Teethe Cut Their Teeth in Denton’s DIY Scene. Now They’re the Headliners

It’s a warm Saturday afternoon in Lower Greenville, and by “warm,” we mean that God has smitten this fair city with a humidity-heat index befitting only to the vilest sinners.

We pull up to Granada Theater, where the members of Teethe greet us. They had just played the venue the night before, opening a two-night stand with Midwest emo pioneers American Football. We scheduled this talk before load-in for the second night on May 31, which just so happens to be the final show of the entire tour.

Amid the relentlessly blistering heat, we migrate from under the marquee to the venue’s stair alley on the southwest corner. We volunteer to take the brunt of God’s brutal judgment as the band stands and sits under the shade.

“This is definitely a surreal spot to play,” says Teethe vocalist and guitarist Madeline Dowd (whom Denton cats may also know as Madeline Crisman). “It’s like, the iconic old venue that’s been around for so long. It feels cool to be able to check it off the list.”

This praise carries quite its weight, seeing as the members of Teethe are from the Dallas area and have seen samplings of Granada’s formidable live music history as much as a local in the music scene can be expected to.

When asked to elaborate on what memories the band members have with Granada, Teethe’s co-vocalist Boone Patrello offered one memory in particular: Built to Spill on July 21, 2019, where they played their signature record Keep It Like a Secret in its entirety for its 20-year anniversary.

As the band has pointed out on many occasions, Built to Spill has been one of Teethe’s most influential forebearers, a fact which is unsurprising if you listen to the latter with knowledge of the former or, alternatively, listen to them side-by-side. As The Observer wrote last month regarding Teethe’s single “Magic of the Sale,” “[It] is, unsurprisingly, an entrancing listen. A reverb-intensive chord progression pervades throughout the song, with a rather inhibited hi-hat at its rhythmic command.”

“Dowd’s voice blends perfectly with these instrumentals, which layer with a cello and a Beach House-esque synth melody by the time the song crescendos to its chorus. Two and a half minutes into the song, it ends on an ethereal note with an ambient, percussion-less passage that is sure to appeal to those who feel Brian Eno reached his peak in 1978.”

Of course, our highest praise was when we said Teethe is “perhaps the most notable and acclaim-worthy band in the [slowcore] genre to come from Dallas since Bedhead.” We stand by those words.

The band’s piecemeal assent to the national spotlight is certainly earned, given the dues they paid with interest in Denton’s DIY music scene. Between Patrello, Dowd and the other members (Jordan Garrett and Grahm Robinson), there are years (if not decades) worth of Denton music bona fides in their stemma. Before Teethe, Patrello was in Dead Sullivan. Dowd started a solo project under the name Crisman, while also operating a house venue in Denton called the Bean Cave. Robinson started his own project, MAH KEE OH, wherein his fellow Teethe bandmates backed him up; before that, Robinson was the drummer in Fishboy. Garrett was previously in Hat Hair before he moved to Seattle in 2017 and later to Austin, where he now resides.

This Denton music diaspora came together as Teethe when Patrello and Dowd were students at the University of North Texas. By that point, Robinson and Garrett were already graduates of the same alma mater, but it was the college town's house show circuit that ultimately sealed their formation in 2019.
Patrello describes the “DM for the address” as “a really easy place to start a band and get your feet wet.” His fellow bandmates concur.

“At Bean Cave, the first house show we put on there, we played a Crisman set, and we played with Doug [Dulgarian] from Jouska, who is now in [They Are Gutting a Body of Water],” Dowd recalls. “That was the first Crisman show. It is so full circle sometimes. We’re still friends with Doug, and we still tour with Doug.”

The career trajectory changed for Teethe after the pandemic. In August 2022, Kendall Jenner namedropped Teethe in a Rolling Stone interview, saying, “I just discovered a band called Teethe and they have a song called 'Tag' that's really beautiful.”

This shoutout came as a particular surprise to those familiar with the band, including the band members themselves.

When asked how the band came into her orbit, Robinson laughs, “That’s a really good question.”

“I have no idea, man,” adds Patrello. “We were on tour when all of that went down.”

More specifically, they had woken up on the floor of a St. Louis house venue where they had played the night before. As it usually goes in such situations, lots of fans and friends hit them up to put them on notice.

“It wasn’t like there was an immediate reaction, but it was like, we got some playlist placements a few days after that,” Patrello continues. “Some people that are listening now probably don’t even know about that.”

Since then, Teethe’s fanbase and profile have grown steadily. Last year, they toured with Ethel Cain, and effective the day this interview is taking place, the American Football tour will also be a footnote in their continuing history.

They will release their sophomore record, Magic of the Sale, via Winspear on Aug. 8. In September, they kick off a headline tour that follows multiple opening tours, and that tour will make a hometown stop at Rubber Gloves on Oct. 18.

“We’re definitely ready to headline some shows,” Patrello says. “We haven’t really done a proper headline [tour], but it’s honestly really beneficial to be able to feed off of what the headliner has.”

As the interview wraps up, the band members load-in for a show where they will do exactly that. The heat is certainly befitting for a band this hot, but next time they’re in town, let’s hope there’s a breeze that befits their cozy, tranquil sound.