Pitchfork

There are cover albums and there are concept albums and there are tribute albums. And then there's the new Dirty Projectors album, Rise Above, due out September 11 on the newly-minted Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar imprint Dead Oceans, which is something in between.

It's kind of confusing, so let's just have the press release explain it:

"[Dirty Projectors man man Dave] Longstreth went to help his parents move out of the house he grew up in. Among his youthful artifacts was the cassette case from the Black Flag album Damaged. This brought back all sorts of memories-- Black Flag was one of Longstreth's first loves-- but the tape itself was missing. So, like
the character in the Jorge Luis Borges story 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote' who sets out to recreate Don Quixote line by line from memory, Longstreth went to the nearest Guitar Center, purchased the cheapest cassette four-track he could find, and embarked on recasting Damaged from memory, without re-listening to a single note or reading any lyrics. The ten songs that make up Rise Above (titled after one of the tracks on Damaged) stem from these four-track demos, recorded at his parents' house on an acoustic guitar. "

So, the end result is a Dirty Projectors album, with ten songs sharing their names with songs from Damaged, though not in the same order as they were on Damaged. Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor produced the album.

Confused? Take a listen to "No More"-- that might help sort things out. Or not?

The Projectors will cast their dingy light on a number of spaces this summer, including a European go with Beirut. A North American tour is in the works for fall.

Rise Above:

01 What I See
02 No More
03 Depression
04 Six Pack
05 Thirsty and Miserable
06 Police Story
07 Gimme Gimme Gimme
08 Spray Paint (The Walls)
09 Room 13
10 Rise Above

Catch 'em ridin' Dirty:

06-24 Arnhem, Netherlands - Mode Biennale Festival
06-26 London, England - Koko *
06-27 Brighton, England - The Hope
06-28 Dublin, Ireland - Whelans
06-29 Kingston-upon-Hull, England - The Adelphi Club
06-30 Glasgow, Scotland - King Tuts #
07-02 London, England - Gramaphone
07-03 Paris, France - Trabendo *
07-04 Fribourg, Switzerland - Belluard Festival
07-05 Berlin, Germany - Postbanhof *
07-06 Paris, France - Fleche D'Or
07-07 Cherbourg, France - Terra Trema Festival
07-08 Paris, France - Fleche D'Or
07-20 New York, NY - Whitney Museum
07-21 Baltimore, MD - Whartscape Festival

* with Beirut
# with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists