreth’s jams. We can hope anyway.

Longstreth! McOmber! Wear your damn seatbelts! From the band’s MySpace:

We’re O.K.!!!
Hi everyone

Some of you may have heard that we were in a pretty serious accident today. We are all pretty much fine- all walking and talking and all of that- just a little sore and a little shaken.

After stopping at a fruit stand at about 3pm today, we got back on the highway headed towards Toronto. At about 3:15, on the other side of the highway, a semi-truck moved into the left lane, not seeing the car that was there, and sent the car flying out of control over the meridian and right at us. The car hit us in the back and sent us flying onto our side, at which point we slid quite a ways down the road. Everyone was wearing a seatbelt except for Dave and Brian, but they and all of the rest of us luckily came out fine!

The whole thing was quite surreal; there were hugs and tears when we climbed out of the van. We all feel very fortunate right now to be walking around. Sorry about the canceled shows in Toronto and Montreal! We were really looking forward to coming up there again, but we will make it up to you as soon as possible!

Thank you for your concern and support. Looking forward to getting back out there and continuing to share music with our fans.

Besides the fact you weren’t cool, famous or wealthy enough to attend.

From Flavorwire:

10. Off the Heezy, Fa Sheezy. As after parties go, this one was was particularly epic. Held on the crystalline roof-deck of the Cooper Square Hotel, the intimate gathering featured a (dangerously) open bar, and, for no apparent reason, an open-air bath tub. Björk kicked up the party with an unexpectedly ruckus DJ set featuring Bell Biv Devoe’s “Poison” and Amerie’s “Got Me Trippin’.” Members of Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, and Vampire Weekend, meanwhile, could be seen waiting in line for the can.

Read the full list here.

Something else you might not have known is that Olaf Arnalds also performed.

Icelandic songstress Olof Arnalds and her charming multi-instrumenalist friend David Thor Jonsson had spent the whole day at a Russian spa, so when they played at Union Hall on Tuesday night, they were in an entirely festive mood. Olof was wearing a flowing dress of no particular shape, which she later confessed was too slippery to let her sit comfortably on the stool, but its free-spirited nature was a fit for the night’s mood.

From the minute they came on stage, they owned it as if it was their own living room. With forgotten lyrics, mid-song instructions, sing-alongs, bursts of Icelandic conversations with each other, and even a joke about David’s mother’s guitar-playing, they made the illusion of a living room much more compelling.

When Olof did a beautiful version of a Hank Williams song, David voluntarily kicked himself out mid-song, after some eyes-only communication in which Olof indicated that she wasn’t appreciating the “zack! zack!” style of his hitting the chords. She insisted that David got it from his mother, and that Olof just wanted to be miserable playing a sad Hank Williams song without all of the “zack! zack!’s”. David assigned himself the punishment of standing next to the picture of a old woman that famously hangs behind the stage, and assuming her unpleasant facial expression throughout the song.

Well into the show, and to the bewilderment of the respectful and quiet audience, they offered a four-minute break, instructing everyone that they should use it to chat with friends, get drinks and go to the bathroom. During the entire time, David played a loop on the gorgeous toy piano that his friend had bought in New Orleans, and brought to the show just in time.

Big concert, and currently, every mag large and small in New York is raving about how amazing it was. I had to come out to check out what was in store, as the lineup read like a who’s who of upper-echelon indie rock, crowned by Byrne, plus Sharon Jones!?!? Of course, when you pack this many acts into a night something has to give, and each artist performed four songs or less, sort of bite-sized micro-sets.

The highlights of the night were the David Byrne tunes from the Dark Was The Night comps over the years (including “Knotty Pine” w/ Dirty Projectors, “”Dreamworld: Marco de Canavezes” w/ Bon Iver, “Waters of March” w/ Feist and “Don’t Fence Me In” w/ drummer crew) which sounded amazing, the latter three evoking his African-cribbing heyday, an alternate version of “Flume” featuring Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), “Train Song,” Feist’s Vashti Bunyan cover from the compilation, and the finale where everyone came out at once to do “This Land Is Your Land” which got Sharon Jones REMIXED. I’m not usually one for venues this large, but the sound was incredibly crisp and clear. Lots of collabs, lots of memorable moments. I’ll let the other reviewers recount them to you:

BrooklynVegan
Stereogum
Rolling Stone
Happy Genius Heroes
PAPER mag
Metro Distortion
Quiet Color
Second Doubles
New York Rock Market
Music Mix, Entertainment Weekly
Black Raptor [w/ video]

Google Blog Search: Dark Was The Night

NPR is supposed to have video of the entire concert shortly.

We were only allowed to shoot for the first song of each act (ugh). Here’s what I came up with.

[Dirty Projectors w/ David Byrne]

[John Carlin of Dark Was The Night and Red Hot]

[My Brightest Diamond]

[The National.]

[Dave Sitek]

[David Byrne]

[intermission]

[Bon Iver]

[Feist]

[Sharon Jones]

[everyone]

Look who decides to make a cameo – Annie Clark (St. Vincent)!

