Video: The Low Anthem - This God Damn House (NPR Tiny Desk Concert)

Founded in 2006 by Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky, The Low Anthem are an indie-folk band from Providence, RI who use an amazing collection of traditional instruments (clarinet, saw (my personal favorite), and dulcimer) in combination with a rock setup to achieve a truly stirring sound.  The band - which now includes one-time NASA tech Jocie Adams and multi-instrumentalist Mat Davidson - also use multi-part harmonies that attest to their shared interest in gospel, blues, and folk.  The result is a sound that is simultaneously engages both our shared sense of Americana and our desire to hear [...]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25 WXPN Welcomes Providence, RI's The Low Anthem , which is touring behind its brand-new album, Smart Flesh . Former Low Anthem member Daniel Lefkowitz—who wrote the fan favorite “This God Damn House"—opens. The Low Anthem performs with Bobby and Daniel Lefkowitz at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church; tickets to the all-ages show are $15. Also playing: Michael Showalter at Kung Fu Necktie (7:30 p.m., 21+, SOLD OUT); KFN; Revolver + Jac, When I Was 12 at Johnny Brenda's (9 p.m., 21+, $10); Flogging [...]

Please scroll down, and press play on the video and listen as you read. Everyone was sitting on the floor. The room was almost completely dark. At the prompted moment, during “This God Damn House,” every person in the audience called someone else in the room. It was a vigil: instead of candles, the lit screens of cell phones. Ben Knox Miller held one in each hand and moved them further and closer while the microphone picked up the reverb from his whistle. The sound was simultaneously organic and otherworldly. And then, all the cell phones were picking [...]

Sometimes all it takes to write a song worth listening to is three chords and the truth. But a clarinet and a mustache can help. You dig?