December 2nd - Milli Mars
Milli Mars has been making some big waves in San Antonio, Austin, and beyond. The Texas rapper has grown in popularity over the years through countless hours in the studio, drawing an audience on YouTube, and receiving airplay with DJ Wonder on SHADE 45. This week, we get to listen to his latest album, King of a One Horse Town, as well as discuss his creative process with producer 36th, and what would make a hip hop artist want to own a vegan cookie company.
December 9th - SYRUS
We hope that everyone is as excited about the return of concerts in Texas as much as we are here on the Live and Local show, and SYRUS has quite a show in the works to preview with us tonight! We will discuss the event, as well as listen to some of their recorded work and learn how this project began.
December 16th - Elise Road
We are thrilled to once again be bringing live performances to our fellow Texas music enthusiasts over the air! This week, we are joined by neo-soul artist Elise Road live in the KRTU studio. We have certainly enjoyed her recorded work over the past couple of years and very much look forward to bringing her live sound to KRTU listeners via 91.7FM in San Antonio and world wide on the KRTU app.
December 23rd and 30th - 2021 Audio Scrapbook
2021 has been quite the year for Texas music! As restrictions slowly lifted and new safety protocols were put in place, musicians across the state emerged from their creative lairs and serenaded us all with their labors of love. We had the privilege of listening to a wide variety of sounds and discussing a wide variety of topics with many of these artists. Join us as we reflect on these conversations and look forward to the new year!
November 4th - The Please Help
Our featured artist this week is The Please Help, brain child of Phil Luna and brought to fruition by the work of his fellow bandmates. In their latest release, Solar, the band covers topics ranging from human nature to interpersonal relations to the wonderment of everyday life. We get to hear several tracks from this work and also chat with Phil about the writing and recording process.
November 11th - The Wizard
In our second ever second time artist feature, we catch up with The Wizard in this week's episode of Live and Local. Always working diligently and letting the creative juices flow with reckless abandon, the trio has brand new music to share with us as well as tales from the studio and teasers for what's to come. In between listening to their latest album, Texas Heat, Vol. 3, we chat with the band about how their sound has evolved, recent live performances, and Joel's obsession with swords.
November 18th - Mt. Borracho
We are thrilled to once again be bringing live performances to our fellow Texas music enthusiasts over the air! This week, we welcome Mt. Borracho to the KRTU studio and enjoy their unique brand of noise/drone/post-techno. Tune in to be bathed in these soundscapes in real time.
By Anna Shockley
Some of my fellow indie music loving buds and I headed to the Paper Tiger on Saturday October 23rd to hear the Montreal based band, Men I Trust. We were greeted by a long line of other fans, anxiously waiting to be let inside.
The opening set was 23 year old singer-songwriter Micheal Seyer. Originally from the Philippines, now based out of LA, Micheal put on a laid back yet pleasant performance (except for the baby yoda, that was eventful). If you’ve never listened to his music, I would compare it to Men I Trust having a music baby with Babe Rainbow with slightly less direction and fewer lyrics. To make matters more awkward, the sound booth was in a funny mood, so the few lyrics he did sing were muffled and inaudible. Even though I am being slightly critical, I really did enjoy his set, all things considered. My friends and I got to chat with him afterwards and we were not surprised to discover that the chill and nonchalant attitude from his music perfectly represented his disposition (I love you Micheal Seyer).
By the time Men I Trust came on, the crowd had buffed up substantially. Everytime I go to Paper Tiger, I am continuously blown away by how small the room can feel during an empty concert, but how big the room can feel when fans are stacked from wall to wall. This concert was sold out, so the room felt massive. The stage was composed of the lead singer Emma Proulx, the bassist Jessy Cason and multi-instrumentalist Dragos Chiriac. They played some of my personal favorite songs including Tailwhip, Seven, and finished off with Show Me How, after the crowd demanded an encore.
The lead singer Emma Proulx has an aura of confidence that almost, dare I say it, makes her music sound better. All three of them make good music and look happy doing it. The camaraderie and stress free energy between the three of them made it easy to forget I was at a concert and not in their basement. The crowd clearly picked up on this laid back energy. Everyone was friendly and clearly excited to be at the show.
Despite the technical shortcomings, the overall performance was pleasant and laid back, which is what I was looking forward to. I did find out afterwards that the same technical issues from Paper Tiger, have happened at every venue in Texas so far for the bands, so I hope they resolve it for their remaining tour (Do better Texas!). Peace out, I hope to see Men I Trust back in San Antonio soon!
