KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts

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

Elizabeth McQueen

This Song: Raging Fyah

Jamaica’s Raging Fyah plays reggae music that is as rooted in tradition as it is in positivity. Listen as keyboardist Demar Gayle describes how Bob Marley’s “One Love” changed his life, and explains why it took traveling to a different continent and experiencing race based hate for the first time to actually understand the lyrics of the song.

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Check out Raging Fyah’s Tour dates 

Watch Raging Fyah backstage performance of “Jah Glory” backstage at ACLfest on VuHaus

Listen to Songs This Episode of This Song


 

This Song: Vickie Howell — Rerun

Vickie Howell just released her new web series “The Knit Show with Vickie Howell.”  The project, which Howell conceived and developed, was funded through a successful crowdfunding campaign.  Hear how the So-Cal punk scene inspired her life as a DIY entrepreneur, and how she’s working to inspire us all to “DIY your dreams.”

Subscribe via the Podcasts App, iTunes or Stitcher to get the new episodes of This Song delivered to you as soon as they come out.

Subscribe to “The Knit Show With Vickie Howell.”

This Song: Benjamin Booker — Re-Run

In this This Song rerun from 2016, you’ll hear Benjamin Booker in the time between his first self titled record  and his new album Witness.  The artists explains the profound influence William Onyeabor’s “Why Go to War” had on him, and why he’s  ready to weave politics into his work.

Photo: Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon/KUTX

Subscribe via the Podcasts App, iTunes or Stitcher to get the new episodes of This Song delivered to you as soon as they come out.

This Song: Wild Belle

“I felt like the room was on fire with this electrifying love.” These are the words Natalie Bergman, half of the group Wild Belle used to describe the Radiohead show she witnessed in Mexico City mere days before her This Song interview.  Together with her brother Elliot, the siblings explain to Elizabeth how crucial the audience is to their music and how both witnessing and playing shows in Mexico heightened their awareness of this important notion.

Subscribe via the Podcasts App, iTunes or Stitcher to get the new episodes of This Song delivered to you as soon as they come out.

Check out Wild Belle’s tour dates

Listen to Wild Belle’s Studio 1A Performance

 

 

This Song: Sundara Karma

Sundara Karma released their debut record “Youth is Only Ever Fun in Retrospect” in January of this year. Listen as lead singer and songwriter Oscar Pollock describes how his new found love of Nick Drake’s second record  Bryter Later has been pushing his writing into more vulnerable and authentic territory. Then bliss out as drummer Haydn Evans delves into his enduring love for the Beach Boy’s “Pet Sounds.”

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Check out Sundara Karma’s Tour Dates here!

Listen to Songs from Episode 79 of This Song

 

This Song: Real Estate

Alex Bleeker and Martin Courtney of Real Estate have picked the same song by the same artist.  What are the odds? Their talk with Elizabeth is an in depth look the quiet beauty of “Look At What The Light Did Now” by Little Wings (aka Kyle Field) and how their love and respect for the song and the artist who wrote it have inspired them both.  These two guys should definitely be in a band together.

Subscribe via iTunes or Stitcher to get the new episodes of This Song delivered to you as soon as they come out.

Photo credit: Shawn Brackbill

Check out Real Estate’s Tour Dates

Listen to Real Estate’s Live from the Four Seasons set.

Listen to Songs from Episode 73 of This Song

 

This Song: Vickie Howell

Vickie Howell has been bringing knitting to the people since the early days of the internet. Hear how her roots in the DIY SoCal punk scene watching bands like Pennywise, Social Distortion and Bad Religion influenced her work with Austin Craft Mafia and continues to inspire her as she embarks on her new project — “The Knit Show with Vickie Howell.”

Check out the Kickstarter Campaign for “The Knit Show With Vickie Howell.”

Check out Vickie Howell’s Sweater Themed Playlist!

Listen to Songs from Episode 76 of This Song

This Song: Run the Jewels // Belcurve

This week we talk to two very different groups about partnerships and the inspirations that guide their voices.  First we hear from El-P and Killer Mike from the hip hop collaboration known as Run the Jewels. The two rappers start out talking about early influences (Prince’s “Beautiful Ones” and Ice-T’s “6 In The Morning”)  and end up expressing their love and respect for Southern Rock, The Clash, Outlaw Country and early hip hop and rap. Next, Sarah Castro and Matt Parmenter of the Austin-based Belcurve explain how their collaborations steer clear of the ordinary and how Kathleen Edwards, PJ Harvey and Tom Waits helped them create their shared musical vocabulary.

