Elizabeth McQueen

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

This Song: Sunflower Bean

Inspiration can come from anywhere. For Brooklyn-based Sunflower Bean the source of that inspiration spans four decades: Brian Wilson (“He’s as good as Mozart”), Devo (“The perfect band”), Beach Fossils (“The punk home-recording CD), and Tonstartssbanht (“It’s impossible to describe”) all help to form this band’s direction and sound. Hear the band tell Elizabeth tales of musical discovery, club scenes with a social conscience, what makes a perfect combination of art and commerce, and the attraction of listening to a musical genius’ decent into darkness.

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Check out Sunflower Bean’s Studio 1A performance on VuHaus

Listen to Sunflower Bean’s Studio 1A performance

Download the live version of Sunflower Bean’s “Come On” as part of our Song of the Day Feature

Listen to songs from Episode 49 of This Song

This Song: SOAK // Burgess Meredith

Bridie Monds-Watson, aka SOAK, first heard Pink Floyd when she was in the womb (her parents soothed her with the whale songs of their epic “Echoes”) but only after rummaging through her family’s records did she rediscover the bands LP “Meddle.” Hear her tell how the track “Fearless” helped influence her songwriting and allowed her to envision how expansive recording and production could be.

Then songwriting duo Josh King and Jesse Hester from the Austin band Burgess Meredith explore the depth and breadth of their Beatlemania. Josh describes the magic of the very first pre-Beatles recording that John, Paul, and George made as the Quarrymen. Then Jesse talks about how “Yesterday’s” timeless, sweet sadness has helped him understand the purpose of songwriting.

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Listen to Burgess Meredith’s Studio 1A performance

Listen to Songs from Episode 48 of This Song

This Song: Andra Day // Adia Victoria

Andra Day begins her This Song conversation by extolling the virtues of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and soon ventures into why Ms. Holiday is the Queen Of Jazz and how her relationship with God has been her creative well-spring.

Then Nashville-based singer-songwriter Adia Victoria talks of how her journey from a stifling small-town life to a life in the arts was inspired by Fiona Apple and , in particular, her song “Fast As You Can.”

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Watch Andra Day perform “Rise Up” in Studio 1A live on VuHaus

Check out Andra Day’s Tour Dates

Watch Adia Victoria perform “Mortimers Blues” live in Studio 1A on VuHaus

Check out Adia Victoria’s Tour Dates

Listen to songs from Episode 46 of This Song

This Song: Tommy Grace of Django Django // Adrian Quesada

Now who doesn’t love a Scottish accent? We at Team This Song certainly do and that’s just one of the reasons why we love this week’s episode with Edinburgh native Tommy Grace of the band Django Django. Bask in his delightful brogue as he explains how hearing Josh Wink’s “Higher State of Consciousness” on a mixtape from Ibiza turned him from classic rock lover to a maven of post-punk and analog synths.

Also, we talk with producer, Brownout guitarist, and The Echocentrics frontman Adrian Quesada about growing up as an only child in Laredo and how Yo! MTV Raps and 90’s hip hop excited his young mind, opened up the world of jazz and funk to him, and ultimately steered his musical vision.

Listen to Django Django’s Studio 1A Session

Watch the Echocentrics perform Canyon on VuHaus

Listen to the Echocentrics Studio1A Session

Listen to Adrian Quesada’s MyKUTX Guest DJ set

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

Listen to Songs from Episode 45 of This Song

This Song: BØRNS // Calliope Musicals

It’s ELO Mania on This Song!

First is BØRNS who first discovered ELO as a kid and returned to the group’s not-so-simple chord changes as an adult. He talks to Elizabeth about “Turn To Stone,” Jeff Lynn’s writing style, guilty pleasures and how he approaches the songwriting process.

Next up is Carrie Fussell and Josh Bickley from Austin’s own Calliope Musicals. Carrie picks “Tightrope” as her song but quickly gushes about the entire ELO album “A New World Record” and how it guided her through her tough times and helped develop a new artistic direction for the band. Then the band’s co-founder and drummer Josh Bickley explains how the lyrics of a very non drum centric Blind Melon song won over his very drum centric heart.

Watch Børns perform Live in Studio 1A on VuHaus

Listen to the full Børns session from Studio 1A

Watch the Børns session on Facebook Live (scroll down to June 7th!)

Watch Calliope Musicals reform Live from Studio 1A on Vuhaus

Watch Calliope Musicals perform an acoustic version of “Dreams” backstage at ACLfest on VuHaus

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

Listen to Songs from Episode 44 of This Song

This Song: San Fermin // El Tule

Composer, songwriter and San Fermin bandleader Ellis Ludwig-Leone first heard Paul Simon’s album Graceland when he was five years old. He was entranced by the lyrics and the sounds so much so that he is still affected and influenced by that record today. Listen as he describes why he loves the record and how it’s stuck with him throughout his musical journey.

Then John and Tracy Dell from the Austin band El Tule give host Elizabeth McQueen a lesson in cumbia and explain how music by bands like La Sonora Dinamita, Celso Piña, and Fruko y sus Tesos helped them find their sound as a band.

Watch San Fermin perform “No Devil” backstage at ACLfest on VuHaus

Watch San Fermin perform “Emily” backstage at ACLfest on Vuhaus

Listen to Paul Simon’s new song “Wristband”

Listen to El Tule’s studio 1A Performance

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

Listen to songs from episode 43 of This Song