Podchaser Logo
Home
Alt.Latino's favorite Tiny Desk Contest entries

Alt.Latino's favorite Tiny Desk Contest entries

Released Wednesday, 1st May 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Alt.Latino's favorite Tiny Desk Contest entries

Alt.Latino's favorite Tiny Desk Contest entries

Alt.Latino's favorite Tiny Desk Contest entries

Alt.Latino's favorite Tiny Desk Contest entries

Wednesday, 1st May 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

0:00

This message comes from NPR sponsor

0:02

the Capital One Venture Card. Earn

0:05

unlimited 2x miles on every purchase.

0:07

Plus earn unlimited 5x miles on

0:09

hotels and rental cars booked through

0:11

Capital One Travel. What's in your

0:13

wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com for

0:16

details. So

0:21

Felix, I had my birthday

0:23

party this weekend. I heard. Thank you for

0:26

inviting me. Everyone's been talking about it. You

0:28

were invited. I was. You decided not to show it.

0:30

You went to this spot instead. I'm not offended. It's

0:32

fine. Priorities. And

0:35

this is like the first big party I feel like these

0:37

are in at my house, but across the street I don't

0:39

know what's going on, but they're always having kinses. I don't

0:41

know if they have like a bunch of kids. I don't

0:43

know. So me and my roommate, we like to sit there

0:46

and kind of like judge all the

0:48

kids as they come up the stairs. Like really sit

0:51

there in our window. They're like checking out their outfits and

0:53

it's always like the girls show up really early and they

0:55

look really nice and the boys show up like last

0:57

minute and they look like terrible. Anyways,

0:59

I felt some pressure with my birthday playlist

1:01

to kind of compete. They really play some

1:03

bangers at these kinses every week and

1:06

I just felt like still

1:08

I wasn't able to rise to compete with these

1:10

15 year olds. And so I thought to myself,

1:13

you know what they can't do?

1:15

They can't bring original Tiny Desk

1:17

Contest music. So I figured what

1:21

a great day. What a

1:23

great idea to celebrate the 10th anniversary

1:25

of the Tiny Desk Contest. We

1:27

can call this the episode where we pick

1:29

all the best Tiny Desk Contest entries for

1:31

Anna to make playlists to compete with her 15 year

1:34

old neighbors. If that will fit in the headline of

1:36

the website. I think that'll work. Yeah. This is our

1:38

annual peek at some of the artists who sent in

1:40

videos for the Tiny Desk Contest. Again, this is the

1:42

10th annual so there have been thousands,

1:45

thousands, thousands, thousands of people over the years

1:47

that have sent in videos. Some of them

1:49

will repeat but the idea is for

1:51

us to pull some out, look at the Latin

1:53

music contestants and play some of the things that

1:55

stand out. Unfortunately, we don't take

1:57

submissions outside of the US and Puerto Rico.

2:00

However, what's cool about the Latin music section

2:02

that we get is it's all people in

2:04

this country doing like a very Versatile

2:07

spread of Latin music, but

2:09

I thought that was like a really interesting way

2:11

to represent that lots of cool stuff Let's get right

2:13

into it. You get the first two choices So

2:20

my first pick really lovely artist

2:22

my first two beautiful vocalists This

2:24

artist is Garcia and she's playing

2:26

a track called bassa de cace

2:28

Hi everyone, my name

2:30

is Katya. This is Adrian and this is

2:59

Oh Talk

3:29

like burial Theclintimo

3:59

Theclintimo So

4:30

this one is really impressive to

4:33

me for a few reasons. I

4:57

mean, one, that voice is like so gorgeous

5:00

and just nice on the ears, right?

5:02

Like, and she didn't need anything besides

5:04

that guitar. And like, that was enough

5:06

to hold, I think, anyone's attention. And

5:08

it was so cute. She salved dory and

5:11

she did it in Miami out of a

5:13

really nice bodega. So the setup was great.

