Archives for June 2019

Texas Standard: June 7, 2019

Politically radioactive: a popular plan to protect domestic violence survivors gets the governor’s veto. The reason? Nuclear waste. We’ll have the backstory. Also summer’s here, does that mean your kids will lose a lot of what they’ve learned? Probably not, says a Texas researcher who’s bucking the conventional wisdom… we’ll hear why. And from San Benito all the way to the Big Apple and the Billboard top 10: our conversation with Charlie Crockett. Plus the week in Texas politics with the Texas Tribune and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Take This Dog For A Walk

It’s hot. Texas hot. But Fido doesn’t seem to care. That’s the inspiration of this Typewriter Rodeo poem.

Folk Family Revival: “Pro And The Con”

For the Lankford brothers, a family reunion is basically just band practice. Barrett, Mason, and Lincoln Lankford (and de jure sibling Caleb Pace) have been performing as Folk Family Revival for years and in light of their genre-specific name, this Houston-based four-piece switches up their sound with each new album. Their eclectic energy has earned them opening spots for the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Hayes Carll, Ray Wylie Hubbard and more, and today they release their brand new full-length, Electric Darlin.

Plug into Electric Darlin with the album release show, 8PM tonight at Sam’s Town Point and enjoy a breakdown of the record’s fictional protagonists, “Pro And The Con”!


Photo: Trish Badger

Feel So Much

You can totally feel it on a track like “Feel So Much” – those pangs from a romantic flutter commingling with the rush of “…what the HELL are you doing?!” In other words, sensitivity and badassery coexist in (im)perfect poetic fashion as Go Fever songwriter Acey Monaro owns all the feels on the band’s recent release, Daydream Hawker, recorded by Brad Bell at Jim Eno’s Public Hi-Fi Studio.

Here’s your chance to hear the latest awesomeness when Go Fever plays tonight at Cheer Up Charlie’s, 901 Red River. They share the bill with Being Dead, Denton-based songwriter Claire Morales, and Van Mary. The music starts at 9 p.m. Recommended.

-Photography by Nick Wagner.

Texas Standard: June 6, 2019

Citing a crisis, border officials say they will cut off funding for anything not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety in U.S. shelters. Officials tell the operators of resettlement shelters to end English classes, recreation programs and other services because there isn’t the money to pay for it. We’ll take a closer look. Also, concerns about suicide among farmers and a new effort to reach out across rural Texas. Plus, what voting data tells us about just how far to the right and left our own lawmakers really are. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Carla Geneve: “Yesterday’s Clothes”

Nineteen-year-old singer-guitarist Carla Geneve may have already solidified herself in the West Australian rock scene, but she’s eager to make her name known well beyond the Down Under. This young Perth power chord addict only got started in 2017 but by last year Geneve had already earned seven West Australian Music Award nominations, including wins for both Best Single and Best Rock Act.

Tomorrow Carla Geneve drops her self-titled six-song debut EP and to help iron out the details, check out a single that reckons with romantic internal strifes, “Yesterday’s Clothes“!

Music Box Dancer

Recent Studio 1A guest Abby Jeanne created a tribute of sorts with her latest album, Music Box Dancer. If one could possibly pen a love letter to an extra-cool jukebox, that’s exactly what this would be. an ode to a musical touchstone at the Hi-Fi Café in Bay View, Milwaukee, loaded with ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s underground gems that shaped her view of music and inspired her to create her own.

Tonight’s the night. Don’t miss Abby Jeanne at Empire Control Room, 606 E. 7th St., with a line-up made extra fabulous by Pleasure Venom and Caleb De Casper. So recommended.

Texas Standard: June 5, 2019

U.S. tariffs set to kick in next week against our neighbors south of the border, and warnings this could get ugly on the homefront. As President Trump vows to launch tariffs against Mexico starting next week, economists warn another trade war could be a disaster for the U.S…with Texas hardest hit. We’ll take a closer look. Also, the licensing board for Texas plumbers is about to get flushed. But Governor Abbott’s promising to fix what’s become a major flap. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Black Mountain: “Pretty Little Lazies”

Though he was just a newborn during Woodstock and only got his driver’s license two years ago, the spirit of psychedelia, independence, and youthful rebellion has always been front and center for Stephen McBean and his rock outfit Black Mountain. The Vancouver quintet has been going hard since 2004 but in light of his newfound horsepower (in the form of a 1985 Dodge Destroyer fixer-upper), singer and guitarist McBean needed to push the group’s musical tachometer to its redline.

This fifty-going-on-sixteen scenario paved the way for Black Mountain’s fifth full-length, Destroyer, an album that puts you in McBean’s shotgun seat while he pops the clutch with heavy riffs and scratches paint off the labels “stoner rock” or “space rock” like the bumper stickers they are. Destroyer is out now and Black Mountain joins us at the Mohawk this Fall, so let’s ascend the peak with “Pretty Little Lazies”!


Photo: Olivia Jaffe

This Song: Rhett Miller (rerun)

Musician, writer, and frontman for Old 97’s Rhett Miller launched his own podcast “Wheel’s Off With Rhett Miller” earlier this year.  In it, he talks to artists about what it’s really like to live a creative life.

In this 2017 episode, he describes how hearing the Jewish Lesbian Folk singer Phranc perform ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” changed his life and showed him the power of musical connection.

Listen to this episode of This Song

Check out “Wheel’s Off with Rhett Miller”

Listen to John Prine describe why “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” changed his life.

 

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

This Song: Strand of Oaks on “Lazarus” by David Bowie

“This is the sound that quasars make when they’re being born or the resonant frequency of the big bang.”

