"Live @ NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert (From The Archives)" music video by Future Islands
Added: 20-09-2020
Genre : Rock & Alternative, Live In Concert
Description : Future Islands: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert From The Archives
Frannie Kelley | May 16, 2011
Future Islands' members showed up with the biggest amplifier we've ever squeezed behind Bob Boilen's desk. Then, because they're such nice guys, they tried to keep it down. Tamping down the levels didn't dampen their intensity, though, and by the third song, the band and the crowd were struggling to keep it office-appropriate.
The band's goal, of course, was to make us break (it) down. "I want you to cry," said Sam Herring, who sings and writes all the lyrics. "I want you to feel the way I feel." He said that, in songs like "On the Water," he's using the fewest words possible to communicate most directly. Forget miscommunication, crossed signals, all that mess. "I want to crush," he says.
In case that sounds kind of cruel, Herring reminded us that crying is a good thing. Therapists tell some people to do it more often. What Future Islands is really going for, with the mordant wit in the lyrics, the melodramatic chord progressions and Herring's yowling, scratchy voice, is catharsis. And catharsis can happen in your head and in your heart.
"Some people hear the music and they want to dance. They don't hear the words. And some people hear the words, but they don't understand the other side of it," Herring said. "Those people come together and they share that space. They get the same thing out of it in the end, hopefully."
Future Islands came to our office and played some sad songs. The band did the aforementioned weeper "On the Water," as well as "The Ink Well," a song about saying goodbye to someone. Then they commanded us to move: Just before launching into "Walking Through That Door," a song about missing your hometown, Herring said, "Y'all can dance if you want to."
SET LIST
"On The Water"
"The Ink Well"
"Walking Through That Door"
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Led by crooning frontman Samuel T. Herring, the members of Future Islands started out making electropop music together in 2003 while attending East Carolina University's art program. Along with Herring, the initial members of the group were Adam Beeby, William Cashion, Gerrit Welmers, and Kymia Nawabi, and they played shows around campus as Art Lord & the Self-Portraits. In 2006, after the band split, Herring, Cashion, and Welmers continued under the name Future Islands and picked up the Kickass bassist Erick Murillo to fill out their sound on an electronic drum kit. The band released a few CD-Rs, splits, and cassettes, then began work on their debut album with producer Chester Endersby Gwazda. After the album was recorded, but before it was released, the band, minus Murillo, relocated to Baltimore. Wave Like Home was released in 2008 for the Upset the Rhythm label.
Future Islands toured steadily, built up a fan base, and continued refining their sound. They signed to Thrill Jockey and released two records in 2010, the In the Fall EP and the In Evening Air album. After some conflict over their next album, 2011's On the Water, the group left Thrill Jockey and went underground. Herring worked on his hip-hop side project, Hemlock Ernst, and the group quietly began work on another album. They released a single for old friends Upset the Rhythm in 2012, then in 2013 signed with 4AD. Their first album for the label, 2014's Singles, was a streamlined, very accessible synth pop album produced by Chris Coady. They caused a splash in the indie rock community when their performance of one of the album's highlights, "Seasons (Waiting on You)," on Late Night with David Letterman left the host dazzled and nearly speechless. The band toured extensively, appeared at Glastonbury in 2015, and that same year released a single, "The Chase"/"Haunted by You."
Tags : 2011,
10s,
Future Islands 
