Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (2009)

Besides the Yeah Yeah Yeah's It's Blitz, I've been having a hard time finding any new music this year that was blowing my mind. Lots of kind of floppy follow-ups and disappointing debuts from promising artists.

I'd never heard of the Dirty Projectors before maybe February...but all of a sudden I was hearing a lot about them. This is apparently their fifth album and they were featured on the tremendous "Dark Is the Night".

Listening to Bitte Orca is a bit like licking a 9v battery. It's anticipation and a mild, but palpable surprise. It's confusing at first, but intriguing. And then you start hitting that shit, like, a couple of times a day.

I can see why they were paired with David Byrne on Dark Was the Night and Bjork (doing whatever thing they were doing that I didn't bother to read about), there are easily recognizable influences abound. I'm also hearing some Antony, and maybe a hint of Sufjan.

Hey Dirty Projectors. You're kind of blowing my mind right now.

Bell X1 - "The Great Defector" (2009)

Alright, so I have no idea who these guys are except for the fact that Bell X1 is an Irish indie band and their latest release is called Blue Lights On The Runway. I was driving home late at night and stumbled upon "The Great Defector" on this barely audible NYC indie rock station and absolutely loved what I heard. So much so, in fact, that I tried to memorize some lyrics so I could go home and google the song to find out who sang it. Of the few things worthy of mention, the lead singer totally sounds like David Byrne and I actually thought that maybe the Talking Heads reunited and no one had bothered to even tell me about it. The lyrics are super quirky and even the music sounds like classic Heads, maybe even what they would sound like if they came about in this era, or put out new tunes. Normally I might have been annoyed with this shameless musical pilfering, but I love the Talking Heads so much that I could care less if some other band borrowed their style 'cuz at least someone's willing to pick up from where they left off. "The Great Defector" definitely makes me want to give this album, as well as Bell X1's other records, a good proper listen.

Here's a video clip of the song in case you're equally curious:

David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will...

So it's not hot off the presses but I am forever on the late freight so whatevs.. David Byrne has always been a hero of mine and I've celebrated Brian Eno's music and production for days. Since I judge books by covers I was excited about this album immediately due to Stefan Sagmeister's awesome album artwork.

Musically this album felt like an old friend. Sometimes the best reaction to an album is when you can put it on and go about doing what you were doing and then be surprised when the album ends. To me that means "wow this album is already so comforting that I can space out to it"..

I am a huge fan of the Talking Heads movie and soundtrack "True Stories" and keep being reminded of that when I listen to this record. There is a good chunk of electronic to this album but it isn't over bearing like I feared it might be. I guess they wrote it by e-mailing things back and forth to one another.. I think the IT dude at my work would be super bummed if I started e-mailing huge music files at work so I guess there goes my music career.

Do yourself a favor and if nothing else listen to the song "Strange Overtones".. it is simply amazing and you can get it free here. Also listen to "Life Is Long".. Music you can believe in. Real talk!