Mumford and Sons were booked for the NPR Tiny Desk thirteen years ago, during the ‘Babel’ tour, and had to cancel at the last minute. The building they were supposed to play in has since been demolished. The band finally made it, and the wait was justified. Four songs, a string quartet, Matt Menefee on banjo, and Marcus Mumford’s voice in a room that size, backed by Ben Lovett’s harmonies on piano and Ted Dwane on bass, adds up to something that scales the band’s sound down without diminishing it. The set draws from their sixth album ‘Prizefighter’ and reaches back to 2009 debut ‘Sigh No More’ for “White Blank Page.” They closed with “Badlands,” a ‘Prizefighter’ cut they’d never played live for anyone before, followed by first single “Rubber Band Man.” Thirteen years is a long time. This made the case that some things are worth scheduling twice.
Mumford & Sons Finally Play the NPR Tiny Desk 13 Years After Their First Attempt
A Rejuvenated Kronos Quartet Returns to the NPR Tiny Desk With Urgency and Wit
Kronos Quartet returned to the NPR Tiny Desk twelve years after their first visit, and three of the four members are new faces. Violinists Gabriela Diaz, violist Ayane Kozasa and cellist Paul Wiancko have joined founder and violinist David Harrington, and the result is a quartet that sounds energized and loose, more fun than ever according to the people in that room. The four-song set moves between whimsy and weight with the kind of range that has defined Kronos across more than 50 years and 1,200 commissions. Paul Wiancko’s new arrangement of Neil Young’s “Ohio” hits with jolts of defiance that land as hard today as the song ever has. Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” which Harrington calls “the centerpiece of American music,” unfolds through a melodramatic introduction before settling into languid despondency. Canadian composer Nicole Lizée’s “Another Living Soul” brings whirly tubes, groan tubes, bells and vocalizing into the mix, while Indonesian composer Peni Candra Rini’s “Hujan” closes the set with a relaxed groove carrying a lament for climate change underneath.
Tiana Major9 Returns to the NPR Tiny Desk In Person With a Grammy-Nominated Song and a Special Guest
Six years after their Tiny Desk home concert, Tiana Major9 returned to NPR’s office in person for a six-song set drawn from ‘November Scorpio,’ and brought the full emotional arc of the record with them. The set moves through the push and pull of love pursued and doubted, from the cautious admission of “desire.” to the yearning and regret of “alone” and “Always,” with Grammy-nominated “Collide,” originally written with EARTHGANG for the ‘Queen & Slim’ soundtrack, sitting at the center as the song Tiana Major9 describes as having changed their life. To close, trumpeter Keyon Harrold, whose own Tiny Desk featured Tiana Major9 as a guest, returned the favor by joining the band for “energy!” It’s a full-circle moment that the performance earns completely.
Caamp Finally Play the NPR Tiny Desk Ten Years After Their Contest Submission
Ten years ago, Taylor Meier and Evan Westfall recorded a Tiny Desk Contest entry in front of a fireplace with a banjo, a guitar and a couple glasses of wine, absolutely certain they’d win. They didn’t. That submission eventually resurfaced on TikTok and went viral, and now, a decade later, Caamp has finally taken the desk for real. The four-song set moves through old and new material before landing on “All the Debts I Owe” as the closer, the same song from that 2016 recording, played now by a five-piece band with a decade of touring behind them. “It’s a nice song for me to sing from the heart,” Meier says. “I wrote it at such a young age, not knowing much, still don’t know much, but it still feels right.”
Geese Strip It Back to Essentials in a Quietly Stunning NPR Tiny Desk Concert
Geese showed up to the NPR Tiny Desk in December with a bag of trinkets, a toy goose, a stuffed Snoopy, a Sonic-cradling-Jesus figurine and a Mets hat, and then proceeded to play one of the most focused and quietly affecting sets the series has seen. Three songs from 2025’s ‘Getting Killed,’ performed with eyes mostly closed and a charmingly melancholy ease, frontperson Cameron Winter seated and strumming while Emily Green held the band’s jagged pulse. When “Half Real” swelled, the room felt it. This is Geese at their most unguarded, a decade of collaboration distilled into twelve minutes at a desk.
Gospel Legend Pastor John P. Kee Transforms the NPR Tiny Desk Into a Full Revival
Pastor John P. Kee brought his full ministry to the NPR Tiny Desk, performing with a four-piece band and a seven-person choir in a nine-song set that moved through nearly four decades of gospel output with authority and joy. From the reverent stillness of “I Believe” and “Lily in the Valley” to the full-throttle praise of “Oh How Wondrous” and “Mighty God,” the performance delivers every essential of Black gospel tradition, call and response, modulation, choir section solos and unguarded full-throated singing, in one of the most spiritually charged Tiny Desk concerts the series has produced.
