MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
NPR Music's Tiny Desk concerts have hosted some of the biggest names in music, but they are also a vehicle for discovering new music. In fact, this year's Tiny Desk Contest received thousands - I mean thousands - of entries from unsigned artists. We've been highlighting some of them this month with our NPR Music colleagues.
And now, without further ado, we are going to hear about some of the entries in the pop and rock genres. We're going to do that with NPR Music's Robin Hilton. He's a contest judge. He's also a host of Tiny Desk and the All Songs Considered podcast. Robin, welcome back.
ROBIN HILTON, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: OK, so let's dive right in. Best pop entry you heard this year.
HILTON: All right, I'm going to give best pop entry I saw this year to a group of students from the University of Southern California. They call their band YOYO, and the song they sent in is called "Everything's About Me."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVERYTHING'S ABOUT ME")
YOYO: (Singing) I used to care about you and your feelings, boy, made out to keep you from leaving. You really twisted the knife, act like it's fine. You always knew how to play the victim (ph)...
KELLY: So fun. What do you like about it?
HILTON: So much fun, like, all-caps fun - such a bop. But if you watch the video, they did this whole retro '80s jazzercise class, you know...
KELLY: Oh, my God.
HILTON: ...Like in - yeah, like, leg warmers and headbands, very colorful. In fact, the lead singer spends half of the performance pedaling a stationary bike - like, singing and riding a bike at the same time.
KELLY: Because of course.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVERYTHING'S ABOUT ME")
YOYO: (Singing) Oh, everything's about me. Everything's about me. Everything's about me. Oh, bet you're thinking of me. Bet you're thinking of me. Bet you're thinking of me. Oh, no.
KELLY: OK, I'm adjusting my shoulder pads as we speak and my leg warmers.
(LAUGHTER)
KELLY: How are you going to top that? What should we listen to next?
HILTON: Well, this is a real vibe shift here. Let's go with a song called "Caspian's Inquisition" by Enter Sceptre. And that's two words, enter - E-N-T-E-R - Enter Sceptre. This is a duo based in Brooklyn, New York. And this is maybe more in the electronic, experimental pop world. It's a little dark, kind of gothic. I always go for that sound. But I was really blown away by the singer, Cascina Caradonna. Their voice is an absolute force.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CASPIAN'S INQUISITION")
ENTER SCEPTRE: (Singing) You're a goddess, a violet sea. You're a god, fire and fury. And I'm a garden, fruits and the leaves.
KELLY: Yeah, total vibe shift. What...
HILTON: Right.
KELLY: ...Caught your ear on this one?
HILTON: Well, you know, I think one of the things, apart from their voice in this song, is the performance is pretty incredible if you watch it. And it's really hard when you are a duo and you're making all your music with electronics, kind of just turning knobs behind a table - it's hard sometimes to really sell that performance, but they do it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CASPIAN'S INQUISITION")
ENTER SCEPTRE: (Singing) Free me like the wind in a canyon. Drain me like the rain in the street. I've weathered every winter, and I melted down in the heat. You need an answer, an understanding.
KELLY: One more maybe rock entry. Play us out, Robin.
HILTON: Yeah, for sure. Let's hear a song called "Christ Pose / 90 Watt (ph) Water Whip."
KELLY: OK (laughter).
HILTON: It's by another band out of Brooklyn called Slumpwick Grummo. Say all that 10 times really fast, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Slumpwick Grummo. Slumpwick Grummo. Yeah, go (laughter).
HILTON: And the song, "90 Watt Water Whip."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHRIST POSE / 90 KNOT WATER WHIP")
SLUMPWICK GRUMMO: (Singing) You already know what it is.
HILTON: This is a hard one to maybe fully appreciate if you only hear a snippet of it or if you don't see the video because it goes in so many different directions. Sometimes it's really spare and quiet and beautiful, and then it'll just completely blow up into something more epic and chaotic.
It's kind of funny. I remember when the band sent in their entry, they said that they were worried that it would maybe be too intense for us to handle (laughter), which is - just isn't possible. I love what they did. It's one of the most original entries we saw and heard and certainly one of the most memorable.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHRIST POSE / 90 KNOT WATER WHIP")
SLUMPWICK GRUMMO: (Singing) She's got a smile that lights up the night. And the field runs blue with liquid fire.
KELLY: All right, going out with a bang on Slumpwick Grummo. Robin Hilton, thanks so much for coming and sharing this with us.
HILTON: Rock on, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Robin Hilton of NPR Music. And you can hear and watch all these entries plus thousands more at npr.org/tinydeskcontest.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHRIST POSE / 90 KNOT WATER WHIP")
SLUMPWICK GRUMMO: (Singing) Flaca (ph), flaca, flaca, flaca. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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