5:15

And it's just like a sweet, fun love

5:17

song to listen to. I mean, I was

5:19

really impressed by this one, Felix. I

5:21

really like this one. In addition to the

5:23

music, the other fun part of this every

5:26

year is to look at how people present

5:28

themselves. And this one, I really enjoyed that

5:30

where they put the camera and set up in that bodega

5:32

thing. Lots of fun. Disclaimer

5:34

for all of these, we would recommend

5:36

you go to npr.org/Latino to check out

5:38

the page where all of these videos

5:40

are going to be there. Really nice

5:42

to look at and hear for

5:44

yourself many times on repeat. Okay, so pull

5:46

up the website and let's go to your

5:49

second song. Okay. Oh,

5:51

I really like this one. So this

5:53

artist, her name is Manu

5:55

Manzo. She has a track

5:57

here called Celos. All

6:30

You is

7:01

community cups

7:30

Can't tell. Me

9:00

so that was Celos which means jealousy

9:02

by the artist Manu Manzouno. I spent

9:04

a lot of time with a lot

9:07

of these videos. I did some first

9:09

round judging and when I came

9:11

across this video I like jumped out of

9:14

my seat. I was like oh this is

9:16

it. I mean that voice it has like

9:18

a really nice almost R&B quality to it

9:20

but it does have that lovely like latin

9:23

pop like what's really like big in the

9:25

space right now in terms of just the

9:27

texture the quality it's unique. Again just a

9:29

beautiful voice with a guitar and it works

9:32

so well. I mean if you watch

9:34

the video she's just sitting there it's a

9:37

very simple presentation it's nothing that's gonna drag

9:39

you in visually but it's just that

9:41

voice that captures your attention.

9:43

She's also filming out of

9:45

Miami but Venezuelan American and

9:48

wow I think we're gonna see her in

9:50

a lot of places honestly. She

9:53

spent some time away from Miami at Berkeley

9:55

School of Music in Boston and she has

9:57

the control of someone who sees her voice

9:59

like an instrument. I gotta say

10:01

so many musicians come through

10:03

on the tiny desk that are Berkeley graduates

10:05

every year during the Latin Grammys You

10:08

could do a special set aside for Berkeley

10:10

musicians or producers and vocalists, etc This

10:13

school is bringing in people from all over Latin

10:15

America and then turning stuff out

10:17

in there making their mark everywhere It's really

10:19

amazing true I feel like that's a

10:22

really important note about that is like I

10:24

know so many people have met in other

10:26

parts of Latin America Who did their stint

10:28

in Boston went back to their home country

10:30

and are now making music training

10:33

musicians, etc So that's a really cool piece of

10:35

it is I think it just keeps multiplying on

10:37

itself that training That was

10:39

a great voice and now I have another great

10:41

voice for you. Okay. This is me. They are

10:43

Ramos and we have Right.

