14:46
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Tears and laughter in the span of about 15 minutes — that's what's so astonishing about th...
published: 03 Dec 2012
author: NPR Music
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Tears and laughter in the span of about 15 minutes — that's what's so astonishing about these Macklemore & Ryan Lewis songs. The first time I heard "Same Lov...- published: 03 Dec 2012
- views: 670141
- author: NPR Music
13:41
Daughter: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Daughter first popped up on our radar when we heard the London band's song "Landfill" whil...
published: 22 Oct 2013
Daughter: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Daughter: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Daughter first popped up on our radar when we heard the London band's song "Landfill" while preparing for SXSW early last year: Achingly pretty and melancholy, the track builds to an absolute gut-punch of a line — "I want you so much, but I hate your guts" — that conjures a pitch-perfect mix of gloom, desire and hostility. The group has since released a full-length album, this year's lovely If You Leave, but Daughter was kind enough to resuscitate "Landfill" for this stripped-down performance at the Tiny Desk. As you'll see and hear, that aforementioned gut-punch is a recurring specialty for the band: In all three of these sad, searing songs, singer Elena Tonra showcases a remarkable gift for coolly but approachably dishing out weary words that resonate and devastate. --STEPHEN THOMPSON Set List "Youth" "Landfill" "Tomorrow" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius, Stephen Thompson; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Parker Miles Blohm, Chloe Coleman, Denise DeBelius- published: 22 Oct 2013
- views: 16592
18:18
The National: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
The first thing you might notice about this video is the change in surroundings: NPR recen...
published: 10 Jun 2013
author: NPR Music
The National: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
The National: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
The first thing you might notice about this video is the change in surroundings: NPR recently moved to a new building, and though we worked to make the Tiny ...- published: 10 Jun 2013
- views: 120434
- author: NPR Music
13:49
Chvrches: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
For a brief moment, I imagined hearing Chvrches perform "Recover" or "Gun" with a couple o...
published: 12 May 2014
Chvrches: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Chvrches: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
For a brief moment, I imagined hearing Chvrches perform "Recover" or "Gun" with a couple of acoustic guitars and perhaps a shaker or two. And, though these songs would surely stand up well when broken down and bared, I'm thrilled that Chvrches came with a small arsenal of synthesizers to perform a few highlights from last year's album The Bones of What You Believe. Seeing these now-familiar earworms executed up close was nearly as much a campfire moment as an acoustic set might have been, except the flames burned brighter. Lauren Mayberry's voice felt powerful and vulnerable, while Iain Cook and Martin Doherty kept those memorable synth lines bubbling underneath. The result works as a perfect introduction to the Glasgow trio, but also a reaffirmation of talent and longevity for those already love with the band. --BOB BOILEN Set List "Recover" "Gun" "The Mother We Share" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Olivia Merrion, Stephen Thompson; photo by Meredith Rizzo/NPR- published: 12 May 2014
- views: 254
13:42
Pixies: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
The windowsills were lined with people standing, as every nook between every office desk f...
published: 04 Feb 2014
Pixies: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Pixies: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
The windowsills were lined with people standing, as every nook between every office desk filled to capacity with NPR employees and their assorted guests. Pixies, after getting misplaced for a time in our parking garage during a moment worthy of This Is Spinal Tap, showed up in time to encounter the largest crowd we've ever assembled for a Tiny Desk Concert. (Our new office space allows for more guests than the old one did, but it's still a mark of this band's significance for so many youthful grownups.) Black Francis played an acoustic guitar for this set, while drummer David Lovering set up a simple snare and a cymbal, tapping a tambourine with his foot where a bass drum might be. With his electric guitar, Joey Santiago was the only plugged-in member of the group. The newest member of the Pixies is Paz Lenchantin, a musician of many talents who played violin at the Tiny Desk, though she handles bass duties at larger concerts. You may miss Kim Deal on bass for all the good reasons one might miss Kim Deal, but Lenchantin rhythmically fits in well, and was a treat to hear (albeit quietly) on violin. Prior to the rolling of cameras, the band warmed up the crowd with "Where Is My Mind," but this three-song set features a 2014 tune called "Greens and Blues," a song yet to make it onto a Pixies release called "Silver Snail," and 1989's "Monkey Gone to Heaven," which melted hearts and seared minds with a new memory from a time long past. --BOB BOILEN Set List "Greens And Blues" "Silver Snail" "Monkey Gone To Heaven" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Olivia Merrion; photo by John Poole/NPR- published: 04 Feb 2014
- views: 5176
12:24
Jake Bugg: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
There was a haze over Jake Bugg when he arrived at the Tiny Desk. He was expressionless an...
