alt J: Tiny Desk Concert
Bob Boilen, April 24, 2017 As the primary booker of the Tiny Desk Concerts, I have this selfimposed rule: No artist can come back for a second visit unless there s something wholly different about what they re doing. The first time altJ played the Tiny Desk, in 2012, they came as a fourpiece; electric guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. They were a pretty new band, their album had been out a few months and they were playing in clubs for a couple hundred people, not much more. In the five years since the band visited it has found quite a few new fans. When I heard cuts from the newest album Relaxer a few months ago I flipped and tried to think of a way to bring them back. So I wrote them, saying I d love to have them again but that it would have to be wholly, outofthebox different. I told them I d hire a brass band, an African kora player if need be, a string They took up the challenge. They told me to find a cellist and two violinists. I wrote to my friend Carol Anne Bosco, a cellist, who
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