https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/186543879/stream?client_id=3cQaPshpEeLqMsNFAUw1Q?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio

Located just a short distance from my San Francisco Bay is a Sacramento band named The Good Fortune, who have me swooning aplenty to the muggy, hazy alt pop on their song Overdose. The Good Fortune’s sleek vocals carry some LANY slink alongside the song’s Sir Sly smokiness and Magic Man synth resplendence. It’s a deeply infectious gem for which the band recently recorded a live video for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert. Stream the performance below. Overdose comes from The Good Fortune’s Social Crowns EP, available on iTunes.

OK Go helps NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert move… in 223 takes!

Genius! Who else but OK Go can “help” NPR move their headquarters from the comfy cozy digs of before to their new facility north of the US Capitol? I’ll miss the backdrop I’m so used to seeing for all the immense Tiny Desk Concert shows I’ve watched online, but what a smooth transition. Sorta. Kinda. I mean, it only took 223 takes, right? OK Go performed their song All Is Not Lost for the occasion. Hundreds of times. The elevator moment is solid gold, scripted or not! I look forward to new Tiny Desk Concert series from the new location. Thank you, NPR music. You’ve entertained me for years with some of the best sets ever and some of my favorite artists. Oftentimes, it was vindicating when an artist or band I’ve been raving and pushing ends up doing a Tiny Desk Concert series. The NPR guys approve! Win! I’m still jealous of the folks who work in that damn office. They get to watch these shows live. Pfffft.

OK Go helps NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert move… in 223 takes!

Genius! Who else but OK Go can “help” NPR move their headquarters from the comfy cozy digs of before to their new facility north of the US Capitol? I’ll miss the backdrop I’m so used to seeing for all the immense Tiny Desk Concert shows I’ve watched online, but what a smooth transition. Sorta. Kinda. I mean, it only took 223 takes, right? OK Go performed their song All Is Not Lost for the occasion. Hundreds of times. The elevator moment is solid gold, scripted or not! I look forward to new Tiny Desk Concert series from the new location. Thank you, NPR music. You’ve entertained me for years with some of the best sets ever and some of my favorite artists. Oftentimes, it was vindicating when an artist or band I’ve been raving and pushing ends up doing a Tiny Desk Concert series. The NPR guys approve! Win! I’m still jealous of the folks who work in that damn office. They get to watch these shows live. Pfffft.

The xx on NPR Music

And here’s something that’s also a MUST share (understatement). The xx. NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert. I think I can leave it at that, can’t I? I’ll just paste over NPR’s description of the dang thing. Skip it if you’d like. Doesn’t matter what words come out of anyone’s mouth. The xx has and always will be amazing. ❤ Only thing I’d have to complain about here is that the set is FAR too short for a TIny Desk Concert. ONLY TWO SONGS? NOoooooooOO!

It’s easy to think of The xx as a fashionable band: Its members have a sleek all-in-black look, its typography and cover art is coolly and distinctively styled, and the group itself has been showered with validation, including Britain’s 2010 Mercury Prize. But beneath all that tightly controlled image-making lays music that’s raw and vulnerable; shy, worried tentativeness is wired into a sound that shimmers powerfully, but remains as fragile and delicate as a soap bubble.

The xx’s second album, Coexist, came out last fall, and it plays like a series of tensely lovely interludes, each building to a climax that never arrives. Plopped in front of Bob Boilen’s desk and asked to play a few songs from the record, singer-guitarist Romy Madley Croft and singer-bassist Oliver Sim have reason to look slightly ill-at-ease: The setting and band configuration robs them of cover. No beats from member Jamie Smith, who opted to hang back at the hotel; no shroud of darkness or bright lights pointed outward to blunt the crowd’s stares. Throughout their characteristically compact seven-minute performance, Croft and Sim avoid eye contact, as they visibly try to ignore the huge throng and cameras positioned maybe 10 feet away from them.

What comes out of their performance is not just beauty, but humanity — the sense that, in all of The xx’s songs, all the calm chilliness in the world can’t quite contain an exposed heart.

