On September 4th, Dirty Projectors will release Super João, a four-song collection written, produced, and performed by Dave Longstreth. Super João marks the third in a cycle of five EPs that Dirty Projectors are releasing throughout 2020. Longstreth wrote and produced the music, collaborating on lyrics with each of the featured vocalists from the band - Maia Friedman on Windows Open, Felicia Douglass on Flight Tower, and Kristin Slipp on a forthcoming EP. On Super João, Longstreth wrote lyrics with Kyle Field (Little Wings) and recorded straight to tape with his Los Angeles neighbor Kyle Thomas (King Tuff).
Today, the band has also announced that, in addition to the deluxe boxset, the EP sequence will be sold in one cohesive, twenty-track anthology entitled 5EPs. Available physically and digitally via Domino on November 13th, the same day as the final installment, the evolving and diverse suite of styles and voices brings the full arrival of dynamic new Dirty Projectors.
Using a nylon-string acoustic guitar as his guiding instrument, Super João shows bandleader Dave Longstreth pairing longform melodies with surprising chord progressions to create a mood reminiscent of Arthur Russell, Chet Baker, and - of course - João Gilberto, the Brazilian bossa nova pioneer who died last year. “Super João is a feeling,” Longstreth says - one of understated intimacy that serves as 5EPs’s quietly confident core.
Dave continues, “This cycle of EPs is about growth, transition, liminal space, shifting identity. Alan Ginsberg had a phrase ‘first thought, best thought’ to talk about a particular kind of writing - not automatic writing exactly, but quick, spontaneous, trusting. For me, these songs are about rediscovering that place, after the stereo ouroboros of the Ivo Shandor era (Dirty Projectors, Lamp Lit Prose). And I think for us - Felicia, Maia, Kristin, Mike and me - it’s about finding it for the first time: playing, writing, learning together as a new band.”
Super João Track List
Holy Mackerel
I Get Carried Away
You Create Yourself
Moon, If Ever
Flight Tower Track List
Inner World
Lose Your Love
Self Design
Empty Vessel
Windows Open Track List
On The Breeze
Overlord
Search For Life
Guarding The Baby
