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Archives for January 2020

…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead: “Don’t Look Down”

You’ve probably heard a lot of buzz from us here at KUTX about …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, and for a damned good reason. Since forming back in ’94, founding members Conrad Keely and Jason Reece have left a firm imprint on the Austin Music Experience with Trail of Dead’s brand of well-calculated, high-intensity post-punk and alt-art-rock. And after five years of living in Cambodia, a homesick Keely returned to the Live Music Capital and hit the ground running on ToD’s tenth album, proving once again that you can take the boy out of Austin but you can’t take Austin out of the boy.

The end product is X: The Godless Void and Other Stories, featuring a dozen new songs – two for each year that’s passed since 2014’s IX – that recall sonics from across Trail of Dead’s lengthy career but with a fresh, rejuvenated energy. …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead officially hits the quarter century mark in 2020, and they’ll be kicking off a two-month international tour tonight at Far Out Lounge. X: The Godless Void and Other Stories is out this week so keep looking forward to more and more from these local heavyweights, starting with “Don’t Look Down”!

My KUTX Session

Get It, Girl

It already feels like a busy year for Austin-based country artist Kathryn Legendre. She and fellow Project ATX6 musicians are headed to Thailand at the end of this month for the Jai Thep festival, and she’s booked for a set at the two-day Shaky Boots Festival in Atlanta this May, with a line-up that includes John Prine, Alison Kraus, Tanya Tucker and Dwight Yoakum. Hello?! On top of all this, guess who’s a recent Ameripolitan Music Award nominee? That stuff’s the real deal, baby, in recognition of real country music, which Legendre wholeheartedly delivers on her latest EP, Making It Up.

In the midst of this whirlwind, the show must go on. Make sure you see Legendre tonight at The White Horse, 500 Comal. Her set starts at 10 p.m. Mr. James Moritz plays at midnight, and the mighty Texas Tycoons get things going at 8 p.m. All recommended, honey.

-Photo by Katrina Barber

Shaggy shoots down Rihanna

This week on The Breaks

Listen to this episode of The Breaks

Be sure to get your tickets to Love Lockdown on Feb 13th at Stubbs indoors

Listen on The Apple Podcasts App, Spotify or Stitcher

The Breaks are on every Saturday 10pm-1am on KUTX 98.9.
You can hear the latest full broadcast of The Breaks Saturday night show.

Texas Standard: January 13, 2020

After an executive order from the Trump administration, Texas becomes the first state to opt out of future refugee resettlement. We’ll have the latest. Also, a New York billionaire tours Texas by bus trying to make inroads in his presidential campaign. For Michael Bloomberg, the stakes are high. And a disturbing affair in the world of romance novels. Plus the biography of a Texan who fought his way out of tough times and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Laumė: “Spells (Oedipusi)”

While Christchurch alt-pop quartet Yumi Zouma continues to release new material as recently as last month, you may have wondered, just what the heck happened to their frontwoman and co-founder Kim Pflaum? For a quick recap, Pflaum took a departure from YZ within their first year to pursue solo songwriting, and soon introduced the alias Madeira with her 2016 debut EP Bad Humors. In the three years since, Pflaum’s relocated from Auckland to London and adopted the much more idiosyncratic moniker, Laumė, alongside a treasure trove of voyeuristic lyrical observations.

French producer Rude Jude helped shape the baker’s dozen of new tracks on Laumė’s official premiere, Waterbirth, inviting in funk-pop sounds akin to ’80s icons like Sade and Kate Bush as well as the modern tones of contemporaries like Grimes. The crossroad of anti-social tendencies and FOMO-fueled pressures ripple throughout Waterbirth – out this Friday – and before you re-introduce yourself to Pflaum and the latest iteration of her talent, cast yourself to “Spells (Oedipusi)”!

Pre-Order Waterbirth

Photo: Scott Kershaw

Remembering The Late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Ep. 6, 2020)

This week on In Black America, producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. presents a tribute to the late Martin Luther King, Jr, on the 90th anniversary of his birth, featuring Dr. King, and the Honorable Andrew Young and former U.S. President Barack Obama.

Venomous

You’ve heard the Austin Music Minute raves about Pleasure Venom. Fearless. Unapologetic. Electrifying.

The Austin-based punk outfit has opened for bands like Garbage (Shirley Manson is a fan), and most recently Against Me! at the Mohawk. Music reviewers are sitting up and taking notice across the country and worldwide. Front woman Audrey Campbell says the band had their busiest and, at times, craziest year in 2019. But they’re ready to take on 2020 with their first performance of the year tonight at Cheer Up Charlie’s, 901 Red River.

This is another must-see line-up including sets by Nashville-based songwriter Soren Bryce’s alt.-rock project Tummyache; Los Angeles post-punk duo Broken Baby; and Austin bands Go Fever and Lord Friday the 13th. You need to see all these bands, so get there early. Doors at 9 p.m. Very recommended.

-Photo courtesy of the artist.

