Mother Falcon: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

When it comes to Tiny Desk Concerts, we re suckers for milestones at NPR Music: We re gearing up to acknowledge No. 300, for example, and are constantly taking note of the first time a musician trots out a particular rare instrument or does something else no one has done in front of us before. The Austin chamberrock band Mother Falcon recently scored a big distinction, at least as far as we re concerned one it shares with its fellow Texans in The Polyphonic Spree as the largest ensemble ever to squeeze behind Bob Boilen s desk. Unlike The Polyphonic Spree, though, everyone in Mother Falcon plays an instrument during this performance: There s no chorus of backup singers among the 17 men and women who play guitars and horns and keyboards and woodwinds and strings here. Which made Tetrising each member behind Bob s desk a bit of a challenge, but Mother Falcon knows its way around cramped spaces: At one point during SXSW this year, Bob and I saw the group give a concert as it