Overview: One minute, Lucius sounds like a '60s girl group; the next might conjure images of Emmylou Harris.
Overview: With members of The Decemberists, the band lends a snappy, lilting quality to songs of alienation.
Overview: Frontman Kevin Barnes uses the intimacy of the NPR Music offices to try out some quiet new material.
Overview: The a cappella ensemble sings widely divergent songs from American, European and Sufi traditions.
Overview: In The xx's songs, all the calm chilliness in the world can't quite contain an exposed heart.
Overview: Winston Yellen's arresting voice propels a lighthearted but deeply affecting set at the NPR office.
Overview: The guitarist brings a decidedly non-standard approach to jazz's standard practices.
Overview: The fast-rising Brooklyn trio sings beautiful, heartfelt, impeccably harmonized folk-pop songs.
Overview: Watch one of the best fiddlers on the planet and a subtle guitar master work their magic.
Overview: The Danish band ransacks the NPR Music offices looking for sound-making material and new ideas.
Overview: To coincide with the release of the band's 13th album, Fade, Yo La Tengo performs an acoustic set.
Overview: The duo's quietly energetic performance hangs over the the NPR Music offices like a soft mist.
Overview: Zany, brainy and danceable, these guys' music mixes rock and jazz like King Crimson at its fiercest.
Overview: Watch the violinist spin out music by John Williams and Bach in sweet, soulful tendrils of sound.
Overview: The veteran country players mix corny humor, musical merrymaking and timeless vocal harmonies.
Overview: The 73-year-old Iranian icon unleashes torrents of swooping, soaring sound that elicit goosebumps.
Overview: Imani Winds' members shrink Igor Stravinsky down to size in a quintet take on The Rite of Spring.
Overview: OK Go helps us transport the Tiny Desk from NPR Music's old headquarters to our new facility.
Overview: Watch the band perform acoustic arrangements of four songs from its new album, Trouble Will Find Me.
Overview: An 11-piece brass band turns up the funk and flies the flag high for its native Richmond, Va.
Overview: One of the world's finest folksingers channels the spirit of Woody Guthrie at the NPR Music offices.
Overview: Watch the singer-songwriter and her band perform three songs from her fine new album, American Kid.
Overview: A brilliant cellist with a stunning command of her instrument, Beiser performs at the NPR offices.
Overview: The U.K. singer performs some of her most intimate material in a short set at the NPR Music offices.
Overview: The Malian musician and his band craft melodies and rhythms that cut across age and ethnicity.
Overview: The rowdy English folk-punk band brings its barely controlled mayhem to the NPR Music offices.
Overview: Two men with unplugged instruments convey the bawdy rowdiness of a full band.
Overview: When the British singer performs, her emotionally fiery music just gets hotter and grittier.
Overview: The singer, instrumentalist and music therapist plays slinky, forceful songs at NPR Music.
Overview: Hear three sturdy pop songs from In Guards We Trust, performed live at the NPR Music offices.
Overview: Hear the "classically trained garage band" perform with staggering technique and contagious energy.
Overview: Watch Falconberry and five bandmates perform three delicate songs from her recent album Leelanau.
Overview: Henson's voice is so fragile and hushed, if you were 10 feet away from him you'd barely hear a peep.
Overview: Guthrie and his band drove 18 hours round-trip from Ontario to perform three songs for NPR Music.
Overview: The Australian sextet crafts busily impeccable, harmony-intensive pop music with a danceable sway.
Overview: The 17-member chamber-rock collective uses its size in the service of great, snappy, stirring songs.
Overview: The community that's formed around The Front Bottoms speaks to the band's passion and compassion.
Overview: Concha Buika's voice comes from Africa and the past. Watch her perform in the NPR Music offices.
Overview: Watch Gunn's trio perform a set of hypnotic long-form jams that are perfect for taking it easy.
Overview: Watch Baths' Will Wiesenfeld perform mysterious, textured electronic music in the NPR offices.
Overview: For our 300th Tiny Desk Concert, we showcase a Tuareg guitarist's fierce, hypnotic, alluring jams.
Overview: Performing solo, singer Matthew Healy doesn't hesitate to transform both his songs and himself.
Overview: With an eye on both the past and the future, O'Farrill has jazz and Afro-Cuban music in his DNA.
Overview: The husband-and-wife duo mixes rowdy folk-rock and rootsy ballads, with the help of a canine friend.
Overview: A Galician bagpiper and her trio take Celtic sounds in an entirely wild and wonderful direction.
Overview: Hem makes a homey, fireside kind of music, with songs that feel as if they've always been there.
Overview: The Zimbabwean legend performs songs from the mournful but celebratory Sarawoga for NPR Music.
Overview: The operatic tenor, acclaimed for his Rossini, circles back to his roots as a singer of spirituals.
Overview: Watch the venerable band translate its electric sound to acoustic instruments in an intimate way.
Overview: Short of seeing her live and in person, this is the best way to encounter June's heartfelt sound.
Overview: The band performs three songs from a record inspired by the childhood of singer Will Sheff.
Overview: The bassist composes beautiful, unpretentious music for an unusual jazz band with accordion.
Overview: Pretty and melancholy, the Londoners' music conjures a perfect mix of gloom, desire and hostility.
Overview: The dozen members of this Portland, Ore. band crammed behind the Tiny Desk for a transcendent set.
Overview: The orchestral folk-pop band's little song-worlds burst with ambition, talent and extreme joy.
Overview: Watch a Halloween Tiny Desk Concert in which Case performs with Kelly Hogan and Eric Bachmann.
Overview: This three-song set in the NPR Music offices captures a nice cross-section of Monroe's appeal.
Overview: The jazz vibraphone pioneer is 70 now, but that hasn't slowed his flying four-mallet technique.
Overview: Bhattacharya draws on North Indian classical music, but blues also pours out of his stunning work.
Overview: The soul singer retains the easygoing grace of a performer fit for any stage — even a tiny one.
Overview: This is Katie Crutchfield as Waxahatchee, playing intimate music for an intimate setting.
Overview: The intrepid champions of new music bring a lullaby, rare blues and a work by Bryce Dessner to NPR.
Overview: The band exudes playfulness and wry charm throughout these three songs from Uncanney Valley.
Overview: Jarosz and her small backing band craft a careful mix of technical proficiency and poppy warmth.
Overview: The whip-smart rapper, singer, poet and songwriter performs three tracks from Parts of Speech.
Overview: Salem sings work songs and chants from the maloya tradition on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean.
Overview: The video here provides just a hint of the L.A. band's dynamic live shows, albeit a spectacular one.
Overview: The hot and historic New Orleans band brings a tuba-wielding Santa and some original holiday cheer.