Ain’t Your Yes Man

Fangs out. Claws out. Well…proverbial fangs and claws, but ready to pounce. All the winning. Queue Queue mightily brings the filth and the fury with the fiery Fang and Claw, a mad mix of primal design and complex arrangement, and all the devious humor you could want (and then some) from a powerhouse trio that takes it all and runs like hell. (Check out the raucous and awesome new video for the track on today’s AMM, “Yes Man”.)

Tornado? Ppphhhtt. The AMM’s got your storm warning right here with Queue Queue playing tonight at Hotel Vegas, 1501 E. 6th St. The badass line-up features Electric Church regs Peach Almanac, along with sets by Pollen RX, Hex Boyfriend, and DJ Acid Daddy spinning tracks on the patio.

All good. Doors at 9 p.m. Recommended.

-Photo courtesy of the artist.

KUT Weekend – January 10, 2020

Five Austin students describe what it’s like not to know whether your school is going to close. Plus, a photographer makes it his mission to capture East Austin’s “essence” before it disappears. And reporters from Kazakhstan explore what makes Austin weird. Those stories and more in this edition of KUT Weekend!

Subscribe at https://weekend.kut.org

More Meetings

You know the feeling. Your calendar is full of them when you get a notification about another. That was the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.

Texas Standard: January 10, 2020

The powers that be: how Lone Star State lawmakers are coming down on a resolution to limit the president’s use of the military against Iran, we’ll have details. Also, lots of private property blocking further border wall construction, but the Trump administration has found a way around it, and it’s making conservationists upset. John Burnett previews his upcoming story for NPR. Also, how smart is a smart home if it can’t help you conserve? A house in Junction Texas that may become a new model for the future. Plus the week that was in Texas politics with the Texas Tribune and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

William Prince: “Always Have What We Had”

For a young boy raised on the Peguis First Nation reserve, the prospect of opening for Neil Young one day probably didn’t seem all that attainable. But now that he’s grown up to become Juno-winning songwriter William Prince, who calls Winnipeg (the same place where Young first got started) his home, he’s been there; done that. Prince began contributing to folk rock outfit Indian City in 2012 before going solo on his award-reaping 2015 debut Earthly Days.

On Prince’s upcoming sophomore album, Reliever, he’s tapped into gospel, ’90s gangsta rap, outlaw country, and more to channel the realities of fatherhood, pointed ideals, and the emotions that dart between. Prince reunited with Nashville’s Dave Cobb and Winnipeg’s Scott Nolan to hone Reliever‘s masterful, folkish clarity, and before you reunite with Reliever on its February 7th release date, get a feel for the raw emotion on a yarn – about the importance of Prince’s former partner in his son’s life and vice versa – “Always Have What We Had”.

Blessed To Be Messed

This is awesome. Of course, it took a year and a half of demos and testing things out here and there, but so well worth it.

Former Cruiserweight bandmates Stella Maxwell and Dave Hawkins had been toying with the idea of forming a new band since 2018, so with the help of Chris Nine (of the recently retired Karaoke Apocalypse,  and Manhole) and Donnie Adkinson (The Letters Organize, Whores), Stella and the Very Messed emerged with an outstanding garage rock/pop/punk debut at the beginning of the new year, On Fences.

Tomorrow night is your chance to catch Stella and the Very Messed at their album release show at 3Ten, 310 Willie Nelson Blvd. This is a hell of a bill with dreamy dream rockers Moving Panoramas, and garage rock powerhouse outfit Lola Tried. Doors at 7:30 p.m., show at 8:30 p.m. Very recommended.

-Artwork courtesy of Stella and the Very Messed.

Texas Standard: January 9, 2020

De-escalation between the U.S. and Iran? As president Trump calls for more NATO involvement in the Mideast, we’ll have a Texas take on what that might mean. A former ambassador to Iraq and past dean of the Bush school at Texas A&M weighs in on finding a way past military conflict between the US and Iran. Also a tale of two cities: what if anything Austin and Houston could learn from each other when it comes to zoning. And new consumer tech: the hottest of the hot and the nottest of the not. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Lies Lies: “’90s Kid” [PREMIERE]

It’s been less than a year since Austin “psychedelic jungle rock” trio Migrant Kids released We All Forget, and whether that title was merely fortuitous or intentionally foreboding, it’s become oddly prophetic. That’s because the three-piece has since emigrated from their former handle and taken a hairpin turn towards a completely different style under the name Lies Lies.

For their upcoming self-titled debut, Lies Lies called upon Grammy winner Paul Kolderie – who’s produced and mixed for the likes of Radiohead, Pixies, Hole, and The Cure – to help flesh out the group’s newfound ’90s grunge sound over ten original tracks, capturing the same authentic feel from that decade while incorporating previously-unheard tones fit for a drugged-up futuristic dystopia. Lies Lies is out January 31st and to help you channel your inner angsty millennial nostalgia, cut your jeans and scrape your knees on its lead single – “’90s Kid”!

Thailand Bound

“They have a good time, but they’re there to see the bands.”

