Sloppy Jane: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

Bob Boilen | November 17, 2021
Sloppy Jane seems to be as much an event as it is a band. And despite 11 instruments — including cello, two violins, viola, two guitars, drums, bass, and a trumpet — crammed into a coffee shop called Porcelain in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens, that only represents around half of the musicians on Sloppy Jane's new album. Oh, and I do need to mention that the album, Madison, was recorded with more than 20 people, plus a film crew, in the belly of Lost World Caverns, where they lowered an upright piano into the cave! So, it's safe to say there's nothing casual about the music Haley Dahl, aka Sloppy Jane, makes, and the commitment from her accompanying musicians helps bring these crazy ideas to life.

The drama in Haley Dahl's voice and body movements emphasize the complex and sometimes disturbing imagery in the songs performed for this Tiny Desk (home) concert. These are all singles from Madison, which Haley described as "the best ambassadors" of the record and that "all the songs on the record are about the same thing: unrequited love and feeling like a monster. These three songs ("Party Anthem," "Jesus and Your Living Room Floor," "Wilt") are the most tangible."


Madison is out now on Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory Records. Phoebe Bridgers was the bass player in Sloppy Jane during her high school days so it's a beautiful circle of friendship that has grown from a then three-piece punk band into this epic mix of emotion and grandeur.

SET LIST
"Party Anthem"
"Jesus and Your Living Room Floor"
"Wilt"

MUSICIANS
Haley Dahl: vocals
Bailey Wollowitz: drums
Al Nardo: guitar
Nathan Lopez: guitar
Emma Stacher: bass
Lily Rothman: piano
Lily Desmond: violin
Ruby Wang: violin
Sean Brennan: cello
Joshua Gerrard: viola
Tree Palmedo: trumpet

CREDITS
Video: Brad Wagner
Audio: Juan M Soria

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Bob Boilen
Video Producer: Maia Stern
Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin
Tiny Production Team: Bobby Carter, Kara Frame, Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis
Executive Producer: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

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