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Listen to Songs from Episode 60 of This Song

 

Check out Run the Jewels’ Tour Dates

Listen to “Talk to Me” from the Run the Jewel’s upcoming record “Run the Jewels 3.”

Listen to “2100” from Run the Jewels

Check out Belcurve’s Tour Dates

 

 

This Song: Alex Trimble of Two Door Cinema Club // Big Thief

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! To prepare for you for crowded airports, jammed freeways, family tension and delicious food, Team This Song offers up tales of musical epiphanies.  In the first half of the podcast Alex Trimble, lead singer of the Irish indie rock trio Two Door Cinema Club, explains to  Taylor Wallace how Beck’s “Midnight Vultures” album illustrated the concept of music-making without rules and in turn reinvigorated his songwriting.  We then hear from Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek from the Brooklyn-based band Big Thief as they describe how “The Leanover” from Life Without Buildings and the work of Michael Hurley inspired them and lead them to approach their songwriting and musical performances from completely new directions.

 

Subscribe via iTunes or Stitcher to get the new episodes of  This Song delivered to you as soon as they come out.

Check out Two Door Cinema Club’s Tour Dates

Check out Big Thief’s Tour Dates

Watch Big Thief Perform Jonathan Live on Vuhaus

Listen to Big Thief’s Studio 1A performance

Download Big Thief’s “Masterpiece” as part of our Song of the Day podcast

Listen to Songs from Episode 59 of This Song

This Song: Banks and Steelz // Lizzo

Welcome to the first episode of This Song’s 2016 Fall Season

As we of Team This Song are recovering from the presidential election and the death’s of both Leon Russell and Leonard Cohen, we have decided to celebrate the life of Mr. Cohen with this season’s first interview.  Recorded at the 2016 Austin City Limits Festival in October this conversation features Paul Banks and RZA of the collaboration known as Banks And Steelz.  Both these music biz vets are huge fans of not only Cohen’s lyrics (Banks says there are none better) but also his guitar playing (RZA has sampled the late Canadian’s finger-picking) and they have both obviously bonded over the late artist’s works. We then move to rapper/singer/flutist Lizzo (also interviewed at the 2016 ACL Festival) who takes us through a myriad of influences, talks about her love of outer space and ends up describing how her adopted city has acted as a catalyst for her creation.

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Watch Lizzo perform Good as Hell backstage at ACLfest

Listen to the songs featured in Episode 57 of This Song

 

This Song Season 2 Preview featuring Lizzo

The new season of This Song starts Wednesday, November 16th and it’s going to be a good one!   Tegan and Sara, Andrew Bird, Paul Banks and RZA, Nathaniel Ratliff,  Andrew WK and lots of other artists will talk about the songs that changed their lives and give you insight into their artistic process.  Subscribe to This Song on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to a preview featuring Lizzo right now!  You can catch up on old episodes on the KUTX website.

Subscribe via iTunes or Stitcher to get the new episodes of This Song delivered to you as soon as they come out.

This Song: Eric Earley & Brian Koch of Blitzen Trapper

Blitzen Trapper’s Eric Early (pictured holding the chicken) was raised in a small, Oregon community watching no MTV and learning to play and listen to music from his father.  His musical trajectory was permanently altered by R.E.M. and their breakout album “Out Of Time.” In this episode he tell Elizabeth about how Michael Stipe’s poetic lyrical approach spoke to his own circumstances and inspired his craft.  Then bandmate/drummer/actor Brian Koch (pictured holding the dog) tells a tale of his family who did very little to encourage his music and how he was inspired by hidden radios, friends with guitars and a young singer-songwriter with whom he now shares a stage.  It’s the most direct line of influence and inspiration of any This Song yet.

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Watch Blitzen Trapper perform “Love Grow Cold” live in Studio 1A on VuHaus

Listen to Blitzen Trapper’s Studio 1A performance

Listen to the songs featured in Episode 57 of This Song

 

 

This Song: Thor // Misimplicity

We think that Thor Harris is an Austin treasure.  As a musician, visual artist, wood craftsman, plummer and bon vivant, he often embodies what is great about our city.  In this segment he takes Elizabeth on a brief tour of progressive rock and gives a shout out to Yes and other stalwarts of the genre.  He also explains why he dislikes most classical music and what music inspired his new, hypnotic project, Thor And Friends.  Then Grace London and Zoe Czarnecki from the Austin band Misimplicity describe how Elliot Smith and a bass concerto by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf have helped them find their musical ways and climb musical mountains.

