Welcome to NPR Music's Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf.

I'm Bob Boyland. So the Tiny Desk Contest, you probably know, is our nationwide search to find

the next great undiscovered artist to play a tiny desk concert. And thousands of artists around

the country have submitted amazing videos. And before we announce this year's winner,

we're running this top shelf series. And each week, one of the contest judges will share their

favorite entries and we'll interview one of the artists. So today, we have WNXP's Julie Height,

an NPR contributor, and one of this year's Tiny Desk Contest judges. Welcome, Julie.

Hey, Bob. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Have you had fun watching these, uh, these entries?

Absolutely. I kind of don't want the contest to end. I mean, I kind of wish it could go on and on

so I could keep on watching videos. Well, for those of you who don't know this out in the

in the world, if you want to go down a wonderful fun rabbit hole, you go to tinydeskontest.npr.org,

and there are thousands to watch. So lots and lots of fun. Today, we're going to play five of

your favorites, Julie. When you watch these things, what are the things that sort of attract you?

What are the things that you go, oh, I want the world to see this? I really get excited about

voices and vantage points that are that are just vivid or distinct, you know, potent expressions

of individuality, but I also get excited about folks who have figured out what they want to say

and how to say it with flair. And also, I mean, musicianship, actual technique, and, you know,

watching different bands and groups or individual performers use that in really vital or inventive

ways. So I guess what I'm saying is the breadth that we're going to see today is kind of representative

of the breadth of stuff that I got excited about and watching these videos.

So we have five entries today on this top shelf series. We're going to start with an artist named

Calvin II. I found it incredibly dramatic. I mean, the mix of music and the visual drama

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