Rocking In The Age Of Covid-19
Mar 15
If you’re like, well, just about everyone with or without kids, you’re probably trying to figure out what you’ll do over the next days/weeks/good-lord-months of reduced social time. Here are some suggestions. I’ll try to keep this updated.
- No Nap Family Happy Hour. Catherine Prystup of LiveMom and I were so bummed not to get to bring you all a ton of amazing family music during SXSW that we decided to do it anyway. We’ve launched the No Nap Family Happy Hour, presented by Springfree Trampoline. Every weekend for at least five weeks we’ve got some of the best performers around live-streaming on Facebook Live for you. We hope it helps you out, and we’re proud to be paying the artists too. Check it out here.
- Listen to the radio. We’ll still be on (http://KUTX.org) at 6 pm central every Sunday (with host(s)). And KUTX is of course on 24-7. The station is mostly running without on-air staff right now, but every song is still hand-selected. MPR’s The Current has a pretty great stream for families, Rock The Cradle.
- You can listen to our show going all the way back to 2012 right here on the website. Go to the Playlists tab and, thanks to the magic of PRX, you can stream, what, almost 400 hours of indie music for indie kids.
- Watch some videos. We’ve got 184 videos on our YouTube playlist. Maybe start off with The Not-Its! doing Vacation?
- Our sister station, KUT, is easily the best place for news and information, both locally and nationally.
- If you have an HD radio, you can listen to an all-Austin stream on KUTX’s HD-2 channel. It’s the same stream you hear at the airport, and it’s awesome.
- A lot of artists are doing streaming events (you can find an easy-to-use calendar at this handy Google doc). I’ll link to a few select ones I know about below and, as I hear about more, I’ll try to keep this updated with some of my picks. Remember that these days/weeks/good-lord-months without shows can be devastating for artists, so if they have a way to support them and you have the means, please do so, whether it’s a Patreon, an online merch store, or something else. That Google doc above has links to how to contribute to many of them.
- Red Yarn: Andy has three half-hour Facebook Live events planned–Monday at 10 am, Wednesday at 10 am, and Thursday at 5:30 pm. Those times are all Pacific. Find him here on Facebook.
- Laura Doherty: Chicago favorite and long-time friend of the show Laura will be on Facebook Live on Wednesday at 3 pm central.
- Lloyd H. Miller: Lloyd was scheduled to do a sensory-friendly show at Jalopy today (Sunday) at 11 eastern, and will do it via Zoom instead. Because he wants to keep it focused on kids who will specifically benefit from that format, and to ensure everyone involved on the interactive portion has the right permission, it’s an invite thing: email him at lloydhmiller AT gmail DOT com. He is also doing Facebook live shows Tuesdays and Fridays at 10:30 am eastern.
- Dan and Claudia Zanes: Dan and Claudia have been doing a delightful series of “Social Isolation” videos on Facebook Live. They’re just lovely.
- The Lucky Band: Lucky Diaz and Alisha–frequent SXSW visitors and the best humans around–will be playing live on their Instagram story at 10 am PST and is on at that time pretty much every day. Starting tomorrow (March 16) it’ll be on their Facebook page.
- 123 Andrés: Frequent Austin visitors Andrés and Christina will be live on YouTube today (Sunday) at 5 eastern and probably more times coming.
- Joanie Leeds: Joanie Leeds–who you just heard guest DJ last week in connection with her kick-ass new album All The Ladies–is jumping into helping in this situation with characteristic full power. She’s got the Quarantine Kids Concerts with a subscription-based service with daily shows for both Jewish songs and secular songs. There’s a charge, but it’s pretty modest given the number of live shows you’ll get. (Plus, if you go with the larger fee, you’ll get not just a couple of weeks of live shows, but also her entire catalog, including the new record.)
- Mil’s Trills, who did that great chart linked above, is also offering free online lessons to help with kids dealing with (understandable) stress or isolation. Details here.
- Justin Roberts is doing Facebook Live every weekday at 10:30 with concerts on Thursdays. Go to his Facebook page (and probably sign up for his email list).
- Jarrett J. Krosoczka, while not technically a musician, is a long-time friend of the show and books the author side of Meltdown (which we cannot wait to return). He’s doing a drawing lesson daily at 1 central on his YouTube channel.
- Thao from Thao & the Get Down Stay Down will be live on her Instagram feed on March 18 at 2:30 central with a Thao For Kids livestream.
- Brady Rymer, a/k/a the Nicest Human In Family Music, will kick off “Live from Brady’s House” on Sunday, March 21 at noon central.
- Hopalong Andrew is telling tales and singing songs about being a cowboy in the city. Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 9 central on his Facebook page.
Wash your hands, rock out, and have a good week, y’all. We love you.
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