Timothy Showalter, who leads the folk-rock band Strand of Oaks, chronicles his journey through depression on the band’s new record, Eraserland. Listen as he describes how hearing David Bowie’s “Lazarus” at the end of the recording process helped him see how powerful documenting dark times could be. Then hear how the process of making Eraserland helped bring Showalter to the other side of his own dark times. “(The record) exists in this wonderful place where it did start in a pretty dark place personally, but where it ended up turned out to be the brightest most love filled moment.”

Listen to this episode of This Song

Listen to Strand of Oaks new album Eraserland

Check out Strand of Oaks Tour Dates

Check out Strand of Oaks Studio 1A Session

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

 

Belcurve Land

More news from ATX band Belcurve hit social media today, following the announcement of their June residency at the Mohawk. The latest incarnation of the band – lead by songwriter and vocalist Sarah Castro – also released a new EP, These People In My Head, Vol. 2, a dreamy and heart-achy five-track collection that’s also a preview of their forthcoming LP.

Join Belcurve in their new-music celebration at their residency kickoff tonight at the Mohawk, 912 Red River, along with Sharks In the Deep End and The Sideshow Tragedy. The music starts at 8 p.m. on the inside stage. Recommended.

-Photography by Ismael Quintanilla III.

Texas Standard: June 4, 2019

Policing the police? A Texas Democrat running for president wants to make police accountability a theme in 2020, we’ll have details. Also, they went abroad to spread the gospel. Now an investigation finds a legacy of abuse by Southern Baptist missionaries, we’ll take a look. And new rankings for public schools across the Lone Star State, one part of Texas continues to shine. But a surprising downturn for some larger districts…we’ll have a closer look. Also, what didn’t happen in the just concluded 86th legislature? All of those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Maude Latour: “Plans”

At just nineteen years old, singer Maude Latour is already somewhat of a globetrotter. Her parents’ path of journalism has given her a home in Hong Kong, London and Stockholm, and over the years Latour’s become fluent in Mandarin and Dutch. And though Latour now spends a good chunk of time studying philosophy and political science in New York, she’s been translating her own beliefs into infectious bedroom pop.

With unbridled ambitions (including performing at her own presidential inauguration), there’s not a lot holding Latour back. She’s eager to drop her DIY-fueled EP next month and in that spirit of anticipation, Maude Latour recently shared the record’s lead single, one that’ll put some digital pep in your step, “Plans”!

Texas Standard: June 3, 2019

The legislative session is out, and now the real politicking can begin. That’s right, the 2020 Elections are not so far away, we’ll have more. And did you hear Texas is now home to the country’s largest trading hub? A trip to Laredo to look at the challenges to keeping that title. Plus, an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that made history: an explosion, a failed blowout preventer, millions of gallons spilled. But we’re not talking about the Deepwater Horizon. And most of us take our immune systems for granted, until we feel it fails us in some way. A closer look. And why Texas Football fans should care about the Oklahoma drill and more today on the Texas Standard:

Lyn Eaton: “Remind Me”

It’s been two decades since Kelley McRae dedicated her life to songwriting, and more recently she ushered in the creation of nonprofit organization Song Rise Arts. McRae’s taught hundreds of students from across the globe and her songwriting curriculum has been approved for college credit since 2017. In addition to Song Rise Arts’ Songwriting Workshops, McRae also heads its Young Artist Program, which provides free songwriting classes, individual instruction and mentorship with professional Austin musicians.

A diverse gaggle of promising young folks come together for the Young Artist Program Showcase 7pm this Wednesday at the Cactus Cafe, including sixteen-year-old songwriter Lyn Eaton, who just released her piano and vocal driven heartbreaker, “Remind Me”!

Higher Ed: How Practices For A Healthy Mind Could Promote A Healthy Body Too

There is more talk in education these days about wellness and more attention to stress, anxiety and other factors that can impede learning. But there is less talk about the ways that good learning practices might improve health. In this episode of the KUT podcast “Higher Ed,” KUT’s Jennifer Stayton and Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger discuss the role of learning and education in wellness.

There are plenty of other subjects we learn to master, so why not health and wellness?

Ed believes that health and wellness information could – and should – be offered at a micro level outside of school. A lot of that kind of information is certainly available already. The challenge is to make it accessible and impactful.

“It’s gotta be bite-sized. You can’t have a full lecture or something,” says Ed. “And it’s got to be meaningful and thought-provoking…. it has to get you.”

For instance, Ed suggests reinforcing a message delivered by a doctor or health care provider with a short video or other educational element; that model is not unlike lessons from a teacher reinforced by text or other materials.

“One two-minute video is not going to do anything,” Ed admits. “But if it kind of is a continuation that keeps moving maybe it stays in your head a little bit, and we become more mindful and maybe we can change.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more about how Ed believes learning and mindfulness can be brought to bear on health issues. It is also time for the solution to last episode’s sneaky arithmetic puzzler.

This episode was recorded on April 23, 2019.

Dr. Lorraine E. Branham (Ep. 26, 2019)

On this week’s program, In Black America producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. presents and interview recorded in 2005 with the late Dr. Lorraine E. Branham, Dean and Professor of Journalism at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Dr. Branham died on April 2, 2019.

Shy ‘Til You Die

Talk about addictive pop. The dreamy hues of ATX band Shy Beast shine supremely in the pop realm, led by songwriter/keyboardist Mariclaire Glaeser‘s iridescent vocal command adding to the overall psych-and-soul shimmer. Murmurs of Shy Beast being a major pop breakout abound, and with damn good reason – a standout and a knockout sound of intricate melodies.

Now you’ll be able to soak up Shy Beast’s latest sonic gems on vinyl. Get your copy at their vinyl release show tonight at Antone’s, 305 E. 5th St., featuring an outstanding bill that boasts Otis the Destroyer and Dr. Joe. One not to miss. Doors open at 8 p.m. Recommended.

-Photography by Dorothy Megan Bennett.