So. Damn. Good. Armand Hammer is incredible as always. I think the reason rap stands out to me more on Tiny Desk is two fold. First, I think rap is just better in a more intimate setting as opposed to someone rapping loudly and being played over excessive speakers in large venues; it just doesn’t carry well. Second, they almost always bring a full real band, with drums, guitar, bass, etc. Some rappers do travel with bands, but it’s not the norm. There’s just no beating real instruments in an intimate space, with charismatic leads.
music
19 postsPosts tagged with music
Cure For Paranoia /// 2026 Tiny Desk Contest Winner
I discovered Cure for Paranoia last year (or the year before..?) when they were doing a new rap song every day that got very political. It was superb. Then I learned about all their Tiny Desk submission videos: superb again. And this year, they won. The lyricism, the musicianship, the skill, and the performance. It's all there.
The Fanfare Around the Band Geese Actually Was a Psyop
Essentially, the firm creates networks of social media pages (typically on TikTok) and uses them to drive the band’s music into the recommendation algorithm. Songs are dropped into the backgrounds of videos. Live clips are shared. Sometimes, burner accounts, comments, and whole ecosystems of interactions can be fabricated out of digital cloth, stoking—and in some cases, completely manufacturing—discourse around an artist
In a perfect world we wouldn't have to resort to this to get the word out about good music, but unfortunately that's the world we live in. So I really don't have a problem with this. I mean, if their music was crap, it wouldn't matter how much they pushed it on social media—people wouldn't listen to it.
Are there some people influenced by the repetitive visibility of something? Sure. But I think the proof is in the pudding when it comes to the music and the people who actually go out to shows and spend real dollars. They're not doing that for music they don't like, but were fed constantly through the algorithms. Unfortunately, the algorithms are a necessity in today's world if you want to get the word out about something.
Angine de Poitrine - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
Angine de Poitrine performing live at ESMA in Rennes, France, during Trans Musicales 2025
I am fully obsessed with these guys. Are the outfits and stuff a gimmick? Sure. But they still jam. I said it before, but they feel like a mix of Khruangbin and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and it's just a blast. It also has that GWAR performative nature to it, but it only adds to the music—it doesn't take away.
This guy recorded 10,000 concerts and now you can stream them
Adam Jacobs, an avid concertgoer and once casual, later committed, concert archivist, began recording the concerts he attended in 1984 to tape. He went on to record over 10,000 concerts
I've seen this floating around for a bit, but you should also make sure you're familiar with the Relisten app. It's on iOS and Android, and it pulls concert recordings from the Internet Archive. I imagine these 10,000 concerts will eventually make their way there, which will be a huge boon on top of the already incredible number of concert tapes on the app.
🎵 Albini Sessions (Benefit for Letters Charity), by Fugazi
Letters Charity is a nonprofit organization on a mission to use Art as a conduit to transform passive compassion into immediate assistance through the distribution of money given, without expectation or judgment, directly to families experiencing poverty.
Holy moly! A second charity album and this one from Fugazi featuring recordings they did in Chicago at Electrical Audio Studio with Steve Albini back in ’92.
