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A trip to Space City awaits as we head to the home of Mission Control and a city that is oft overlooked for its incredible musical heritage. Dunia Aljawad joins us for an audio tour of Houston!
"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
Apr 20, 2022
The Drop with Danno
Queen feat David Bowie – Under Pressure
Solange – Cranes in the Sky
Robert Glasper Experiment feat Erykah Badu – Afro Blue
Beyonce – Blow
Khruangbin – Evan Finds The Third Room
Khruangbin – August Twelve
Robert Glasper Trio – So Beautiful (Live at Capitol Records)
Solange – Dreams
Say Girl Say – Always Trippin
Devin The Dude – Doobie Ashtray
Islands of Pear – My Moon Has Disappeared
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight on a perfect spring day here in Gwangju, and we gotta fly tonight as it is our Round Trip Wednesday weekly travel gig, with this third night of the work week stated in a bit of a Gulf Coast Texas accent as April 20, 2022. This is Danno of course as it is each & every night from studio 2, GFN HQ in Downtown Gwangju, how do you do? Tonight we head for a city often overshadowed by New Orleans down the road, but Houston has a very high quality music lineage and group of artists who hail from that absolutely massive metropolis, and flight TD070 takes off for George Bush International tonight with Dunia Aljawad aboard the flight. So to start the show, we mark this day 30 years ago when the surviving members of Queen took to the stage to raise AIDS awareness, and we’ll talk more about the background after the foreground dies down. This is The Drop.
Queen feat David Bowie – Under Pressure
The Drop has officially boarded the KTX tonight as we head to Incheon on this Round Trip Wednesday. What’s up, Drop Gangsters (Korean)? Danno on the mic here in studio 2, GFN HQ, downtown Gwangju ready for this evening’s flight to Houston Texas! HTX is home to some amazing artists down the decades, and we’ll be exploring some big names, indie newbies, and off-in-the-cut joints during the full two hours of tonight’s show.
That was Queen to start off things with Under Pressure, as it was on this date 30 years ago that the remaining members of Queen held the "Concert For Life" at Wembley Stadium in London, raising money for AIDS awareness in honor of their fallen frontman Freddie Mercury. David Bowie, Elton John, Guns N' Roses and George Michael all performed at the sold out show, a truly massive and historic occasion fitting perfectly the titanic personality of Freddy Mercury.
Queen’s leading man had passed on Christmas Eve the previous year, may he rest in power supreme.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, podcast details, etc.
Now, we’re gonna switch gears a bit but not veer off course too hard, so up next we have both of the famed but very different Knowles sisters with Robert Glasper and Erykah Badu making sure that it’s the sweetest in the middle, but we’ll pontificate on all there is to know after a proper and soulful Houston intro. This is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday night to Space City.
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Back on The Drop still on the train to ICN tonight for our Round Trip Wednesday but we are getting to the home stretch so make sure to check your bags. Danno here, doing what I do and for those just joining us we are heading to mission control in Houston, TX for our weekly Round Trip. Dunia Aljawad joins us for the show as we take off on flight TD070, and we just began the warm-up with our first block of cuts, so let’s get the readings...
Solange – Cranes In The Sky (…of course, the younger of the Knowles sisters right here off their 2016 album A Seat At The Table. This was the only single released prior to the critically acclaimed top selling album. Interestingly, Solange kind of made a start in the music business as a backup dancer at times with Destiny’s Child.)
Robert Glasper Experiment feat Erykah Badu – Afro Blue (…this is off the original Black Radio album put out by the acclaimed composer and jazz pianist which shows his love for hip-hop. Black Radio 3 just dropped this year, and we cannot recommend each of them more highly, or really anything with Glasper’s imprint on it. We’ll hear a couple more tunes from the artist as the hours unfold tonight on the show, and we’ll kick off part 2 shortly with Glasper’s first love in jazz.)
Beyonce – Blow (…seemingly dropped from the sky in 2014, this is an album that really launched Bey into superstar status. No singles, no announcement, just dropped it, and the world just flipped out.)