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Listen to “Thor and Friends” Studio 1A Performance

Check out “Thor and Friends” tour dates

Buy tickets to Misimplicty’s EP Release at the Cactus Cafe September 23rd

 

This Song: Mike Olson of Lake Street Dive // Jane Ellen Bryant

It’s hard enough for a musician to live a life on the road but when there is a new love at home, things get really complicated.  Lake Street Dive’s Mike Olson found that Willie Nelson and Leon Russell helped him deal with these complexities and helped his art along the way.  Also, Austin newcomer Jane Ellen Bryant heard Shawn Colvin as a kid, but years later the veteran’s “I Want It Back” was, to the rookie,  a perfect example of how to write, arrange and produce a song.

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Listen to Lake Street Dive’s Studio 1A Performance

Listen to Jane Ellen Bryant’s Studio 1A Performance

Watch Jane Ellen Bryant’s video for “Twenties”

 

This Song: Kevin Morby // Margaret Glaspy

In this episode we explore the life changing power of indie folks songs.  First, singer songwriter Kevin Morby expounds on how the raw beauty of The Mountain Goats made making folk music seem both accessible and punk. Then Margaret Glaspy explains how Vic Chestnutt’s unflinching take on life and and Elliot Smith’s use of metaphor influence her as a writer.

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Watch Kevin Morby perform “Destroyer” on Vuhaus

Listen to Kevin Morby’s Studio 1A Session

Watch Margaret Glaspy perform “Emotions and Math” on Vuhaus

Listen to Margaret Glassy’s Studio1A Session

This Song: Dion // Amanda Cevallos

American rock and roll icon Dion describes how he, one night, heard the soul and rhythm of Hank Williams drifting out of his family radio and was forever changed.  Add to that a dose of Jimmy Reed live at the Apollo and you’ve got the birth of a rock pioneer.  Later, Austinite Amanda Cevallos talks country with Elizabeth (who can talk some country) and they bond over their love of Waylon Jennings and Texas dancehalls.

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Listen to Amanda Cevallo’s Studio 1A session

Listen to songs from episode 53 of This Song

This Song: The Octopus Project // Jane Weaver

The members of The Octopus Project have known each other since they were kids and this familiarity is in great evidence as they talk about how the Guns n Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, the theme song from 2001: A Space Oddysey and a live show by The Jesus Lizard. Along the way, the three end up talking about abandoning the trumpet, the connection between music and emotion and the difference between going to a show in 90’s versus today.

Then British singer-songwriter Jane Weaver shares her experience of seeing Kate Bush performing Wuthering Heights on Top of the Pops when she was just five years old, and how Bush’s look, dance and singing style still influence her work today.

Subscribe via iTunes or Stitcher to get the new episodes of  This Song delivered to you as soon as they come out.

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Listen to songs from episode 52 of This Song

Watch the Octopus Project perform Small Hundred live on VuHaus

Listen to the Octopus Project perform live in Studio 1A

Watch Kate Bush perform Withering Heights on Top of the Pops

Watch the Music Video for Top of the Pops

This Song: Sean Bonnette of AJJ // The Grifters

Sean Bonnette from AJJ (formerly Andrew Jackson Jihad)  was a young man when he heard the music from the collection of his Gen X mom. He talks of that music, Violent Femmes, naturally distorted acoustic guitars and literature as sources of his inspiration. Then Scott Taylor and Tripp Lamkins from Grifters have a little listening party starting with songs by Deep Purple and ranging through 80’s alternative music from Skinny Puppy  to Black Flag to the Cure.

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Listen to songs from episode 51 of This Song

Visit Spotify for more playlists from This Song

Watch  the VuHaus video of Sean Bonnette  performing an acoustic version of El Paso Border Patrol backstage at Fun Fun Fun Fest.

Pre-Order AJJ’s new record “The Bible 2.”

Pre-Order Vinyl or CD versions of the Grifters’ “One Sock Missing.”

Pre-Order Vinyl or CD Versions of the Grifters “Crappin’ You Negative.”

 

This Song: Leon Bridges // Gary Clark Jr.

We’ve hit a milestone – 50 episodes!  We are officially middle aged! To celebrate we’ve taken two previously-aired interviews from Leon Bridges  and Gary Clark Jr. and put them together to draw a direct line of influence from one artist to another. Leon Bridges explains how hearing a Gary Clark Jr. song inspired him to pursue music, and then Gary Clark Jr. describes the impact of Tupac’s “Krazy.” Expect an “epic flow chart of inspiration” sometime in the future.

Watch Leon Bridges perform a solo acoustic set live in Studio 1A

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