Pictured: Will Beauchamp and Micheal Seyer at Paper Tiger
October 7th and 9th - Pledge Drive Kick-Off
One of the many great things about the programming on KRTU is that it is listener supported, non commercial radio. Here on the Live and Local show, we have a passion for giving great Texas music a platform. Tune in to hear some of our favorite Texas tunes as well as how this passion project started and what you can do to support music in the Lone Star State!
October 14th and 16th - Mr. PidgeIn this week's episode, we are very excited to be joined by San Antonio indie darlings and fellow KRTU community hosts, Mr. Pidge. The group has released a fresh new single for us all to enjoy and we take time to discuss the track, the inspiration behind it, as well as get the inside scoop on the Indie Overnight program Vibes Live Radio!
October 21st and 23rd - Jason Kane & the Jive
In a modern musical landscape smattered with sub-genre upon sub-genre and fusion after fusion of musical stylings, a heavy dose of pure rock'n'roll is quite refreshing! Cleanse your musical pallet with the high energy stylings of Jason Kane & the Jive as we catch up with the crew about their touring schedule, inspirations, and future plans.
October 28th and 30th - Ashley Bailey
As AC/DC once said (or maybe they didn't), it's a long way to the top if you wanna play music in Texas. Ashley Bailey has been hard at work for many years refining her sound and her live performance, and let us tell you - the hard work shows! Join us this week as we listen to her latest releases and enjoy the fruits of her musical labors, as well as gain some insights into her methods and muses.
Donnie Dee is from San Antonio, Texas. He started DJing in 1992 and began professionally doing this in 2005. Throughout his career he has won many awards including the DMC’s and the Red Bull Thr3style. In his spare time, he enjoys practicing DJing, listening to music, sneakers, and traveling.
His first experience with Jazz was with his family. Jazz music was always on and around his mom’s and grandmother’s house alongside R&B of the late 60’s to the early 90’s. His mom, grandmother, and aunt helped shape his music taste to this day. Donnie believes listening to Jazz music opened his mind to many different kinds of music.
Donnie has always been big into college radio. He started listening to KRTU in 2002 or 2003. He was invited to be on a hip-hop show that was airing in 2005 and was invited back the next week. Darby and Rob G. ran a show called Labkids radio on Sunday night. He joined this show as well. The music director at the time, Matt Fleager, offered Donnie a Saturday night time slot from 9-10pm. This is when Donnie created Super Soul Saturday, a show “geared towards more soul driven music”.
At first, Donnie played acts like the Gorillaz, Flying Lotus, and Lo-fi instrumentals, but then Matt Fleager suggested he lean into “more of what Hip-Hop music was sampled from.” Then Scuba Steve, the co-host, joined a month later and the show took off. The show is strictly focused on Soul, Neo Soul, and classic R&B, though sometimes a hip-hop cut may be thrown into the mix. Donnie mainly talks about the artists, the samples or local events during his show. The last 20 minutes of every show is usually modern soul along the lines of Erykah, Badu, Madlib, and Thundercat. Donnie has shared a sample of these last 20 minutes here. The two co-hosts along with JJ Lopez created a quarterly Soul Live event called the Super Soul Shakedown. They play cuts they would play on air in person and many artists are brought down for that event. Hopefully they can start these events up again soon!
“I think KRTU's future is in good hands and there is no sign of them stopping. Hopefully I can hang in there with them for as long as I can. The community embraces them because they embrace the community.” - Donnie Dee
August 5th and 7th - Patricia Restrepo, Slowed & Throwed
There is perhaps no greater embodiment of Texas music than the late great Robert Earl Davis Jr. - DJ Screw. Nearly all Texas music fans are at least casually aware of his style and legacy, but Patricia Restrepo has co-curated an immersive chopped and screwed experience for the citizens of San Antonio. Enjoy this exhibit of multimedia art, relics, and memories at Art Pace - and enjoy this interview as we explore DJ Screw's impact on Texas music and art.
August 12th and 14th - Michael Sarafin
There have been many singer/songwriters who have been (self)described as prolific - but not many who have released two EP's in a six month period to back it up! Michael Sarafin draws inspiration from a myriad of different thoughts, feelings, and ideas to create his unique brand of Texas music, including literary works. Join us as we listen to his latest work and discover what he considers to be the greatest piece of art of all time!
August 19th and 21st - DJ Donnie Dee
The word DJ has come to mean many things in the modern music landscape - but DJ Donnie Dee is one musician who is certainly deserving of the label in its truest sense. This week, we get to talk to the man himself about what that term means to him, the art of DJing, and his work as a community host on 91.7FM KRTU.
