Photos/Review: Dirty Projectors @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Dirty Projectors @ Music Hall of Williamsburg - July 9, 2012
Photos: Nadia Chaudhury / Review: Josh Kurp

On the night before the official release date of their sixth album (and second that actually matters), Swing Lo Magellan, Dirty Projectors played a hometown show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Beginning with the title track, Dave Longstreth and company, including fellow guitarist and vocalist Amber Coffman, as well as new member Olga Bell, played the entirety of Swing, with a few older tracks, like "Useful Chamber" and fan favorite "Stillness is the Move," scattered throughout, too.

Spreading the songs between the new release and 2009's Bitte Orca, one thing became instantly clear: Swing is much "friendlier" and less abstract than it's predecessor; it doesn't stray away from the group's signature staticity R&B/folk/funk/billion other genre's sound, but "Gun Has No Trigger" and "Impregnable Question" feel more human, like Longstreth began with the words then worked on the beat, not vice versa. It was an excellent show from an excellent band playing their excellent new album.

Dirty Projectors play again tonight at Prospect Park, for which tickets are still available. Check out a huge gallery of shots that Nadia took of last night's show, including photos of opener Dustin Wong (of Ponytail).

Stream The New Dirty Projectors Album "Swing Lo Magellan"

Because you can! Right now! On the New York Times website!

As a listener for whom the Dirty Projectors' previous work has generally taken quite a bit of time to absorb and uh, enjoy, I was very surprised that this Swing Lo Magellan grabbed me so immediately during my first listen this morning. Very good that we'll get a week to chew on it before the band plays two hometown shows, one at Music Hall of Williamsburg on July 9 (no more tix, but you can stream it) and an even bigger show at the Prospect Park Bandshell the following night (tix).

They've got even more dates through Amurrica and the rest of the world, which you can check out here, and a new trailer for their upcoming short film "Hi Janitor" after the jump. Because hey, why stop at just making a new album?