A Random Mp3 Trilogy: Dirty Projectors & David Byrne, Jaydiohead, Illinois
The Dirty Projectors
The people who brought us classic compilation albums of my youth like Red Hot and No Alternative have a new edition that is looking ridiculous. It is entitled Dark Was The Night and will drop February 17. It is produced by the kids from The National and features two discs of the hottness:
Disc One:
1 Knotty Pine – Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2 Cello Song (Nick Drake) – The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
3 Train Song (Vashti Bunyan recorded, written by Alasdair Clayre) – Feist + Ben Gibbard
4 Brackett, WI – Bon Iver
5 Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear
6 So Far Around the Bend – The National (arrangement by Nico Muhly)
7 Tightrope – Yeasayer
8 Feeling Good (popularized by Nina Simone) – My Brightest Diamond
9 Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson) – Kronos Quartet
10 I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan) – Antony + Bryce Dessner
11 Big Red Machine – Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12 Sleepless – The Decemberists
13 Stolen Houses (Die) – Iron and Wine
14 Service Bell – Grizzly Bear + Feist
15 You Are The Blood – Sufjan Stevens
Disc Two:
1 Well-Alright – Spoon
2 Lenin – Arcade Fire
3 Mimizan – Beirut
4 El Caporal – My Morning Jacket
5 Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis) – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
6 With A Girl Like You (The Troggs) – Dave Sitek
7 Blood Pt 2 (based on original song “You are the Blood” by the Castanets) – Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8 Hey, Snow White (Destroyer) – The New Pornographers
9 Gentle Hour (Snapper) – Yo La Tengo
10 Another Saturday (traditional song) – Stuart Murdoch
11 Happiness – Riceboy Sleeps
12 Amazing Grace (traditional song) – Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
13 The Giant Of Illinois (Handsome Family) – Andrew Bird
14 Lua – Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch
15 When the Road Runs Out – Blonde Redhead + Devastations
16 Love vs. Porn – Kevin Drew
Below is the opening track, a collaboration where The Dirty Projectors have taken some ancient David Byrne lyrics and built a new song out of it. Also, the original version (before it was on the Grizzly Bear EP) of Daniel Rossen’s “Deep Blue Sea” that is featured on this compilation has surfaced on the Internet and you can track it down here. For more info on Dark Was The Night here.
David Byrne and Dirty Projectors : Knotty Pine
In the latest remix news, New York’s DJ Minty Fresh Beats has created an album made up of mashups of Radiohead and Jay-Z songs. Considering the most memorable recent albums like this were Danger Mouse‘s The Grey Album and Amplive‘s Rainydayz Remixes, the appeal of this concept seems obvious. The album is available for free download here. It is a good listen, but the straightforwardness of the mixes and the fact that both of these artists have already been remixed billions of times previously sort of dilutes the impressiveness. Here is a track from it:
Finally, Illinois‘ 2007 EP What The Hell Do I Know was brilliant enough for me to put it on my Best EPs of 2007 list, but i hadn’t really paid much attention to the band after that. It seems they wrote over 100 songs since then, and they are currently engaged in an onslaught of releases called The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe. Beginning in November of last year, they have been releasing a new EP and videos each month in an epic six part piece. It is hard for me to track down a master list of songs/releases from this thing, but if you are interested, check out their myspace. Here is a track from this month’s installment, Chapter 3:
Illinois : Are You Coming With Me
For a bonus, I didn’t realize this band got hyped up from their song “Nosebleed” being featured on Showtime’s Weeds, but here is a video of the “Brick Dance” with that Illinois song as the soundtrack:
- Posted by Davy Minor on January 19, 2009 at 5:11 pm
