2017-08-27 Playlist & Stream

Aug 27

1st set
They Might Be Giants – It’s Spare the Rock
They Might Be Giants – Birdhouse In Your Soul
The Deedle Deedle Dees – Nellie Bly
ID
[Ella first Good morning]
Ella Fitzgerald – Don’t Fence Me In
Dan Zanes & Friends – Pay Me My Money Down
ID
Gustafer Yellowgold – I’m From The Sun
Wendy and DB promo

[WJFF/KCMJ – Elizabeth Mitchell – Lovely Day

[KUTX – Elizabeth Mitchell – Rattle My Rattle

2nd set
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down – There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly
ID
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!
ID
CandyBand – Get Up Already
Artichoke – Mary Anning
Ella Likes Llamas
Dressy Bessy – Electrified
ScribbleMonster & His Pals – Chocolate Milk
ID

3rd set
Queen – You’re My Best Friend
Jonathan Coulton – The Princess Who Saved Herself
Lunch Money – Roller Coaster
ID
Prince – Starfish & Coffee
Billy Bragg – Wilco – My Flying Saucer
Telephone Company – Mustache
ID
They Might Be Giants – Dr. Worm
They Might Be Giants – Spare the Rock

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2017-08-20 Playlist & Stream

Aug 20

1st set
They Might Be Giants – Then the Kids Took Over
Elizabeth Mitchell w/ Children of Agape Choir – This Little Light of Mine
ID
Jazzy Ash – Down By the Riverside
Dan Zanes w/ Blind Boys of Alabama – Welcome Table
ID
Sandra Velasquez – Deportee

[WJFF/KCMJ – Uncle Rock – Superhero Medley

2nd set
Gina Chavez – Bug Bug (instudio)
ID
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!
ID
Michael Franti & Spearhead – Hey World (Remote Control)
The Honeydogs & Chastity Brown – Oh! You Pretty Things
Elvis Costello – (What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding)
ID

[KUTX – James Brown – Get Up Offa That Thing

3rd set
Ella Jenkins – Somebody’s Talking About Freedom
SaulPaul – Rise
Andra Day – Rise Up
ID
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – This Land Is Your Land
John Legend & The Roots – Humanity (Love the Way It Should Be)
ID
They Might Be Giants – Your Racist Friend
They Might Be Giants – Spare the Rock

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Charlottesville

Aug 15

One of the very first stations to pick us up after we moved to Austin was 106.1 The Corner in Charlottesville, an eclectic AAA station. I listen to them every so often, and it’s a community-oriented friendly place, reflecting the lovely city in which it broadcasts.

We air there Sunday mornings at 8:00 and, as far as I know, we aired this last Sunday. (It was a show that had been recorded prior to any of the events.)  About eighteen hours earlier, Heather Heyer, who lived in Charlottesville, was killed by an American Nazi, maybe a mile or two from the station, based on my maps app.  She was standing up against the white supremacists and Nazis and Klansmen who had infested her city. She was–and is–a hero.

The Nazis and white supremacists and Klansmen were not “very fine people,” none of them, as the president asserts. They were carrying torches. They were chanting “White lives matter.” They were chanting “blood and soil.” They were chanting “Jews will not replace us.” They were there specifically to try to strike fear into the hearts of people of color, of LGBTQ people, of anyone who isn’t like them.

My grandparents, Gordon and Alma Hartrick, are pictured to the right on their honeymoon, on which they hiked miles to see Mount Rushmore under construction.  Upon their move to Arkansas, they were foster parents to many children in southeastern Arkansas in the era of de jure and de facto segregation. An African-American child in the community suffered burns at one point, and my grandmother brought the child to the clinic for treatment. Someone from the Klan saw it and, for no other reason than being offended by my grandmother’s humanity towards a child, they burned a cross–twice–in my grandparents’ yard.

There is a direct line from those people to the people who killed Heather Heyer, who attacked dozens of others, and, yes, to Dylann Roof. These are not “very fine people.”


