3 SONGS: OCTOBER

Mind Spiders

When we initially started writing this month's rendition of 3 Songs, we felt as if we had something to prove, what with Central Track's post from last week declaring, "...things aren't going too great in the Denton music scene," but then two minutes passed by and we stopped caring. Things are always better in hindsight, Mr. Blackburn. Stuff's pretty good right now, and we have three songs to prove it. Read on to hear 'em. 

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Shag - Everyday

A few weeks ago, a WDDI contributor suggested that October’s 3 Songs column be all Dirtnap Records bands (i.e. Bad Sports, Radioactivity, Mind Spiders, etc…) and while that would be awesome, it would also have us agreeing with local longhair, Dave Koen, which is something we just can’t do. So, we went out searching for what Denton had to offer again and - just like last month - were pleasantly surprised. Producer Shag, also known as Ben Garside, has been putting out wonderful instrumentals for a while now. The fact that something so great could be happening right under our noses without us even knowing about it is just plain crazy. We’re the people who know about that secret tunnel that goes from Ravelin to the UNT Environmental Science building, but forget we even mentioned that. Yes, it’s full of free chocolate-almond croissants, paved by freemasons, and will let you shave about ten minutes off of your walk to class, but that’s as much as we’re going to say about it. Anyway, Shag’s production shines throughout this track. It’s bouncy, happy and just the cure for the rainy blueness that has been this week. The entire album is actually pretty darned great. A look at Shag’s Facebook page drops the info of the release of a collaboration dubbed “All for the Sunny” featuring California’s Coss adding some vocals to a select 9 tracks from Null, the same album “Everyday” is pulled from. In fact you can check out one of those tracks here. Maybe we can get some Denton-Denton collaboration going on here, too. Hey AV the Great, you hear us?

Mind Spiders - Electric Things

We took a jab at Dirtnap-pusher, Dave Koen, in the paragraph above, but he was right. The new Mind Spiders and Radioactivity albums are both excellent (we talked about Bad Sports’ new stuff in a previous 3 Songs). Both are getting wonderful PR on spots such as All Things Considered and Vice. These incestuous bands share members that span most of the metroplex (if not further) and have been putting out records that mine a similar sound for over a decade (for some of the older members) in bands such as The Marked Men - who, if we can ever get our Past Denton Music Column started, we promise to talk about more. Mind Spiders found their sweet spot on their first album three years ago, and have continued to only get better with each new release (three albums in three years is impressive, no?). “Electric Things” finds the band working that trademark thin, fast sound, albeit with bits of Devo-esque sounds thrown in for good measure. If fact, the band has gone on record as to describe this album being influenced by many 80's-tastic things - the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired From Beyond movie being one. Oh, and while we're at it, both Mind Spiders and Radioactivity are playing Rubber Gloves on Friday, but you already knew that because you read the Den10.

Bashe - Splitter

We did really wanna include a song off of Radioactivity’s upcoming album (read above for more info), but Vice seems to have them on lock at the moment (no embed for us), so we’ve decided to go with the new single, "Splitter," from poppy math-rockers Bashe. We highlighted another song of theirs back in May. I guess we like Bashe. This new song finds the band's sound growing a great deal.  While they may have lost the slight disco feel they had earlier, "Splitter" embraces hook-filled, happy tunes that definitely had our toes tapping. We hope there’s more where this came from.

3 SONGS: SEPTEMBER

We're chiming in before the month ends with 3 Songs, our monthly column featuring three tunes from local artists that we've been digging lately. Read on to get a quick glimpse into the current Denton music scene. We dig 'em. Hope y'all do, too. 

Dome Dweller's song "My Halo" caught us by surprise this month. 

The Days - "Loose Knots"

(Editor’s Note: We Denton Do It shares a few members/contributors with The Days, but none of them are writing this, none of them asked for this, and we're diggin' it quite a bit. Conflict of interest be damned. While we’re at it, you wanna buy a couch from us on Craigslist?) If you’ve yet to catch The Days live or hear them in any capacity before, you’ve been missing out. These dudes sound as if The Band was fronted by a younger, less smokey Mark Lanegan. "Loose Knots" is particularly driven single - possibly the first we’ll hear of their upcoming full length. Throughout the track, lead singer, Robby Day, laments in his baritone all that he’d do for a girl which just so happens to be quite a bit - so much so that by the end of the song, we believe him and we want to hear more.

Dome Dwellers - "My Halo"

To be honest, y’all, we had a hard time writing this column this month. Things didn’t come together too easily and we spent easily an hour last night crawling through SoundCloud and Bandcamp, listening to various recent tracks from Denton bands and nothing was sounding good to us (let's leave it at that). We were getting pretty bummed and then we just so happened to stumble across "My Halo" from Dome Dwellers. Everything was immediately right with the world. Seriously, this is great stuff and hopefully a precursor of more that we’ll be seeing from this trio of dudes who have a full length coming in late October. "My Halo," itself, reminds us a bit of the Canadian band, Women, before they imploded a few years back - mathy and disjointed in the best of ways. The guitars are full of 90’s-era chimey-ness and tremolo and the math rock aspect of this tune acts as more of a hook than it does a headache - let’s just say that it’s more Algebra 1 than it is Pre-calculus. Whether they’re aware or not, this slightly epic track harkens back to the days of Denton space rock and we couldn’t be happier to be reminded of that era. Do yourself a favor and give this a listen. Heck, you can even download their entire EP for free from their bandcamp. 

Ella Minnow - "We Got Moves"

Longtime Denton rockers, Ella Minnow released a slow-burner of a track this week. This duet, dubbed We Got Moves" (we’re hypothesizing that it’s the “We” part of their new single, “We and Them”), starts off slow with a slight western twang and some reverb-laden guitar before making way into the dueling male/female vocals. Eventually, they lead the way into the rest of the tune that kinda sounds as if an old surf rock record got played at the wrong speed, but in a good way. As the song goes on, it starts to give off a later era Jesse Sykes-vibe and that ain’t a bad thing either.  

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.