Camp Cope: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Aug. 23, 2018 | Marissa Lorusso -- After Camp Cope’s second song at the Tiny Desk, singer Georgia “Maq“ McDonald let out a tiny laugh. “We’ve never done this before — we’ve never been quiet,“ she said. “Not once in our entire lives!“ Bassist Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich joked that it was perhaps a “good lesson“ to “rock out in your mind.“ (“Thinking,“ Maq clarified.) The Australian trio makes music that’s hard to tune out, both in terms of its typical punk-tinged rock volume and its general aversion to thoughtlessness. “The Face of God“ — the track Maq, Hellmrich and drummer Sarah Thompson had just finished playing — is a stunning, delicate song about feeling lonely and distraught in the aftermath of sexual violence. It’s a standout from the band’s debut album, How to Socialise & Make Friends, and shows what Camp Cope does so well: using tiny moments of introspection to illuminate life’s bewildering, terri