Pitchfork

Welcome to the latest edition of Pitchfork's Guest List. Each week, we ask one of our favorite artists to fill us in on what they've been up to lately: which tracks they can't stop spinning, what books they can't put down, and what new bands they've caught on tour. This week it's the Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth, who tells us about his favorite Mahler composition, explains why record shops confuse him, and encourages us to listen to the Beatles en español.

>> Favorite New Songs of the Past Year

I guess with the new songs I would have to offer the caveat that I sort of feel like what's new... I don't know, it takes a while for the good shit to rise to the top, you know, so my favorite new songs aren't really necessarily the ones that are going to stick around. But probably "Excuse Me Miss" by Chris Brown. "Fly Away" Tim McGraw. "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer.

...silence [laughs]. No. "When I Think About Cheating" by Gretchen Wilson is a really good one. Maybe "Emily" by Joanna Newsom. And like a four-way tie for some of those songs on B'Day by Beyonce: "Freakum Dress", "Upgrade U", "Déjà Vu", and "Suga Mama". Shit is so good.

>> Favorite Older Songs at the Moment

"D.M.S.R." by Prince.



I've been super into basically all of She's So Unusual by Cyndi Lauper.

I love Control by Janet Jackson.

And then I guess like two individual-- I tend to get into albums, you know. But two individual numbers are "Refuge of the Roads" by Joni Mitchell from Hejira and "Changing of the Guard" from Street Legal by Bob Dylan.

>> Favorite New Band

I think it's Adrian Orange, who's from Portland, Oregon. Oh man, you've got to check him out. His shit's on Marriage Records. It's almost a joke to call him a new artist because he's been writing songs since he was super young, like 15, but he's a super prolific dude; his lyrics are like just really surprising and insightful.

>> Best Recent Concert

Ponytail at Whartscape in Baltimore. It was at the Floristree Space. They just completely blew me away. They played right after we did and I was right near Dustin, one of the guitar players, and the energy was just incredible. [Whartscape] was rad. I was only there that one night but it was a really neat collection of bands and people. Good times.

 

>> Favorite Song Ever

Well, I'm not really one to just come to some sort of self-definition through a selection of favorites or anything but I think a song that's probably my favorite if not just for the number of times that I've found myself unconsciously re-writing parts of it is this Mahler song from, I think, Kindertotenlieder or Rückert Lieder...

Pitchfork: Gustav Mahler?

Gustav, yeah.

Pitchfork: Not that other Mahler?

Yeah, not Carlos. [laughs] And the song is called "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen", [from Rückert Lieder --Ed.] and the title means "I Have Become Abandoned by the World".

Pitchfork: What is it about that piece that you like?

I don't know, just the orchestration. It's really really amazing. This feeling of just... almost, like Kurt Cobain said, "the comfort in being sad."

>> Last Great Film I Saw

David Lynch: Inland Empire
I haven't seen a lot of movies recently. I actually just watched Dream Girls twice in a row. I liked it a lot. It has aspirations for that kind of Boogie Nights epic, tracking the rise and fall of this dynasty with all the period fashions and shit. Beyonce's really good in it, too.

>> Last Great Book I Read

Planet of Slums by Mike Davis.
He's this, like, maverick, autodidact scholar, kind of a rebel lefty. A lot of it's sort of ridiculous; there are five extra chapters about how the IMF and World Bank are evil. Which is sort of overkill but there are some...I don't know, the book really opened my eyes.

>> Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment

I think the human singing voice.

>> Favorite Record Shop

I don't have one. I would love to have some sort of store to throw down some sort of allegiance to a given town or give an indication of my place, but I don't like record stores. I've never been very into them. I'm always just kind of in and out. I don't know why. For one thing I can never really buy music. And I don't know, something about the way they're organized always confuses me.

Pitchfork: Fair enough. So how do you get your music?

I think I just kind of get it from friends and random places. Pick it up from people who already have it.

>> Best Purchase of the Past Year

I think it was these three plastic storage bins, 14.5 gallon storage bins from Office Depot.

Pitchfork: What do you use them for?

Just, like, putting stuff in.

Pitchfork: Touché.

>> Best Thing I Did This Year

This one is unlike the rest of the questions because it's so abstract. And in keeping with that, the best thing I've done this year, I don't know how to articulate it. [extremely long pause] I don't know, I don't know what it is. I know what it is, but I don't know how to say it. I don't know, it's more something I didn't do or something that happens by being still for a minute.

>> Favorite Music Venue

Todd P is a show promoter in New York, and he brings us into all these different venues and I really like that stuff.

Pitchfork: So any show Todd P organizes is okay by you?

Well, some venues are better than others, obviously, like, Don Pedro's is more desirable than Uncle Paulie's or something, but it's more just like I like the style; I like the feeling of a lot of his venues that he seeks out. I like his style of putting things together on a shoestring.

>> Favorite TV Show at the Moment

I don't really watch TV. And I never really have; I never know those references. But this house that we're practicing in right now, the people that live here left a whole bunch of "Seinfeld" DVDs lying around, so Angel and I've been watching some of those.

 

 

>> Favorite Radio Show

I listen to the radio a shit-load but on, like, a scanner, you know. It drives people crazy when I'm driving, but I love to just kind of go as quickly between, like, across the entire dial, as I can [laughs]. Recognizing as much as I can, and getting a generalized feeling of the FM dial at a given time. I'm not a faithful devotee of a particular radio show.

>> My Ringtone

I have to set the alarm, which has these three really annoying beats at, like, 1000 Hz. It sounds like a thing that measures heart rates at hospitals. It's incredibly annoying to listen to.

Pitchfork: Does that get you to pick up your phone faster?

I think so.