Public Service Broadcasting: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

These guys don't speak or sing a word, but each song sends a clear message. Public Service Broadcasting is a duo featuring the nerdy J. Willgoose, Esq. on guitar, banjo and electronics and Wrigglesworth on drums. The source material for the music is British public-service films from roughly the 1940s through the 1960s.

The band projects carefully crafted films from those public-service messages that sync to the music, liberally using footage and voices from the past as a way of looking at the present. Public Service Broadcasting puts it all together in a powerful way — it's sometimes melancholy but mostly good fun. It's entertainment as education for the head and feet alike.

In this Tiny Desk Concert, we project a few of those films in the bright daylight of our office. It frankly works better in a dark club, but the music made in this small setting remains huge and powerful. --BOB BOILEN

Set List

"Signal 30"
"Spitfire"
"Everest"

Credits

Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Olivia Merrion, Meredith Rizzo; photo by Jim Tuttle/NPR