The Smile share spectacular NPR Tiny Desk concert
It’s a new year, and to celebrate, National Public Radio has dropped its first Tiny Desk concert of 2023. Who was there to help them ring in the new year? British experiential rockers The Smile.
As most annoying die-hard fans could probably tell you, Radiohead has never ventured into the halls of NPR’s Washington D.C. headquarters to record their own Tiny Desk concert. That’s probably always going to be a pipe dream for true believers, but hey, having The Smile in is certainly the next best thing.
The band, made up of Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood along with Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, took their places along with touring saxophonist Robert Stillman to bring a few songs from their debut LP, A Light for Attracting Attention, to the small confines of the studio.
Being a trio has inherent limitations, especially when effects like loops and samples are largely off the table in the Tiny Desk setting. The Smile combated these issues by playing stripped-down versions of some of their more spacey songs from the album. They decided to go with three songs that translated well to the space: ‘Pana-Vision’, ‘The Smoke’ and ‘Skrting On the Surface’.
As revealed in the video’s description, the band actually performed four songs for the filming but was unhappy with whatever the second song in the sequence was. At one point after ‘Pana-Vision’, Yorke is handed a guitar while Greenwood hangs on to his Fender bass. By the time ‘The Smoke’ starts up a few seconds later, Yorke is now the one playing bass, and Greenwood is on guitar.
Check out The Smile’s Tiny Desk concert down below.
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