Thanks to KEXP in Seattle, the seven-piece chamber-pop band Hey Marseilles has been floating around on our radar screen for a couple years now — most notably for its marvelous single "Rio," which opens the group's Tiny Desk Concert debut. Driven by hand-claps, strings and propulsive percussion, the song is a sweet, appropriately transporting tribute to the power of travel.
"Rio" isn't the only good-natured ringer the band trots out at the NPR Music offices: Hey Marseilles rounds out its set with "From a Terrace" and the title track from 2008's self-released To Travels and Trunks, which was reissued nationally this past summer. All three songs benefit enormously from the rich assortment of instrumentation in play here — cello, viola, accordion, trumpet, a snare drum and cymbal, tambourine, another gigantic drum and a pair of acoustic guitars — not to mention the sweetly husky voice of bandleader Matthew Bishop.
If 12 minutes is too steep an investment for you, at least give Hey Marseilles enough time to win your heart with "Rio." You may well find that those four minutes provide plenty of time to fall in love with this utterly charming band.
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