KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts
KUT and KUTX news and music podcasts for Austin, Texas and beyond
What does it mean for Austin artists to take the stage at the city’s biggest music festival? This episode features conversations with SL Houser, Geto Gala, and Next of Kin as they share their journeys to Austin City Limits Music Festival, reflect on what it means to perform in their hometown, and talk about what’s next for their music.
Pause/Play is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas.
You can support our work by donating at supportthispodcast.org.
On this episode we interview Geto Gala fresh off the stage at ACL 2025 and discuss their career accomplishments. We also discuss the lack of local rappers and singers at ACL this year compared to previous years. Hip-hop facts include facts about Vince Vaughn, Snoop Dogg, Black Eyed Peas and more. Fresh’s Unpopular Opinion is about Kool Herc not being as influential as Grandmaster Flash in the legacy of hip-hop.
On this episode we interview Geto Gala, fresh off their trip from London for SXSW London. We also interview artist Chakeeta B about her upcoming new album and her hair festival the Kinky Curly Coily Festival. Hip-hop facts include Lil Kim, K-Camp, Rapper’s Delight and more. Fresh, and Chakeeta B’s, Unpopular opinion includes Lil Wayne’s current standing in the culture of hip-hop.
As Love Austin Music Month marches on, I’d like to revisit one of my favorite Studio 1A sessions from 2024 and celebrate a new victory. Geto Gala, the rockstar hip-hop duo of Jake Lloyd and Deezie Brown were our November 2024 Artist of the Month, and they headlined our Free Week Show a few weeks ago at Stubb’s Indoors. Hot of the release of Major League at the end of last year, they were part of the 2024 Sonic Guild class and were awarded $10,000 this past Saturday at the 11th Annual Sonic Guild Ball. Which means big things are coming next.
To celebrate this huge victory for one of our favorite artists at KUTX, and to show you what you’re missing in case you haven’t yet seen Geto Gala live, here’s one from their November Studio 1A Session.
Geto Gala plays a SIMS Foundation benefit show Saturday, February 9th at Antone’s with NOLO and Semihelix.
Confucius and Fresh confer on GloRilla’s growing popularity, check the pulse on Austin’s hip-hop scene, and predict the state of Drill music’s foreseeable future.
It’s a new month. It’s new music Friday. And there’s a fresh collaboration out that’ll really spice up your playlists. One that marks the welcome return of Cilantro Boombox.
See, the genre-bonding octet formally entered the Austin scene a dozen years back with their eponymous debut and followed it up a half decade later with their 2017 sophomore full-length Shine. And while Cilantro Boombox did keep our pandemic-addled brains sane with three singles in 2020, the latest pulse we felt from them on streaming was last June’s “Little Sign”. Well, just in time for the release of Geto Gala’s first-ever full-length, Cilantro Boombox has teamed up with one half of Geto Gala and our July 2022 Artist of the Month, Jake Lloyd for another spicy standalone.
Yes, just a week ahead of a gig next Friday at the Sahara Lounge alongside DJ Chorizo Funk and Geto Gala, Cilantro Boombox laced up their coriander kicks with some upbeat pop on the Jake Lloyd collabo “Best Shoes”. Like a finely diced blend of Pharrell’s “Happy” and Janelle Monae’s “Tightrope” garnishing a full plate of hand claps, slick funk rock grooves, G Funk-inspired analogue synth bends, and soulful horn refrains, “Best Shoes” is made easily accessible for those who haven’t fully acclimated to a Latin/Pan-African palate.
We don’t personally think cilantro tastes like soap…but this track is squeaky clean and eager to scrub the dance floor.
After years of supporting Deezie Brown and Jake Lloyd individually, it’s beautiful watching them both earn exponential exposure with this hip-hop/R&B phenomenon that is Geto Gala. The latest phase of a fruitful friendship, Brown and Lloyd had already shared a fair amount of stages together pre-pandemic before capitalizing on their bar-trading chemistry with their eponymous February 2021 studio debut. Alongside its delightfully-southern Chopped and Slowed counterpart, The Geto Gala EP probably played a part in Brown and Lloyd separately scoring their first official ACL Fest sets last October, where informal versions of the full Geto Gala band ended up backing each solo performer.
Between then and now, the Geto Gala gang’s apparently upped their game for a whole gauntlet of live gigs, at least based off the applause they garnered last Thursday morning when they transfigured our Scholz SXSW space into the Geto Garten. With a set that’d make Big Pokey proud, and a crowd that was happy to “fifth wheel” alongside the band, Geto Gala sure as hell had “Sumn’ to Say” at SXSW. We’re just hoping our invitation’s still good for the next Gala.