published: 11 Mar 2014
Jake Bugg: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Jake Bugg: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
There was a haze over Jake Bugg when he arrived at the Tiny Desk. He was expressionless and quiet. That all changed when he strummed fast and fierce on his acoustic guitar and began a flow of words reminiscent of Greenwich Village in the '60s, not modern Clifton in England's East Midlands, where he grew up. Bugg is a prolific talent already working on his third record in as many years. His second album was produced by Rick Rubin and recorded in California. His recognition in the U.S. is still small, but that'll change — maybe even before we get that third record. --BOB BOILEN Set List "Slumville Sunrise" "Me And You" "Storm Passes Away" "Lightning Bolt" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Editor: Olivia Merrion; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Olivia Merrion- published: 11 Mar 2014
- views: 7959
16:02
John Legend: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
At 34, John Legend has sold millions of records, won nine Grammys, collaborated with many ...
published: 18 Nov 2013
John Legend: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
John Legend: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
At 34, John Legend has sold millions of records, won nine Grammys, collaborated with many of the biggest stars in music (Jay-Z, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, The Roots, et al), and achieved the kind of statesmanlike musical-ambassador status usually afforded to artists twice his age. He is, in short, the sort of star who doesn't usually perform behind desks in offices. But once we'd wedged a piano back there, Legend sounded perfectly at home. His rich, soulful voice never suffered for a lack of processing and production as he performed three songs for NPR Music and a few hundred of our rapt coworkers, loved ones and hangers-on. Though he recently released a fine new album titled Love in the Future, from which "Made to Love" and "All of Me" were drawn for this set, Legend took special care to provide the backstory for "Move," which he'd recorded for the soundtrack to 12 Years a Slave. Legend executive-produced that soundtrack himself — don't be surprised if you wind up hearing him perform "Move" again on Oscar night — and recorded the album version with U.K. musician Fink. Here, though, it's stripped down considerably, with just Legend's piano and the acoustic guitar of guest Bobby Anderson providing accompaniment. Legend doesn't play settings this intimate very often, and it's not as if he has anything to prove at this point in his career. But, just in case he did, he retains a busker's lung capacity, the charisma of a born star and the easygoing grace of a performer fit for any stage — even a tiny one. --STEPHEN THOMPSON Set List "Made To Love" "Move" "All Of Me" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Becky Harlan, Abbey Oldham, Meredith Rizzo- published: 18 Nov 2013
- views: 9258
10:38
Foster The People: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Armed with the summer song of 2011, the band brings "Pumped Up Kicks" and more to NPR Musi...
published: 13 Sep 2011
author: NPR Music
Foster The People: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Foster The People: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Armed with the summer song of 2011, the band brings "Pumped Up Kicks" and more to NPR Music. Set List: "Houdini" "Helena Beat" "Pumped Up Kicks" For more vid...- published: 13 Sep 2011
- views: 427321
- author: NPR Music
19:12
Usman Riaz: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
This is simply astonishing. Watch twenty seconds and you'll be sucked into the world of Us...
published: 21 Apr 2014
Usman Riaz: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Usman Riaz: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
This is simply astonishing. Watch twenty seconds and you'll be sucked into the world of Usman Riaz, an immensely talented 23-year-old Pakistani musician who will change your perception of how a guitar can sound and be played. What's more remarkable is that this Berklee College of Music whiz kid learned much of his dazzling guitar technique by watching YouTube videos at 16. He also learned what he calls "parlor tricks," like body percussion and harmonica. But the classically trained pianist also used the Internet to learn how to write and conduct orchestra pieces and make films. If you're a skeptic, fine, just watch this youngest of TED senior fellows and be dazzled. --BOB BOILEN Set List "Boneshaker" "The Waves" "Shimmer" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Olivia Merrion; photo by Jim Tuttle/NPR- published: 21 Apr 2014
- views: 2075
15:54
The Lone Bellow: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
After hearing The Lone Bellow's self-titled debut, I couldn't wait to play it for friends ...
published: 04 Mar 2013
author: NPR Music
The Lone Bellow: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
The Lone Bellow: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
After hearing The Lone Bellow's self-titled debut, I couldn't wait to play it for friends and on All Songs Considered — I knew people would love it. Still, h...- published: 04 Mar 2013
- views: 97405
- author: NPR Music
18:36
Cian Nugent: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Cian Nugent doesn't know what he wants to be, and that's OK. The Dublin-based guitarist cu...