10:45

Yeah, me. They are Ramos is one

10:47

of the founding members of the mariachi

10:49

Florida de tolo ache She's

10:52

done some recording on her own in

10:54

a variety of styles. Her voice is

10:56

so versatile She can sing mariachi. She

10:58

can sing R&B and on this

11:00

one. She's doing country Okay, this

11:03

latinas who think country is having a moment right now,

11:05

right? Oh We've been talking

11:07

about it, but true I mean, there's there's

11:09

something about that that synergy of the voices

11:11

that makes a lot of sense So this

11:13

is a track called quiero volver. This is

11:15

made a Ramos and I love the band

11:17

This is made a Ramos and the poor

11:19

choices I

11:22

want to be in that band Hello

11:27

everybody, I'm Mireya Ramos and

11:29

I'm a proud Afro-Latina Dominicana-americana

11:32

race in Puerto Rico and

11:34

thrilled to share my song quiero volver

11:37

from the ranchera fusion with country Americana

11:39

music a beautiful song off of my

11:41

most recent album a Collaboration with these

11:44

beautiful artists all the way from Kansas

11:46

City. I hope you enjoy this

11:52

You e

12:02

must causation I

12:12

see myself

12:31

I see myself

12:40

I see myself

12:51

I see myself

12:58

I see myself

13:07

I see myself

13:16

I see myself

13:25

I see myself

13:34

I see myself

13:43

I see myself

13:52

I see myself

15:00

Remember God's

15:03

praise Remember that When I was

15:05

a little boy You

15:09

raised a pole And now today

15:13

dear, I do I

15:16

love you A long

15:18

time again Applause

16:00

like how

16:03

awhat's so

16:18

well well

16:27

in on

16:34

in we

16:44

in our

17:05

in love

17:29

that was Kiril Volber from Medea Ramos and the

17:31

Poor Choices. I'm a big fan

17:33

of her voice. I'm just gonna say it right. Oh yeah

17:35

who is it? Who is it? I remember we had a

17:37

chance to see her when we were in Havana. Oh my

17:40

god I feel like every time I see her

17:42

she's one of those artists that

17:44

you hear the voice and in

17:47

person and there's nothing compete with that. Not a

17:49

video, not a recording, nothing. It's like you have

17:51

like standing in front of her that

17:53

power it's almost like too much. You have to like

17:55

step back. So as we talk

17:57

about artists especially with this show about our

18:00

artists you should know. There's a lot of folks

18:02

who don't have the profile of her, but

18:04

this is a great example of how this

18:07

contest allows artists to also experiment on a

18:09

different side for something beyond what they normally

18:11

do, and to show the other artists that

18:13

are just as viable and just

18:15

as strong a performer as

18:17

these established performers. And I have

18:19

to say, this is, I think I

18:22

rest my case and win the argument

18:24

that's been like four episodes long now.

18:26

Something about Rancheira Vocal

18:29

so fits, it blends so perfectly

18:31

with a country. It's something about

18:33

like the emotion of it. It's

18:35

country and it's Rancheira. It's like

18:37

it's right there. It makes so

18:39

much sense. No argument.

18:42

I agree. I was about to say someone

18:44

recording this and then I was like, wow, what

18:46

luck. I

18:51

don't envy the judges on this contest because

18:53

as we've seen so far, Mireya

18:55

is a voice that we know is well

18:58

established, but on her own solo stuff, not

19:00

so much. And these other artists,

19:03

they're in the same class. They're just as

19:05

strong, but in different ways. I've been asked

19:08

to judge. I don't

19:10

know, man. I don't want to.

19:12

I could never be the deciding. I

19:14

can only do that first round stuff. Eliminate

19:16

a few, but I can't. I want

19:19

to vote for them all. Everyone

19:22

deserves a chance. I mean, there is

19:24

also like, it is worth saying. An unsigned

19:26

artist can mean a lot of things. Right.

19:28

And that's tough too, I think is like,

19:30

you know, an artist like Mireya does have

19:32

some backing. She has experience. So, you

19:35

know, it's, it's tough. And some of these other artists I

19:37

brought on with these amazing voices, they have some, like, they

19:39

have some backing behind them for sure. You go check out

19:41

their Instagrams and you're like, okay, Well

19:44

be right back after this. This message

19:46

comes from Npr sponsor of the Capital

19:48

One Venture X Card. When you book

19:50

through Capital One Travel using the Venture

19:53

X card, you earn ten x miles

19:55

on hotels and rental cars and five

19:57

x miles on flights. and you are

19:59

an unlimited to X miles on all

20:02

other purchases plus receiver three hundred dollar

20:04

annual credit for bookings through Capital One

20:06

Travel. The Vince your Ex Card from

20:08

Capital One what's in your while terms

20:11

apply C Capital one.com for. Details.

20:13

This message comes from NPR sponsor

20:16

Hulu. Dive into the chilling new

20:18

Hulu original series Under the Bridge,

20:20

the riveting adaptation of the acclaimed

20:22

true crime book. Based on shocking

20:25

true events, Under the Bridge tells

20:27

the haunting story of a murder

20:29

that lays bare a small community's

20:32

darkest secrets. Go deep into the

20:34

hidden world of the town's tormented

20:36

teenagers as detectives race to solve

20:38

the sinister crime. Starring Riley Keough

20:41

and Lily Gladstone, Under the Bridge

20:43

is now streaming with new

20:45

episodes Wednesdays only on Hulu.

20:49

This message comes from NPR sponsor CarMax. CarMax

20:51

is putting peace of mind back in car

20:53

shopping by putting you in the driver's seat

20:55

to find a ride that's right for you.

20:58

Because CarMax believes you shouldn't just settle

21:00

for a car, you should love your

21:02

car. That's why every car they sell

21:04

has CarMax certified quality. So you can

21:06

be sure with upfront pricing that's the

21:08

same for every customer. Don't settle. Find

21:10

love at First Drive. Start shopping

21:13

now at carmax.com. CarMax. The way

21:15

car buying should be. This

21:19

message comes from NPR sponsor,

21:21

Teladoc Health. There are

21:23

lots of reasons for wanting

21:25

to be healthy. Family,

21:27

work, living a fuller life.

