#needlessly complicated

Show notes:

“Lars Gotrich | October 31, 2025

The pot lid didn't sound the way we wanted. "What about our Webby?" I suggested. The award statue's metallic spring had just the right amount of wobble — a ride cymbal with a drip like Dalí. What you're about to see has never been attempted at the Tiny Desk before: small, MIDI-triggered robots strike and vibrate glass bottles, coffee mugs, plastic wrap and a pizza box to make futuristic music out of the present's refuse and rubbish. What band besides clipping. could pull this off?

For more than 15 years, clipping. has made its name from the deconstruction and celebration of hip-hop. This concert takes that philosophy literally: Producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson spent months digging through thrift stores to find the right clinks, clangs and clongs that could reshape their hypnotic melodies and serrating beats. A sturdy cardboard box becomes the kick drum. A chain bouncing off aluminum foil, the hi-hat. A panoply of glasses, bottles and mugs, the synths. Harmonium, piano and fretless bass fill out the edges. Kid Koala, a turntablist whose unique style no doubt has had an influence on clipping., guests on "Night of Heaven" and "Work Work."

This set, featuring songs that span 2014's CLPPNG to 2025's Dead Channel Sky, exemplifies the idea that something thrilling and beautiful can be created from the noise and debris of everyday life. Daveed Diggs, eternally game to exquisitely rap over whatever creative chaos bursts from his cohorts, sums up the process perfectly: "Thank y'all for this opportunity to do needlessly complicated s***."

SET LIST

"Nothing is Safe"

"True Believer"

"Code"

"Dodger"

"Night of Heaven"

"Work Work"

MUSICIANS

Daveed Diggs: vocals

Jonathan Snipes: electronics, harmonium, melodica, table of nonsense

William Hutson: percussion, loon call, table of nonsense

Sharon Udoh: vocals, piano

David Rothbaum: bass

Kid Koala: turntables

TINY DESK TEAM

Producer: Lars Gotrich

Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant

Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell

Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter

Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Sofia Seidel

Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai

Production Assistant: Dhanika Pineda

Copy Editor: Daoud Tyler-Ameen

Photographer: Maansi Srivastava

Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

Executive Director: Sonali Mehta

it’s kinda like the movie tenet if you’ve seen that, basically this slime moves backwards through time, you can find these all around but they’re quite rare, there plorts are also found just sitting on the ground in various places and are also rare, if you shoot one of these slimes plorts at the slime it will absorb the plort and generate an elder inverted hen hen, which can be sold to victor cause he needs these to have created them in the future to avoid a paradox. If you keep them long enough they’ll turn to hen hens then chickadoos, at this point a paradox may be created so victor will send drones to take them by force. If he fails the universe will collapse and the game is over.

you can add an inversion attachment to your vacpack which lets you shoot at the inverted slimes to pick them up, and it will be like a reverse shot animation.

The Windrush compensation scheme is failing claimants and violating their rights, the first international study into the government’s handling of the immigration scandal has concluded. The Human Rights Watch report is critical of the Home Office’s slow progress towards compensating those affected by the scandal in which thousands of UK residents were wrongly categorised as immigration offenders, and called on the government to launch “urgent reform to protect the rights of claimants”. The rights organisation has questioned the wisdom of allowing the Home Office to be in charge of the compensation programme designed to deliver justice to those affected by the department’s mistakes, and recommends handing the scheme to an independent, neutral organisation. The report highlighted the complexity of the 44-page compensation application form, and criticises the absence of legal aid to support applicants, who have found it challenging to provide evidence demonstrating that they lost work, housing, healthcare and benefits as a direct result of the Home Office’s errors. [...] A Home Office spokesperson said a series of improvements had been made to the scheme, adding: “We remain absolutely committed to righting the wrongs of Windrush and have paid or offered more than £68m in compensation to the people affected. The home secretary continues to co-host Windrush Working Group meetings to discuss how we can work together to drive further improvements.”

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It’s been a while since I’ve shared a project as I’ve worked on it and I’m feeling inspired to for now! Feel free to join me as I yet again make a very simple project much bigger than it needed to be, but hopefully also that much more awesome.

When I bought my house, every single light was a ceiling boob. Ugh. I’ve been slowly replacing them as I find amazing deals and something that matches my style. Last weekend, I found this gorgeous chandelier at the thrift shop for only $13! It’s not quite the style I’m going for in the room (Moorish/Moroccan), but it is really nice and will work. My ideal would be a Moravian Star or Moroccan Lantern fixture, but those start at $200 and go WAY up from there every time I’ve looked in the past. Good enough, especially for only $13.

I got it all cleaned off and ready to hang when I looked up and realized the ceiling boob has hints of an issue.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a project as I’ve worked on it and I’m feeling inspired to for now! Feel free to join me as I yet again make a very simple project much bigger than it needed to be, but hopefully also that much more awesome.

When I bought my house, every single light was a ceiling boob. Ugh. I’ve been slowly replacing them as I find amazing deals and something that matches my style. Last weekend, I found this gorgeous chandelier at the thrift shop for only $13! It’s not quite the style I’m going for in the room (Moorish/Moroccan), but it is really nice and will work. My idea would be a Moravian Star or Moroccan Lantern fixture, but those start at $200 and go WAY up from there every time I’ve looked in the past. Good enough, especially for only $13.

I got it all cleaned off and ready to hang when I looked up and realized the ceiling boob has hints of an issue.