“Radio Pocho is an eclectic mix of music from across time and space but centered in the experience of Latinxs in the midwest. Radio Pocho plays new music as well as revisiting the past, featuring local talents and those from lands we’ve yet to traverse. Each host has a distinct taste, but it blends perfectly in the musical molcajete that Radio Pocho strives to be.”
About Radio Pocho
This month KRTU is excited to feature Radio Pocho. Miguel Vargas, current San Antonio resident and DJ, started the show in 2010 with Steven Renderos. Together they began broadcasting Radio Pocho on KFAI-FM Fresh Air, a community radio station in Minneapolis, Minnesota. KFAI-FM allowed Miguel and Steven to play a wider range of styles than their weekend dancefloor DJ sets. They mixed Latinx influence with other pop culture influences and Radio Pocho was created. This mixing of influences allowed Radio Pocho to become a platform for local and non-local Latinx artists to connect with audiences who understand their experiences and embrace their music.
In 2012, Steven left Minneapolis and Radio Pocho in order to pursue career opportunities. As the show continued, Miguel took this as an opportunity to invite different co-hosts to join him in creating it each week. This led to “one of [their] most supportive guest hosts”, Terrell LaMarr, joining Miguel as a frequent co-host of Radio Pocho.
From 2015 to 2017 Radio Pocho began booking and promoting a series of concerts that featured the host’s favorite artists outside of Minneapolis. This included artists from Chicago (Dos Santos; ESSO!; Lester Rey), Los Angeles (Buyepongo, QUITAPENAS, Yanga, Brainstory), and Austin (Money Chicha). During this time, the show picked up its next regular co-host, Brenda Azueta. Brenda had photography and video skills that were essential to the promotional material then and now with her direction of Radio Pocho’s social media accounts.
In 2015 Miguel visited San Antonio and attended one of J.J Lopez’s (our General Manager) Friday dance nights. The next day some of Miguel’s DJ friends were invited to spin records live on-air on JJ’s show, The Soul Shakedown. This is when Miguel “thought that if he ever moved to San Antonio, KRTU would be the station he would bring Radio Pocho to.” In July of 2019 Miguel moved and Radio Pocho was added to KRTU’s Indie Overnight programming. When Miguel moved, Brenda and Terrell kept producing the show in Minneapolis and they brought on Cristina Selvan-Morfin as a co-host. Cristina has helped them grow Radio Pocho’s social media presence through content like “Song Of The Week” and “New Music Friday”.
When the pandemic hit in the Spring of 2020, the Radio Pocho team decided to use “remote technology to begin producing one weekly episode that would air in Minneapolis and San Antonio.” This “cross-country collaboration” happened to be synced up with Radio Pocho’s 10th anniversary! Terrell is the board engineer on Wednesday nights for KFAI in Minneapolis while Miguel edits the archived episode to air on KRTU the next Monday.
Radio Pocho Playlist: Updated weekly to reflect the show
https://open.spotify.com/user/radiopocho/playlist/66rnHbGSHHPfKWFDUgr81v
Radio Pocho airs on KRTU on Mondays at 11pm.
About Miguel Vargas
“My name is Miguel Vargas, and I am a DJ, Cultural Curator, and have worked over 10 years in public and community radio in different capacities such as Producer, Program Director, Sales Rep; you name it. I love networking with aspiring and emerging music and visual artists, and developing platforms by curating events that engage communities ready to support them. Aside from producing a weekly radio program, I love going to concerts, catching my DJ friends around town at their gigs, collecting records, watching old movies, and am always on the hunt for the best breakfast tacos and BBQ.”
“My first experience with indie music was following the MN Twin Cities hip-hop scene in the early 2000s which is also how I met Terrell while we were students at the University of Minnesota. I was hanging around a handful of beatmakers and was always mesmerized by how they sampled vinyl records and rearranged them into beats for their music. I never made beats myself, but I was quick to soak up the production liner notes, the session personnel, stories and artistic narratives of the records that were dug through. It not only encouraged me to select the lesser known deeper cuts on an album, but to share that information and enthusiasm through DJ sets on the radio. I also encountered a lot of 70’s jazz funk records through hip-hop during this time period, and some of my favorite albums were on CTI and Blue Note labels, and also Chicano bands who covered Afro-Caribbean music and rhythms. I like uptempo dance music like disco, house, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and blending them together; if possible, seamlessly. I also like sounds that have funky and psychedelic twists to them. I honestly would be stuck in 70’s music. I’m always happy to find contemporary music that tries to recreate those sounds.”