Set List
• “Angels”
• “Sunset”

The xx on NPR Music

And here’s something that’s also a MUST share (understatement). The xx. NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert. I think I can leave it at that, can’t I? I’ll just paste over NPR’s description of the dang thing. Skip it if you’d like. Doesn’t matter what words come out of anyone’s mouth. The xx has and always will be amazing. ❤ Only thing I’d have to complain about here is that the set is FAR too short for a TIny Desk Concert. ONLY TWO SONGS? NOoooooooOO!

It’s easy to think of The xx as a fashionable band: Its members have a sleek all-in-black look, its typography and cover art is coolly and distinctively styled, and the group itself has been showered with validation, including Britain’s 2010 Mercury Prize. But beneath all that tightly controlled image-making lays music that’s raw and vulnerable; shy, worried tentativeness is wired into a sound that shimmers powerfully, but remains as fragile and delicate as a soap bubble.

The xx’s second album, Coexist, came out last fall, and it plays like a series of tensely lovely interludes, each building to a climax that never arrives. Plopped in front of Bob Boilen’s desk and asked to play a few songs from the record, singer-guitarist Romy Madley Croft and singer-bassist Oliver Sim have reason to look slightly ill-at-ease: The setting and band configuration robs them of cover. No beats from member Jamie Smith, who opted to hang back at the hotel; no shroud of darkness or bright lights pointed outward to blunt the crowd’s stares. Throughout their characteristically compact seven-minute performance, Croft and Sim avoid eye contact, as they visibly try to ignore the huge throng and cameras positioned maybe 10 feet away from them.

What comes out of their performance is not just beauty, but humanity — the sense that, in all of The xx’s songs, all the calm chilliness in the world can’t quite contain an exposed heart.

Set List
• “Angels”
• “Sunset”

Miguel on Tiny Desk Concert

This is nice. Very nice. Los Angeles R&B/neo soul artist Miguel graced the NPR offices with this absolutely charming, swoon inducing 3 track acoustic set. Description by NPR:

Miguel turned up in the NPR Music offices early one morning, after playing a show late the night before. He appeared light and calm, and betrayed no hint that he was nervous about stripping his highly produced hits down to their bones. Accompanied by just his guitarist, Dru DeCaro, Miguel eschewed flash and went big on small gestures — ingratiating ad libs, only one full spin and voice control that kept the songs close to his chest but emotive enough to translate to the back of the room. He told us he wrote his Grammy-nominated song “Adorn” with no idea that it would take him to our tiny stage. But he was made for it. His style was compact and graceful, his manner self-aware and open.

After releasing two albums, the 27-year-old performed as if he’d spent years of his life pressing rewind and pause on the great entertainers of our time — James Brown, Prince, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Michael Jackson. After he ended his set, I wanted to ask who’d taught him the most, but the crush of admirers loomed and I got out of the way of the cellphone cameras. He’s a genuine, modern-day star. –FRANNIE KELLEY

Set List

0:00 “Do You…”
4:28 “The Thrill”
9:17 “Adorn”

Miguel on Tiny Desk Concert

This is nice. Very nice. Los Angeles R&B/neo soul artist Miguel graced the NPR offices with this absolutely charming, swoon inducing 3 track acoustic set. Description by NPR:

Miguel turned up in the NPR Music offices early one morning, after playing a show late the night before. He appeared light and calm, and betrayed no hint that he was nervous about stripping his highly produced hits down to their bones. Accompanied by just his guitarist, Dru DeCaro, Miguel eschewed flash and went big on small gestures — ingratiating ad libs, only one full spin and voice control that kept the songs close to his chest but emotive enough to translate to the back of the room. He told us he wrote his Grammy-nominated song “Adorn” with no idea that it would take him to our tiny stage. But he was made for it. His style was compact and graceful, his manner self-aware and open.

