KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts

KUT and KUTX news and music podcasts for Austin, Texas and beyond

Archives for March 2018

Go Fever: “Nobody’s Business”

For the next two weeks, Song of the Day exclusively brings you artists playing SXSW 2018 (official and unofficial) 

Photo by Kate Blaising

Dropping on you like a new-wave charm bomb and exploding with as much color, attitude, and energy as your younger sister who threw-up rainbow-colored cake at your 9th birthday party comes Go Fever, a pop-rock-meets-new-wave outfit who, in just 2 years, has gone from obscurity to ubiquity– making the ascension from hopping on bills where they can to becoming a go-to headliner for almost any booker and venue in this city.

Equal parts charm and attitude is the magic formula here, brilliantly executed by their force of a frontwoman, Austinite-by-way-of-Australia Acey Monaro, who splices her charming melodies with razor-tongued, tell-off lyrics before letting it organically flow from her aura to yours and heimliching whatever pedestrian funk you’ve been choking on. All of Acey’s infectious songwriting is consistently delivered at the funkiest of standards thanks to her band, bulked-up with Sweet Spirit drummer Josh Merry and Star Parks’s Benjamin Burdick and Keith Lough. Go Fever have a new record coming out later this year (that we’ll be keeping our finger on), but today we kick it with one of their setlist standards, one you’re guaranteed to hear at at least one of their many, many shows this SXSW. A meditation on the emotional journey, for better or worse, from romantically being somebody’s everything to being nobody’s anything.

Check out Acey’s recent My KUTX guest DJ session and Go Fever’s Studio 1A debut.

Go Fever SXSW Dates
Saturday, 3/10 || NLand Surf
Monday, 3/12 || Do512 Strange Brew- Hotel Vegas
Tuesday, 3/13 || Spiderhouse
Wednesday, 3/14 || MGM Showcase- Lucille’s**
Friday, 3/16 || Nine Mile Records Showcase- Hotel Vegas **
Friday, 3/16 || OVRLD Party- Fine Southern Gentlemen
Saturday, 3/17 || Project ATX6 Showcase- Maggie Mae’s**

** indicates official SXSW showcase

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

 

Texas Standard: March 7, 2018

Greg Abbott goes one for three, democrats from Houston and Dallas to duke it out for the governors race, and more takeaways from the primaries. And another emerging theme for Texas politics in 2018: the female factor. We’ll explain. Also, the most expensive battle in the Texas primaries goes to the woman. We’ll have the latest on a bitter fight for a state senate post. And Beto O’Rourke gets 60 percent of the democratic vote to set up a November showdown with Ted Cruz, and the nation is watching. Also getting the border wired for the web and a questionable claim about the leading killer of African Americans and much more, today on the Texas Standard:

BRONCHO: “Record Store” (Live in Studio 1A)

For the next two weeks, Song of the Day exclusively brings you artists playing SXSW 2018 (official and unofficial) 

Hailing from the Okie lands of the North comes Norman Oklahoma’s BRONCHO, a high-energy garage-punk outfit whose sound and lineup have evolved throughout their 8-year, 3-LP history. The group’s sound has smoothed out as its filled-out, trading sharp-nosed guitar riffs and a gritty edge for buttery melodies and a more subdued, indie attitude that sets the guitar in the thick of the sound instead of driving it. BUT, as great as their newer sound is, the heart of the punk-rocker still beats on underneath, and we’re celebrating that classic BRONCHO momentum with this gem we dug out of our archives.

“Record Store” comes from their first Studio 1A appearance back in 2013 in support of their debut album Can’t Get Past the Lips. Ironically both anchored and driven by catchy guitar riffs laced with frontman Ryan Lindsay’s androgynous voice and loose enunciation, it’s garage-punk to increase your heart rate and curl your lip, wrapped in just the right amount of pop-punk to make it all stick in your head.

Check out the rest of that Studio 1A session here.

