Tiny Desk is NPR’s scrappy little musical engine that could: a live‑performance series shot in the cramped Washington, D.C. office where staffers actually work, then beamed out to millions through its digital channels and YouTube.
Born from an offhand joke by NPR’s Stephen Thompson that singer Laura Gibson should “just play at Bob’s desk” after a too‑quiet SXSW set, Bob Boilen and Thompson invited her into the office in 2008, filmed the intimate performance, and accidentally created the template for what would become Tiny Desk.
Each year we must say goodbye to some of our favorite people. Sadly, 2025 was no exception.
While this list could have gone on, with no disrespect to those not on here, but these are eight we choose to spotlight today, whose contributions to music we are grateful for.
And you may ask yourself, how did they get all those people behind the Tiny Desk?
After all these decades we should know one thing by now: David Byrne is magic. For someone who comes across as a bicycle-riding nerd, he's so hip. For a '77 square, his band was one of the vanguards of several of the legendary NYC punk clubs.
Limp Bizkit opened their Mexico City show on Saturday (11/29) with a tribute video to their founding bassist Sam Rivers, whose tragic death on October 18 at age 48 was announced by the band the following day.
“Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat,” they wrote in a long, touching message on their IG.
Thanksgiving's NFL halftime shows were full of top notch musical talent this year but the treatment of one of the artists have many fans and viewers yelling Hey!
The early game between the Lions and the Packers got the biggest reaction after Eminem made a surprise appearance during Jack White's set.
On a cold, dreary night at an intimate club in Chicago, The Smashing Pumpkins performed what was advertised, and sure seemed like, their last show ever on December 2, 2000.
It was a week that began with a triumphant 27-song show at the United Center, the 18,000 seat home of the Chicago Bulls; and concluded tearfully with a 37-song epic gig at the 1,100 capacity Metro on the Northside of the city.
Two Detroit legends, Jack White and Eminem, wowed the home crowd when they joined forced Thanksgiving afternoon (11/27) with a mini concert during halftime at Ford Field.
White, the announced performer, kicked off the set with “That’s How I’m Feeling” from his most recent solo album No Name, and then segued into “Hello Operator” from the White Stripes' De Stijl which is currently celebrating it's 25th anniversary.
Unlike the Grammys and Oscars and the Teen Choice Awards, when we list top setlists, it's not because of personal tastes, otherwise Mac Sabbath would rank extremely high.
