NPR

NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert with The Mekons

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The world is doomed, but at least we’ve got the Mekons. The British punk band rumbles through its down-but-not-defeated songs with rowdy defiance.

 

By Lars Gotrich

The world is doomed, but at least we’ve got the Mekons. For nearly 50 years, the British punk band has always done things its own way — out of stubbornness, survival or maybe a little bit of both. That snaggled-toothed sneer and smile, with some bittersweet sentimentality swirled in, can soundtrack any moment, but especially when everything feels fraught.

At the opening of this Tiny Desk concert, we’re taken back 40 years to one of the band’s many crossroads. Mekons’ 1985 album, Fear and Whiskey, recognized that traditional country music was just as rowdy, randy and wayward as punk, and inadvertently pioneered the alt-country phenomenon. The joyous and desperate “Last Dance” is a song about falling in love during wartime — at the Tiny Desk, its past themes reverberate into the present. The middle of the set features two songs from this year’s Horror: “War Economy,” a post-punk-y throwback to the days when the Mekons would borrow Gang of Four‘s instruments to write and rehearse, and then “Sanctuary,” which, as my colleague Ann Powers wrote, is “a children’s rhyme that reveals itself as an elegy.” Susie Honeyman, whose violin steadies the storm of Mekons, takes a rare vocal lead, her sing-songy voice like a wisp in a billowing wind.

Another classic from Fear and Whiskey bookends the Mekons’ Tiny Desk. “Hard to Be Human Again” is a down-but-not-defeated barn burner that nonetheless needs to be sung loudly and in the company of fellow comrades who have also been “punched and beaten” by life or otherwise. And as long as Sally Timms, Jon Langford, Tom Greenhalgh, Rico Bell, Susie Honeyman, Dave Trumfio and Steve Goulding are around, I’ll be there “searching for existence with my red, red wine.”

SET LIST

  • “Last Dance”
  • “War Economy”
  • “Sanctuary”
  • “Hard to Be Human Again”

MUSICIANS

  • Sally Timms: vocals
  • Susie Honeyman: violin, vocals
  • Jon Langford: guitar, vocals
  • Tom Greenhalgh: guitar, vocals
  • Rico Bell: accordion, keys, harmonica, vocals
  • Dave Trumfio: bass, background vocals
  • Steve Goulding: drums

TINY DESK TEAM

  • Producer: Lars Gotrich
  • Director/Editor: Maia Stern
  • Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
  • Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
  • Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Sofia Seidel
  • Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai
  • Production Assistant: Dhanika Pineda
  • Photographer: Alanté Serene
  • Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
  • Tiny Desk Team: Kara Frame, Ashley Pointer
  • Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
  • Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

Source: Mekons: Tiny Desk Concert : NPR

Former Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter talks about dismissal

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Deborah Rutter served as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for a decade. This month, she was fired. President Trump had replaced many board members with his own supporters. Then, on Wednesday, the new board elected Trump as the center’s new chair.⁠ Rutter spoke to NPR in her first interview since her dismissal.

Host: Mary Louise Kelly/NPR⁠
Producers: Ashley Brown/NPR, Elena Burnett/NPR, Mallory Yu/NPR, @nickolaihammar • Nickolai Hammar/NPR • Courtney Theophin • John Poole

Anna Meredith: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

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March 2, 2018 | Bob Boilen

Out of nearly 700 performances at the Tiny Desk, this is simply the most exhilarating one I’ve experienced. The instrumentation is unusual, with pulsing bass sounds produced by a wonderful combination of cello, tuba and electronics. It’s all rhythmically propelled by an astonishing drummer and Anna Meredith pounding a pair of floor toms. And much of the repetitive melody is keyboard-and-guitar-driven that morphs and erupt with earth-shaking fervor.

I first saw this British composer a year ago, in a stunning performance at the SXSW musical festival. It was one of the best concerts of my life. The music I heard sent me into a state of reverie. If music could levitate my body, this is how it would sound. It carried me away and thrilled my soul. I was giddy for days.

Now, I know this isn’t music for everyone. Lovers of classical music might shun it for its use of sequencers and electronics. The electronic world may wonder how the hell you could ever dance to this. Or for lovers of rock and hip-hop, its repetition and throbbing beats and bass might send you running and screaming into the distance. But if you know and love the music of Philip Glass, King Crimson or Steve Reich — music that’s electrifying, challenging and sonically soars and ripples through your body — then crank this up.

Anna Meredith was a former BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Composer in Residence. The songs performed here come from her 2016 release called Varmints, which is where two of the three songs performed here can be found. It’s been a long while since a contemporary composer has captured my musical imagination. I hope and trust this will open many to a new way of thinking about what music is and what it can do.

SET LIST
“Nautilus”
“Ribbons”
“The Vapours”

MUSICIANS Anna Meredith , Jack Ross, Tom Kelly, Sam Wilson, Maddie Cutter


CREDITS Producers: Bob Boilen, Morgan Noelle Smith; Creative Director: Bob Boilen; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Morgan Noelle Smith, Maia Stern, Beck Harlan, Dani Lyman; Production Assistant: Joshua Bote; Photo: Eslah Attar/NPR.

On Point: Social media is killing democracy

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Social media platforms have immense power, from shutting down voices to amplifying what we see. But is that singular power perilous to democracy?

LISTEN

Guests

Shoshana Zuboff, professor emerita at Harvard Business School. Author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.” (@shoshanazuboff)

Guillaume Chaslot, founder of AlgoTransparency. Mozilla fellow. Advisor at the Center for Humane Technology. He helped develop YouTube’s recommendation algorithm from 2010 to 2011. (@gchaslot)

Ramesh Srinivasan, professor in UCLA’s Department of Information Studies. Director of the UC Digital Cultures Lab. Author of “Beyond the Valley.” (@rameshmedia)

Meghna Chakrabarti serves as host and editor of On Point. Based in Boston, she is on the air Monday through Friday.