Okay, so moving ahead we need to get a bit cosmic to end tonight’s first quarter, and there can only be one Houston band that will do that properly in Khruangbin whom we’ll talk more about in hour 2. Right now we’ll rock Evan Finds The Third Room then truly float out in the cosmos with August Twelve to wrap it up for the first fourth. THIS is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday night to Mission Control.
Khruangbin – Evan Finds The Third Room
Khruangbin – August Twelve
II.
The Drop has arrived at the terminal and now we’re just waiting to check in, hopefully not forever. Danno here and very excited to head to Houston this evening with Dunia Aljawad and hopefully I can get in some trouble with my cousin Jack in the process. We just started with Robert Glasper showing his very deep and jazzy side with So Beautiful, and that was recorded live at Capitol Studios in LA with his trio in tow. The album itself is called Covered if you are not familiar, it is breathtaking stuff. Props to drummer Damion Reid and bassist Vicente Archer, who just killed it for the reunion with Glasper on this masterclass and all the way LIVE 2015 album…
Robert Glasper Trio – So Beautiful (….)
Moving along SM, #9870, podcast let us know …
So up ahead we have a bit more Solange on the very laid back easy tip, and we’ll follow that with Say Girl Say and Devin The Dude, all of which we’ll run down but not outta town cuz this is hometown to them. THIS is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday to Houston.
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The Drop has arrived at the departure gate in clothes formerly super crisp now already wrinkled after the passive wrestling match with inanimate objects that is modern airport security checks. Danno here, finally through, needing a beer, excited to the head to Texas and Houston specifically this evening, so let’s talk about what we just threw into the cosmos…
Solange – Dreams (…this is from the artist’s 2019 LP When I Get Home. Like A Seat At The Table, the follow-up had a team of producers and engineers working on the amazing collabs here. The album on the main explores Solange’s home town, our destination tonight in Houston.)
Say Girl Say – Always Trippin (…this is a duo out of Houston that is very much still an indie phenomenon, but they make pretty great vocal indie pop cuts. This tune appeared on their 2021 album Let My Hair Down.)
Devin The Dude – Doobie Ashtray (…had to get some hip-hop in tonight on the playlist, and I woulda played more but we gotta keep it clean here on the air. Devin The Dude is a really amazing artist that just has never seemed to reach mainstream critical success, but he does have a sizeable following, with this spaced out joint being one of his most famous tunes, released in 2002.)
Alright, our final call to board just went out on the pa and I got half a pint left to finish. To do exactly that here on the air, we’ll rock something from Houston indie band Island of Pear called My Moon Has Disappeared, and that is gonna close shop on the first half. THIS is The Drop on our way to Houston and it is undoubtedly halftime.
Islands of Pear – My Moon Has Disappeared
III & IV Round Trip
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – Texas Sun
Lyle Lovett - If I Had A Boat
Destiny's Child - Independent Women
Terrace Martin feat Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder, Kamasi Washington & Phoelix – Freeze Tag
Barbara Mandrell - Sleeping Single In A Double Bed
Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now
The Suffers - Do Whatever
Archie Bell & The Drells – Don’t Let Love Get You Down
Hilary Duff - So Yesterday
Maroon 5 feat Megan Thee Stallion – Beautiful Mistakes
Kim Kwang Seok김광석- becoming dust 먼지가 되어 김광석
Sanullim – Remorse 안타까운 마음
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – Texas Sun
- The title track from the famed EP of the same name, released in March 2020 and highlighted by President Obama on his famed tastemaker playlist for summer of that same year.
- The band that says they’re from Houston but are actually from somewhere in the outer reaches of the galaxy have really taken off since their debut in 2016 with The Universe Smiles Upon You.
- The moniker is actually Thai, which means flying machine, or airplane, as they say their sound is
Lyle Lovett - If I Had A Boat
• A singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. He has recorded 1
• 30 albums and released 25 singles to date
• He has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Album
• He was once married actress Julia Roberts after meeting her on the set of The Player.
Destiny's Child - Independent Women
• Girl group of 3 members Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams.
