The Ticket
Tank and the Bangas come to town.
Every “overnight success” story conceals years of anonymous toil, and the New Orleans collective Tank and the Bangas is no exception. Formed in 2011 around the churchripened vocals and free-associative verse of Tarriona “Tank” Ball (she was already a locally renowned slam poet), they combine funk, hiphop, jazz, children’s music and seemingly everything else under the sonic sun to create one of the most joyful sounds to emerge in years. Road warriors from the beginning (an RV facilitated early tours), the group were veterans when their star turn arrived last year: they were chosen from more than 6,000 entries as winners of NPR’S Tiny Desk contest. The prize—a nationally broadcasted concert performed in the station’s D.C. o ice—has subsequently been viewed on Youtube more than six million times. Now they’re preceding a new album with another tour, which sees the core quintet expanded to an onstage party of 11.— Michael White