Dirty Projectors

After paying tribute in record to both Don Henley and Black Flag — not to mention collaborating with both David Byrne and Björk — over the past few years, it's hard to pin down on paper what Dirty Projectors is all about. A listen to the group's acclaimed 2009 album, Bitte Orca, doesn't clear things up very much. Then again, Projectors leader David Longstreth seems to revel in the sheer singularity of his songwriting aesthetic: With fluid guitar chording and lush, haunting vocal harmonies, Longstreth celebrates the beauty and economy of pop while diving into the artiest reservoirs. The band's evolution has been a remarkably logical one, though it'll be interesting to see where Longstreth and crew go now that the stakes have been raised by Bitte Orca's high profile; a new EP titled Temecula Sunrise hints at even more extreme mutations of harmonic mastery and mystery.