Tag: NPR Music

Marissa Lorusso | October 10, 2023 Any good singer who gives half a thought to the health of her instrument knows that hydration is crucial for functioning vocal cords. But when Caroline Polachek — whose left-of-center pop music makes great use of her mellifluous voice — stops for a water break in the middle of her Tiny Desk concert, she doesn’t pull out some crappy plastic bottle. No, she drinks from a chalice. That seems like precisely the right vibe for a performance by Polachek. Her songs are filled with vivid, extravagant imagery — headless angels, smoke floating over volcanoes, [See More…]

This Latinx Heritage Month Tiny Desk is celebrating with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover, featuring a wide array of artists from all corners of Latinidad. October 6, 2023 | Isabella Gomez Sarmiento Villano Antillano kicked off her Tiny Desk Concert with a Britney Spears-approved message: Dump. Him. “Yo Tengo un Novio,” off the Puerto Rican rapper’s debut LP, La Sustancia X, called out the toxic, controlling expectations of one of her ex-jevos. Through her sharp Caribbean flow, Antillano broke down the confines of monogamy in her first song before casting light on drug use and escapism as a means of queer [See More…]

Stephen Thompson | September 29, 2023 What you’ve got here is a perfect 20-minute distillation of The Sam Smith Experience: The Grammy-winning 2014 ballad that kicked off the singer’s career (“Stay With Me”), a sleek dance-pop banger (“How Do You Sleep”) and a chart-topping dollop of debauched hedonism (“Unholy”) bundled together with “Lay Me Down,” in which Smith performed a gorgeous duet with LaDonna Harley-Peters. From the stately to the louche and bawdy — Smith even introduced “Unholy” with a perfect summation of their recent artistic direction: “Let’s get saucy!” — it’s all here. Performing with an 11-person choir and [See More…]

This Latinx Heritage Month Tiny Desk is celebrating with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover, featuring a wide array of artists from all corners of Latinidad. Stefanie Fernández | September 27, 2023 “Amar y perder es mejor que nunca haber amado,” DannyLux sings — “To love and lose is better than to have never loved.” His reflection is hushed and hesitant, and, maybe even more wisely, a little unconvinced: “Crеo que no entiendеs / Que esta situación me está cambiando,” he croons. (“I don’t think you understand / That this situation is changing me.”) He’s really good at laying these paradoxes out [See More…]

This Latinx Heritage Month Tiny Desk is celebrating with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover, featuring a wide array of artists from all corners of Latinidad. Isabella Gomez Sarmiento | September 19, 2023 This Latinx Heritage Month Tiny Desk is celebrating with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover, featuring a wide array of artists from all corners of Latinidad. No Venezuelan party is complete without tequeños. Whether it’s a wedding or a baptism, the cheese-filled treats are a must-have at every snack table — so it makes sense Rawayana pulled up to “El Tiny” with a box to share. Kicking things off with hits [See More…]

Suraya Mohamed | September 14, 2023 On an August evening in Seoul, South Korea, a newly formed production crew was setting up cameras and microphones as the eight-member session band warmed up and rehearsed. Most of the musicians had flown in from the U.S. just for this performance; a few were already based in Seoul. The special occasion was one of the first concerts for Tiny Desk Korea, a brand new series based halfway around the world from NPR’s offices in Washington, D.C. It was an exciting moment for everyone in the room as we awaited the arrival of Kim [See More…]

Suraya Mohamed | September 8, 2023 Hiromi arrived at NPR wearing comfortable sweats, her chic hair already styled and perfectly coiffed for the performance. A keyboard gig bag was strapped on her back with her Nord Lead A1 analog modeling synthesizer, a versatile instrument loaded with her programmed patches. Its buzzy, modular sound started the show with a funky melodic line that sets up this highly energetic and joyful set. Just before this performance, she and her band “Hiromi’s Sonicwonder” had just finished recording their soon to be released new album, Sonicwonderland. They perform two songs from that project here, [See More…]

Bobby Carter | August 8, 2023 There are times during Action Bronson’s Tiny Desk when his vocals momentarily drift. We instruct our guests to face the directional microphones so that our recorders clearly pick up the voices. Action warned us of the improbability of that happening before we started filming and sure enough, the Flushing, Queens emcee strolled off mic a couple of times, did an about face here and there and even took a knee mid-show. By the time we got to “Latin Grammys,” he looked over to our engineer Josh Rogosin and said, “I told you I couldn’t [See More…]

Felix Contreras | July 24, 2023 What’s an artist to do when, instead of standing and dancing before a stadium of adoring fans, she’s instead sitting behind the Tiny Desk? You do exactly what Puerto Rican vocalist Kany García does: dig deep into the intimacy of her songwriting and the musicality of one of the most distinctive voices in any form of Latin music. The first track, “Para Siempre” perfectly embodies a seductive declaration of togetherness with lyrics like: “I want to be the desire that brings you home every night.” In “Mundo Inventado,” the full power of her songwriting [See More…]