I had this idea that I was going to do things I’ve learned writing the Weekly Appetizer for the 99th post. Concurrently, I had the joy of introducing Tiny Desk to my grandma this week. In short, I abandoned my original idea and am now writing the “Grandma’s Guide to Tiny Desk”. I will be giving it to mine as an additional birthday gift, but it is of course a great to send to your own people or to use yourself, if you’re new to it.
Serendipitous moment 1: During her initial introduction, I put her on to Andersen Paak and then side barred to the album he made with Bruno Mars (Silk Sonic), who she is a fan of. My grandpa, her husband, would have liked this guide too. He liked music and was the first person I ever recall bringing Bruno Mars to my attention.
Serendipitous moment 2: I’m writing this intro while watching a Kurt Vonnegut documentary on Kanopy (free with library). The director (Robert B. Weide) is better known as the director of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Much of this documentary is after Kurt’s death and about their friendship.
Timing this is sad for Robert since one of the actors for a prominent recurring role just died as well, Richard Lewis. Curb, good show. You should watch it if you haven’t. Prepare yourself for some good cringes.
Back to the guide…
I’m not plugged into “what people are saying” but you can see which Tiny Desks are most successful. This isn’t a great metric for how good the concert itself is because the size of fanbases vary pretty highly. So consider this my guide for what I think my grandma will like, which is pretty accessible. Maybe there is a bit of what I want her to like too, but that’s fine too. I also haven’t watched nearly close to any significant portion of the concerts, so I did some searching around. Here it goes, a very incomplete guide yet good place to start. And some international groups too :)
At-home Concerts
One of the most at-home versions during covid not in the office. I like to imagine actually have dinner like this.
Opens with Chaise Longue which is fun as hell.
Jacob Collier’s music is pretty weird so it’s not necessarily always a fun listening experience, but the way he filmed and recorded it so it seems he’s playing with clones of his is awesome.
Most Views
This one is actually pretty good for a pop star. Nice style transition.
I’m not a fan but I know people love him and this Tiny Desk.
Alternatively, I don’t listen to him much day to day, but I love his Tiny Desk. Also, this was the video I started with during the real in-person intro.
Honorable Mention to Natalia Lafourcade since she has 30M views and is almost in the Top 10 (#12) and she’s competing with some major international superstars like Adele, Sting, BTS, Justin Bieber. So it’s really impressive! More views than Usher, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles — all and I’ve never really heard of her or heard anyone mention her.
Some more fun ones.
Only issue is the guitarist can’t play Nayhoo as well as Chon can.
Just fun all around.
OLDIE!
Probably best decorated and also one of the most technically proficient and impressive performances. Not all that impressed by their singing though.
One of the big groups from that hipster/folk music explosions over a decade ago that I mentioned last week.
Other
Audiotree is another live session recording page that I like. I’m going to see the band Elephant Gym next week, so here’s a video so you can like them too!
Standards is opening for them.
This past week I saw these bands, not on Audiotree though. This one is from KEXP, shout out Seattle.
Thought the Water From Your Eyes video is Audiotree. They have some heavier stuff than Tiny Desk which leans well into my style.
Don’t know how I feel about this group, the concert was fun but the singer is kinda low energy and uses a voice changer too often maybe.
Lastly here’s an unplugged Morat set that I like a lot. There are a million more but this is all you’re getting for now. Maybe another time but with more acoustic sets by hardcore and metal bands. I love that style, but it’s not very good for grandparents.
Let me end with one more Tiny Desk (technically a contest entry) but it’s one of the greats.