KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts

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

Archives for January 2019

In Full Effect

It’s one of the best Saturday nights around, music nerd. Going from Rick McNulty sweeping you off your feet with all manner of rock ‘n’ soul classics on Uptown Saturday Night right into dynamic duo Confucious Jones and Fresh shaking things up with massive hip-hop, rap, funk/soul/R&B and then some on The Breaks on KUTX 98.9. And it’s always live. That spontaneity keeps it real. But now, it’s time to take it up a notch.

The Breaks Live is KUTX’s new residency at Empire Control Room, 606 E. 7th St., featuring all the fantastic track selections and candid conversation you hear on The Breaks, live and in person. The new show launches tonight with a performance and interview with special guest, Houston hip-hop artist Doeman Dyna. Doors open at 9 p.m. Send in an RSVP to get in free before 10 p.m.

Get on up. The Austin Music Minute recommends this one double time.

-The track featured on today’s AMM is “Ms. Compton,” from the self-titled album by Jake Lloyd.

Deer Tick: “Hey! Yeah!”

If you’re in need of some rowdy rockin’ indie alternative country, then it’s time to let Deer Tick crawl into your life. This Providence, Rhode Island quartet began as a duo back in 2004 and has been building up their raucous, grin-inducing sound over the course of seven full-lengths, a number of EPs, a few lineup changes, and countless live performances.

Deer Tick was last in the news with the release of their 2017 eponymous double album and next month they’re back with a slather of new songs. Deer Tick’s upcoming LP Mayonnaise is out February 1st and you can spread the fresh stuff around with its lead single, “Hey! Yeah!”

The History Of Blue Note

Celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2019, Rabbi and jazz historian Neil Blumofe walks us through the origins of Blue Note Records and how genres like bebop helped to understand the turbulence of the times.

Music: Horace Silver – “Silver’s Serenade”Sidney Bechet – “Early In The Morning”Thelonious Monk – “Thelonious”.

Texas Standard: January 7, 2019

Crisis on the border? Depends on who you ask. We’ll check in with McAllen’s Mayor to find out what he’s seeing and what he’d tell President Trump. Also, Texas’s largest school district gets some harsh attention from the Governor. How we got to this point and what’s next. And it’s game day. The college football national championships will bring in big money for the coaches and schools. How should players benefit? Plus the telenovela bridges country lines and generations. We’ll explore the cultural phenomenon. And space exploration in 2019 could definitely be out of this world. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Love the Crazy Ride

Greetings. Your Austin Music Minute maven has returned from a two-week break, with this rec to remedy your Monday blahs. Where to begin? Ah, yes: The song of the heart.

There’s nothing wrong with poetry. Nothing at all. However, for Austin-based songwriter Michael Booher, there’s no desire to mask the scars with flowery rhymes and alliteration. The former Zykos frontman’s debut solo album Funny Tears unveils a soul buried in uncertainty, yet warm and inviting, an open heart surviving the roller coaster journey into the vast emotional unknown. But hear the man out; it can’t all be bad.

Don’t miss Booher’s performance tonight at Hotel Vegas, 1501 E. 6th. Also on the bill: The Carribean vacation headspace that is Austin Leonard Jones, and party folk songwriter David Israel. Get there round 9 p.m. Recommended.

-Photography by White Light Exposure.

Chris Cohen: “Edit Out”

Happy New Year! We’re only a week into 2019 and we’re already thrilled for another year of exciting new music, so let’s get right to it!

In the late ’70s, multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris Cohen entered the world of music banging on drum heads when he was just three. Fast forward to to the mid-2000s, where Cohen the “singing drummer” provided his talents for a variety of groups, most notably in The Curtains, Ariel Pink and Deerhoof. In 2012 Cohen took his solo psychedelic pop to the studio and has self-sufficed across several recordings since.

Chris Cohen wrapped up 2018 with his first new song in a couple years, doubling as his first solo material recorded with other musicians (Tuneyards saxophonist Kasey Knudsen and composer/pianist Jay Israelson), rather than entirely on his own. Cohen’s new single teases more music to come in 2019 so let’s highlight Cohen’s latest and start the new year off on a revisionist note with “Edit Out”!

Photo: Ebru Yildiz

Higher Ed: Want A Great, Excellent, Challenging Way To Think And Learn More Deeply? Add An Adjective

Wait – you mean adding a couple of descriptive words to a particular situation, puzzle, or problem can help lead to clarity and a solution? In this episode of KUT’s podcast “Higher Ed,” Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger and KUT’s Jennifer Stayton discuss this thought-provoking practice.

Well, ok, it is not quite as simple as sticking in an extra word or two when you are puzzling through a tough situation or question. Ed says it’s what you do after the word is added.

“It’s not enough to just add the adjective and move on, ” says Ed. “The goal is to add a descriptor, and then hold onto it and keep looking at it until you have an ‘ooooh’ insight. And then once you have that, then you can move onto another descriptor or eventually, actually resolve the issue because you will have so much information.”

