2020-05-31 playlist & stream

May 31

1st set

They Might Be Giants – It’s Spare the Rock

ID

They Might Be Giants – Older (in-studio)

Elska – I Just Had An Idea

ID

Elizabeth Mitchell & Dan Zanes – Hot Weather Music

Okee Dokee Brothers – Afternoon Walk (new)

ID

Golden Smog – Pecan Pie

[KUTX – Moona Luna – Todas Las Comidas

[WJFF – Crosspulse Percussion Ensemble – Breaths

2nd set

Jonathan Coulton – I’m Your Moon (in-studio)

ID/prep to Rock

TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!

ID

Husker Du – New Day Rising

The Jimmies – Bedhead

The Good Ms. Padgett – Mommy’s Lips

The Go! Team – Buy Nothing Day

James Kochalka Superstar – Hockey Monkey

Erin Flynn & the Co-Op Band – Mary Mack 

ID

3rd set

Egg & Secret Agent 23 Skidoo – I Like Fruit

Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips – My My My

ID

Go Banana Go! – I Love Cookies (new)

Sesame Street – C Is For Cookie

Lunch Money – Cookie As Big As My Head

Royal Order of Chords & Keys – Cookies & Milk

Justin Roberts – One Little Cookie

ID 

They Might Be Giants – E Eats Everything

They Might Be Giants – Spare the Rock

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George Floyd and Michael Ramos

May 31

Today’s Austin newspaper has two different stories relating to my kids. On the front of the Metro section is Ken Herman’s column hoping that the class of 2020 will be part of a new Greatest Generation; that column is accompanied by photos from our neighborhood graduation, which included Liam and a dozen or so other kids graduating high school. The front section included extensive coverage of the protests of the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Michael Ramos here in Austin, protests that both of our kids attended (and came home from with pepper spray burns).

The kids, of whom we are very proud, went there to be part of standing up against police brutality and to provide support to the voices of people of color. And they brought water and medical supplies and sunscreen and were ready to help–once camp counselors, always camp counselors. They joined their brothers and sisters in blocking I-35 and were on the receiving end of pepper spray as a result.

During the time that the kids were at the protests, I won’t pretend I wasn’t holding my breath. I watched livestreams; I followed Twitter; I watched their little dot on Find My Friends. I texted them regularly. And I was intensely aware of the fact that this sense of worry–this background noise that simply by being out, they were in danger–was something that parents of children of color have to contend with every day. I try every day to understand more the extent of the privilege we enjoy to have that basic comfort.

We recorded today’s show before basically all of this and so it doesn’t address it at all. Next week, I plan to essentially reuse the show we did after the protests and murder in Charlottesville, where I tried to put together a show featuring almost entirely artists from, as I put it then, “almost entirely music performed by artists from groups of which I am not a member: people of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants.” It’ll air here in Austin basically right as we pull into our new home in Saint Paul. (We will continue to be on the air in Austin with KUTX as our flagship station, just coming from Minnesota.) I wrote about Charlottesville back then, and it still rings all too true now, three years later.

I’m not the right guy to write about this, really. I’d commend you to Claudia and Dan Zanes’s Facebook page, where they have explored these issues with such love and care, and have excellent reading recommendations (many of which I have taken). I’m just a guy with a silly radio show, but I hope that silly radio show can be a positive influence.

Black lives matter.

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2020-05-24 Playlist & Stream

May 24

1st set

They Might Be Giants – It’s Spare the Rock

ID

They Might Be Giants – Omnicorn

John & Mark – A Counting Error

ID

Brandi Carlile – Have You Ever

Lou Reed & Laurie Anderson – Gentle Breeze

Morphine – A Head With Wings

ID

Stevie Wonder – Ngiculela/Es Una Historia/I Am Singing

[KUTX – Mr. Leebot – Letters and Numbers

[WJFF – Elizabeth Mitchell – What Goes On

2nd set

The Deedle Deedle Dees – Major Deegan

ID/prep to Rock

TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!

ID

The Sippy Cups – Seven is the New Fourteen

Ramones – Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio

Pavement – No More Kings

Frank Turner – I Still Believe

ID

3rd set

The Clash – Lost in the Supermarket

The Okee Dokee Brothers – Raise a Ruckus (new)

ID

Kid Koala – Fruit Belt

Shonen Knife – I Wanna Eat Chocobars

Alina Celeste – Vaca Lechera

ID 

They Might Be Giants – Long White Beard (feat. Robin Goldwasser)

They Might Be Giants – Spare the Rock

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2020-05-17 Playlist & Stream

May 17

1st set

They Might Be Giants – It’s Spare the Rock

ID

They Might Be Giants – Idlewild

Elliott Park – Bicycle

ID

Jazzy Ash – Dreamland

Michelle Bloom & Co. – Something Happens (the Campfire Song)

ID

El Tule  – Tranquilo

[KUTX – Sarah Sharp – Donut Songs

[WJFF – Danny Adlerman & Friends – When I Grow Up

2nd set

Nina Simone – Hush Little Baby

ID/prep to Rock

TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!

ID

Pears for Bears – Fizzy Drink (new)

Rudy Trubitt – Two Bees or Not Two Bees

Carl Kasell bumper

Boogers – Nursery Rhyme Remains The Same

Bears & Lions – Hercules

Momandpop – Be Nice

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down – There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

ID

3rd set

Ella Jenkins – To Stop The Train

Elizabeth Cotten – Freight Train

Elizabeth Mitchell w/ Levon Helm – Mystery Train

ID

The Okee Dokee Brothers – Music Train (new)

Murry Hammond – Next Time Take The Train

Gladys Knight & the Pips – Friendship Train

ID (Emmett)

They Might Be Giants – Mrs. Train

They Might Be Giants – Spare the Rock

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2020-05-10 Playlist & Stream

May 10

1st set

They Might Be Giants – It’s Spare the Rock

ID

They Might Be Giants – No!

Gentle Hen – Beautiful Day in the Woods (Ayla) (in-studio)

The Lucky Band – Buenas Noches (new)

ID

Terri Hendrix – Celebrate the Difference

The Terrible Twos – When I Get To Eleven

Carrie Ferguson – Cat & Piggy (New)

ID

Tom Jones – What’s New Pussycat?

[KUTX – Elizabeth Mitchell _ So Glad I’m Here

[WJFF – Weezer – Rainbow Connection

2nd set

Louis Armstrong – What a Wonderful World

ID/prep to Rock

TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!

ID

Adam & the Bull Shark – Crazy

Love & Rockets – No New Tale to Tell

ScribbleMonster – Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child

the Suburbs – Cows

Stan Ridgway & Pietra Wexstun – Kooky’s Cuckoo Clock

ID

3rd set

Sly & the Family Stone – Dance to the Music

Aaron Nigel Smith feat. Ziggy Marley – Everyone Loves to Dance

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo – Gotta Be Me

ID

The Okee Dokee Brothers – Neighborhood Band (new)

The Que Pastas – How Things Really Are (new)

Go Banana Go! – German Lessons (new)

ID

They Might Be Giants – I Am A Grocery Bag

They Might Be Giants – Spare the Rock

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