After releasing two albums, the 27-year-old performed as if he’d spent years of his life pressing rewind and pause on the great entertainers of our time — James Brown, Prince, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Michael Jackson. After he ended his set, I wanted to ask who’d taught him the most, but the crush of admirers loomed and I got out of the way of the cellphone cameras. He’s a genuine, modern-day star. –FRANNIE KELLEY

Set List

0:00 “Do You…”
4:28 “The Thrill”
9:17 “Adorn”

Alt-J on NPR Tiny Desk Concert

I saw this last night and knew it would be something amazing. Didn’t get around to clicking into it till today. But it’s Alt-J. So it’s pretty much a given to be amazing. NPR’s video description and tracklist of the performance: 

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 to the drums. Mere glimpses of lyrics are discernible, even after listening over and over — and if you can decipher the words, the meanings don’t necessarily follow immediately. Still, those words reside at the core of Alt-J, and they’re cinematic and stunning and sometimes brutal.

Seeing Alt-J live in concert — or here at the Tiny Desk — reveals a few of those mysteries, making a band that can be difficult on first listen a bit easier to digest. For one, seeing Joe Newman sing makes his words less oblique; for another, that curious rhythm at the foundation of the songs reveals not a hint of cymbals. And, though the drums are stripped down more than ever at the Tiny Desk, they still provide the essence of an original sound. Thom Green plays mostly with a mounted tambourine and cowbell for the sorts of things a hi-hat would accomplish — that tick tick sound, with the snap of the sound coming from a small-bodied 10" snare called a popcorn snare. The sparseness that happens in the absence of crashing cymbals leaves a lot of space in the music.

Alt-J is from Leeds, England — home to another of my favorite art-rock bands, Gang of Four. Both play angular, poetic music that takes unexpected turns, shifting gears when you least expect it. Alt-J made my favorite album of 2012, An Awesome Wave, and if you’re new to the group, the understated sound may get lost on you at first. But listen to the words and study how the songs evolve: No one else is making music like this. This is an original, innovative band with a brilliant present and a brighter future. –BOB BOILEN

Set List “Tessellate” “Something Good” “Matilda”

Alt-J on NPR Tiny Desk Concert

I saw this last night and knew it would be something amazing. Didn’t get around to clicking into it till today. But it’s Alt-J. So it’s pretty much a given to be amazing. NPR’s video description and tracklist of the performance: 

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 to the drums. Mere glimpses of lyrics are discernible, even after listening over and over — and if you can decipher the words, the meanings don’t necessarily follow immediately. Still, those words reside at the core of Alt-J, and they’re cinematic and stunning and sometimes brutal.

Seeing Alt-J live in concert — or here at the Tiny Desk — reveals a few of those mysteries, making a band that can be difficult on first listen a bit easier to digest. For one, seeing Joe Newman sing makes his words less oblique; for another, that curious rhythm at the foundation of the songs reveals not a hint of cymbals. And, though the drums are stripped down more than ever at the Tiny Desk, they still provide the essence of an original sound. Thom Green plays mostly with a mounted tambourine and cowbell for the sorts of things a hi-hat would accomplish — that tick tick sound, with the snap of the sound coming from a small-bodied 10" snare called a popcorn snare. The sparseness that happens in the absence of crashing cymbals leaves a lot of space in the music.

Alt-J is from Leeds, England — home to another of my favorite art-rock bands, Gang of Four. Both play angular, poetic music that takes unexpected turns, shifting gears when you least expect it. Alt-J made my favorite album of 2012, An Awesome Wave, and if you’re new to the group, the understated sound may get lost on you at first. But listen to the words and study how the songs evolve: No one else is making music like this. This is an original, innovative band with a brilliant present and a brighter future. –BOB BOILEN

Set List “Tessellate” “Something Good” “Matilda”

Holy Roller

Sweeeeet. Thao & the Get Down Stay Down previewed a brand new song today after a long silence. I’m pretty fond of the San Francisco based indie folk rock band. I first saw Thao Nguyen some years ago during the Hotel Cafe tour when she peformed solo. She has a very unique folksy style and an amazing voice. Turns out Thao & the Get Down Stay Down have a new album in the works for February next year. Holy Roller is the first tasty morsel off that disc to fall in our laps. She’s absolutely riveting live and I really look forward to seeing her again sometime soon.

I know I shared this before, possibly multiple times, but here’s Thao’s session with NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. It feels so good to listen to her again. I’ve missed her upbeat yet tragic and bitter tunes.