Since Fall 2023, Vassar Tiny Desk—a collaboration between the Student Music Union (StuMU), Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE), Vassar College Television (VCTV) and The Miscellany News—has been a coveted opportunity for student musicians to record and share their work. On March 1, three performances were filmed in a classroom in Blodgett Hall, which was decorated with numerous tiny knick-knacks, a static television and a baby doll with sparkly pink fairy wings. The Miscellany News had the opportunity to see the sets live and sit down with all of the performers afterwards.
Anodyne
Anodyne, consisting of sophomores Elliot Evans [Disclaimer: Evans is a Copy Staffer for The Miscellany News], Nikolai Jerrard, Leo Kogan and Joey LaRosa, walked onto the set with a comically oversized vodka bottle and a giant paper sword, which—after playful banter proclaiming they must shave their mustaches soon—they bestowed upon their drumset. Anodyne, a word they described as meaning “bland,” is an indie rock band aiming to musically capture their college experience. Since meeting during their freshmen orientation, the quartet has experienced the fluctuations of surviving college with the support of one another. One tactic for doing so is by naming their tracks after the various people they know, or at least know of:
“[The titles] are completely separate from the content of the lyrics…it kind of serves as a time stamp. It also is the people we are connected to at the time the song was written,” the band explained. The first song in their set included tranquil, twangy guitar riffs that eventually dropped into a rough, psychedelic-esque melody. They named the tune “Anthony Rosenthal” after former Broadway child actor Anthony Rosenthal ’27 because they thought it would be funny.
The band described their Tiny Desk set as quieter, less inebriated and, thankfully, not as sweaty as their typical campus performances. Audience members bounced their heads and aggressively tapped their feet as the songs flowed between punchy alternative beats and smooth, lighthearted guitar-heavy melodies. Though we were bound to the hard wooden chairs, it was evident that everyone wanted to get up and groove. Their typical campus performances—like Slush Pit, the hard-rock concert organized by StuMU—are filled with loyal “friends-of” and indie rock enthusiasts frolicing around to their noisy rhythms.
Anodyne takes pride in their Vassar College roots. “The entire ethos of the band is we’re from Vassar; we met at Vassar… that has something people hold on to,” LaRosa explained. The group ripped through their second song, “Brody Weiss,” named after Brody Weiss ’26, with a forceful, freeing energy and sped up the pace with the lighter, though rowdy, third track, “Rosila Elebyjian,” after Rosila Elebyjian ’27. Each song’s thrilling energies were encapsulated by the band’s use of thick harmonic string textures. Evans on the bass and Kogan on the guitar handled their respective instruments with a discreet coolness, moving between their own flairs of jazz, rock and folk sounds. Jerrard tore through tracks with an obvious care towards the drums, carrying the more hard-rock leaning elements of the group. And finally, LaRosa handled the soothing vocals as he jammed along on his guitar, taking charge of the simple tenets of an indie rock band while adding his own jangly tones.
Perhaps the band’s most glaring characteristic was their clear blend of humor and care towards one another. During their fourth track, “Morgan Wallen,” Evans and Jerrard held hands, twirling around the heavy guitar melodies and laid-back, coming-of-age-akin sounds. Between each track, a playful joke was said into the mic, usually by LaRosa. “Do you guys like music?” was asked down the line. After the final song of their set, “George from Darter,” per George Traux ’27, each member held up a “banana phone” to their ear and walked away.
Anodyne is excited to make more original music at Vassar and hopes to aid in creating a larger underground band scene on campus. The bunch recently ventured to LaRosa’s home in Long Island, New York—a trip they deemed their “Island Excursion”—to work on their first record. The band recorded their project in LaRosa’s basement in between watching “500 Days of Summer” and helping heal Kogan’s “deathly” illness.
So what is next for Anodyne? While they make final tweaks on their debut album, set to release “very soon,” you can catch them at Davi Prom on Saturday, March 28, in the Aula at 8 p.m. In the meantime, Anodyne will continue goofing around and crafting stirring music as they desperately search for a producer (contact njerrard@vassar.edu if interested). You can also find them on Instagram, @anodyne9999.
Vaughn Quigley-Howard ’26
At his Tiny Desk session, Vaughn Quigley-Howard ’26 shared a set accompanied by acoustic guitar and gentle banter. He was first inspired to start writing music after the passing of country-folk musician John Prine in 2020. He said, “I had heard [Prine] as a kid, and I sort of started listening to his music, and I was suddenly fascinated with how he played guitar and how he interacted with the audience.” Since then, Quigley-Howard has continued to cultivate his passion for music, deciding to declare it as his major at Vassar. His love for music is shown not only through his ability as a guitarist and singer, but also in his ability to pull a story from sound.
Quigley-Howard began his set with “Borrow My Eyes,” an introspective, lightly swung tune. “It’s sort of my frustrations with… the exertion of being alive,” Quigley-Howard said about the song. “It’s so intense sometimes, and to just let go of that, just in a cathartic way, just a sense of release.”
