Editor’s note: Pastiche is a bi-weekly column exploring the diversity within the Austin music community. The views expressed in Pastiche are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the outlook or beliefs of anyone else in the IST network.

World-famous radio station WFMU made a special appearance in Austin this past Monday when the weekly show Sound and Safe with Trent roadtripped its way into a south Austin back yard. WFMU has a long history of creatively unhinged musical programs, beginning its broadcasts in 1958 and more lately enlisting the DJ talents of notables including Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum, Matador records main man Gerard Cosloy, author Irwin Chusid, etc.

Trent Wolbe has been a DJ for the station for “about two and half or three years,” and while a mobile radio show isn’t a normal part of his programming schedule, he’s warming up to the idea. “I did one from a garden in the East Village recently, and I’m doing one from Coney Island in two weeks. [The show is] more mobile as time goes on.” Wolbe set up a little console out on the backyard, and had performers either sit next to him or set up in the living room where wires snaked back to him in from his spot in the yard. The house was hot, the performances sweaty and Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” was given the karaoke treatment not once, but twice.

School Police were the first band to play, and they took to the living room while it was still significantly bright outside. The band gamely ran through tracks that sound pulled somewhere out of indie rock’s infancy, with special attention on dueling guitars that nod to Daydream Nation and its ilk. Cari Palazzolo was especially engaging, working her percussionist skills double time with snare drum, tambourine and xylophone. When asked about their favorite Austin traits in a post-performance interview, the band gave props to swimming at Big Stacy, Mexican food, six dollar pitchers of Lone Star at 7 pm, and “the music scene.” Sweltering October heat was given a thumbs-down, unsurprisingly. Performing next was one-man band Human Milk, a.k.a. Kerstan Wallace, who played bass and sang along to his CD Walkman. Sounding alternately like a fun or scary circus, Wallace played some of the thirty-one(!) selections from his new record Grapefruit Clouds. Taking Wallace’s place on the porch after his performance was Morgan Coy, proprietor of Monofonus Press and lead singer of Over the Hill, who dropped three folksy numbers and which including a switch to the mandolin from acoustic guitar for his final song. It was after Coy’s performance and during a conversation with the Pillow Queens’ Duncan Malashock that the seed was planted for the first performance of “The Chain.” We were also treated to very new music “just bounced from ProTools” from Will Slack and Marie Butcher’s new band, Soft Healer. The track, all exciting new soul and nuanced horn arrangements, was one of the best things I heard all evening. Ralph White played next, running through a selection of songs that spanned his repertoire as the keeper of weird new Americana in Austin. A dog yelped along to White’s accordion on “No Stranger.” “Yeah, he doesn’t like accordions,” said the owner. “No, that means they do like it,” replied White.

Danny Malone followed with a few songs, revealing beforehand that he was kicked out of St. Marks school in Houston during his 7th grade year, joining the ranks of other notables including Steve Miller. Malone played a few sweetness-tinged ballads from his new record, and spoke to me for a bit after the performance. “I’m not wearing any underwear,” he told me with absolutely no prompting on my part.

At this point the night was almost over, with no noise complaints in sight and at least one person partaking in a keg stand. Last up were the darkly poppy psych-blues trio Cavedweller, who sang praises to James Brown and for some reason played coy about having a MySpace.

A second karaoke version of “The Chain” then ensued, and that capped off the evening. I asked Wolbe if that night’s show had been mostly glitch-free. “Glitches are an inherent part of doing some live radio, so we had a couple of curses the guy back in Jersey hopefully dumped out. Otherwise, it was very straightforward and sounded good.”

Download the broadcast and read more right here! (one or two NSFW pics)