21:30

Teladoc Health understands. Whether you

21:32

have diabetes, high blood

21:34

pressure, or just need to

21:37

manage your weight, Teladoc Health

21:39

can help. Visit teladochealth.com/whatsyourwhy for

21:42

more information. That's T-E-L-A-D-O-C health

21:44

slash whatsyourwhy. And

21:47

we're back with more great music. We

21:50

are listening to the 10th annual Tiny

21:52

Desk Contest. I don't think we mentioned

21:54

how many entries we had this year.

21:57

How many entries? Six thousand six hundred.

22:00

6,600 entries. Can you imagine? That's like 6,000. That's

22:03

like 6,600. You can fill a room with ice cream. 6,000 ice creams.

22:05

What are you? Let's just keep going. I don't even know. A

22:14

room of ice cream in Tiny

22:16

Dust Contest in Chicago. Let's

22:20

just keep going. I'm not even sure what to do with

22:22

that one. Okay. I chose

22:24

this one. I chose the video and then I

22:26

looked to see where he's from and I

22:28

got, you know, my people, my

22:31

hinted. This guy is from Salinas,

22:33

California. A vocalist composer who calls

22:35

himself Flaco Eljandro. He

22:37

performed last year in San Francisco. When the winners

22:39

win, they do a tour of the United States,

22:42

a mini tour. And at each city, they bring

22:44

other bands to come and perform. And

22:46

he performed in the San Francisco stop

22:49

of the contest winner tour with

22:51

the band Los Perros, Gallerjeros. I love

22:53

that name. And he blew people away.

22:56

He's got two EPs out, someone to

22:58

watch and keep an eye on. This

23:01

is Flaco Eljandro. The song is Yuvia

23:03

Pessada. Yuvia

23:33

Pessada. Yuvia

23:55

Pessada. please

24:30

come first come

24:35

intoás a

25:03

y i I

25:08

all yeah

25:16

and me

25:26

well I all

25:30

make a little more on

25:35

a a

25:39

a a a

25:45

a a

25:49

a a a

25:55

a a This

26:00

is one of those with

26:04

the video backdrop. What

26:25

was that? They're like a dry cleaner. I

26:27

thought it was like a thrift store or something. There's

26:32

racks of clothing. You know, like one of those

26:34

cool kids stores. Yeah, again, go to

26:37

our website, mpo.org/out Latino. Check out

26:39

the videos because this one, I

26:41

love the backdrop. You know, I

26:43

tried to pick this one Felix and then I

26:45

went, this is going to be my cool cumbia

26:47

pick and then I went and saw you'd already

26:49

picked it. I was like, rats. You got

26:51

to move fast, man. They beat me to it. You got

26:53

to move fast. Oh, they're really good though. They're really

26:55

cool. I love the guy with

26:57

the accordion. He looks like he's just having a ball. The

26:59

whole band. This is fabulous. I would

27:02

love to hang out with these dudes. They

27:05

do look like a lot of fun.

27:08

That was Flaco Eljandro. The

27:10

song was Juvia Pessada. Okay, I

27:13

got another one. This one is

27:15

kind of a punk thing. I

27:18

didn't even know. I didn't even have the words to describe

27:20

it. The band is called

27:23

Los Quinceaneros. They're great

27:25

names. Wow. They're

27:28

from Southern California. I don't know

27:30

much about them. They don't have a website. They do have

27:32

an Instagram, but I love

27:34

their video. Like I said, there's a punk

27:36

ethos to it. You listen to

27:39

the music. There's echoes of psychedelic chicha.

27:42

It's a really fun video. At some

27:44

point, there's a subtext of what's going

27:46

on. There's a subplot in

27:48

the video about conversations on a telephone. I'm not

27:50

sure what's going on. At one point, he picks

27:53

up a phone to start talking to it while

27:55

the band is playing. Crazy. This is

27:57

called Guero. Oh

29:08

him.

29:43

And. He. He

29:47

he he.

29:54

ha Talk

30:14

about a group you want to hang out with. Yeah,

30:17

I take it back, these guys. Actually, I'm going

30:19

to throw a party in, and both bands are

30:21

invited. That was Los Quintaneros

30:23

with their song Guero. Again, we're

30:25

listening and previewing some of the bands that

30:27

entered the Tiny Desk Contest, the 10th Annual.

