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NPR Music: Tiny Desk Concerts
Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR's All Songs Considered features your favorite musicians performing at Bob Boilen's desk in the NPR Music office. This is the AUDIO only archive.Are you a fancy A/V nerd and need video? Visit our new Tiny Desk Concert video channel. Eye-popping video and all of the music you've come to expect.

Kishi Bashi: Tiny Desk Concert

By Bob Boilen
Published May 10, 2012 at 9:25 AM MDT
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My favorite Tiny Desk Concert moments come when the NPR staff gathers around the desk for an artist they've never heard and walk away wanting more. I wasn't surprised to see that happen with Kishi Bashi — he is, after all, the one musician out of the 1,300 songs or so we previewed for All Songs Considered that we all agreed was a must-see at SXSW. He didn't disappoint.

Kishi Bashi is not only a musician in the band Of Montreal, but also a master of building songs from the ground up — from live violin loops to layered singing to beatboxing. His songs are complicated pocket symphonies steeped in classical playing and 21st-century pop.

K Ishibashi (his given name) was born in Seattle, grew up on the East Coast and these days is settled in Norfolk, Va. His superb new album, 151a, is a favorite here in the NPR offices and among anyone who'll listen. It may be steeped in pop songs, but it isn't simple music: Sometimes the songs are in English and sometimes Japanese, sometimes they're tightly composed, sometimes they're wild improvisations. But they're always interesting and full of promise — much like Kishi Bashi's record, his live performances and this Tiny Desk Concert, from which you're sure to walk away wanting more.

Set List:

  • "Improvisation / Atticus, In The Desert"

  • "Bright Whites"

  • "I Am The Antichrist To You"

    • Credits:

    Producer and Editor: Bob Boilen; Videographer: Michael Katzif; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; photo by Emily Bogle/NPR

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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    Bob Boilen
    In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.
    See stories by Bob Boilen
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