north of the dial The summertime heat may not have lifted yet in Denton, but for many in the two-university town, summer has officially breathed her last. It’s fall now. Well, the fall semester at least, as classes started this week at UNT and begin next week at TWU. Over…

Denton-based The River Mouth formed late last year, and, though the band hasn’t managed to find a frontman/lead vocalist, the rest of the group has certainly been doing just fine without a singer because it seems like the band’s name pops up on a show poster just about every week…

It’s amazing how cyclical certain aspects of the Denton music scene can be, because, for the second consecutive year, an album release show for The Heartstring Stranglers doubled as a going-away party for a founding member of the band. Last August, the chamber-folk act had just finished recording its self-titled…

OK everybody. Show me some grace here, because this Good Friday you’re reading marks the first time Mr. Pete Freedman has trusted your mostly-friendly neighborhood Denton correspondent to offer up the show-going options for the weekend. There’s loads of release shows this weekend, but before that: First, I kinda regret…

I can’t tell you much about Joey Gardner nor can I recall the first time that heard Mental Dentist. But, what I can tell you is that I heard “People You May Know” a little while back and the song burrowed deep into my head after one listen. The tune…

More than 50 people piled into the cavernous DIY venue known as The Majestic Dwelling of Doom to see Shiny Around the Edges play a passionate, “secret” performance—a show which Michael and Jennifer Seman are calling the band’s last Denton gig for a “long, long while.” “We’re bidding adieu to…

Tonight, Denton’s 818 House has booked what promises to be a spectacular evening–one which will take audiences from a local opener to an Italian touring act.  (First: Yes, 818 House is the same DIY venue with a similar numerical prefix that participated in this year’s Phat Camp and House by…

The official release date for Fishboy’s NOM EP may not be until August 18, but all nine of the EP’s songs are already streaming on the band’s Muxtape page, and previews and reviews of the disc are already popping up all over the Internet. What’s interesting, though, is that, in…

This week, Touch Tongues (the area band formerly known as Street Hassle) uploaded a handful of new songs to its MySpace page. And, by new songs, I mean like recorded-this-Sunday new. Over the weekend, the band got an eight-track, crammed themselves into a mini-storage shed and started laying down the…

A couple weeks back (the same night as our DOMA showcase in Dallas), Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios hosted a show featuring DOMA nominees Matthew and the Arrogant Sea and Sarah Jaffe. But, as I scanned the listing for the show, I saw that it was a release show of sorts–only,…

Last year, at our 20th annual Dallas Observer Music Awards, there was a distinct theme of tradition behind all the festivities. And rightfully so: 20 years is indeed a long time. Countless great acts have passed through and risen up in Dallas during that time period. But there’s just something…

Last month, Dan Mojica celebrated the seventh anniversary of Dan’s Silverleaf quietly and without much ado. But Mojica says that the anniversary “seems almost impossible to believe.” Especially because, when he closed the doors of Dan’s Bar in November 2001, Mojica wasn’t initially sure whether he’d ever open another bar…

According to Skyler Salinas of Fungi Girls, the Cleburne band’s full-length debut, Seafaring Pyramids, is a wrap. And, just to peak your interest, Salinas sent us an mp3 for “Pacifica Nostalgia,” one of two new songs the band just posted on its MySpace page. “We’re finally finished with it,” Salinas…

For all the jazz-related hype and buzz Denton gets, the off-campus opportunities to listen to up-and-coming jazz musicians are as irregular, fluctuating and intermittent as the music itself—with one exception. Sure, the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and the city is home to the…