Looking back at the week in politics with The Texas Tribune, from Gov. Greg Abbott calling for college students to be disciplined over anti-Semitic speech to a Texas congressman under investigation by the House ethics committee.
Red flags have been raised over group homes for Texans with intellectual disabilities.
For the first time last week, El Paso Locomotive FC and Juárez FC faced off in front of a sold-out crowd. Texas Standard intern Alan Tiscareno shares more from the international friendly match.
And: Texas music legend Alejandro Escovedo ties together a lifetime of songs in his new album.
Alejandro Escovedo
James Mastro: “The Face of the Sun”
It’s well-known that we here at KUTX have a soft spot for Alejandro Escovedo – a love affair that’s lasted far longer than we’ve even been a station. So it’s our due diligence to let you know that Señor Escovedo does have a new record entitled Echo Dancing dropping this weekend. That said, we’re not just talkin’ up Al today.
No, we gotta jump in and tip our hat to Escovedo’s returning tour mate, Mr. James Mastro. A fellow pioneer in the early days of punk rock, this singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer’s already had the privilege and pleasure to perform across the globe more times than we can count, including in the company of Patti Smith, Ian Hunter, Judy Collins, and Robert Plant. This year, Mastro’s been riding high off his latest LP Dawn of a New Error, which dropped the final week of February.
Over the next month-plus of national touring, Escovedo and Mastro will likely be playing some of these new tunes in front of a live audience for the very first time. So as the pair escape the clouds and thunderstorms dominating Austin’s forecast for the next fortnight, familiarize yourself with “The Face of the Sun” and all the other cuts off Dawn of a New Error and Echo Dancing with the shared tour kickoff 8PM this Friday at Antone’s.
Broken Gold: “Bad Days” (feat. Alejandro Escovedo)
Punk is a young person’s game, no doubt. Because while the counterculture spirit, tattoos, and tinnitus stay ’til death, even punk rock pioneers eventually mellow out towards “refined tastes” once they get comfortable on the other side of the hill.
Case in point: Ian MacDougall of The Riverboat Gamblers fame, who first broadened his genre horizons with Broken Gold alongside fellow Gambler Patrick Lillard over a decade and a half back. The offshoot’s initial indie punk prospects shined on their 2011 debut LP Recovery Journal, and have only departed further from the signature RG sound since, most notably on last March’s Live at Paint by Numbers. Well after waiting long enough, Broken Gold’s finally giving us another full-length entry into their studio discography.
Wild Eyes (out May 3rd) strikes gold with mixing from Modest Mouse/White Stripes engineer Stuart Sikes and mastering from twenty-one-time Grammy winner Howie Weinberg, not to mention one hell of a guest appearance. We’re talking about “Bad Days“, a look back to when Riverboat Gamblers were operating full tilt on tour, almost like a generations-later continuation of Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated”. It dropped last Friday and features vocals from KUTX favorite Alejandro Escovedo, who could certainly lean on his formative days with The Nuns for similar inspiration. So as Broken Gold shifts the fuzz pedal into overdrive for SXSW, catch ’em 10:15PM tomorrow night at Valhalla for the Chicken Ranch Records Party and 5:45PM on Sunday at Empire Control Room for Smartpunk House. They’ll both be good nights for sure.
Diane and The Gentle Men: “Walk With Me” (feat. Alejandro Escovedo)
Although his prevalence on our playlists isn’t exactly what it used to be, longtime KUTX listeners know that historically our airwaves were all about Alejandro Escovedo. Aside from his ongoing bromance with KUTX host Jody Denberg, this San Antonio native has continued to represent a Central Texas sound across Austin, Dallas, and beyond, leaving an idiosyncratic imprint on pretty much anything he touches. And that of course includes his many collaborations, the latest of which teams Escovedo up with another accomplished sonic confederate, NYC native Diane Gentile.
Picking up where Lucinda Williams, David Bowie, and The Rolling Stones left off, Diane and The Gentle Men made their merry retro-informed studio debut with a pair of singles in 2016, an EP in 2019, and their debut LP The White Sea shortly after COVID swallowed everything. Well, coming up in about a month and a half, Diane and The Gentle Men make their triumphant return with a help of a few friends on The Bad and the Beautiful.
True to the ensemble-esque title, The Bad and the Beautiful sees Diane and The Gentle Men joining forces with the likes of James Maddock, Jesse Malin, and as you’ve probably already guessed, Al Escovedo. At ten tracks, The Bad and the Beautiful boasts ample space for Gentile to tinker around with the three-act structure and arrange these near and dear stories in a way that’s meaningful, both as individual “scenes” and in its entirety, sating her Shakespearean tastes. Sonically, Diane and The Gentle Men gave us a sneak peak ahead of The Bad and the Beautiful‘s release on September 15th with the album opener “Walk With Me” – a harmony-hinged heartland-rock-meets-mercurial-Americana-punk duet with Escovedo – though we’ve learned there’ll also be explorations into folk-rock and maybe even disco as well. We guarantee you Escovedo’s not taking a trot in this Texas heat, so instead shine some streams for Al, Diane, and The Gentle Men with the synergistic stroll that is “Walk With Me”.
Texas Standard: February 13, 2019
A year after Parkland, what if anything is changing to make Texas schools safer? Five things you need to know about what happens next. Also: The end of El Chapo’s career, but not his cartel. After years of work to win convictions against the drug kingpin, what changes? We’ll take a look. And as many New Yorkers rethink the three billion dollar price tag to land Amazons second headquarters, a researcher says New York could learn a thing or two from the Texas experience. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard: