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tUnE-yArDs, Live In Concert: Newport Folk 2012

Folk Alley | By Stephen Thompson
Published July 30, 2012 at 2:16 PM CDT
tUnE-yArDs performs on the Harbor Stage at the Newport Folk Festival.
Erik Jacobs for NPR
tUnE-yArDs performs on the Harbor Stage at the Newport Folk Festival.

Merrill Garbus, the mastermind behind tUnE-yArDs, often uses a minimal assortment of resources — a ukulele, some pedals, a bit of percussion here and there — to craft an explosive, unpredictable, worldly, beautiful and utterly inventive sound. On last year's widely beloved w h o k i l l, Garbus' music forms a cut-up collage of coos, howls and bold statements of purpose, but her live shows fan out into epic rave-ups, complete with a pair of saxophonists.

For all its ventures into politics and wild experimentation, tUnE-yArDs' music is fun above all else — a joyous and strange concoction that's at once wild, rhythmic, layered and swirling with surprises. Watching it unfold on stage is never less than a thrill. tUnE-yArDs performs here as part of the 2012 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Sunday, July 29 in Newport, R.I.

Set List:

  • "Party Can"

  • "You Yes You"

  • "Gangsta"

  • "Riot Riot"

  • "Powa"

  • "Real Life Flesh"

  • "ESSO"

  • "Bizzness"

  • "Doorstep"

  • "My Country"

    • Copyright 2021 Folk Alley. To see more, visit Folk Alley.

    Music
    Stephen Thompson
    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
    See stories by Stephen Thompson