Tag: NPR Music

This year’s Black History Month celebration at the Tiny Desk features a carefully crafted lineup spanning many genres, generations and walks of life. Each artist represents the best in their class and will be performing at the Tiny Desk for the first time. Bobby Carter | February 28, 2023 Omah Lay brought a calm demeanor and a bright smile to his time at NPR headquarters. By the third song of his Tiny Desk concert, “soso,” I realized that the Nigerian star was exercising lots of emotions through this set. The first two titles, “Bad Influence” and “i’m a mess,” are [See More…]

Bob Boilen | January 3, 2023 Surely my musical highlight for 2022 was this Tiny Desk concert from The Smile. Just how Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner were going to perform songs from their sonically adventurous album A Light for Attracting Attention was a puzzle not only to me but to the band. They arrived early, along with saxophonist Robert Stillman, to test out several tunes and figure out just what made sense behind my desk — minus the volume and effects that shape the album’s sonic landscape. For roughly 90 minutes, the [See More…]

Marissa Lorusso | December 7, 2022 “I don’t have a lot to say,” Alex Giannascoli, who performs as Alex G, says with a laugh after his first song behind the Tiny Desk. Judging from his discography alone, that’s not something you might ordinarily accuse the Philly singer-songwriter of: nine full-length albums in the last dozen years, in addition to a couple EPs and a film soundtrack. His prodigious output of melodic, peculiar indie rock has earned him a cult-beloved status. True, he got to play guitar on a couple Frank Ocean tracks — but for a more accurate indication of [See More…]

Stephen Thompson | December 5, 2022 Belgian dance-pop superstar Stromae puts on one of the best live shows in the world — here’s a two-song set from 2015, presented as evidence — but his stage presentation is tough to strip down. To say nothing of the light show, Stromae’s throbbingly impeccable arrangements involve the extensive use of pre-recorded tracks, all of which are frowned upon at the Tiny Desk. So, given a simple three-word assignment (“no preset sounds”), his team set about re-creating Stromae’s music so that it could be performed in real time. This involved more gleaming tech than [See More…]

Stephen Thompson | December 2, 2022 Now that we’re back to recording Tiny Desk concerts in the office, home concerts mostly happen under special circumstances: when the artist is overseas, for example, or otherwise unable to get to Washington, D.C., when we’re recording. Given that BTS’s RM (aka Kim Nam-joon) is based in South Korea, we let it slide — not least because his team put together one of the most impressive Tiny Desk facsimiles we’ve seen yet. What really sets it apart is the huge array of shelf-bound ephemera, which is bound to have the BTS Army sleuthing in [See More…]

Hazel Cills | November 29, 2022 Beatrice Laus, who performs as beabadoobee, possesses the sort of soft, lilting voice that often runs the risk of getting lost in her signature sound — a mix of grungy, ’90s rock and noisy dream pop. Mix Laus the wrong way in a live setting and you miss out on vocals that lend whatever song they’re paired with an undeniable sweetness and sincerity. But in her Tiny Desk performance, beabadoobee drops her rock and roll tendencies to a low simmer, giving her voice ample room to shine in a collection of songs suited for [See More…]

Stephen Thompson | November 21, 2022 The Tiny Desk often forces radical changes to an artist’s sound and style, but Santigold faced more than most. There was the live band assembled for the occasion, which included George Lewis Jr. (aka Twin Shadow) on bass and drummer Chuck Treece, who’s worked with everyone from Bad Brains to Billy Joel. There was the lack of a microphone — and, by extension, vocal amplification — not to mention the fact that, as Santigold herself noted, “I don’t know what I’m doing up here with no dancers.” Fortunately, Santi White has been revising and [See More…]

Josh Rogosin | November 11, 2022 Actors and musicians on Broadway have a grueling performance schedule: eight shows a week with only Mondays off. Yet the band and cast of The Lion King were ecstatic to spend their one free day traveling from New York to Washington, D.C. to celebrate 25 years of the iconic musical with a performance at NPR’s Tiny Desk. Many of the songs written by Elton John and Tim Rice will be familiar — like the Oscar-winning “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Hakuna Matata.” But the cast also treated the enthusiastic Tiny Desk crowd [See More…]

Suraya Mohamed | November 10, 2022 The day before The Ezra Collective’s Tiny Desk concert, the band members practiced for hours at a nearby community music space and the next morning, they walked in the door giddy and ready to go. The warm-up was good, but once we started to record, a crazy intensity and energy spilled out into the room. They were fierce and fun and all of their solos were on fire. The band makes amazing jazz music and mixes it with a fusion of other genres like Afrobeat, hip-hop and grime. The London-based band was supposed to [See More…]

Bob Boilen | November 8, 2022 While there’s a quiet element to Lizzy McAlpine’s music, there’s also an explosive element of electronics, electric guitars and drums on her 2022 album five seconds flat that feels cinematic. So when Lizzy told us that all she’d need for her Tiny Desk concert were some microphones and a few acoustic guitars, I was surprised — curious and eager to hear her rise to the challenge of our intimate setting. Her backing vocalists are a trio coincidentally and appropriately called Tiny Habits, a group she met on Instagram about a year ago. “I wanted [See More…]