published: 05 May 2014
Cian Nugent: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Cian Nugent: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Cian Nugent doesn't know what he wants to be, and that's OK. The Dublin-based guitarist cut his teeth as a 19-year-old pickin' on the acoustic worlds that John Fahey, Jack Rose and Bert Jansch built. But that was five years ago, and since then, Nugent has come at his instrument and his songwriting from all sides, hitting up psychedelic folk, garage pop and cosmic guitar improvisation along the way. On a short U.S. tour supporting Angel Olsen (herself a Tiny Desk alum), Nugent stopped by the NPR Music offices to play what he's called the "incoherent range of the mess that is my musical career." There's the acoustic "Grass Above My Head," a slow, somber melody that turns into a ragtime jaunt. The song once shared a 7" with an inventive Black Flag cover and was re-recorded with his band The Cosmos for last year's excellent Born With the Caul. Nugent then switches to a cheap, no-name electric guitar — purchased just days before in a pawn shop — that only seems to stay in tune when a pencil's been in the nut. (Oh, yes, there's a story about said pencil.) It gives "Hire Purchase" the just-barely-off quality required for the raunchy, basement-bar choogle going down — like maybe J.J. Cale is still drunk from yesterday's gig and the only cure is more pencil! And, in defiance of all daylight, Nugent closes with "Nightlife," which, at the time of the Tiny Desk filming, was still untitled. True to its title, it's the sad-sack set closer sure to be played at last call — heads on the bar, mops out on a beer-soaked floor, with Nugent singing about regret and "wasted time." --LARS GOTRICH Set List "Grass Above My Head" "Hire Purchase" "Nightlife" Credits Producers: Denise DeBelius, Lars Gotrich; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Olivia Merrion; photo by Jim Tuttle/NPR- published: 05 May 2014
- views: 2678
18:21
Suzanne Vega: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
In pop-music circles, Suzanne Vega is known almost entirely for two songs from the late 19...
published: 10 Feb 2014
Suzanne Vega: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Suzanne Vega: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
In pop-music circles, Suzanne Vega is known almost entirely for two songs from the late 1980s: the child-abuse ballad "Luka" and a song that launched literally dozens of dance remixes, "Tom's Diner." But Vega has been making vital, inventive music the entire time — much of it folk-based, though her sound has taken many smart detours along the way — and is about to put out her first album of original material in seven years, Tales From the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles. The challenge, then, lies in capturing a snapshot of her career in only four songs. For this Tiny Desk Concert — performed with her brilliant guitarist and producer, Gerry Leonard — Vega splits the difference evenly between old and new, bookending her set with the aforementioned classics and tucking two about-to-be-released songs in the middle. Game and good-spirited throughout, Vega performed "Luka" and "Tom's Diner" as if she hadn't played them thousands of times before — aided greatly by Leonard, who's worked extensively with David Bowie and lends these songs an extraordinary amount of color and texture. (Check out the "bells" he adds near the end of "Tom's Diner.") Vega's songwriting gifts haven't waned at any point in her long career, and the new songs here — taken from a concept album about the way our world and the spiritual realm intersect — sound as sharp as anything she's done. It only makes sense that, nearly 30 years after her debut, she still examines new realms with grace, empathy and an explorer's spirit. --STEPHEN THOMPSON Set List "Luka" "Crack In The Wall" "I Never Wear White" "Tom's Diner" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Olivia Merrion; photo by Meredith Rizzo/NPR- published: 10 Feb 2014
- views: 2846
14:45
Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros can't exactly slip into an office building unnoticed: C...
published: 02 Nov 2009
author: NPR Music
Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros can't exactly slip into an office building unnoticed: Clad in the same clothes they'd worn at a concert the night before, ...- published: 02 Nov 2009
- views: 1600970
- author: NPR Music
10:56
Lily & Madeleine: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Sisters Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz aren't the youngest musicians ever to play the Tiny ...
published: 07 Jan 2014
Lily & Madeleine: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Lily & Madeleine: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Sisters Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz aren't the youngest musicians ever to play the Tiny Desk, but they come pretty close. Their music — a restrained, homespun mix of folk and pop with undeniably sweet harmonies — certainly ranks among the loveliest we've heard. Lily is just 16. Her sister Madeleine is 18. And while the older of the two Indiana natives recently headed off to college, leaving her sister behind to finish high school, they still write and record together. They released a stellar EP, The Weight of the Globe, last June, and a self-titled full-length debut followed in October. Lily & Madeleine's openhearted ballads first found an audience in the fall of 2012, after the pair posted a video for "In the Middle" on YouTube. It quickly received more than a quarter of a million views — enough to draw the attention of the Sufjan Stevens-led Asthmatic Kitty label, which signed the sisters and released both their EP and their full-length album. For the duo's Tiny Desk set, Lily & Madeleine chose not to perform that breakthrough song, opting instead to focus on newer material from the album: the wistful "Devil We Know," "Paradise" and "You Got Out." --ROBIN HILTON Set List "Devil We Know" "Paradise" "You Got Out" Credits Producers: Denise DeBelius, Robin Hilton; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Mito Habe-Evans, Becky Harlan- published: 07 Jan 2014
- views: 301
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13:18
Alt-J: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
There's mystery in the music of Alt-J: The band's songs are wrapped in enigmatic textures,...