Ani DiFranco and Dessa Reimagine “Shy” for the 30th Anniversary of ‘Not a Pretty Girl’
Today, Ani DiFranco and Dessa release a cinematic new remix of the iconic single “Shy” for the 30th anniversary of DiFranco’s album Not a Pretty Girl. Listen to “Shy (Dessa Remix)” HERE.
“I knew I had to wait until the remix was a sure thing to tell my best friend about it,” Dessa remembers, “because an Ani DiFranco song isn’t a subject for casual speculation. When I finally texted the news, she sent back a selfie, in tears at a gas station. Opening the raw audio files of a song that I’d listened to so often in my formative years felt like opening a time-capsule, or maybe a time warp—the feelings I’d had as a young listener still welled up in my chest, but the musician I’ve become could identify the techniques, the structures, and the craft that was invisible to me then. It was a pleasure, an honor, and a hell of a learning experience to remix the work of an artist who’s been easy to admire for so long.”
“My path crossed once with Dessa a few years back, when we shared a stage one night,” DiFranco adds, “and I’m so happy that I got a wild hair to hit her up outta the blue. Her remix of shy is so inspired and makes that thirty year old song feel fresh and spanky new again! I only wish that she’d been there thirty years earlier, in that metalhead studio in Ontario, when I was mixing the dang thing to begin with! Of course… she was probably ten at the time.”
Ani DiFranco’s 1995 masterwork Not a Pretty Girl was more than just an album – it was a mission statement that defined the DIY ethos for independent artists everywhere. Originally released on Righteous Babe Records, it serves as a fiery declaration that artists can maintain creative autonomy while achieving massive cultural impact.
The blueprint for artist independence that RBR established with this album became a standard for success, trailblazing for contemporary independent musicians and entrepreneurs across genres. Ani’s decision to own her work and reject the corporate system – a choice explicitly referenced on the track “The Million You Never Made” – is a resounding victory for artist control that continues to inspire creators. Beyond the business model, the album’s core feminist message – foregrounding female anger, complexity, and refusing to be defined by the male gaze – laid crucial groundwork for the dialogues surrounding body positivity and unapologetic identity that pervade contemporary conversations about gender equality. This fierce spirit of independence is the lasting revolutionary legacy of Not a Pretty Girl.
Now for the 30th anniversary, Not a Pretty Girl is back in print on vinyl and cd, reverently repackaged for both formats by Grammy Award winning art director Brian Grunert, showcasing photography of Mark Dellas, and brushstroke flourishes contributed by Ani. Each copy of the vinyl includes a special limited edition art photo print of Ani, a limited number of which will be signed by the Little Folksinger herself. Learn more about the Not a Pretty Girl reissue HERE.
Double Vinyl 30th Anniversary Edition
- New 2025 vinyl remastering
- Heavy stock vertically oriented gatefold w/ soft touch matte finish
- 12-page booklet
- 12″ art photo print of Ani shot by Mark Dellas
- 2 standard weight purple translucent vinyl
CD 30th Anniversary Edition
- New 2025 CD remastering
- 4-panel wallet with 24-page booklet
Boston Indie-Folk Duo Sweet Petunia Unleash Debut Album ‘Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown’
Sweet Petunia have released ‘Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown,’ their debut album on Righteous Babe Records, and it arrives with the kind of energy that makes an immediate impression. The Boston indie-folk duo, Mairead Guy and Maddy Simpson, open the record with “I Wanna Run,” a lightning-fast banjo-driven track that Simpson wrote after dislocating her knee moshing to a punk band in an Allston basement. “It’s frantic and fast, and I’m spitting out words faster than you can comprehend,” she says. “Every time we play this song it’s cathartic knowing that with time and hard work, I’ve been able to regain the ability to do most of these things again.” No Depression called the album “raw, real, memorable and unsettling.” Boston’s NPR station WBUR named them one of the city’s “most arresting acoustic outfits.”
Guy and Simpson met at Berklee College of Music in 2018, shaped equally by punk basements in Allston and centuries-old Appalachian ballads. The album tips its hat to Flatt & Scruggs while running that lineage through a restless, modern filter, double-banjo fire and cutting harmonies built for rooms that don’t have stages. This spring, Sweet Petunia take these songs on the road as openers for Ani DiFranco’s Spirit of Love tour.