His next song, “Frost,” is a reflection of an intense high school relationship. Quigley-Howard originally wrote this song to be more upbeat, but alongside his guitar teacher, Adjunct Artist in Music Trevor Babb, he reworked it to become a ballad with a unique harmonic structure. Since coming to Vassar, Babb has served as a musical mentor to Quigley-Howard, guiding him in both his playing and writing. Quigley-Howard said, “I would just bring [Babb] a song every week, and we would work through them, and he would sort of pick them apart and make me be more intentional about what I’m doing.”
His next two songs, “I Cut Through the Night” and “Autumn Waltz,” continued to showcase his ability to convey emotional stories through expressive vocal riffs and striking dynamic shifts. He concluded his set with “Song of the Wandering Aengus,” which he arranged while studying abroad in Ireland. During his time abroad, he studied singing with Irish folk musician Karan Casey. “On one of her albums, she had done an arrangement of [The Song of Wandering Aengus],” Quigley-Howard said. “I didn’t really draw that much from her arrangement; I sort of took a different approach because my music is quite different from hers, but that was just a wonderful crash of worlds moment.”
Through his music, Quigley-Howard aims to share something that is both reflective and curious—something he hopes comes across in his Tiny Desk performance. “I hope that it will make [the audience] be introspective,” Quigley-Howard said. “I mean, that is the thing that all my songs come from, it’s just looking inward.”
Quigley-Howard takes inspiration from not only the music but the warm stage presences of artists such as Adrianne Lenker and Prine, and that was made clear through the anecdotes and jokes he shared during the shooting. He reflected, “I wanted to make it feel warm and like I was bringing the audience in with me and into my world a little bit.”
While he is relatively new to the recording process, Quigley-Howard is hoping to release an album as his senior project. In the meantime, you can find his original music and covers on his Instagram, @vh.wav.
Caroline Winchester ’29
Caroline Winchester ’29 approached her set with a pleasant grin and a profuse sense of joy. Dressed in a red skirt and black winter fur boots, she took the stage with her acoustic guitar and a warm, exciting energy. Winchester has always loved to sing, and after sending her music on a whim, was ecstatic to be a part of the 2026 Tiny Desk. She typically performs in social settings—like PorchFests or Vassar gatherings—so she was thrilled to have an audience actually sit down and listen solely to her.
Winchester has been surrounded by music her whole life, having sung in choir since fourth grade and playing with her brother, who is a jazz bassist. When writing her original songs, she relies on her own ear and intuition, often being inspired by small improvisations on her guitar. “I play around by ear, and then I kind of conceptualize what it is that I’m actually playing,” Winchester said. “I always end up playing little ideas on my guitar, and the way an idea turns into a song is if I just play something that I happen to like and slowly expand upon it.”
Winchester’s first song, “Get Down,” showed off her talents by utilizing vocal flipping and upbeat, lively guitar melodies. Slow Pulp-esque, the song set off a lighthearted, bedroom-pop liveliness that overtook the room; her friends in the audience noticeably watched with smiles brightening their dimly-lit faces. Winchester clearly yearns for a connection with the audience, telling sarcastic jokes and silly one-liners in between songs. Winchester revealed how “Get Down” was also written as a joke, with its lyrics poking fun at Carrie and Big from HBO’s “Sex and the City.” The track’s cheerful tone deviates from her typical style. “It’s a more upbeat song for me. In the past, I used to write slow, sad songs, so it’s been fun to transition,” Winchester explained.
Winchester presented a slower ballad as her second song. This song was an impressive demonstration of her creativity, as she mentioned having spent more time on the lyrics and chose an unconventional tuning—CGDFAD—which she later said was inspired by Joni Mitchell’s “Blue Motel Room.” “[It] has these beautiful, beautiful chord progressions and such a cool sound,” Winchester said. “I ‘stole’ her tuning, and I just played around with it.”
“Swerve It,” Winchester’s third song, was the most upbeat with soft-pop elements and an energetic, addictive chorus. Lyrically, she discusses the anxieties that come with having a crush, the title describing a swerve away from a kiss: “You make me nervous.” Winchester wants the audience to gather her genuine passion for music making; it is something that brings her immense joy. During her live performance, this sentiment struck home. She also hopes viewers will contact her to form a band together (a must!).
For her final song, Winchester performed her own interpretation of “Wish I Was A Single Girl Again,” a ballad made well-known by American folk musician Tia Blake. This song expresses a longing for a simpler, unmarried life, and Winchester’s sweet voice and melodic guitar lines beautifully brought it to life. Winchester grew up listening to folk and jazz, mentioning Norah Jones as a musical inspiration, and this stylistic influence is made clear in both her original songs and her cover.
Since coming to college, Winchester has found that her writing process has shifted to adapt to dorm living. She said, “I think actually the most different thing about my music-making process is that I have a roommate now, and I can’t play my guitar 24/7, so I have to be a little more strategic. I think it made me maybe a bit more economical in my writing because I know that my time is a little more sparing.” However, she has been immersing herself in all corners of Vassar’s music scene, even participating in Music Department courses and ensembles.
As just a freshman at Vassar, Winchester is merely getting started. She does not have any music currently released, but is optimistic about the time ahead: “In the future, maybe look up my name on the internet, and there will be something. Just keep hoping.”