San Mo in the Mainstream

An old, faded map, “SAN MARCOS” is written across the bottom of the map. In the image you can see streets and buildings, but nothing is labeled. You can see hills at the back of the map. The map looks hand drawn.

San Mo in the Mainstream

Chloe Rawlinson Music Journalist While we, as San Marcos residents, usually think of our little college town as the perfect place for growing bands in the DIY scene, there’s several great bands that you may have heard without knowing they hail from our area. I’m gonna start you off with a great one that I love talking about: Brockhampton. Brockhampton has faced a bit of a resurgence within the last […]

August 25, 2025 179 5

A black and white collage made of images of (from top left) Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Gregory Alan Isakov, Elizabeth Cotton, Adrianne Lenker, Simon & Garfunkel, and Bodhi.

2

Music

A deep dive on folk

Chloe Rawlinson Local music journalist In my time here at KTSW, I’ve learned that while we play folk music on our station, it isn’t a very well covered genre on our blog. As a folk lover myself, I figured that it would be a good time to change that, giving you some good context for the genre, as well as new fantastic music to dive into. In its most basic […]

June 15, 2025 63 2

The image is of a large crowd, most having their hands up and dancing. At the front, you can see several women smiling, one in a hat, one in a black shirt, and another in glasses. At the top of the image you can see string lights across the venue.

8

Music

Local Indie is doing numbers this month

Chloe Rawlinson Local Music Journalist Before seeing them in concert at Scoot Inn on the 11th of this month, I had never heard a West 22nd song. After their set started, I genuinely started questioning why; they were absolutely fantastic performers. The 4411, a San Marcos-based band was their opening act. I was quite familiar with The 4411(see my article about their last tour here), but hadn’t had the […]

May 4, 2025 2631 8

A collage that features the words “Vicious! Vicious.” in black text in the top left corner. There are two polaroid pictures on the right side of the image. The polaroid on the left is a picture of an old mixing table, the picture on the right is of Applewick in a yellow t-shirt. The bottom of the image is clippings of rolls of film, the pictures are black and white and mostly unidentifiable. The background of the image is made of pink and blue paper with red and white floral patches, as well as strips of light green, orange, and multicolored paisley printed paper.

8 21

Interviews

Vicious Vicious is Actually Pretty Chill

By Chloe Rawlinson Local Music Journalist Erik Applewick, a Minnesota native, has been making feel-good music since the mid-90s. Contrary to the band’s name, Applewick’s music is anything but. With the use of synth piano, fuzzy vocals, and peppy drums, it’s clear that the only thing “vicious” about the band is its insane production. After a little conversation with Applewick, I found that he is just as laidback as […]

March 17, 2025 284 21 8

The image contains a grid of eight album covers/photos of bands: Ms. Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, a photo of The Marias, Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter, Hayley Williams’ Petals For Armor, Erykah Badu’s Next Lifetime, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, and a photo of the members of Die Spitz. The grid is separated by a brick red rectangle with “WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH” written across the middle of the image in black text.

15

Music

Introducing the 2025 women’s history month playlist

Chloe Rawlinson Local Music Journalist It’s Women’s History Month, ladies, and I curated a fun little playlist of 32 songs performed by female artists. Made with some help from the KTSW 89.9 staff and consisting of just over 2 hours of music, there’s something there for everyone to celebrate women in music. The playlist starts with “Tell Me Something Good,” by Rufus, led by Chaka Khan. I have been […]

March 2, 2025 182 15

The image, in black and white, contains Tomas Gerlach standing on left, facing the camera with his eyes turned away. Next to him, Cogan McBride has his arm resting on Tomas’ shoulder, his head facing away from the camera, in-ear headphones are resting around his neck. The two are standing against a white brick wall, only the top half of their bodies are in the photo.

5 29

Music

The 4411 talks success and touring

Chloe Rawlinson Local Music Journalist With over 40 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify and well over 1 million streams on their newest EP, it’s definitely not far-fetched to say that The 4411 has found success in the indie music sphere. So much so that this winter, the bandmates, Tomas Gerlach and Cogan McBride, were able to pack all their equipment into an SUV and trailer and take a little road […]

February 24, 2025 272 29 5

The image contains a DJ working a large grey turntable, Hannah’s friend has one arm around the DJ and another around Hannah, the two are smiling at the camera. On either side of the image, there are large speakers. In the background, two men are talking to each other. On the other side of the DJ, holding a granola bar over his eyes.

10 52

Music

Behind the house with Hannieisswag

By Chloe Rawlinson Local Music Journalist After producing DIY shows at venues such as Private Park and Alchemy Records, San Marcos local, Hannah Fulkerson decided to open the doors to a more intimate venue for live music and vivacious times — her home. After sitting down and talking to Hannah about her experience, I’ve been able to pull back the curtain to expose the trials and tribulations of hosting a […]

February 2, 2025 266 52 10

Chloe Rawlinson