Tankand the Bangas

Biography

The band formed in 2011 after meeting at a New Orleans open-mic night, and their chemistry was immediately apparent — Ball's extraordinary vocal range and spoken-word poetry, her bandmates' fluid musicality, and their collective willingness to move between funk, soul, hip-hop, gospel, and pure weirdness in the space of a single song. Their victory in NPR's Tiny Desk Contest announced them to a national audience; their subsequent albums for Verve confirmed them as one of the genuinely original bands of their generation. They are New Orleans music at its most contemporary — rooted in the city's traditions of collective performance and joyful experimentation, pointing toward something entirely new.