The Dirty Projectors

In a year of great music, the Dark Was the Night compilation ranks near the top. Now comes Dark Was the Night: The Concert, a truly mammoth undertaking. Members of The National curated the May 3 event to benefit AIDS research with performances by David Byrne, The Dirty Projectors, Feist, Bon Iver, Sharon Jones and My Brightest Diamond.

David Longstreth, the visionary behind Dirty Projectors, has a knack for deconstructing music and then reassembling it with distinct guitar-and-vocal arrangements. At Dirty Projectors' SXSW concert, the band presented new material from Bitte Orca, a new album due June 9.

The avant-garde collective Dirty Projectors has been making waves with its new release, Bitte Orca. The album finds the band continuing its trademark experimentation, mixing traditional string arrangements with exploding drums, spidery guitars and boisterous keyboards.

The Dirty Projectors, a Brooklyn band, remakes a classic record from the punk band Black Flag — from memory. The group stops in for a taste of Rise Above.

The Dirty Projectors, a Brooklyn band, remakes a classic record from the punk band Black Flag — from memory. The group stops in for a taste of Rise Above.

In what's already an unusually strong year for music, Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca still stands out as one of 2009's most unusual and refreshingly unpredictable records. Hear the album in its idiosyncratic entirety.

The New York-based band Beirut travels to Mexico for its latest album: a brassy, adventurous double EP called March of Zapotec. It won't be released until the end of February, but you can hear a sneak preview here with the song, "The Shrew." Also on this edition of All Songs Considered: an ambitious debut release from the seven-piece, Nashville-based ensemble Darla Farmer; a collaboration between David Byrne and the Dirty Projectors, as part of a new album to promote AIDS awareness; a moody, gorgeous new album from Mali's Rokia Traore; new music from the seemingly tortured Antony and the Johnsons; a solo release from AC Newman of the New Pornographers; and Norwegian punk-pop singer Ida Maria.

A rare re-issue from David Byrne; Balkan Brass via the New York band Beirut; Wood spoons, laptop tunes: Tender Forever; More surprises from singer Nellie McKay; Black Flag memories from Dirty Projectors; The tainted love and fight songs of Shivaree

The Dirty Projectors' songs mate controlled cacophony and catchy melody. Those extremes dominate the band's new Rise Above, on which it attempts to reconstruct and remake Black Flag's 1981 album Damaged.

The experimental rock band based in New York draws on early vocal music, modern soul and other sources, defying categorization in the process. According to critic Will Hermes, the band's new album, Bitte Orca, is a breakthrough.

The New York-based band Beirut travels to Mexico for its latest album: a brassy, adventurous double EP called March of Zapotec. It won't be released until the end of February, but you can hear a sneak preview here with the song, "The Shrew." Also on this edition of All Songs Considered: an ambitious debut release from the seven-piece, Nashville-based ensemble Darla Farmer; a collaboration between David Byrne and the Dirty Projectors, as part of a new album to promote AIDS awareness; a moody, gorgeous new album from Mali's Rokia Traore; new music from the seemingly tortured Antony and the Johnsons; a solo release from AC Newman of the New Pornographers; and Norwegian punk-pop singer Ida Maria.

The Dirty Projectors' songs mate controlled cacophony and catchy melody. Those extremes dominate the band's new Rise Above, on which it attempts to reconstruct and remake Black Flag's 1981 album Damaged.