published: 17 Dec 2012
author: NPR Music
Alt-J: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Alt-J: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
There's mystery in the music of Alt-J: The band's songs are wrapped in enigmatic textures, with swift shifts in arrangements inside every song and an oddness...- published: 17 Dec 2012
- views: 176263
- author: NPR Music
14:42
Patrick Watson: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
With a gifted backing band on hand to help flesh out three songs from Adventures in Your O...
published: 31 May 2012
author: NPR Music
Patrick Watson: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Patrick Watson: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
With a gifted backing band on hand to help flesh out three songs from Adventures in Your Own Backyard, Watson conducts a swirl of interlocking loveliness tha...- published: 31 May 2012
- views: 106375
- author: NPR Music
13:07
Asaf Avidan: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
So I'm driving down the road when I hear this incredible voice coming out of my car speake...
published: 04 Mar 2014
Asaf Avidan: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Asaf Avidan: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
So I'm driving down the road when I hear this incredible voice coming out of my car speakers — part Janis Joplin, part Nina Simone — and I wonder, "Who is she?" That day, I'd ripped a number of CDs onto my phone and didn't remember which record this was. Upon a quick glance at my phone during a traffic light, I discover the name Asaf Avidan. Next traffic light, I look it up and I see a picture of a skinny, handsome white male. I figure that's a mistake — that I must have typed the wrong name — so I wait to get home. What I discovered floored me. Asaf Avidan is a 33-year-old, very well-known Israeli singer, formerly with a folkish rock band with gold records called Asaf Avidan & The Mojos. He's now on his own with a solo record and no U.S. record label to put it out, but he's on a solo tour that's stunning. He stopped us all cold when he began to sing at the Tiny Desk. There's a disconnect, when you watch this, between what you see and what you hear. And those songs that he writes? Well, he truly understands his voice, and they're just some of the best tunes I've heard in a long time. --BOB BOILEN Set List "My Latest Sin" "Different Pulses" "Reckoning Song" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Editor: Olivia Merrion; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Olivia Merrion; photo by Jim Tuttle/NPR- published: 04 Mar 2014
- views: 3527
14:32
Johnnyswim: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Once you're able to see this three-song set by the band Johnnyswim, NPR Music will have pu...
published: 28 Apr 2014
Johnnyswim: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Johnnyswim: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Once you're able to see this three-song set by the band Johnnyswim, NPR Music will have published exactly 350 Tiny Desk Concerts — so we've developed a pretty good sense of when a set will stick in our memories for a while. We intuited, for example, that Adele was about to become a dominant force shortly after she breezed into our offices. (Okay, that didn't exactly require psychic powers, but still.) In the case of Johnnyswim, the prevailing sense boiled down to, "Boy, we haven't heard the last of them." Impossibly telegenic and charming, husband and wife Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano — who formed their band in Nashville before relocating to L.A. — have the booming voices of great street buskers, but also the polished sparkle of natural-born stage performers. Sudano is the daughter of the late Donna Summer, with whom she used to sing backup, but Johnnyswim's story isn't one of nepotism or overnight success; the two have been at this together for nearly a decade, and they've got the grandiose impeccability to prove it. In this set, the lovely ballad "Falling for Me" is bookended by songs that could be airdropped onto half the shows on television; if you're hearing them here for the first time, don't be surprised if it's your first exposure of many. Johnnyswim opens this session with "Home" — a sweet rouser that could easily follow in the footsteps of other recent hits with that title — and closes it with a full-band reading of what promises to be its signature song, the title track from the new Diamonds. As Sudano notes here, the song has morphed into "an anthem to ourselves to keep ourselves encouraged." For Johnnyswim, such pep talks won't likely be necessary for long. --STEPHEN THOMPSON Set List "Home" "Falling For Me" "Diamonds" Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Faith Masi, Olivia Merrion; photo by Jim Tuttle/NPR- published: 28 Apr 2014
- views: 188