30:30

Again, this is a band from Southern California. Don't

30:32

know a lot about them, but I love that sound, right? Let me just

30:34

say, I think Los Quintaneros would

30:36

blow my 15-year-old neighbors out of the

30:38

water. I mean, they wouldn't know what to do

30:41

with themselves if I brought those guys to play

30:43

at my party, let me just say. Talking about

30:45

Quintaneros, right? These guys. This

30:47

is La Dornia with the track called I

30:49

Knew You Would Like This One. You still

30:52

might call me a pic, but then I

30:54

take this one, and it's called Loser Girl,

30:56

which I also love that name. I

31:57

am black. I'm

32:31

here. I'm

32:36

here. I'm

32:40

here. I'm

32:46

here. I'm

32:51

here. I'm

32:57

here. I'm

33:02

here.

33:06

I'm here. I'm

33:15

here. I'm here.

33:21

I'm here. I'm

33:28

here. I'm

33:35

here. I'm here.

33:43

I'm here. I'm

33:46

here. That

34:04

was La Donia with Loser Girl. I

34:06

mean, everything about that is so

34:08

fun to me. I'm such a fan of

34:10

hers. Like she, I mean, you people

34:14

go watch the video. This

34:16

is just like everything from the dress

34:18

and her hair and that band, that

34:20

full band she has behind her with

34:22

those trumpets coming. I'm like, oh,

34:25

it sounds so good. And it's so fun.

34:27

It's so fun to hear stylistically what she's

34:29

doing paired with like, you're hitting me up

34:31

on my phone, like, da, da, da. Like

34:34

I love that. She's an indie

34:36

artist who's been making big noises. I've been listening to

34:38

her for a while when someone sent me her music.

34:41

Just a big fan. Now

34:47

a little bit later on, I came across

34:49

the recording of Alejandro Aranda's

34:52

entry. Now this guy

34:54

is insane. He actually was on

34:56

American Idol in 2019, made it

34:59

pretty far, but he now releases

35:01

music under the name Scary Pole

35:03

Party. I just, I couldn't not

35:05

let you guys have a peek at this one. This

35:08

one is called Pieces. I always have a little bit

35:10

of it and he's super annoying too. I

36:30

can't believe you're in a position

36:32

to be with such a hard

36:34

person, I'm just in love with

36:37

you I can't believe

36:39

you're in a position to

36:41

be with everything I have

36:43

to do I

37:01

can't believe you're in a

37:03

position to be with everything I

37:05

have to do I

37:39

can't believe

37:42

you're in

37:45

a position

37:48

to be with everything

37:51

I have

37:56

to do And

37:59

what a way to wrap this up because there are so

38:01

many again great artists you got to go to

38:03

the website check out the videos the

38:05

announcements coming out later this month in

38:08

the meantime go to our website

38:10

npr.org/all Latino check out all of

38:12

these cool Latin music entrance to

38:14

the tiny desk contest so

38:17

there you have

38:27

you have been listening to all Latino from

38:29

NPR music I'm Feliz Contreras and I'm

38:31

Ana Maria Sayer our editor

38:33

is Hazel Sills and the

38:35

woman who keeps us on track is

38:37

Grace Chung our producer is

38:40

Joaquin Kotler and our executive

38:42

producer of NPR music is Saray

38:44

Mohammed. Keith Jenkins is

38:46

the VP of music and visuals at

38:49

NPR and I'm Ana and I'm Felix

38:52

thank you for listening thanks

38:55

for listening.

38:58

Oh no

39:01

no no no. Oh

39:03

so you can sing bye bye. This

39:23

message comes from NPR sponsor,

39:25

Viore, a new perspective on

39:27

performance apparel. Clothing designed with

39:29

premium fabrics, built to move

39:31

in, styled for life. For

39:33

20% off your first purchase,

39:35

go to viore.com/ NPR. Support

39:38

for Npr and the following message

39:40

come from our sponsor Whole Foods

39:42

Market. Whos that? celebratory brunch for

39:44

a less with three Sixty Five

39:46

by Whole Foods Market featuring while

39:48

it happy fines like hold smoked

39:51

Atlantic salmon and. More. and

40:00

unlimited access to 25

40:02

language courses. Learn more

40:05

at rosettastone.com/NPR. Hey,

40:07

I hear you have a birthday coming up. Yeah,

40:10

you. If you're listening to this,

40:12

that means you have a birthday coming up

40:14

eventually. And here at Life Kit, we want

40:16

it to be a special one. Magic can

40:18

happen and good luck can happen and serendipity

40:20

can happen if we're open to it. How

40:23

to have a good birthday, even if you're

40:25

not a birthday person. That's

40:27

on the Life Kit podcast from NPR.

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features