Napalm Death have once again made grindcore history, this time becoming the first band from the genre to play NPR‘s long-running ‘Tiny Desk Concert’ series. An eight-song set was laid out for that extremely intimate setting, with the band ripping through the final songs:
“Instinct Of Survival“
“Strong-Arm“
“Everyday Pox“
“Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism“
“Amoral“
“Dead“
“Scum“
“You Suffer“
Mark “Barney” Greenway, vocalist for the grindcore pioneering outfit, stated:
“I’ve dipped in and out of Democracy Now! via NPR Radio for decades now to get my unvarnished yet thoughtful North American news. So when the NPR Tiny Desk thing came up, it kind of blew my tiny mind a little bit. We realised that we were going to reach far more people than usual with the TD performance, but as you might expect from Napalm Death, we were never going to temper the performance to any degree. We hope everybody at least gets something from it, even if it’s just an understanding of musical abrasion being pushed to the nth degree. Please always support public access broadcasting in view of the ongoing relentless attacks upon it.”
NPR Music producer/writer Lars Gotrich was instrumental in getting the band behind the desks for this shoot, and stated of the honor:
“The first grindcore band at the Tiny Desk had to be the founding fathers. I turned down or said ‘maybe later’ to so many others — that’s how important it was to me to get this right. There is only one Napalm Death, not only exemplary of extreme music but also what it takes to be human in what feels like an inhumane time.”