Cory Reinisch of Harvest Thieves traveled to Germany with fellow musicians in last year’s Project ATX6 group to experience the sights, sounds and attentive, appreciative audiences at the Reeperbahn Festival. And in a new Project ATX6 documentary video premiered today through the Austin Chronicle, Reinisch can be seen soaking up the atmosphere with the deepest reverence. It was an opportunity he didn’t think possible, yet there he was, exploring the country where his own family has roots.

The goal of Project ATX6, a local non-profit music and documentary collaboration founded and commandeered by songwriter Chris Brecht, is to showcase the variety of musical talent coming out of the ATX through performances at festivals and venues in different parts of the world. Your Austin Music Minute host even traveled with Project ATX6 to France and Toronto in 2016 as a kind of spokesperson and Austin rep on behalf of KUTX. To say it’s an incredible, emotional experience seeing artists you know from home impressing crowds halfway round the globe is an understatement.

The most recent ATX6 crew is gearing up for their next journey to Thailand for the Jai Tep Festival in Chiang Mai, starting Jan. 31. But before the big trip, you can catch members of Project ATX6 at their show tonight at Hops & Grain, 507 Calles St., Ste. 101. It’s an early show, kicking off at 7 p.m., featuring Altamesa (the track “Idol Frontier” was on today’s AMM), Kathryn Legendre, and Pocket Sounds. Send the gang off in style and find out how you can support Project ATX6. Recommended.

-Project ATX6 photo by Kate Blaising.

The Republic of Texas is No More

Later this year, way later this year, we’ll mark the 175th year of Texas statehood. That will be on December 29th. That’s the day in 1845 that Texas officially joined The United States of America, or, as the proudest of Texans say – the day the U.S. was allowed to join Texas.

Though the 29th was the day that President Polk signed the joint resolution that made Texas a state, there was some confusion as to the official moment that the Republic of Texas passed into history and statehood status began. Then President of Texas, Anson Jones, said that February 19th, 1846 was the actual day. He presided over a ceremony in Austin where the Republic of Texas flag was lowered for the last time and the U.S. flag was raised in its place.

As you might surmise, the almost two months difference in official transfer of power led to problems. For instance, who should you pay import duties to, Texas or the U.S.? Lawsuits followed. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually weighed in on the matter and the official date of statehood was established as December the 29th, 1845. Make your checks payable to the U.S. Treasury, please.

You might see the discrepancy in statehood as the difference in marriage dates between a couple marrying first at the courthouse and later in church. One is legal and official and the other is ceremonial and spiritual.

Texas couldn’t just let President Polk’s signing of a document 1500 miles away be all there was to the moment. They couldn’t allow the Republic so many had died for to pass into history without memorializing the moment in some proper way. So President Anson arranged a ceremony in front of the Texas Capitol, really just a house, that would turn out to both mourn the passing of the Republic and celebrate Texas as the newest state in the union.

What was needed here was what linguists call a speech act, a moment in time where something is made real by virtue of pronouncement. Speech acts are generally used by people of authority who have the power to make the words true by just saying them. “I pronounce you man and wife” or “I sentence you to twenty years in prison.” Anson Jones began with “I, as President of the Republic. . . am now present to surrender into the hands of those whom the people of chosen, the power and authority we have some time held.”

Here is what transpired in that brief ceremony. Noah Smithwick, a blacksmith in attendance, remembered the moment the Texas flag came down.

“Many a head was bowed, many a broad chest heaved, and many a manly cheek was wet with tears when that broad field of blue in the center of which, like a signal light, glowed the lone star, emblem of the sovereignty of Texas, was furled and laid away among the relics of the dead republic.”

The United States flag was raised and the mood changed dramatically. Noah wrote:

“We were most of us natives of the United States, and when the stars and stripes, the flag of our fathers, was run up and catching the breeze unrolled its heaven born colors to the light, cheer after cheer rent the air” — the people celebrated statehood.

I like that Noah tended already toward that creature still common in Texas—the exceptionally proud Texan. He said that he thought “the star in the lower left corner [of the U.S. flag] should have been especially dedicated to Texas.” It’s as if he wanted it framed and separated in some way. How Texan of him.

So the flag raising complete, President Anson Jones announced, “The Republic of Texas is no more”—making it politically true, but never absolute, because the residual influence of the Republic resides in the minds of many Texans today who still think of her as their country, their nation.

No doubt it was a bittersweet day, but 94% of Texans did vote for statehood, a level of agreement we haven’t enjoyed since. There was great happiness on the whole. Tyler, Texas, was founded that same year, in gratitude to U.S. President John Tyler, who started the movement for Texas annexation.

For a more in-depth look at this day, see:
When Was the Republic of Texas No More?: Revisiting the Annexation of Texas by Keith J. Volanto & Gene B. Preuss, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 123, Number 1, July 2019, pp. 30-59

Texas Standard: January 8, 2020

That ballistic missile strike on bases in Iraq… the retaliation Iran promised, or could it be something else? A Texas-based expert sorts out the facts. Also, could Texas’s official computers get caught in the crosshairs between rising Iran-U.S. tensions? What state officials say about new cyber attacks and where they appear to be coming from. And separating truth from fiction when it comes to a military draft, a fact check on a claim about kids and cancer, plus a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

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