One of my favorite radio stations here in Austin is KGSR 107.1FM. The station isn't exactly cutting edge, but it has a strong personality and plays a good mix of Texas music, alt-country, old school Americana, a fair amount of singer-songwriters and some new music here and there. If you don't mind hearing a roots music or classic rock hero at least once in every set, it offers up a pretty nice variety.
It also still employs many of the same DJs since I first moved to Austin over a decade ago. Apparently there are not that many reasons to leave a prime DJ gig at the station, which is why I was really impressed when my friend Andy Langer took over the evening slot a few months ago. Now when I hop in my car between 6pm and 10pm, I hear my friend's voice introducing the songs, bringing a fresh perspective and some brand new music during the last 20 minutes of his shift. I have a lot of respect for Andy's dedication to music, and, yeah, I also appreciate that he actually updates his "jock blog".
This shuffling of shifts apparently led veteran content manager and on-air host Jody Denberg to create a new Sunday morning program, and I caught a bit of the second edition this past weekend. I was actually stuck in traffic on 26th Street, watching hundreds of marathon runners jog south down San Jacinto Blvd. (it would have been nice for the city to re-route us, or at least put up some signs) and I heard three songs in Jody's set:
- Yoav - "Where Is My Mind"
- Chris Whitley & Jeff Lang - "The Road Leads Down"
- Shawn Colvin - "Wild Country"
Any day I can turn on the radio and hear the late genius Chris Whitley is a good day, and this song is beautiful. It was also a rare treat to hear an unreleased mp3 of Shawn Colvin covering one of Whitley's songs, handed over to Denberg courtesy of the album's producer. And I was really intrigued by an artist name Yoav covering Pixies' "Where Is My Mind". His version is warm and atmospheric, almost meditative. It gives you a chance to really listen to the lyrics, and the orchestration added for me a gravity I hadn't heard before.
Yoav's cover of "Where Is My Mind" from http://krissy.vox.com/
Unfortunately, when I checked out the rest of Yoav's music, I really didn't like any of it, despite his bombastic description as "Beck meets Buckley meets Bjork". Not so much, if you ask me.
So, the point of this post is not to encourage you to go out and listen to Yoav, because you could live a long and meaningful life without ever hearing his original music. I'm not really recommending his stuff beyond this one cover. The point is to thank the responsible and discerning DJs of the world for playing the good songs, for giving an unreleased rarity its little turn in the spotlight, and for letting us hear some new stuff so we can decide for ourselves if we like it. Listening to the radio doesn't have to be painful, it can be interesting. Thanks KGSR for giving me a reason to tune in.
- Buy Pixies' Surfer Rosa
from Amazon, or just download the mp3 of Pixies' "Where Is My Mind
".
- If for some reason you do like Yoav, you can download his version of "Where Is My Mind?
". He's playing on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic tomorrow, Wednesday, February 19th, and he plays in San Francisco Thursday night at none other than the glorious Hotel Utah.