I recently came across NPR’s in-house music performances which they call Tiny Desk.  Think La Blogotheque, but they aren’t walking around, they just sit the bands at a… tiny desk.  The sound is really good and they’ve had a ton of great bands in their studio.  Here are some of my favorites, and you can find the rest at their YouTube channel (I realize they host the videos on NPR.org as well but their video player sucks).

Here is their first rap performance from the FIFA favorite K’Naan.  The quality of his voice really shines in this stripped down version of a few of his songs.

Here are the Avett Brothers, Bootsy may not like that this is NPR (she’s a KCRW gal), but I know she’ll love this performance.

And keeping in mind the tiny desk theme, you have to see how silly, yet amazing, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ performances become.

Here are some tunes form Phoenix. And if you’ve seen them live lately, you’ll know how energetic their stage show is. It is cool to see that even acoustically that energy still comes off just fine.

And finally, here is one of their earlier performances from John Vanderslice. John’s albums are very produced and are mostly electronic instruments, yet here he is with a full band holding acoustic instruments.

And since this is Sunday Funday I’m going to take a step back from the intimate performances and give you a couple tracks I’ve been dancing around the office to.

DJ Fresh – Gold Dust (Flux Pavillion Remix)

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Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Om Nashi Me (Timmy The Terror Remix)

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