How exactly does this work in practice?

Ed illustrates with an example from history. He points out that what was known as the “Great War” or the “War to End All Wars” was only later named “World War One.” Ed wonders what if it had been called the First World War from the very beginning? He says it would likely for most people raised the possibility of subsequent conflicts.

“That’s the point of adding the adjective,” says Ed. ” That it provokes some thought. And it turns out that often, for us to see things that are in front of us, we have to identify them and spell them out and give them a name. And so by adding the adjective of what we see around us, it allows us to see the things that are there that we otherwise would have missed.”

Sounds easy, right?  Ed warns developing this practice actually requires an investment of time but is well worth it.

“It is hard to stop and think and stop and describe and stop and engage,” says Ed. “But by practicing that, it becomes part of who we are and then we become better.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more about “adding the adjective” and to sample the first new puzzler of 2019. It is delicious!

This episode was recorded on Dec. 4, 2018.

KUT Weekend – January 4, 2018

An audit finds Austin police improperly cleared 30 rape cases in three months last year. Plus, fracking’s secret problem: some wells are not producing as much as forecast. And what happens with your genetic info in those home DNA tests? Those stories and more in this edition of KUT Weekend!

Subscribe at https://weekend.kut.org

Texas Standard: January 4, 2019

U.S. Representative Will Hurd of Texas is a Republican but he sided with Democrats yesterday in a vote to reopen the government. We’ll ask him why. Also, volatility: It’s a term investors don’t much like to hear in talks about the stock market. Why the last several weeks have been so up and down. Also, security is a term houses of worship are reconsidering after sanctuaries have become targets. We’ll hear from church and mosque leaders in Texas. And federal employees suing the government, the latest on court battle over the Affordable Care Act, and a little arts and poetry today on the Texas Standard:

Quitting Facebook

Many of us threaten to do it, but most don’t go through with quitting Facebook. Leaving the social media site that connects us virtually with so many people can sometimes leave us feeling even more isolated, but it just might be what we need to feel more connected in real life. That was the inspiration of this Typewriter Rodeo poem.

Labels

Labels are an essential part of distinguishing between one another but they can also pigeonhole one’s sense of identity. How can we adjust our approach to labeling mental illnesses, particularly in children, in a communally constructive way?

On this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke discuss labels.

The New Year & Responsibility

Reflecting on 2018 and welcoming 2019, Rabbi and jazz historian Neil Blumofe connects jazz and reinvention, then recites “New Year’s Recipe” by Carlos Drummond de Andrade.

Music: Art Tatum – “Prisoner of Love”

Texas Standard: January 3, 2019

The calendars have switched over to 2019 and that means some new Texas laws are or will soon go into effect. We’ll tell you what you need to know. Also, Mexico’s new president is making the entire border with the U.S. into a special zone to encourage would-be migrants to stay put. We’ll ask one expert whether the plan will work. Plus, jobs these days often involve sitting at a desk and getting food is as easy as pushing a button… How our hunter-gatherer bodies aren’t adapting. And have you ever seen an albino cockroach? It may not be what you think. All that and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: January 2, 2019

More migrants sprayed with tear gas as money for a border wall remains at the center of the government shutdown. We’ll have the latest. Also, the measure to allow Texans to donate to address the huge backlog of untested rape kits passed with bipartisan support. But now it’s reached a real-world roadblock, we’ll tell you why. Many who live in the Big Bend area have spent their whole lives there, except for their last days. The challenge of access to hospice care. Plus debunking myths about mental health, the country band bringing two Texas towns together and what an onion says about this year’s forecast. All that and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Free Week Is Upon Us

Photo by Gina A Sandoval-Garcia

Free Week 2019 is here! And while there is an average of umpteenth shows any given night, the Austin Music Minute is here to help you navigate it.

Tonight at Empire Control Room and Garage you can see the glampire vampire Caleb De Casper with Whit, the Reputations, and others; Stubb’s Indoors hosts sexy straightahead rockers Sharks in the Deep End and Belcurve; Swan Dive’s got the abrasive stylings of Ghost Wolves, Think No Think, Billy King and the Bad Bad Bad, and Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, while Cheer Up Charlie’s hosts a punk bill with Sailor Poon, Big Bill, and MAMIS, but the “hey get there early show” is at Mohawk with Ume backed by Darkbird, Cosmico, Shmu, TC Superstar, and Chill Russell.  Check out our “KUTX Free Week 2019” on Spotify or check it out below!

Texas Standard: January 1, 2019

The ball has dropped launching 2019, now gavels set to drop in the Texas state capitol. Are you ready for the 86th session? Every two years it happens: members of the Texas house and senate gather under that building they call the pink dome in Austin launching a season of debates over laws and spending that affect most of all of us. In 2019, what should we expect, or brace for? That’s our focus this hour as we take a long hard look at the lege, set to get underway in earnest just one week from today. It’s a special New Years Day edition of the Texas Standard:

×