Watch Dirty Projectors Play The Tonight Show With The Roots, D∆WN, & Tyondai Braxton

Watch Dirty Projectors Play The Tonight Show With The Roots, D∆WN, & Tyondai Braxton

Dave Longstreth may have reinvented Dirty Projectors as a solo project on the new self-titled album, but that doesn’t mean he’s rolling solo these days. Last night, Dirty Projectors were on The Tonight Show to play “Cool Your Heart, one of the new album’s singles, and Longstreth had a lot of help. The Roots, the Tonight Show house band who have been vocal Dirty Pro fans for years, backed Longstreth up. So did Tyondai Braxton, the experimental sound manipulator and former Battles member who’s done some work with Longstreth lately. And also on that stage — dominating that stage, really — was Dawn Richard, the former Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money member who’s lately been recording spaced-out, personal future-R&B as D?WN.

Richard guests on “Cool Your Heart,” and she is one hell of a live presence, projecting charisma all over the stage while Longstreth did goofy interpretive dances next to hear. There were some percussionists up there, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jimmy Fallon was also on that stage somewhere, playing mouth harp in the background or whatever. All told, it’s one of the more euphorically weird late-night performances that you’re likely to see this year. Check it out below.

Dirty Projectors is out now on Domino.

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