Last weekend, Denton’s Teenage Cool Kids seemed in markedly high spirits for the band’s record release show at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios. Album release shows always seem to carry some certain palpable, celebratory electricity, but after jumping numerous hurdles (including a legal battle to retain the band’s name that garnered…
Friday night’s show at Rubber Gloves featured one of the best local bills I’ve caught this year. An album-release show for Teenage Cool Kids’ Foreign Lands, the evening also featured Cleburne’s Fungi Girls and, more importantly, the phenomenal debut performance by Denton-based Brit-punk/hardcore act Video. Formed just three weeks ago,…
Andrew Tinker’s new album It Takes the World was released a couple weeks back to little hubbub. Blame the fact that it’s pop music in an otherwise anti-pop town. Tinker does—especially because this isn’t the route he was necessarily trained to take. At age 15, Tinker was a founding member…
Starlight Mints, Evangelicals, Matthew and the Arrogant SeaGranada TheaterJune 25, 2009 Better than: being stuck at home finishing another week’s installment of “North of the Dial” (as I am every Thursday night). A solid lineup on last night’s bill made for a solid evening of great music as all three…
Unlike many fledgling record labels, Denton-based Play Pinball! Records isn’t testing the waters by starting things off slowly, releasing a 7-inch every now and again. Though only just recently founded, the label is taking the plunge and joining the ranks of other local (mostly) vinyl imprints by launching things with…
For the second night in a row, The Bee’s Fifth Collective has put together another free show with a solid lineup. Only tonight’s show will be notably more… well… energetic. Hosted at the collective’s own Bee’s Manor (306 Texas St., Denton), tonight’s bill features Denton’s Florene and Austin’s Mothfight!–two bands…
This looks to be a grand weekend for shows in Denton, with an excellent bill at The Hydrant tonight kicking off the weekend one day early. If you haven’t been to a show at The Hydrant yet, then this should be a great bill to catch. The two-story coffee shop/venue…
New Science Projects’ Dale Jones may look like a dirty, bloody, undead mess when he’s performing—he screams at his audiences and belts out songs about demons, death and his “evil heart” like a man possessed. But, in reality, Jones is far from a mess. And it’s not the devil that…
If you need some reassurance that the massive amount of hype the Denton music scene has earned in recent years has merit, well, just listen to any of the four Denton Deluxe compilation albums. The discs deliver track after track of stellar songs by a bevy of diverse acts. And…
Animal Collective, Black DiceHouse of BluesJune 4, 2009Better Than: Sitting at home alone burning a stick of Nag Champa while staring at the cover of Meriwether Post Pavilion. Walking into House of Blues last night, two things were obvious: The show was sold out, and many of the tickets were…
Black Moth Super Rainbow, School of Seven Bells, Darktown StruttersHailey’s Club, DentonJune 3, 2009Better Than: Sulking at home last night while poking around on Craigslist and eBay for those Animal Collective tickets you should’ve bought months ago… Turns out there weren’t any “Quadrophenia-esque rumbles” in Hailey’s parking lot after Black…
Reunion shows often feel like watching some dive-bar cover band do its best to play another act’s tunes, as bands strive to capture the way things “used to be.” So when a big-reputation band fails to live up to past expectations, it can be a crushing disappointment for the fan…
Tonight, my favorite indie espresso bar in Dallas’ kicks off the first of its formal concert series with an appropriately established-sounding title: “The Pearl Cup Presents: An Evening with Sarah Jaffe.” A text this afternoon informs that it’ll just be “Sarah and her geetar.” No frills.Ticket are $22–which, sure, is…
Thousands of students graduated from Denton’s two universities two weekends back. Others went home for the break or took a vacation. Some bands headed out on tour, meanwhile, as others have been forced into “a break” while a certain member gallivants around in European coffee shops. When school lets out…
J. Paul Slavens holds his stoic composure as he takes a seat behind his Casio keyboard for his weekly residency at Dan’s Sliverleaf. After taking a nip from his whiskey and water on the rocks, Slavens leans closer to the microphone and starts crunching. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. The slow, rumbling…
Even before Oso Closo landed its Tommy gig with the Dallas Theater Center last fall, the band was ready to record a follow up to 2007’s debut album, Rest. “We’ve been sitting on this record for a while,” frontman Adrian Hulet says. “From the start, we knew we had pretty…
Tonight, Hailey’s hosts the record release party for Denton’s own Backside Pick’s sophomore release, Higher Place. Good Hailey’s regulars probably already know the band as bar-manager Rocky Ottley’s progy-funky rock band. Ottley, who writes and arranges the songs himself, thinks you’re gonna like the album’s title track, so he passed…
Last month was a bad month for singer-songwriter Daniel Folmer. From start to finish, April dealt him a handful of troubles and misfortunes that sound like a sad plot plucked from some old country-western jukebox favorite. The final blow landed when, on the last weekend of the month, someone burglarized…
“Thanks,” Aaron White says to the crowd gathered in the living room of Dust Congress’ Nick Foreman. “We’re The Make Believers, and that was our last song,” White’s remarks, which could be dismissed as everyday post-performance banter, carry a dual meaning: Though no one acknowledged it during the Saturday afternoon…
Plenty of rock bands have gimmicks, attention-grabbing quirks, devices, antics or personas that help set the band apart. Other bands make it on the laurels of their own talents and personalities. Denton-based surf-punk band Bleach Boys rides a narrow wave between the two. The band doesn’t wear costumes or face…
It’s always a bummer when a promising band decides to call it quits. But, sadly, Denton-based project The Make Believers is doing just that: The band’s promoting its Saturday gig at the Fra House as its last. “Oh, it’s because of the usual reasons,” explains drummer Justin “J.C.” Collins.” You…
This week, Matthew Gray and the rest of Matthew and the Arrogant Sea are heading into the studio (with Midlake’s McKenzie Smith) to record a “five or six song” EP to follow up last year’s excellent Family Family Family Meets The Magic Christian. And, after the band finishes the EP,…
