Tiny Desk Concerts

I was browsing the NPR "Tiny Desk Concerts" channel today:

http://www.youtube.com/@nprmusic

SIXTEEN FUCKING YEARS that thing has been around. Jesus. I was just browsing backwards and getting more and more depressed as I was reminded of people I haven't thought of in over a decade. Sometimes because they died. My present paranoia is Internet apocalypse - that all this stuff is just gonna vanish. Particularly since NPR is, like, funded by the US government... I mean, who the fuck knows if the US President _could_ just demand that the channel vanish? I don't even know what's already gone... there are reposts of some "classic sessions" up, which I guess is fair enough because SIXTEEN FUCKING YEARS.

Anyway. Faves? Hidden gems? Cringe? Amanda Palmer and PWR BOTTOM both appeared multiple times.

I found out about Tiny Desk when Beth Orton did one, so there's that

If it’s comforting at all, NPR isn’t controlled by the gov’t, and receives like 1% of its funding from federal sources (including the CPB).

Recent faves:

El De Barge
Doechii
Chaka Khan
Meshell Ndgeocello
Juvenile
Chappel Roan

Particularly since NPR is, like, funded by the US government

aiui this is only to a small degree these days.

the El De Barge one is perfect imo. like the best, most beautiful hit of serotonin <3

xp or what morrisp said

scarface is the goat

My present paranoia is Internet apocalypse - that all this stuff is just gonna vanish

you're not the only one, friend. let's get our money's worth in the meantime.

as for the main topic, mac miller's was the one that convinced me with regards to him. some of those performances of those songs are the definitive versions imo.

also said so on his proper thread, but for more recent ones, maxwell's was satisfying as hell.

Big Daddy Kane

Vic Chesnutt did a great one.

Juana Molina and Negativland were both great

Big Daddy Kane

― bbq, 26. maj 2025 10:16

so good

The Bill Orcutt one was a pleasant surprise.

Love the Little Simz one.

Of recent ones, Nile Rodgers and especially Doechii. Her bassist looks like a star-in-the-making too, but the whole band really pushes out the live band hiphop thing in a new way.

Recent standouts for me were Jeff Parker and Beth Gibbons, the dynamic felt right for that music.

Juvenile (with Mannie Fresh)

my recent favs

sabrina carpenter -- puts a twangy spin on her album and the format is perfect for her personality

MJ lenderman -- really teases out the americana influences in his music

kelela -- the "take me apart" -> "bankhead" -> "waitin" medley here reimagines her music in the best way possible. she repeated it for the blue note shows which are a better and fuller performance than this but this one is still great even as a stepping stone

Jazmine Sullivan's is the one I revisit the most. Also really liked the recent Ryan Leslie one.

From a few years ago The Comet is Coming did an insane set

I thought Innocence Mission's episode was stunning, bought the studio albums afterwards and couldn't get into them as much

yay area!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59eBs8iiLU0

oh hell yes <3

loved the LOX one. especially in context of their post-versuz, finally getting their due era

THE GOON WITH THE SPOON

Cardi B's is so good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYA9e0XOUGk

also, I think this is the first time I've seen a reverse camera showing the audience.

Napalm Death did one recently.

There was a bit of controversy when npr initially deleted npr host Felix Contreras intro for Los Tigres del Norte where Contreras got political and mentioned that Los Tigres speak up for immigrants and that is important especially at a time like now.

I think after deleting that intro , npr put it back

The Tigres one was amazing. Here it is, intro and all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTcqu224vHw

i wasn't that impressed by cardi b's tbh. doechii was so much better. i'll check that los tigres del norte performance.

Cho Co Pa Co Cho Co Quin Quin is fairly delightful.

the Cardi B one was horrible imo

I wouldn't call it horrible but I was underwhelmed - had seen it mentioned a few places and as always the youtube comments were hyperbolic, it was just pretty decent tbh

Absolutely loved the Ivey Queen one, which I watched without knowing any of her music.

And I agree with everyone about Juvenile.

Really liked the Cardi B one. Good band backing.

Paulinho da Viola one just to celebrate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubQN5fWAHn4

"My present paranoia is Internet apocalypse - that all this stuff is just gonna vanish."

I may have mentioned it before, but the AV Club had a bunch of live videos that it unceremoniously deleted after the site was sold off. Some of them still exist because the band uploaded their own copies, e.g. this version of "Boys Keep Swinging" by Shearwater:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LYHFDYaAy4

But for example Lake Street Dive did a version of a-Ha's "Take on Me" with interpretative trumpet that seems to have been wiped from the internet. If I google "lake street dive take on me" the top upload is this... high-def presentation... from the official account of the AV Club:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5z7cYSbsFU

Oh. So they must have re-uploaded it. I have said this before. I have said it before, and I was corrected about it before. The problem is that there's a lot going on inside my mind, so I tend to forget. But also there's surprisingly little going on inside my mind, so I repeat myself. So at least there is symmetry. That's a sick Babylon 5 reference, by the way. I still have it. But, yes, I think the lesson is that it's bad to use a proprietary video uploading service. If you want something to last forever, use YouTube, because YouTube is forever.

I occasionally think about the early-2000s Battlestar: Galactica reboot. Without wishing to spoil the ending, they managed to preserve a tiny remnant of their species - from what I remember only around 35,000 survivors reached safety, out of a population of billions - but they lost all of their culture in the process because there was no way to preserve their digital archives. Whatever they had archived on the Galactica would have broken down eventually, because it takes a planetary-scale manufacturing base to create high-density digital data storage, and they had to rebuild technological civilisation from scratch. By the time they were in a position to build hard drives and a means of transmitting the data from Galactica to the planet's surface centuries would have passed, during which something would have broken.

So, I guess the lesson is that if you develop artificially intelligent robots, ask them if they want human bodies, and treat them nice, because otherwise Tricia Helfer will kiss you and you'll explode.

please stop

I like this Aldous Harding one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6ToeaeuOQo

I like to try and pull some of the faces when I'm in Teams meetings.

Trying to avoid just list performances by "bands I like", the Mount Eerie/Julie Doiron one has always charmed me - partly because it's better than the album versions, partly because there's a loveliness to their interactions ... and I like that they could almost be (talented) work colleagues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD87vLBHGWA

With the midterms just eight days away, the White House has used its official account to post an AI-altered clip from Charlie Wilson’s NPR Tiny Desk performance of “Outstanding,” replacing the original performers with AI-generated likenesses of politicians, including Kamala… pic.twitter.com/UvgyrqZZaG

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 26, 2026

couldn't make sense of that until I saw someone explain that "Outstanding" is used in memes relating to athletes who are past their prime.

the White House video appears to be riffing on one with college football coaches: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7714407/2026/10/23/college-football-coaches-tiny-desk-video-creator/

ugh