Sweet Petunia on Tour with Ani DiFranco:
April 22 – Jackson, MS @ Duling Hall
April 25 – Pensacola, FL @ Vinyl Music Hall
April 26 – Gainesville, FL @ Heartwood Soundstage
April 28 – Savannah, GA @ Victory North
April 29 – Birmingham, AL @ Lyric Theatre
Indie-Pop Duo Gracie and Rachel Announce New Album ‘If We Could, Would We’ With Double Single
Gracie and Rachel have announced ‘If We Could, Would We,’ their new album arriving April 10 on Righteous Babe Records, alongside a double single, “How Can I” and “Caroline,” premiering today. The two tracks are the duo’s first solo efforts released together, each approaching the album’s central preoccupation from a different angle. “How Can I” sits in the regret of a risk taken and wished back, while “Caroline” works through the grief of a relationship’s end by projecting onto an idealized external figure. Both land with the melodic sharpness and emotional directness that earned the duo two NPR Tiny Desk Concert sets and Rolling Stone’s “Song You Need to Know” designation for their 2025 single “WTF.”
Produced by Benjamin Lazar Davis (Okkervil River, Maya Hawke), ‘If We Could, Would We’ pushes Gracie and Rachel’s sound further than anything they’ve done before. Rachel plays guitar on record for the first time, the songwriting splits between four solo tracks each and four co-written songs, and the result is the duo at their most unguarded. Since their praised 2017 self-titled debut, Gracie and Rachel have opened for Tori Amos, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. A headline U.S. run follows in June.
Gracie and Rachel Headline Tour:
June 4 – Philadelphia, PA @ Milkboy
June 5 – Washington, D.C. @ Songbyrd Music House
June 6 – Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
June 10 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
June 11 – Somerville, MA @ The Rockwell
June 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust
Musician and Animator Sean Solomon Announces Debut Album ‘The World Is Not Good Enough’ on ANTI-
Musician and animator Sean Solomon had great expectations. But when his hopes for an abundant world crashed against an unforgiving reality, he decided to feel nothing. For a time, the Los Angeles-born-and-raised singer/songwriter and cartoonist/animator gave into the void, but artistic expression can be a release valve – a way to comprehend the world and build community, which is exactly what Solomon does on his debut solo album ‘The World Is Not Good Enough’, arriving April 17 via his new label home of ANTI- Records.
Solomon takes stock of his personal history on “Remember,” out today, which comes with a video comprising clips taken from Sean’s family’s home movies. “My parents asked me to digitize our old family videos, and I ended up cutting them up into a music video and the visuals I perform live with,” Sean explains. “I’ve noticed at shows people really connect with this song and it reminds them of their own families. I think it’s hard for most people to have empathy for their parents because they are supposed to serve this purpose in our lives where they take care of us and know what’s right or wrong … But everyone has both sides to them. This song is about trying to remember the good.”
The album art features Sean’s winking take on a Richard Scarry book cover and mirrors the cognitive dissonance that pervades the album, which seamlessly moves from bare-bones acoustic guitar to a Neutral Milk Hotel-esque cacophony of marching drums and horn blasts. “I was thinking about those books and how they show an idyllic version of the world,” Sean says. “I thought it was kind of funny — the contrast between the title and the images. Like, there’s a dog walking a dog on the back cover, an elephant drinking out of a coffee cup with its snout. It was fun to study these children’s books and think about what my version would be.”
Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Solomon felt especially drawn to both music and animation and immersed himself in episodes of The Simpsons and illustrated stories by graphic novelist and Ghost World author Daniel Clowes. Meanwhile, Sean was an avid fan of seminal ‘90s and early 2000s punk and alternative acts such as Daniel Johnston, Elliott Smith and Nirvana, the latter of whom he admired for the way they preserved their artistic integrity in the face of global stardom. Adopting his own punk sensibility, Sean and his high school band, the folk-punk Moses Campbell, played all over LA, booking their own shows at coffee shops, houses, and famed DIY venue The Smell. This was followed by playing in the three-piece band Moaning who released two albums on Sub Pop.
After Moaning went on indefinite hiatus in 2023, Solomon thoughtfully wrote and recorded his first solo songs over the better part of two years, culminating in what would become ‘The World Is Not Good Enough’. The contemplative eight tracks feature fellow Sub Pop veteran and Sean’s former roommate Shannon Lay on backing vocals and guitar and producer Jarvis Taveniere (Whitney, Purple Mountains, Waxahatchee), who produced and stood in on bass and some percussion.
“Working with Sean felt brotherly,” says Taveniere. “We’re similar people; we can both lean into being neurotic or anxious, so it was fun to balance each other out … He was somebody who had a tight vision but let me be playful while also staying sensitive to the material.”
In addition to animating each video he releases, Solomon has also been cooking up comics with his lyrics in word balloons for each new song. He even drew his stage plot and tech rider by hand: “All the stuff that’s annoying about being a musician, I’m like, ‘How can I do this in a creative way so that it doesn’t feel like work, and it feels like something that’s inspired?’” So that he can integrate his animated visuals into his live shows, Solomon has lugged a vintage TV set armed with a VHS input to each venue, the animations and backing tracks running on tape being the only bandmates he shares the stage with.