THE PLAYLIST: DENTON TXMAS HOLIDAY EDITION

GLEN FARRIS AND SHAUN TREAT

TThe fine folks over at the Denton Record-Chronicle published a mighty fine “Denton Christmas Playlist” last weekend, which got our collective gears a’turning. To us, their 5 songs seemed like a good start to throwing together a longer selection of locally-sourced holiday cheer. So our gift to y’all this year is the following WDDI Denton TXmas Awesome Holiday Mixtape (vol. 7), our extended representative sampling in no particular order.

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BOWLING FOR SOUP – “FATHER CHRISTMAS”

These Witchita Falls rockers honed their sound in Denton pubs, and this take is a fun way to kick things up a notch for your Holiday party.

NORAH JONES & WILLIE NELSON – “BABY ITS COLD OUTSIDE”

Both of these music legends have their roots in the Denton scene, and their take on a notoriously slightly creepy tune is actually a welcome breath of fresh air.

BAPTIST GENERALS – “ALCOHOL”

Okay, not a Christmas song proper, but definitely speaks to a major (some would say essential) ingredient in a lot of holiday celebrations. We stand by our selection.

ROY ORBISON – “PRETTY PAPER”

Few can belt out a soulfully lovelorn ballad like The O, an old-timey tune that deserves far more holiday play than it gets.

PAT BOONE – “WHITE CHRISTMAS”

It just doesn’t come any whiter or more Christmassy than this NTSU alum. Trust us, your momma will applaud this pick.

POLYPHONIC SPREE – “HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER)”

These choral dynamos deliver a pitch-perfect cover of the haunting John Lennon classic.

CENTRO-MATIC – “FUSELAGE (ITS STARTING TO LOOK LIKE CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN)”

This Denton indy legend mixes growling pop beats with abstracted instrumentals, a toe-tapping homage to the more angsty aspects of the holidays.

EAGLES – PLEASE COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

A Christmas mix without Don Henley and The Eagles? Blasphemy.

FISHBOY – “A SURPRISE RETURN”

Who else but our own beloved Fishboy could deliver a song about a zombie Christmas Tree returning for a hangout? That’s right, no one. You’re welcome.

SNARKY PUPPY – “THING OF GOLD”

Familiar holiday beats filtered through an acid jazz jam session? Yes, please.

NEW SCIENCE PROJECTS – “XMAS CALL”

One of our favorite punk blues tributes to another less-discussed holiday tradition, the drunken phone call to an Ex.

SLOBBERBONE – “GIVE ME BACK MY DOG”

The opposite of gift giving is demanding your dang pooch back, which is why we are totally counting this track on our holiday mixtape. I mean, Stephen King name-dropped this as one of his picks for the greatest rock-and-roll song of all time, so you can argue with him in the comments.

SARAH JAFFE – “CLEMENTINE”

Little known fact, Clementine is actually the name of Mrs. Claus before she… Okay, nah, just kidding. Because Glen appears in the hauntingly beautiful video for this amazing tune, we here at WDDI will always include it on every songlist ever. Always. It’s a thing, just roll with it.
 

If you want to sample and savor these songs along with plenty more local selections, then click on over to this WDDI MT007 playlist, or this epic YouTube mixtape variation by Shaun Treat. We went ahead and included the video for Centro-matic's "Fuselage" below because how can anyone resist all those stills from A Christmas Vacation? 

As always, we love to hear your hot take in the comments in case we missed one of your favorites.

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, and Happy Holidays from the gang here at We Denton Do It.

3 SONGS: JULY

It looks as if we’re bringing out Denton’s heavy-hitters for the July rendition of 3 Songs. Not only do we have a new Sarah Jaffe tune (fresh off her score for a recent Pixar short), but we also have music from the likes of one of Paste Magazine’s Best New Bands of 2011. Oh, and a band called Grammar that most of us had never heard about, too. Read on!

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Sarah Jaffe - Defense

In the past few weeks, Sarah Jaffe has been releasing new songs like crazy. Aside from Defense above (and on Spin.com), the single, Satire, was featured on USA Today. Defense remains our favorite of the two.

Is Jaffe even considered “Denton” anymore, though? Last we heard, homegirl lives in Dallas now and we haven’t seen her scooter illegally parked in front of Recycled in a long time. She does still have that cool haircut, though (Jaffe did it first, Ms. Cyrus). That plus the fact that this song was produced by Midlake’s drummer and longtime Denton-mainstay McKenzie Smith make us think that it’s best to still claim her as “one of us” and give Defense a pass as local.

We’ve come a long way since Jaffe’s early folk rock balladry that gained her primetime fame and nods from musicians such as Norah Jones. This new single is far from any of the songs we heard on Even Born Again. While many folks were left scratching their heads when Jaffe went electric with The Body Wins, the album was arguably still great. That said, it does look as if we are finally coming out of Jaffe’s Chris Gaines phase. A few elements seem to have stuck around. A slinky synthesizer, plenty of guitar noodling and a penchant for room ambiance are evident throughout Defense.

It’s difficult to really critique this song on the same level we’re judging other local songs. It’s arguably a great tune and we’re sure to listen to it plenty of times, but at the same time we do feel that sense of nostalgia for the sad, witty Jaffe of yesteryear. She does still have that haircut, though, so what’re ya gonna do?

If you were wondering what happened to Jaffe’s earnestness, Seryn might have absorbed it. Don’t click play above if you don’t want to feel introspective. These precious, bearded fellas (and lady) are pretty rooted in expressing their emotions.

Ivory Black, the first we’ve heard from their upcoming album (the first in two years) is much more mellow than much of Seryn’s previous work, and that works in it’s favor. We’ve lost the tantric-sex factor that made the all-chorus We Will All Be Changed a mainstay on KXT, but retained the harmony-filled “Whoooa” and “Whoooa-oohhh’s” that are so difficult to ignore.

Slide guitar, St. David’s-level reverb and rhythm that sounds like it came out of a Hawaiian drum circle might sound like odd bedfellows, but they all work together pretty well here. Our interests are definitely piqued for the upcoming album.

The first few minutes of this organ-laden second single from local weirdos, Grammar had us wondering if the hippies of Brightblack Morning Light had reunited under a new moniker in Denton, but then the arpeggios and overly-enunciated Thom Yorke vocals hit and we knew this was a different kind of beast altogether.

Grammar have apparently been playing together for the past few years, but have only recently started releasing music and we applaud whatever type of alcohol or social lubricant fueled that decision because we’re digging this. José meanders in and out of your speakers unexpectedly, riffing on an idea of a song with vague lyrics and pitter-pattering drums for a few minutes before blowing the entire thing out of the water with all sorts of flourishes of arpeggios and that great looped drum sample.