I am a straight white guy.  I cannot and do not pretend to know what it is like to be a person of color or a person who’s marginalized in just about any other way in the United States.

I know that by being born white and male in the United States, I started off with a huge advantage–born on third base, as our great former governor Ann Richards said (possibly quoting Barry Switzer), though I try to remember that I didn’t get there by hitting a triple, as the quote concludes.  (Incidentally, fellow white guys, it is possible to simultaneously recognize that you got super lucky just by being born how you were and be proud that you worked hard to do what you’ve done.)

I’m constantly befuddled about how to deal with events like this on what is, after all, a silly radio show for children.  I don’t know if I get it right.  But this time, for this weekend’s show, it’s going to be almost entirely music performed by artists from groups of which I am not a member: people of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants. It’ll include some songs on point with the events, but it will also include some songs of hope, even if that’s not an emotion I’m feeling a ton of right now. I probably won’t talk about Charlottesville; I don’t know what I would say, and, again, it’s a silly radio show for children and it’s not my place to talk to kids about this. Parents can decide if they want to point out the songs we’re playing to their kids, if they decide that the songs have a place in that conversation.

This weekend’s show will not include this song, but I feel compelled to include it here.  Do not play it for your children, unless you are pretty flexible on the swears front.  I’m including this particular live version because–32 years ago–Jello Biafra addressed the nonsense that Nazis are patriotic.  “Phony patriotic rednecks are what brings our country down.”


Anyway.

Charlottesville listeners: We love you.

Other listeners: We love you.

Nazis: Well, listen to the song above.

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2017-08-13 Playlist & Stream

Aug 13

It’s our twelfth birthday!

1st set
They Might Be Giants – It’s Spare the Rock
ID
They Might Be Giants – Apartment Four
Caspar Babypants – Underground (new)
Froggins & Bug – Literal Red Riding Hood (new)
ID
Asylum Street Spankers – Everybody Loves My Baby
Vashti Bunyan – Diamond Day
ID
Sweet Honey in the Rock – Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me

[KUTX – Baby Loves Jazz – ABC

[WJFF/KCMJ – Baby Loves Jazz – ABC, Jose-Luis Orozco – Damos Gracias

2nd set
Jazzy Ash – All The Pretty Little Horses (new)
ID
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!
ID
The Not-Its! – Dance With Me
Joanie Leeds & the Nightlights – Library Book
The Jam – Going Underground
Me First & the Gimme Gimmes – Over the Rainbow
Bazillions – That’s My Style (new)
ID

3rd set
Sugar Free Allstars – Cornbread (in-studio)
Booker T. Jones – Harlem House
ID
Frances England – City Don’t Sleep
Sister Sledge – We Are Family
Lard Dog & the Band of Shy – I Like
The Que Pastas – Llama
ID
They Might Be Giants – 813 Mile Car Trip
They Might Be Giants – Spare the Rock

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2017-08-06 Playlist & Stream

Aug 06

1st set
They Might Be Giants – It’s Spare the Rock
ID
They Might Be Giants – Science is Real
Nathalia in-studio

[KUTX – Natalie Merchant – Topsyturvey World

[WJFF/KCMJ – Natalie Merchant – Topsyturvey World, Jose-Luis Orozco – Oatmeal

2nd set
Renee & Jeremy – You’re My Best Friend
ID
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!
ID
CandyBand – Ice Cream
Señor Fancypants – The Ice Cream Man (new)
The Thunderlords – Ice Cream Headache
The Royal Order of Chords & Keys – Jim, the Ice Cream Man
Battles – Ice Cream (feat. Matias Aguayo)
ID

3rd set
Telephone Company – I-C-E C-R-E-A-M
Pianosaurus – Sun Will Follow
Peter Holsaapple & Chris Stamey – the Child In You
ID (Townsend 8/19)
REM – We Walk
Ralph’s World – Gato Negro (new)
ID
They Might Be Giants – Long White Beard (feat. Robin Goldwasser)
They Might Be Giants – Spare the Rock

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