 

BRONCHO SXSW Dates
Monday, 3/12 || Hotel Vegas
Tuesday, 3/13 || Spider House
Wednesday, 3/14 || Parish**
Thursday, 3/15 || Bungalow**
Friday, 3/16 || Little Woodrows
Saturday, 3/17 || Mohawk
Saturday, 3/17 || Clive Bar**

** indicates official SXSW showcase

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

Windmills: A Memory of Spring

When I was fifteen, weighed down by concerns about high school – algebra tests, term papers, girls – there was no better spot in the world to silence the mind than on top of a 35 foot windmill at my uncle’s farm. In the spring, it was heaven up there on that platform. To the north I could see hundreds of black angus cattle dotting the new grass of irrigated pastures, a scene fitting for Van Gogh’s brush. To the south, way south, there were citrus orchards. The southern breeze blew in the sweet smell of orange blossoms. In the brushlands of south Texas, that was the second harbinger of spring.

The first I could see to the west, the new sheen of emerald green covering miles of mesquite. The huisache trees, too, were adding their bright golds to the mix.

Just a few days before it had been a bleak, brown landscape, but overnight, nature turned on her lights and from the platform high above it all, as birds sang with greater enthusiasm, and butterflies fluttered among the bluebonnets far below, I could witness the world being born again.

And the windmill turned and squeaked. I think a windmill squeaking may be the only squeaking in life that is comforting. It’s soothing somehow, perhaps because it is the sound of life itself being pumped from the ground.

We used to keep metal coffee cups on hooks down by the water tank so we could get a fresh drink of water, delivered pure and cold from deep in the earth, whenever we wanted.

I think photographs of windmills are the pictures Texans seem to love most of all. There is something romantic about them. The giant turbines are not loved like windmills, perhaps because they are so enormous they overpower rather than blend with the landscape.

And windmills stand alone, never in groups of twenty of forty. Windmills seem independent and solitary, historically symbolic of the Texas character. They have a unique place in our heritage. They transformed much of the land from arid to vibrant.
This reminds me of a poem by the great cowboy poet, Mike Moutoux. He makes this point about windmills far better than I can.

A FITTING MONUMENT

by Mike Moutoux

In the dry land stands the monument of a dreamer
It is a testament to hope; to years of yearning
Standing tall above the grasses, rocks and scrub oak
Below a cloudless sky and sun so brightly burning
No babbling brooks cross here, just silent sand arroyos
Few linger here at all; fewer still would stake a claim
Only fools and dreamers could love this barren land
It does not suffer fools; dreamers love it just the same
‘Twas the Homestead Act that brought him here to dream and sweat
It was the solitude and grass that it made it feel right
But there were months when precious rains were non-existent
Each cloudless day brought another worried weary night
All that changed when the Aermotor windmill was delivered
The well was dug, the tower raised; each rod and gear in place
The wind blew as always, but now it turned a shiny fan
And both the cowman’s heart and dreams begin to race
The cowman would talk about that day for years to come
How the blades spun, the rods creaked, how he paced and paced
And then water, precious water, poured from pipe to trough
Giving hope a thing a man could actually taste
Within weeks trails appeared around the water trough
As thirsty critters, one by one, found the water there of course
Not just cows, but the antelope, fox and deer drank there
The tower, a beacon, led them to their water source
The story of the dreamer is old but not forgotten
The tower still stands although its working years are spent
A testament to one man’s hope and all those years of yearning
For a dreamer and cowman, a most fitting monument.

For more of Mike Moutoux’s work, go to www.mikemoutoux.com

Texas Standard Primary Special: March 6, 2018

The polls just closed in El Paso in the unofficial kickoff to the midterm elections: it’s primary night in the state of Texas and we’re doing the numbers. Plus, in what might be the most closely watched statewide race, the incumbent George P. Bush: the scion of a political dynasty, faces three GOP challengers including his own predecessor. And high turnout among democrats. What are we to make of that, and does it signal a so called blue wave in Texas politics? Also, an unusually high number of open races. You think they’re not following this at the white house tonight? How will the outcomes translate to the national stage?
Commentator Matthew Dowd joins us. Texas voters, we’ve got you covered on a special Primary Night edition of the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: March 6, 2018