In his usual fashion, David Byrne has been keeping himself quite busy, and now the multitasking musical genius will be curating his own stage at Bonnaroo this year — and is the first musician to ever do so at the festival as well.

Byrne’s stage will be on Friday, June 12 and he’s already tapped Dirty Projectors, Ani DiFranco, St. Vincent, Katzenjammer and Santigold to be a part of his world. We’re hoping we will get to see some great collaborations by the end of the Friday set.

Among the multitude of things Byrne is diving into lately, the musician has also confirmed that Santigold will be contributing vocals to his upcoming album with Fatboy Slim. According to Pitchfork, Here Lies Love is a concept album working around the life of former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. Byrne has also enlisted the assistance of Roisin Murphy and Tori Amos, among others, to lay down vocals on the new album.

Bjork and Dirty Projectors are putting their creative geniuses together for a one-time benefit show in New York City in early May. Yeah, you read that correctly. The two forces will be collaborating together to benefit Housing Works, an AIDS and homelessness charity based out of New York. 

The show will take place on May 8 at the Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe (a capacity of only 300), and all of the proceeds from the one-time show will go towards Housing Works. Housing Works is a non-profit organization that has been around since 1990, and services the homeless living with HIV and AIDS. The show is being sponsored by those lovely folks over at Stereogum, who approached Bjork and Dirty Projectors and asked them for their help. 

The outcome of the offer led to Bjork performing music by David Longstrath of Dirty Projectors, and will have Bjork playing with Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian, Haley Dekle, and Longstreth himself, using only voices and an acoustic guitar, according to Stereogum. Along with the momentous collaboration between Bjork and the Projectors, Kurt Weisman and Olof Arnalds will also be performing at the small, 300-seat cafe.

The funny thing about Hopewell is that they have been sorely overlooked by those who like the psychedelic, dreamy pop being made by bands like Animal Collective, Dungen or to a lesser degree, Dirty Projectors, mainly because they brewed their cred in upstate New York versus Manhattan or Brooklyn. But that might change with the release of Good Good Desperation in May.

Hopewell was founded by Jason Russo, of Hopewell Junction who, at 19, joined Mercury Rev for a world tour before setting out on his own with a band named after his hometown. As their press release states, they do claim to be “purveyors of the new psych-rock scene,” boasting a resume that has seen them open for My Bloody Valentine on their recent reunion tour, work in the past with producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT), record a Peel Session live at Abbey Road Studio, and playing Reading and Leeds Festivals.

With Good Good Desperation — out May 5 on Tee Pee Records — Hopewell’s journey continues down their own noisy path. In between tours and throughout 2008 they set out to make a record that more captured their live sound. It was during this time that Jonathan Donahue invited the band to play a 30-minute segment of music on his WDST Woodstock radio program in upstate New York. For this show the group composed a structured improvisational piece, a composition loosely dubbed “The Opus”, which would become the progenitor for many of the songs on the album to come. Immersed in heavy doses of bands like This Heat, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and early tribal Jane’s Addiction, Hopewell booked time in Brooklyn studios Seizures Palace and Seaside Lounge (Akron/Family, Psychic Ills). The result of which is Good Good Desperation.

Hopewell will also be releasing the 7-inch single version of the single “Good Good Good Desperation” (yes, there is an extra “good”) today on Tee Pee Records, and will be celebrating with a record release show this Friday at Glasslands in Brooklyn and further down in TX at SxSW.

Good Good Desperation track list
Side A
01. Preamble (pt II)
02. Island
03. Good Good Good Desperation
04. Worried Mind
05. Realms of Gold
Side B
01. 10,000 Black Masses (pt I)
02. Stranger
03. Seen the Light
04. Over the Mountain
05. Bury Me Standing

Hopewell tour dates
03.13.09 – Brooklyn, NY (Glasslands)
03.18.09 – SXSW Tee Pee Records Day Party (Skoot Inn)
03.20.09 – SXSW Day Party (Spiderhouse)
03.20.09 – SXSW Day Party (Guero’s)
03.21.09 – SXSW Live Music Capitol Day Party
03.21.09 – SXSW Showcase (Beauty Bar)

Sam Hillmer of Zs has embarked upon a new project, and no we’re not talking about his work with Dirty Projectors or MOTH. Turns out the Brooklyn native and music appreciation teacher is working with underprivileged youths in urban areas of New York to create awareness through music for a program called Representing NYC. But it doesn’t stop there. Hillmer and some of his industry friends will help release Representing NYC’s first project, an album from The Fly Girlz — a group of young girls ranging from ages 12 to 14 from Brownsville, Brooklyn.

The young, all girl hip-hop act will be releasing their first record Da Bratz From Da Ville, which was produced by Excepter’s Nathan Corbin, on Mach 31 via True Panther Sounds (Lemonade, Girls, Standing Nudes). The Fly Girlz took six months to write and record their new album, which focuses on a variety of subject matters, ranging from boys, clothes, school and other troubles that effect the young girls in their day to day lives. Though it might not be the typical sound heard from Hillmer or Corbin, or even from your average hip-hop record, the positivity behind the collaboration on the recordings reigns supreme.