• The group began their musical career as Girl's Tyme formed in 1990 in Houston
• Destiny's Child has sold more than sixty million records worldwide to date.
• In 2001, they announced a hiatus to pursue solo careers. The trio reunited two years later for the release of their fifth and final studio album
Terrace Martin feat Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder, Kamasi Washington & Phoelix – Freeze Tag
- Another great album from 2020 called Dinner Party. This is a huge collab, but we’re going to focus on Houston native Robert Glasper.
- A prolific pianist and composer, his work mostly centers around jazz but his 2nd love is hip-hop. Probably one of the most in demand musicians in the world right now, he just released Black Radio 3 recently, which is the series that shows his hip-hop side.
Barbara Mandrell - Sleeping Single In A Double Bed
• A country music singer and musician. Also credited as an actress and author.
• she was considered among country's most successful music artists during the late 1970s and early 1980s
• She had six number one singles and 25 top ten singles reach the Billboard country songs chart.
• She also hosted her own prime–time television show with her 2 sisters in the early 1980s that featured music, dance numbers and comedy sketches.
Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now
- The title track to the artist’s 1972 album.
- Mainly a reggae artist, this album contains his two biggest career hits, with this song going to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 72.
- Interestingly, Johnny is also one of the first reggae artists who was not Jamaican to record music in Jamaica. Nash was also a composer for the Swedish romance film Want So Much to Believe (1971),[17] in which he portrayed 'Robert'.[18] The movie soundtrack, partly instrumental reggae with strings, was co-composed by Bob Marley and arranged by Fred Jordan.
The Suffers - Do Whatever
• The suffers are an American soul, funk, and R&B group with 7 members
• The Suffers define their sound as Gulf Coast Soul, a term they define as resulting from the mixture of the different cultures and musical styles present around the Gulf coast and the city of Houston, including Cajun, African American, Mexican, Caribbean.
• They said that their biggest influence is their environment and all of the musical styles they encounter
•
Archie Bell & The Drells – Don’t Let Love Get You Down
- One of the most famous soul groups of the 1960’s and 1970’s. The group never achieved fame in their hometown though, moving to Philly to be one of the founding and most famous bands on Huff & Gamble’s Philadelphia International Records.
- Interestingly, Archie Bell had to do a tour in Vietnam, but upon return safe & sound in 1969, the band rolled on.
- This tune is from 1976.
Hilary Duff - So Yesterday
• An actress, singer, and songwriter. Duff became a teen idol when she starred in the #1 hit Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire (2001).
• She has also starred in the movies The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), Agent Cody Banks (2003), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), A Cinderella Story (2004), Raise Your Voice (2004), The Perfect Man (2005) and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005).
• stormed the music charts, with singles "So Yesterday" and "Come Clean" settling nicely into the top 40. Hilary's first album, "Metamorphosis", debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, and eventually ascended to #1 in the following weeks.
Maroon 5 feat Megan Thee Stallion – Beautiful Mistakes
- Interestingly, both artists are from Houston, but only Megan Thee Stallion was born there, as Zach Levine as everyone knows was built in a factory.
- Massive now after huge collabs like this, Megan Pete as she’s truly named became famous basically on social media with videos, getting signed in 2018.
Kim Kwang Seok김광석- becoming dust 먼지가 되어 김광석
• was a popular and influential South Korean folk rock singer. He debuted in 1987 as a member of 노래를 찾는 사람들 but He achieved widespread popularity as a member of동물원 in 1988 and finally in 1989 he released his first solo album
• His songs were popular for their sentimental lyrics that critics said "portrayed individuals' sorrow and frustration at a time when the society was struggling in its early stage of democracy following rapid industrialization."
Sanullim – Remorse 안타까운 마음
- They are considered to be one of South Korea's most influential rock groups.[3] The band consisted of brothers Kim Chang-wan, Kim Chang-hoon, and Kim Chang-ik.
- Interestingly, Khruangbin did a recent Late Night Tales mix that featured their tune Don’t Go, but a huge name even now in Korea, active from 1977 to 2008.