Worst deal ever! That’s what candidate Trump called NAFTA. Now putting steel tariffs on the table, could Trump tilt the scales? We’ll explore. Also, it’s primary day in Texas, we’ll have the latest. And are today’s doctors dinosaurs? The head of the new UT medical school in Austin says they’re definitely an endangered species, we’ll hear why. And when companies breaking ties with the NRA and taking stands in the culture wars, smart business? Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Whiite Walls: “Fine Fitting”

Finding yourself furiously furrowing your brow at a lack of innovative dance music in your city? Open your eyes and ears to the self proclaimed prophets of funk and descendants of disco – the up-and-coming local five-piece Whiite Walls. Equipped with an arsenal of retro-80s grooves built atop modern production techniques, Whiite Walls is sure to get any dance floor moving and feed that energy back into their own performances for a gorgeous cycle of shared live energy. You can enjoy that live energy when Whiite Walls performs this Friday at Hotel Vegas and this Sunday at Spiderhouse part of All the Friends Ball (sponsored by KUTX 98.9). Feeling the need to satiate your four-to-the-floor fascination? Whiite Walls premieres their previously-unheard tune “Fine Fitting” right here on KUTX!

–Jack Anderson (Host Monday-Wednesday 8-11pm, Saturday 6-10am)

Texas Standard: March 5, 2018

There’s Abbot and Valdez and White and who else? What does it take to make a mark in a contest like this? We’ll have details. Also, With just hours to go before primary day: gimme 5 takeaways: the university of Houston’s Brandon Rottinghaus on the big themes going into Tuesday. And 3-2-1-will we ever see liftoff by SpaceX in south Texas? We’ll have the view from the launch pad. And not since the days of sputnik: a milestone for a major Texas export. Hank Hill would be proud. All those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Sphynx: “Patterns”

Despite the possibility that they may be permanently trapped in a 1980s mindset, local trio Sphynx is always pushing their retro-modern sound to its limits. The three-piece had already endured seven long years of arduous touring before enjoying an auspicious 2017 in which Sphynx released two EPs, one full-length and opened for acts like ?uestlove and Walk The Moon across stages nationwide. Instead of taking a much-deserved breather, Sphynx is currently snowballing their concentrated energy with a six-stop tour in the UK before returning to their native Austin for several official SXSW gigs. Sphynx just dropped the first of what is to be a series of 2018 releases – a single that fits equally well in a modern synth-pop playlist as it would in the soundtrack of a Miami Vice episode – “Patterns”.

– Jack Anderson (Host Monday-Wednesday 8-11pm, Saturday 6-10am)

Elijah C. Watson (Ep. 13, 2018)

In Black America producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. discusses the origins of the African American colloquialism “woke” with Elijah C. Watson, News Editor for the New York-based Black Politics and pop culture website Okayplayer.

Higher Ed: Information Overload

With so much information available to us so quickly and easily these days, it might feel as if there is just too much to learn. But encountering massive amounts of information is not the same as actually discerning and then learning what is essential. In this episode of KUT’s podcast Higher Ed, KUT’s Jennifer Stayton and Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger discuss information saturation. “Gossip gone amok.” That’s what Ed calls some of the information that we can access with just a few keystrokes or swipes. He makes an important distinction between the sheer volume of information we are exposed to on a daily basis and actually learning and processing what is essential. But with so much out there, how do we figure out what is critical to learn? And how do we filter out the rest? In this episode, Ed and Jennifer discuss managing information overload and developing effective gatekeeping functions. You will want to classify this episode as essential information and listen for the solution to last episode’s puzzler about the endless chess board.

This episode was recorded Jan. 18, 2018.

KUT Weekend – March 2, 2018

The Gulf Coast tourist towns of Port Aransas and Rockport want you to visit, even if they’re not quite ready. Plus, a documentary about the violent arrest of an Austin teacher is up for an Oscar. And a review of a Korean BBQ restaurant off I-35. Those stories and more in this edition of KUT Weekend!

