“I learned how to play guitar watching Tiny Desk concerts,” Wednesday‘s lead singer Karly Hartzman says in the band’s performance. Specifically, she says, by way of Mitski‘s scream-filled 2015 set. “The chords to these songs are pretty easy, if you want to mirror ’em.” The Asheville, N.C., rock band is constantly on the road, supporting Rat Saw God, which made …
Tiny Desk | Butcher Brown
The “solar music” Butcher Brown brought to Tiny Desk was hot and funky from the count-in. What is solar music? It’s the term the band uses to describe the various musical inspirations that influence its sound — simply put, everything under the sun. And everyone who attended this Tiny Desk Concert was feeling it. There were stank faces aplenty. NPR …
Indigo de Souza | Tiny Desk Concert
It’s not exactly typical for artists at the Tiny Desk to share their future burial plans, but that’s exactly what Indigo de Souza does halfway through her performance. “I wrote this song about my love for nature,” the singer-songwriter says, introducing the track “Not My Body.” “I think that when I die … what I want is to be composted …
Obongjayar | Tiny Desk Concert
When I got downstairs to greet Obongjayar and his bandmates at NPR headquarters, they had already found their way over to some stationary bikes near the lobby to get the adrenaline pumping. OB and crew seemed shy but ready for this moment. During the show, I witnessed my colleagues go from wiping away tears to bouncing and clapping within a …
NIKI | Tiny Desk Concert
NPR Music’s Tiny Desk is celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. These artists represent just a sliver of the cultural diversity that exists within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. NIKI, a.k.a. Nicole Zefanya, took a circuitous route to the Tiny Desk. Born in Jakarta, she scored a major opportunity by winning a competition at 15 to …
Fred again..: Tiny Desk Concert
When Fred again.. first proposed a Tiny Desk concert, it wasn’t immediately clear how he was going to make it work — not because he lacked creativity, but because translating purely electronic music at the Desk is a daunting task for anyone. How would an artist, whose performances take the form of DJ sets in front of massive audiences, curate …
Kassa Overall | Tiny Desk Concert
Kassa Overall is no stranger to NPR. Back in 2020 he was a featured vocalist and percussionist on the Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science Tiny Desk concert and in the same year he scored the original music for the first season of NPR Music’s Louder Than A Riot podcast. (His catchy theme song has been remixed by producer Suzi …
Durand Bernarr | Tiny Desk Concert
Durand Bernarr is an experience. At the Tiny Desk, members of his band — clad in costumes evoking characters from the Disney Channel animated series The Proud Family — surrounded Bernarr, outfitted in a white and magenta sequined ensemble with a wig styled in a pompadour, channeling the electric energy of the soul and funk singer of the Proud Family, …
The Beths | Tiny Desk Concert
If you squint hard enough at the paper in front of Elizabeth Stokes, you’ll find an encouraging note she wrote to herself: Breathe. Relax. Smile. (followed by a hand-drawn smiley face, of course). We get it: The Tiny Desk is filmed in broad daylight, at eye level, in front of NPR employees and, eventually, is released to “the inside of …
Jake Blount | Tiny Desk Concert
Jake Blount has an astonishing imagination. While a concert of folk tunes could simply be a singer and perhaps a fiddle or banjo, the young proponent of traditional music brought eight bandmates and told the NPR crowd that they were here to play “Black folk music from the future.” Most of the songs are from Jake Blount’s late-2022 release, The …
beabadoobee | Tiny Desk Concert
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 …
Here’s why Joni Mitchell’s performance at the Newport Folk Festival is so incredible
Joni Mitchell’s surprise performance at the Newport Folk Festival on Sunday is already becoming the stuff of legend. The unsuspecting crowd roared as the singer-songwriter stepped onto the stage in her first public performance since suffering a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2015. And they continued to revel as the nine-time Grammy-winning singer regaled the lucky audience with many of her …
Bonobo | Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. The first shot of Bonobo‘s Tiny Desk (home) concert is a little disorienting. What looks like the …