Hillmer’s Representing NYC project has brought indie musicians and producers together with Brooklyn youths, to help illustrate the opportunities and outlets for young aspiring musicians. Steering clear of endorsements and corporate labels, Representing NYC is being funding by a vast group of social organizations including, Brooklyn Public Schools, The Beacon Center For Arts and Leadership, Teen Action, and Sockets CDs, among many others.

To hear The Fly Girlz firsthand, you can listen to a few tracks on the Representing NYC MySpace page, or even better — attend the series launch party on Friday, March 13 at The New Museum, where they will be performing songs from their upcoming album.

The Dirty Projectors have announced that they will be releasing their new album, Bitte Orca this coming June. The Album will be the 5th full-length released from the Brooklyn band, and get this — they’re going on tour too!

Bitte Orca will be released by the Dirty Projectors new home Domino Records on June 9. The album was recorded between Brooklyn and Portland, OR, and is the follow up to 2007’s critically acclaimed Rise Above. According to Billboard, the Dirty Projectors worked out a deal with Domino to release two records this year, so we’ll be waiting to see what the band has in store for us beyond June. If you can’t wait till June to hear Dirty Projectors new album, their newest single, “Stillness is the Move” is being released on April 21 for all to enjoy.

If the excitement of the new album wasn’t enough for you, primary Projectors David Longstreth and Angel Deradoorian have added Amber Coffman and Brian Mcomber to the band for their upcoming tour dates, where they will be playing four dates at the SXSW music showcase, as well as making their way throughout the U.K to play a slew of shows.

Bitte Orca track listing
01. Cannibal Resource
02. Temecula Sunrise
03. The Bride
04. Stillness Is The Move
05. Two Doves
06. Useful Chamber
07. No Intention
08. Remade Horizon
09. Fluorescent Half Dome

Dirty Projectors tour dates
03.06.09 – Walker Arts Center – Minneapolis, MN
03.18.09 – SXSW – NPR Party @ The Parish
03.19.09 – SXSW – Windish Agency Showcase @ Emos Annex
03.20.09 – SXSW – TBA
03.21.09 – SXSW – TBA
03.24.09 – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham, UK
03.25.09 – Clwb Ifor Bach – Cardiff, UK
03.27.09 – Black Box – Belfast, Northern Ireland
03.28.09 – Crawdaddy – Dublin, Ireland
03.29.09 – ABC2 – Glasgow, Scotland
03.31.09 – Komedia – Brighton, UK
04.01.09 – Mint Lounge – Manchester, UK
04.02.09 – Scala – London, UK
04.03.09 – Arnolfini – Bristol, UK
04.04.09 – Taylor Johns House – Coventry, UK

While Yeasayer is working hard on their new album, the band’s guitarist Anand Wilder is testing out his chops as a musical-maker. Yes, you read that correctly. The Brooklyn-based musician who is known for creating experimental sounds and psychedelic visuals with his fellow members of Yeasayer, is in the process of writing a musical, which is planned to be released as both a stage show and an album.

According to Pitchfork, the work is entitled Break Line, and was written with the help of Max Kardon. The story line “revolves around an interracial love affair in a coal mining town around the turn of the century,” according to a Yeasayer representative. Wilder is also said to have a hoard of his talented peers assisting him with his new project. The roster ranges from fellow Yeasayer band members, to the likes of MGMT, Man Man, Chairlift, Dirty Projectors, and Dragons of Zynth, but Wilder said he won’t be done with the project until he works with a gospel choir to finish up the recording process.

Wilder definitely seems to have his work cut out for him, but we can’t wait to hear what the final product will have to offer.

In another sign of the horrific cultural times in Manhattan, the burough is losing yet another iconic mainstay to its incestuous neighbor to the East, Brooklyn. But not before giving it a proper send-off with a star-studded show curated by Akron/Family.

When the Knitting Factory leaving its location at 74 Leonard St. (it’s second Manhattan location), it will be leaving the island it’s called home for 21 years. And new Dead Oceans signee Akron/Family is helping give it a proper send-off for a New Year’s Eve party of mythical proportions, featuring Deerhoof, Akron/Family, Dirty Projectors, Deer Tick, Megafun and “many more.”

From Knitting Factory Promotions Director Tim Putnam: Sorry it is so late, but here is the final listing for the last Knitting Factory show in Manhattan at the 74 Leonard St. location. It is a great one and we couldn’t be more excited about it. Akron/Family curates New Year’s Eve featuring performances by Deerhoof, Akron Family, Dirty Projectors, Deer Tick, Megafaun, tons more — a full-club event! We’ll have more on the show as it just all came together.

Tickets for the New Year’s Eve / Knitting Factory sendoff are $35 and can be purchased here.