Pygmy Lush: Tiny Desk Concert
Pygmy Lush Returns to the Tiny Desk, Performing for the First Time in Seven Years on August 30, 2024.
How rare is it for the same group of musicians to create not one but two beloved bands of the punk scene? Around the turn of the millennium, pg. 99 pushed heavy music to its most chaotic extremes, inspiring tattoos and the next generation of hardcore. Then a few members of pg. 99 started Pygmy Lush — something quieter and sweeter, though no less experimental.
Pygmy Lush never broke up, life just happened; this Tiny Desk is the atmospheric folk band's first live performance in seven years. While its catalog can get noisy, Pygmy Lush here relies on haunted campfire singalongs from 2008's Mount Hope (“Asphalt,” “Dead Don’t Pass” and “Hard to Swallow”) and “It’s a Good Day to Hide” from its split LP with the hardcore band Turboslut.
The foundations here are simple — acoustic guitars, looped melodies, repeated phrases, hushed vocals — but its gentle swells allow small feelings to grow roots and wander.
Blood and chosen family surrounds this set. Chris and Mike Taylor’s mother came to see Pygmy Lush perform for the very first time — the way they lit up when she entered the NPR Music office is too precious for words. Johnny Ward's mother sat beside her. Mike Widman's eldest daughter sings on “Hard to Swallow.” And, because Pygmy Lush has always featured an orbit of collaborators, Aimée Argote from the shapeshifting indie-rock band Des Ark plays piano and sings — their touch is so delicate, yet gives the monochromatic mood so much color.
Pygmy Lush closes this Tiny Desk with “I’ll Wait with You,” a personal request of mine.
- "Asphalt"
- "It’s a Good Day to Hide"
- "Dead Don't Pass"
- "Hard to Swallow"
- "I'll Wait with You"
- Chris Taylor: vocals, guitar
- Johnny Ward: vocals, guitar
- Mike Taylor: guitar, vocals
- Mike Widman: bass
- Andy Gale: drums
- Aimée Argote: piano, vocals
- Ezra-June Widman: vocals
- Lars Gotrich | Producer
- Kara Frame | Director/Editor
- Josephine Nyounai | Audio Technical Director
- Bobby Carter | Host/Series Producer
- Kara Frame, Mitra I. Arthur, Alanté Serene, Elizabeth Gillis | Videographers
- Carleigh Strange | Audio Engineer
- Ashley Pointer | Production Assistant
- Estefania Mitre | Photographer
- Hazel Cills, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant | Tiny Desk Team
- Suraya Mohamed | Executive Producer
- Keith Jenkins | VP, Visuals and Music