Season 2013

One minute, Lucius sounds like a '60s girl group; the next might conjure images of Emmylou Harris.

With members of The Decemberists, the band lends a snappy, lilting quality to songs of alienation.

Frontman Kevin Barnes uses the intimacy of the NPR Music offices to try out some quiet new material.

The a cappella ensemble sings widely divergent songs from American, European and Sufi traditions.

In The xx's songs, all the calm chilliness in the world can't quite contain an exposed heart.

Winston Yellen's arresting voice propels a lighthearted but deeply affecting set at the NPR office.

The guitarist brings a decidedly non-standard approach to jazz's standard practices.

The fast-rising Brooklyn trio sings beautiful, heartfelt, impeccably harmonized folk-pop songs.

Watch one of the best fiddlers on the planet and a subtle guitar master work their magic.

The Danish band ransacks the NPR Music offices looking for sound-making material and new ideas.

To coincide with the release of the band's 13th album, Fade, Yo La Tengo performs an acoustic set.

The duo's quietly energetic performance hangs over the the NPR Music offices like a soft mist.

Zany, brainy and danceable, these guys' music mixes rock and jazz like King Crimson at its fiercest.

Watch the violinist spin out music by John Williams and Bach in sweet, soulful tendrils of sound.

The veteran country players mix corny humor, musical merrymaking and timeless vocal harmonies.

The 73-year-old Iranian icon unleashes torrents of swooping, soaring sound that elicit goosebumps.

Imani Winds' members shrink Igor Stravinsky down to size in a quintet take on The Rite of Spring.

OK Go helps us transport the Tiny Desk from NPR Music's old headquarters to our new facility.

Watch the band perform acoustic arrangements of four songs from its new album, Trouble Will Find Me.

An 11-piece brass band turns up the funk and flies the flag high for its native Richmond, Va.

One of the world's finest folksingers channels the spirit of Woody Guthrie at the NPR Music offices.

Watch the singer-songwriter and her band perform three songs from her fine new album, American Kid.

A brilliant cellist with a stunning command of her instrument, Beiser performs at the NPR offices.

The U.K. singer performs some of her most intimate material in a short set at the NPR Music offices.

The Malian musician and his band craft melodies and rhythms that cut across age and ethnicity.

The rowdy English folk-punk band brings its barely controlled mayhem to the NPR Music offices.

Two men with unplugged instruments convey the bawdy rowdiness of a full band.

When the British singer performs, her emotionally fiery music just gets hotter and grittier.

The singer, instrumentalist and music therapist plays slinky, forceful songs at NPR Music.

Hear three sturdy pop songs from In Guards We Trust, performed live at the NPR Music offices.

Hear the "classically trained garage band" perform with staggering technique and contagious energy.

Watch Falconberry and five bandmates perform three delicate songs from her recent album Leelanau.

Henson's voice is so fragile and hushed, if you were 10 feet away from him you'd barely hear a peep.

Guthrie and his band drove 18 hours round-trip from Ontario to perform three songs for NPR Music.

The Australian sextet crafts busily impeccable, harmony-intensive pop music with a danceable sway.

The 17-member chamber-rock collective uses its size in the service of great, snappy, stirring songs.

The community that's formed around The Front Bottoms speaks to the band's passion and compassion.

Concha Buika's voice comes from Africa and the past. Watch her perform in the NPR Music offices.

Watch Gunn's trio perform a set of hypnotic long-form jams that are perfect for taking it easy.

Watch Baths' Will Wiesenfeld perform mysterious, textured electronic music in the NPR offices.

For our 300th Tiny Desk Concert, we showcase a Tuareg guitarist's fierce, hypnotic, alluring jams.

Performing solo, singer Matthew Healy doesn't hesitate to transform both his songs and himself.

With an eye on both the past and the future, O'Farrill has jazz and Afro-Cuban music in his DNA.

The husband-and-wife duo mixes rowdy folk-rock and rootsy ballads, with the help of a canine friend.

A Galician bagpiper and her trio take Celtic sounds in an entirely wild and wonderful direction.

Hem makes a homey, fireside kind of music, with songs that feel as if they've always been there.

The Zimbabwean legend performs songs from the mournful but celebratory Sarawoga for NPR Music.

The operatic tenor, acclaimed for his Rossini, circles back to his roots as a singer of spirituals.

Watch the venerable band translate its electric sound to acoustic instruments in an intimate way.

Short of seeing her live and in person, this is the best way to encounter June's heartfelt sound.

The band performs three songs from a record inspired by the childhood of singer Will Sheff.

The bassist composes beautiful, unpretentious music for an unusual jazz band with accordion.

Pretty and melancholy, the Londoners' music conjures a perfect mix of gloom, desire and hostility.

The dozen members of this Portland, Ore. band crammed behind the Tiny Desk for a transcendent set.

The orchestral folk-pop band's little song-worlds burst with ambition, talent and extreme joy.

Watch a Halloween Tiny Desk Concert in which Case performs with Kelly Hogan and Eric Bachmann.

This three-song set in the NPR Music offices captures a nice cross-section of Monroe's appeal.

The jazz vibraphone pioneer is 70 now, but that hasn't slowed his flying four-mallet technique.

Bhattacharya draws on North Indian classical music, but blues also pours out of his stunning work.

The soul singer retains the easygoing grace of a performer fit for any stage — even a tiny one.

This is Katie Crutchfield as Waxahatchee, playing intimate music for an intimate setting.

The intrepid champions of new music bring a lullaby, rare blues and a work by Bryce Dessner to NPR.

The band exudes playfulness and wry charm throughout these three songs from Uncanney Valley.

Jarosz and her small backing band craft a careful mix of technical proficiency and poppy warmth.

The whip-smart rapper, singer, poet and songwriter performs three tracks from Parts of Speech.

Salem sings work songs and chants from the maloya tradition on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

The video here provides just a hint of the L.A. band's dynamic live shows, albeit a spectacular one.

The hot and historic New Orleans band brings a tuba-wielding Santa and some original holiday cheer.