NATHAN WILLIAMS
Claire Morales and Dalton Kane made a dynamic audio duo in this month's 3 Songs.
3 Songs is a monthly music column where we highlight a few tunes from local bands we're digging at the moment . We don't know about y'all, but with winter dragging on and the cold keeping us from making it out to local shows, we find ourselves longing for sunny days, warm weather, and those sweaty, sweaty house shows. So this month, we're shining the light on a few of our favorite local singer-songwriters: Megan Storie, Brack Cantrell, and Claire Morales.
We've been following vocalist Megan Storie since she released the EP, Tie, with Dallas' Razz Matazz! Records in 2011. Soon after, we started noticing her everywhere from open mic night sets at Banter to opening for bands like Chambers, Biographies, and Secret Cakes at Hailey's Club (RIP). Her newest project, Exit Glaciers, is a young band from our own backyard making incredible music, but still very out of the spotlight. Here, Storie combines her angelic vocal stylings with the steadfast skills of three even more experienced musicians, Alexander Hughes, Tony Whitlock, and Blake Vickrey. Together they're creating great indie rock with a refreshing twist which is making an impact on the Denton scene as one of the most original sounding groups to emerge from Denton in the past decade. We could liken them to Land of Talk or Widowspeak, but that's really more of our personal wishlist for one of the raddest Denton house shows ever.
Claire Morales' sweet contralto sets her apart from the majority of her soprano counterparts, carrying deep emotions and meaningful lyrics with so much character even Patsy would be proud. Morales was born in Grapevine and moved to Denton, Texas when she was five. She has been singing and playing locally for more than a decade, although she's barely 25. She released her first full-length album, Amaranthine, with her band in February 2015, then immediately began a new project intended to breathe life into a dozen or so golden oldies, collaborating with artists like Jena Pyle of Layer Cake, Ariel Hartley of Mink Coats, and Dalton Kane of Chinaski, The Fury. That's where we come in. Kane is another musician with a permanent spot in our iTunes libraries; his dark, cryptic, Bukowski-inspired solo work starts with simple drum beats, slowly building upon layers of looping guitar patterns to create a very dynamic project. He's the type of guy who'd be opening for a David Bazan solo show, his lush baritone pairs perfectly with Morales and that's why we've put their cover of the 1967 duet by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood in this month's 3 Songs.
Glancing Blow artwork by Jason Dann toytay.com.
Last but not least on our list is Brack Cantrell. He's also been making music in the Denton, Dallas and Fort Worth scene, or DDFW as we like to say, for over a decade. He plays bass in the real cool burger-rock band, Bad Beats, shreads on the drums in another local band, Cozy Hawks, and releases most of his solo work under the name Glass Caverns. In June of 2015 he released an 11-track album, Glancing Blow, painting wonderful landscape through rich, twinkling chord progressions, poetic lyricism, and dreamy synthesizers that flow carefully through out each track. "Corpus Christi" gives you an existential chill vibe, floating between twangy guitar plucking and smooth slides, day dreaming along with lyrics like, "She always needed a lot more sun, than we been getting' up here in Denton" and "Corpus Christi you mother fucker, you can't have her you know I love her." You might even say it it's in the same genre as Mac DeMarco's "Another One." So pour your partner up another Mai Tai, stick your feet in the sand and drift away to our final groovy tune.
Tune into next month's issue of 3 Songs for additional updates on the Denton music scene and our recommendations for all the tracks you should have in your ever-growing, and oh-so-personal collections. Expect heavier vibes and a hint of shoegaze as we delve into North Texas "doomgaze" territory for February.
Nathan Williams is going on his seventh year livin' in Denton. He's 25, an avid moped rider, screen printer, local music enthusiast and runs his own blog, Sad Boys Club, geared solely towards covering music and promoting house shows. You can follow him on Instagram @Sundayprintshop, another small company he runs and a great place to get your merch made.