Subscribe at https://weekend.kut.org

Creation

Tearing something down is quick, easy, and very gratifying. What is more time-consuming and difficult is creating, building, and constructing. However, as Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, the reasons why we are more likely to criticize than create aren’t just about effort.

Texas Standard: March 2, 2018

With primary day fast approaching, reporters reading the Texas political tea leaves are seeing more blue. Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post joins us today on the Standard.

Southeast Texans remember trying to get around during hurricane Harvey. Doesn’t have to be a storm that big, sometimes heavy downpours make Texas roads impassable, but you don’t know know about it until it’s too late–now there may be a fix in the works.

A growing scandal over college basketball players accepting money- and a proposal to fix it that’s getting a lot more attention: What about letting them accept the money?

Plus the week in Texas politics with the Texas Tribune and and much more.

Sue Foley: “Run” (Live in Studio 1A)

Austin-by-way-of-Canada songstress Sue Foley can’t seem to shake the blues – at least musically. The Great White North simply couldn’t satiate Foley’s need for blues in her life, so why not pack up everything and move to a city with a Stevie Ray Vaughan statue?! This week’s been an exciting one for Foley; she performed at Antone’s last night, releases her brand new album The Ice Queen today, performs an acoustic set tonight at the Cactus Cafe. She’ll also be stopping by Waterloo Records this Sunday. Though tonight’s Cactus performance is strictly acoustic, you can get a taste of Foley’s live energy with a track recorded in our own Studio 1A this past Tuesday – “Run”.

-Jack Anderson (Host Monday-Wednesday 8-11pm, Saturday 6-10am)

Texas Standard: March 1, 2018

Texas based Academy Sports sticks to its guns, but fans of the AR 15 face a new backlash, including perhaps from the White House. The story today on the Texas Standard.

Lloyd Doggett & Beto O’Rourke among the Texans in Congress writing a letter to the Speaker of the House. The message: time to rethink the blank check for the US military in Syria. There’s a reason this push may have traction, and we’ll hear why.

Attention Texas home renters, have you double checked your contract? A warning about so called landlord’s liens.

Also, sworn to secrecy: Army vets come out of the shadows claiming health problems tied to top secret experiments.

Caroline Says: “I Tried”

Photo by Daniel Yates

Take a breath, slow down, and let the weight of the week lift from your weary aura and float away on the ethereal sonic waves of Caroline Says. But don’t let the open-air aesthetic fool you—everything Caroline Sallee writes and brings to life is leaden with substance. Making a departure from the surf-rock vibes of their debut album, the group’s follow-up turns the dial back a little without sacrificing momentum or interesting arrangements. Inspired by a trip to her small Alabama hometown where the juxtaposition of the constant whirl of the Austin cyclone and the apathetically accepted static state of Huntsville left her feeling unsettled and introspective, Austin-transplant-by-way-of Alabama Sallee fleshed out and recorded an entire album within months of 2017’s 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong. The setting for recording the album—her dreary, cave-like basement apartment— highlights the album’s darker mood, and the wealth of inspiration is evident in her songwriting.

“I Tried” is a shining synecdoche of the album’s darker tone. The energy is soft, each layer has room to air out and dissipate gracefully, and Sallee’s aerial vocals float on top of it all…with a hint of bossa nova to keep the momentum strong and your shoulders bouncing.

“I Tried” appears on No Fool Like An Old Fool, out March 16th via Western Vinyl. Catch Caroline Says recorded live in Studio 1A on KUTX next Thursday, March 8th at 9 PM.

Upcoming Caroline Says Shows (note: some may be SXSW official showcases)
Sunday, Mar 4th || Barracuda
Saturday, Mar 10th || Hotel Vegas
Sunday, Mar 11th || Hotel Vegas
Tuesday, Mar 13th || The Volstead
Friday, Mar 16th || Buffalo Billiards
Friday, Mar 16th || Scholz Garden

-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli

 

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