Archives for March 2020

dumama + kechou: “intaka”

For a European self-taught student of African Music, teaming up with a South African magical realist songwriter (and vice versa) has been a dream come true. Since 2017 Cape Town’s Gugulethu Duma has found a perfect foil within Algerian-German producer Kerim Melik Becker, and together, through an arsenal of modern performance tools and traditional African instruments, they’ve been creating “nomadic future folk” as dumama + kechou.

dumama’s experiences of peripatetic youth complement Berlin-raised kechou’s newfound time in Cape Town, sharing a dream of de-colonialism, continental unity, and cross-cultural meditation through sonic exploration. That definitely checks out for their upcoming debut collaborative album, buffering juju, out March 20th, featuring a handful of awesome guest appearances and providing a safe haven for indigenous sounds in the modern digital era. buffering juju is best experienced as a whole, but before you strike up the stereo for this eight-song suite, get into the groove with “intaka”!

–Photo: Tseliso Monaheng

This Song: St. Vincent (Rerun)

In this episode, St. Vincent explores how music from early Disney films helped her lay the foundation for beauty and wonder in her own life and work.

“All that stuff, it’s your first introduction to magic…You know I think like, every kid wishes they could be in a cartoon. Like you wish so deeply that your reality could transmutate into that world, and music is the closest you get to come to it.”

She also explains why she approached the songs on Masseduction with a Disney-esque lack of irony.

“That was just sort of a tenet from the beginning…I just felt like OK, what’s the thing that I haven’t done, and I was like I don’t feel like I’ve gone straight for the heart and the jugular.”

St. Vincent and Carrie Brownstein have a new film coming out called The Nowhere Inn, which will be showing at the SXSW 2020 Film Festival

Find out more about the live podcast taping for This Song at SXSW

Listen to Carrie Brownstein explain why she loves “Stay” by Rihanna

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

This Song: Metric

Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw from Metric talk about hearing “Teardrop” by Massive Attack early in their musical partnership and how it inspired them, terrified them and helped them find a collaborative way of making music that still works for them today.

“I remember listening to that song…and just feeling like..it was sort of a mix between feeling like anything was now sonically possible, and that I would never achieve anything. Because I felt like it had gone to the heights and depths of what I hadn’t known existed, which is an enlightening and somehow taking wind out of sails moment at the same time.” — Jimmy Shaw, Metric

📸 Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon

Listen to this episode of This Song

Listen to Art of Doubt

Watch Metric’s stripped down version of “Now or Never Now” backstage at the Austin City Limits Music Festival

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

What We Love About Female Rappers

This week on The Breaks:

Confucius and Fresh explain what they love about the latest wave of female rappers like Megan the Stallion and City Girls.
Both hosts talk about their frustration with Snoop Dogg’s episode of Red Table Talk, and express their disappointment with the negative energy people direct towards black women.
They explain why they don’t think the Coronavirus outbreak will cause South by Southwest to be cancelled.
They express their support for Waka Flocka Flame’s assertion that hip-hop is not dangerous.
In his “Confucius Says” segment, Confucius cautions against entitlement and encourages artists to put the work in if they want to get played in the Breaks.
This week’s Local Song of the Week is “Amplifiers” by Deezie Brown.

Listen to this weeks episode of The Breaks

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.

Hear the music from The Breaks played on their Saturday Night Hip-hop show

Texas Standard: March 2, 2020

Despite big spending by the candidates in Texas including rally’s, robo calls and door to door canvassing, many Texas democrats say they’re still not sure who’ll they’ll vote for tomorrow. We’ll hear how they’re doing the political math. Plus, fear fueling a major price drop in a clash between the Texas energy industry and the coronavirus. All of that and then some today on the Texas Standard:

March and Beauty: “World Made Sense”

Partners in both marriage and songwriting, Terri and Tim Dittmar haven’t had much trouble in the past twenty years making their rounds on the college radio circuit across a few different local bands. But in terms of truly amplifying their collective voice, the addition of multi-instrumentalists Justin Bocanegra and Paul Stautinger have only recently allowed the Dittmars to blossom out as March and Beauty.

Tightly bound to one another as well as a distinctly ’90s-to-millennium-era alternative style, March and Beauty touts flautist/keyboardist/bassist Terri as the band’s vocal ace in the hole, navigating the group through dream pop, shoegaze and melodic indie rock. March and Beauty fused forces with Louie Lino (who’s lent his production work to Nada Surf, New Pornographers, and Moving Panoramas) for their upcoming record World Made Sense, out April 3rd, and the quartet plays their single release show Wednesday night at Cheer Up Charlie’s. The title track off World Made Sense definitely has all the ’90s elements you’d expect from March and Beauty, but with synth work akin to Tears for Fears or Depeche Mode, it’ll fit perfectly in your ’80s flashback playlist!

This Song: Jackie Venson (Rerun)

In this rerun of an episode originally recorded last February, Jackie Venson explains how seeing “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina,” from the movie “Evita,” changed the way she listened to music and the way she saw herself. Then she describes her journey from classical pianist to blues guitarist. It’s a tale of soul expanding love, self crushing doubt, and musical perseverance.

Listen to this episode of This Song

Venson will be co-hosting the Austin Music Awards on March 11th at ACLive at Moody Theater. Get your tickets here.

📸 Tristan Ipock

Listen to Songs from this episode of This Song

Lost My Head – Odessa

Episode 7 of Song Confessional features Odessa, a phenomenal singer-songwriter who’s released two critically acclaimed records and played with the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Barefoot. This episode features “Lost My Head,” a song from her latest album inspired by the confession of a young man losing his first love. Odessa and Walker talk about dying, break ups in their 20’s, and a whole lot more.

Subscribe Here | Facebook | Instagram

Don’t You Go Forgetting About Me Now – Har Mar Superstar

Episode 8 of the Song Confessional features the provocateur Har Mar Superstar, a multi-talented scantily-clad crooner who’s toured with The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Lizzo and has written songs for J-Lo, Kelly Osbourne, among others. We’ll hear the debut of Har Mar’s “Don’t You Go Forgetting About Me Now”, the song inspired by a young women’s confessional of a late night Valentine’s Day encounter with a Magic Mike tribute show. Har Mar and Walker sit down to discuss strippers and hook up culture.

Subscribe Here | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter