UKNY For August 19

Tonight's UKNY at 11 reflects a distracted mind, ruminating on the tragic and disturbing news of this week, from Charlottesville to Barcelona, and the resilience of all human beings who defy hate and bigotry.

We also appreciate, during trying times, the small glimmers of normalcy that remain, like hushed summer nights and the quiet of late August when people escape to the sea, the mountains, or the desert in search of reconnection and rest.

Music is an oasis too, a vacation for the ears, and tonight we'll hear songs from Dream Wife, Ghostpoet, Fold, Toothless and a David Bowie track that had an anniversary this week.

I also had two delightful interviews earlier this week, which gave me the chance to briefly turn from the exhausting news cycle. On Tuesday, via ISDN line, I chatted with Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch from The Current's studios. It also happened to be same day the band arrtived in Minnesota on their tour bus and realized  — gobsmacked — that they'd accidentally left their drummer Richard Colburn in North Dakota in a Walmart car park, dressed in his pyjamas, with nothing but a credit card and what was hopefully a pretty good sense of Scottish humor.

And on Wednesday, before their sold-out gig at Baby's All Right, Marika Hackman and The Big Moon — tired but happy after three weeks traveling crosscountry in a van — stopped by FUV's Studio A for an FUV Live session and interview that will air on UKNY in September.

Thanks to Stuart, Marika, Jules, Soph, Celia and Fern, I managed to forget, for a little while, this awful week.

Away for the weekend? You can now find UKNY on demand immediately after broadcast via the Weekend Archives at wfuv.org.

Songs played:

1. Fold, “Making America Great,” Written in the Sky EP
2. Ghostpoet feat. EERA, “Dopamine If I Do,” Dark Days + Canapés
3. The Invisible feat. Anna Calvi, “Love Me Again (Chaos in the CBD Remix), Patience Remixes EP
4. Dream Wife, “Fire,” Fire EP
5. The Big Moon, “Beautiful Stranger” (Madonna cover), single
6. Marika Hackman, “Round We Go,” I’m Not Your Man
7. Toothless feat. Marika Hackman, “Palm’s Backside,” The Pace of the Passing
8. Lost Horizons, “The Places We’ve Been,” Ojalá
9. Belle and Sebastian, “Perfect Couples,” Girls in Peacetime Want To Dance
10. (US Cut: Los Angeles, CA) Wand, “Plum,” Plum
11. David Bowie, “Memory of a Free Festival,” Five Years (1969-1973)