Texas Textbooks

KUT Afternoon Newscast for August 22, 2023

Central Texas top stories for August 22, 2023. Parts of Central Texas get rain from Harold. Local governments sue over ‘Death Star’ law. Experts assess how proposed Texas textbooks address climate change. Austin connection to new RSV vaccine. Rite of passage for Austin middle schoolers.

Texas Textbooks: “Hemisfair ’68”

It’s officially syllabus day for our 2021 Spring Membership Drive so get ready to receive some rustic, surreal reading material! I’m talking about Austin duo Texas Textbooks, whose love of the Lone Star State is anchored by their outspoken political beliefs, both of which lend themselves to the band’s signature sound: “twangcore”. The twangcore twosome got started in 2017 and dropped their debut LP Pecos and Matamoros a couple summers back, writing the foreword to Texas Textbooks’ latest chapter.

Recorded over the past year as the duo’s slacker country style evolved, BIRDS has already proven an achievement in psych-folk artistry, not to mention aural ornithology with its satisfying production choices and flock of eclectic tones and timbres, guaranteed to give you some just-north-of-the-border nostalgia as sonic sightseer with originals like “Hemisfair ’68”!