Miguel’s top album at the moment is Reyna Tropical’s Sol y Lluvia and his top song, his favorite earworm, is “Desilusionándome” by Georgel, Immasoul, and Ferraz.
Each week, on Radio Pocho, the co-hosts take turns arranging the sets and song order. Miguel considers mood, rhythms, and tempos when creating the show. When Miguel is not talking about the music he focuses on announcing community events and “debriefing what is happening in the world”, with his co-hosts. “In more recent times we find ourselves addressing anti-blackness, misogyny, homophobia in the Latinx community and beyond. As well as how we are feeling in the middle of a global pandemic. I think we had to let our listeners know that it’s ok not to be ok, and that we are here for them.”
“Sending love to all the fam and friends, Radio Pocho crew back home in the MN Twin Cities. I also want to send a shout to Friends of Sounds Records, Sweet Chela’s Custom Cakes, and The Lighthouse Lounge for helping me get situated when I arrived in San Antonio. I also want to thank my partner Sylvia, and our dog Freddy Fender for being my home.”
Miguel Vargas.
About Terrell LaMarr
“Hey. I'm Terrell LaMarr. I work in education and have been working with and in service to youth since I was one myself. I started doing radio about 9 years ago and really enjoy it. Music is obviously a passion. I collect records, read books, watch movies and sports. I don't know, introductions are hard.”
Terrell enjoys going to concerts in his spare time. “The pandemic has been really difficult for me in that regard. Pre-covid there were stretches where I'd be at up to 3 or 4 shows a week. I also really enjoy traveling, trying new restaurants, discovering new music, and biking is a new hobby as well.”
“Growing up in the Twin Cities, my earliest experiences with indie music were with the local hip hop scene that I really started engaging with as a teenager. Around my sophomore year of high school I started to get familiar with local artists and became a big supporter of underground hip hop. I really started to reject a lot of what was popular or mainstream and went the backpacker route sans jansport. My interest in jazz, like a lot of other things, came through hip hop. I was always a fan of the jazzier tracks on rap albums but I didn't really have a way to engage with jazz beyond that. I didn't know anyone who listened to it much, so entry points weren't always easy to find. I also tend to gravitate more toward what's current than things from the past. So, the first jazz artist I became a big fan of was Esperanza Spalding, when she released her second album, Esperanza. That led me to artists like Jose James, Gretchen Parlato, Magos Herrera, Gregory Porter -- vocal jazz mainly. My mother even ended up recommending I check out George Duke. In the past few years, I've really been excited about the London jazz scene. There's really something special happening there and it's amazing to see all of these young musicians of color making jazz fun, and danceable, and cool.”
“Right now, I'm really interested in R&B en español as a subgenre. But we live in a world where genres mean less and less, so while lots of things I choose to play tend to be on the R&B side, it's always hard for me to say we play this genre or that one. And our show really pulls from a lot of places. You might catch a show that has a set of Rock en español, followed by a set of Bachata, followed by Jazz and Funk. Radio Pocho tries to give exposure to up-and-coming artists and show love to local musicians. Sometimes we have a theme which could be related to current events, anniversaries or holidays, or whatever we may come up with. It's important to us to be very aware of the voices we're featuring and try our best to make sure there's great representation of marginalized voices on the show. Sequencing is one of my favorite parts of putting an episode together. I really try to spend time figuring out what songs make sense being played next to each other. Usually, that means finding similarities sonically, in vibe, in tone, or even thematically.”
Terrell’s favorite albums at the moment are Hiatus Kaiyote’s new album, Mood Valiant, Sons of Kemets’ album, Back To The Future, and Nubya Garcia’s album SOURCE.
When Terrell is not talking about the music on the show he also talks about “what’s happening in our world. Last year, with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the uprising that followed and the court cases this year, we've talked a lot about those things. So, while we're a music show, I also think we'd be doing a disservice to ourselves, our listeners, and the communities that we come from to not speak about those issues.”
Terrell LaMarr
“I would love to see KRTU grow their audience and support the Eastside, Westside, and Southsides of San Antonio. A way of doing this is to provide more opportunities to create content they can get behind. I’m sure there’s a wide range of creatives from those respective communities that can produce dynamic indie programming.”
KRTU is currently looking for more volunteer hosts to fill show spots at the station! So, if you are interested in curating your own show please contact us at krtu@trinity.edu or on our social media pages.