experience

The Peterson Brothers: “Family”

We here at KUTX have kept a pulse on the local scene long and close enough to realize that we’re essentially tracking the progression of individual talents in real time. And though we’re admittedly quick to stick up for twenty-somethings who’ve bottled lightning for their debut releases, frankly there are very few youngsters that genuinely make us think “oh, they’re only gonna get better and better from here on out” each time we see them play live.

Think about The Peterson Brothers, who initially entertained us almost a full decade back when they made their first Studio 1A appearance as mere teens. Just as they did back then, Glenn, Jr. and Alex both continue to slay it on vocals, but their deft instrumentation on guitar and bass, respectively, always steals the show. Which totally tracks, considering up until 2020’s The Intro, The Peterson Brothers were primarily a live staple. So just when we began to fear that their mature emulsifications of blues, funk, soul, and jazz might’ve hit a limit, The Peterson Brothers have bested themselves yet again with their full-length Experience, out April 12th.

And since The Peterson Brothers have already shared a stage with The Roots, who better to help translate their live energy to the studio than Grammy-nominated Roots/Lauryn Hill/Mark Ronson producer Ray Angry? Mixed for ATMOS and mastered at Abbey Road Studios, the resulting Experience is exactly what it claims to be, an eight-track sonic excursion best enjoyed in surround sound. So while mid-January’s “Too Soon” teased that hyper-polished production value with echoes of The Brothers Johnson, yesterday’s “Family” sounds more like The Whispers rejuvenated their signature synth sound with organic sonics and some playful brass. It’s an embrace of everyone who’s supported them along the way, blood relations be damned, and holy moly does it make us feel like Experience will be TPB’s alma mater…at least until the next one.

Music Festivals

With temperatures (finally) cooling down, music festival season is ramping up across Texas. That was the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.

Texas Standard: April 7, 2017

After US cruise missile attacks on Syria, whose move is it next? A one time event, or the start of something bigger? We’ll explore. Also, after a 15 hour budget battle royal, a 218 billion dollar spending plan for Texas, paid for in part by tapping the rainy day fund. We’ll tally the winners and losers. And depressing numbers on new jobs today, and yet in Texas, the construction industry says there aren’t enough workers to meet demand. What’s going on here? All that and much more turn it up, its Texas Standard:

V&B: The Great War and Its Legacy, 100 Years Later

In partnership with the Harry Ransom Center, Views and Brews discussed the recent exhibition “The World at War, 1914–1918.” The exhibit marks the centenary of the start of World War I, and seeks to recover the deeply personal experience of the war.

Listen back as Rabbi Neil Blumofe and Ransom Center curators Elizabeth Garver and Jean Cannon join KUT’s Rebecca McInroy to explore the layered causes, complicated effects and penetrating propaganda of a war that forever changed our relationship to grief, industry, faith and one another.