Denton, Texas: No Really, There’s More Than Midlake Here

Recently, PopMatters revealed that in Texas, Austin might not be the end-all for indie rock. Denton (a small community near Dallas) has been slowly taking its spot in the spotlight what with its Midlake, three universities, blogs-a-plenty and more. The music school there has helped curate a long history of musicians and history in Denton, but recently, the independent music scene has also stepped up, creating a nice balance between developed musicianship and more raw integration between transplants both in and out of the school.

Denton’s MySpace!

A couple of Denton bands of note not mentioned in this article:

The Angelus: http://www.myspace.com/theangelus
Shiny Around the Edges: http://www.myspace.com/shinyaroundtheedges
Jetscreamer: http://www.myspace.com/jetscreamer

For a laugh:

Hogpig: http://www.myspace.com/hogpig - these dudes opened the show we did up there w/ Red Sparowes there. A real good reason to show up late…

Interesting Denton, TX story: We played a few shows w/ some friends of ours, Pacific UV (from Athens, GA) a few years back, and the Denton date was @ Rubber Gloves. For something like $7 they’ll give you a whole bottle of wine there. Clay, the guitarist from Pacific UV, drank a couple of those over the course of the night. Anyway as the night was winding down he found a can of spray paint in the back parking lot, and started tagging shit back there. Unfortunately for him one of the things he tagged was the stage manager’s brand new truck. The dude went to go get something out of his truck, saw black spray paint all over it, and then saw Clay passed out next to it w/ a can of black spray paint in his hand. They dragged him inside, and he paid the guy’s insurance deductible on his credit card. BTW: nobody in either band was aware of anything of this. So after the show we all go back to Kirkles’s cousin’s hizzle to watch Kill Bill, and crash. 1st thing in the morning Clay’s cell phone is ringing of the hook. Turns out he also tagged the inside of the backdoor of the club w/ his name, his band’s name, and his cell phone #. Unbelievable. We were all playing @ the Wreck Room in Fort Worth that night, and unless he went back Rubber Gloves and painted the door they were going to show up there and kick his ass. So anyway, long story short, he went back and painted the door while the entire Rubber Gloves staff watched, and insulted him. Classic.

b

Pacific UV! Love their debut. Although I have to say that “let’s get wasted and spray paint a pickup” isn’t necessarily the feeling I got from the album.

I guess I just missed that subtext.

Being around Brian means letting go of subtext.