The Tiny Desk gets gently roasted on ‘SNL’

Watch the Tiny Desk get the "Schweddy balls" treatment; plus, the Top Shelf series returns with some of our favorite Tiny Desk Contest entries and more

View this email online April 4, 2024 by Stephen Thompson Watch the Tiny Desk get the “Schweddy balls” treatment; plus, the Top Shelf series returns with some of our favorite Tiny Desk Contest entries and more. YouTube What started 16 years ago as an oddball experiment at the desk of NPR Music’s Bob Boilen has now inspired its own five-minute sketch on Saturday Night Live, in the tradition of Schweddy balls and The Delicious Dish from the late ’90s. If you haven’t seen last weekend’s show, it’s got host Ramy Youssef leading a fictional band at the Tiny Desk, only to be interrupted by a 35-year-old intern played by Bowen Yang. The first thing the Tiny Desk team noticed was the attention to detail in the SNL set design: Someone made sure the shelves were properly cluttered, and even replicated the cutout names (“NPR,” “All Songs Considered,” “Bob Boilen” and “Robin Hilton”) that pop up near the top of the set. The look of the SNL version of the Tiny Desk was clearly accomplished with care, even affection. But there are also pointed critiques of NPR tossed in along the way: The podcast Yang is working on sounds elitist, self-important and condescending; Youssef and Yang (a successful podcaster in his own right) both break into “podcast voice” at a key moment; and there are even a few gags about how the Tiny Desk’s format forces The Jonah Hughes Band to flatten its sound. (Chloe Troast, who’d ordinarily be playing cello, is relegated to a milk-carton shaker; as Youssef notes, “Since this is a Tiny Desk, we gotta be quirkin’ it up.”) Naturally, as with past SNL takes on NPR — lookin’ at you, The Delicious Dish — some of the tropes being mocked feel a little outdated, or directed toward public-radio programs and personalities from other networks. (Seriously, people, we love him, but Ira Glass famously left NPR in the ’90s.) Even that milk-carton shaker, though a funny commentary on the way the Tiny Desk can dampen the work of drummers and synth players, feels like a callback to our late-’00s over-emphasis on folkie singer-songwriters. Oh, and whether 2008 or 2024, I don’t think we’ve ever eschewed a cello, even in the interest of quirkin’ it up. They did get a few things exactly right, though, starting with two facts courtesy of Yang’s character: 1) Every day is like a big deal for us at NPR; and 2) the desk is nowhere near as tiny as the series’ name suggests. No arguments there. Newsletter continues after sponsor message Tiny Desk Contest update We've published the first installment of the 2024 Top Shelf series, in which Tiny Desk Contest judges break down some of their favorite entries of the year. Hosts Bobby Carter and Robin Hilton kicked things off. Introducing NPR Music+, a new way to support what you love and explore new music and conversations sponsor-free. NPR Music+ includes two podcasts with one convenient subscription: All Songs Considered and Alt.Latino, both sponsor-free. Learn more and support us at plus.npr.org/NPRmusic Get NPR Music+ Recent Tiny Desks Tarta Relena, a Spanish duo, keeps its sound spare — just two voices and some ambient electronics — but lets its words sprawl across five languages in this set alone. Thandiswa Mazwai, one of the most influential musicians in post-Apartheid South Africa, kicks off this year’s Tiny Desk x globalFEST series with a hypnotic, danceable performance. Vikingur Olafsson is a thoughtful pianist from Iceland whose gentle performances of pieces from Bach to Bartók evoke nostalgic memories of his childhood. Big Sean’s Tiny Desk debut is almost certainly a record-breaker, as the rap hitmaker cobbled together an epic set list that included all or part of 14 songs. Soul Glo got the first-ever Tiny Desk mosh pit going — and staked a claim for hardcore punk in the NPR Music offices. Around public radio KCRW KCRW in Los Angeles brought in the dynamic songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae, who (if you haven’t been paying attention) has moved far beyond her 2006 hit, “Put Your Records On.” KEXP in Seattle bid winter adieu with a visit from the eternally sunny L.A. duo Poolside. Watch them play the transfixing single “Each Night.”  KUTX in Austin isn’t afraid to stretch the limits of a studio session. Watch the synth-pop duo Drama bring the beats in their Studio 1A visit.  KXT in Dallas filmed the Mercury Prizing-winning songwriter Arlo Parks at the city’s Granada Theater. Minnesota Public Radio's The Current captured The Beaches playing an acoustic version of "Blame Brett," one of our Best Songs of 2023. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music What do you think of today's email? 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