Stephen Thompson | December 2, 2022
Now that we’re back to recording Tiny Desk concerts in the office, home concerts mostly happen under special circumstances: when the artist is overseas, for example, or otherwise unable to get to Washington, D.C., when we’re recording. Given that BTS’s RM (aka Kim Nam-joon) is based in South Korea, we let it slide — not least because his team put together one of the most impressive Tiny Desk facsimiles we’ve seen yet. What really sets it apart is the huge array of shelf-bound ephemera, which is bound to have the BTS Army sleuthing in the YouTube comments. What’s a random tchotchke and what’s an Easter egg? Study the set closely!
RM timed his solo Tiny Desk debut — which follows BTS’s home concert from back in 2020 — to coincide with the release of his first official studio album, Indigo. But he kicks off the set with an older track, “seoul,” which first appeared on his 2018 mixtape mono. From there, he showcases the first two tracks from Indigo: the rap-driven “Yun” and the funky “Still Life,” both of which are inspired by RM’s love of and fascination with painting. The studio tracks feature Erykah Badu and Anderson .Paak, respectively, both of whom get shoutouts in this set. But here, the focus never drifts away from the star at center stage — no matter how closely you might squint at the stuffed animals, housewares, clocks and toys (not to mention Big Mouth Billy Bass!) behind him.
Now, if we can just get him to visit the real Tiny Desk…
SET LIST “seoul” “Yun” “Still Life”
MUSICIANS RM: vocals DOCSKIM: keyboard john eun: guitar Jaeshin Park: bass JK Kim: drums
CREDITS Director: Oui Kim (OUI) Producer: Yeonjin Kim (OUI) AUDIO: JEONG WOO YEONG Son Yu Jeong
CREW: Huiwon Song Sunyoung Kim Hyeri Shin EumKo Youngwoo Lee Eunil Lee Sungju Min Kihun Kim Seungjong Lee Yuntae Ko Kidung Kim Kiyong Eom Donghyun Lee Doosoo Choi Yujin Jung Sangjoon Lee Kieun Lee Kihyun Lee Seonghyeon Heo Insol Yun Hyeongeun Kim Yujin Ko Daeun Han Jae Yoo GANi Leehyun Kim Yeonhwa Cha Daye Shin Daniella Kim Saeyong Oh Lee Jung Min Lee Hyeon Ki Jeong Dae Seong Jinho Jeong Rachel Um Jennie Lee Rosa Kim
TINY DESK TEAM Producer: Bob Boilen Video Producer: Kara Frame Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin Tiny Production Team: Suraya Mohamed, Bobby Carter, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Hazel Cills, Marissa Lorusso, Ashley Pointer, Jill Britton, Sofia Seidel VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann
#tinydesk #rm #bts #nprmusic
