SHOW PREVIEW: THIS WILL DESTROY YOU

​One of our favorite post-rock​ outfits out of Austin/San Marcos is coming back to town. Its been a little while since they set foot on a Denton stage and we are more than happy to have them back. In fact, we were so happy that we decided to make this our first "We Denton Do It Presents" show since our relaunch!

This Will Destroy You has continued to tour and make music that transfixes especially in a live setting. Their music has always been heavy on atmosphere and crashing melodies and their last album, Tunnel Blanket found the band brooding and ferocious as they ever have been before. Their last show in town was an outrageous performance that left us breathless at Hailey's. We know that they are more than capable of captivating Denton once again. We're pretty pumped to see what they have in store for us this time around. You should be, too. 

Dan's Silverleaf | 9pm | $13 ADV / $16 DOS | Buy Tickets: spunetickets.com

​Here's a video of This Will Destroy You performing their song "Communal Blood" live at Good Records in Dallas, TX. 

FISHBOY AT RECYCLED

Article and photos by the talented Dave Koen 

What were you doing on Friday night? Well, you probably should have been at Recycled Books & Music with Eric Edward Fishboy, also known as the founder, songwriter, and front-person of the Denton band Fishboy. He was there to celebrate the release of a live, acoustic album and a new book of comics that chronicle the 2011 US tour for his album “Classic Creeps”.  Not only were we treated to a show, but we also got a tour of some of Recycled’s deepest and darkest corners, as each song was played in the section it most closely related to. You haven’t lived until you’ve been crammed into the science section at Recycled with thirty strangers and a guy with a guitar.

​Fishboy will be playing at J&J’s Pizza on March 14 with Sad Baby Wolf.

THAT HAPPENED: SPIDERWEB SALON

Local creative artist group and friends of We Denton Do it, Spiderweb Salon, hosted a guerrilla-style throw-down on the courthouse lawn this past Saturday afternoon. We were there to take some photos and snap our fingers at some poetry readings. Read on for more info!

A crowd gathers before the show at this past Saturday's Spiderweb Salon. 

​Saturday afternoon 30 some-odd people gathered around a makeshift stage created out of an old white door, some busted-ass milk crates and some clamps on the south-east corner of the Denton square. Some were there to listen to poetry, music and some works of nonfiction by some of Denton's purveyors of literature, others were just there because people are attracted to large crowds Behind the stage was a gigantic white banner that read "spiderweb salon" in all lowercase letters. 

Spiderweb Salon has been doing things in a similar vein for quite a while now. They've gained enough notoriety over the past several months to even garner a 35 Denton showcase and a regular feature on an awesome local blog (read: us, duh). 

Comedian Ron Lechler looks down as ponders his next non-sequitur. 

This particular event marked a departure from the norm for the group (led by WDDI contributor Courtney Marie and her partner in non-crime, Conor Wallace) who normally showcase local artists at a local house and not in front of the court house in the middle of the day. Thankfully, the group was not even given a second glance by local law enforcement who just seemed to give a cockeyed glance to the comedy-stylings of Ron Lechler as they past by.

The event started off strong with local writer, Matthew Salack's account of a young romance from behind the counter of a Chic Fil-A. The crowd was engaging and laughed often. Afterwards, many local poets and musicians shared their art. Many participants who had not prepared any work in advanced even participated in an open mic after the six or seven planned performances were done. It was a nurturing, supportive environment that encouraged those attending to share - if not during the open mic, then to at least send something to read at the next event.  

Local duo {we, bees} singing a duet about a girl full of trouble.

​Shannon Hall reading her poem about reality. 

The guerilla-style showcase went over very well for Spiderweb. After the initial greatness that was Salack's short story, the local poets, musicians and comedian (which just so happened to be the strongest one man comedy performance we've seen in Denton) mostly kept the bar at that high point. If this recap is making you sad you missed this, fret not. Spiderweb Salon's next event will be here before you know it. You can catch the largest show Spiderweb has put on yet at 2pm Sunday, March 10th at Dan's Silverleaf as part of the 35 Denton schedule. Leave your tomatoes and rotten fruit at home. You won't need 'em. 

THE FUNNIES: ARTICHOKE

Sam Cook, local comic and creator of the popular Gazellionare will be throwing a monthly comic our way. This week, for your viewing pleasure, we have his first piece for us titled, "Artichoke." 

Comic by Sam Cook

Sam Cook is a lover; a lover of designer board games, graphic novels, stoner metal, and computer science (read: video games). He works at TWU and is slowly being eaten alive by two orange tabby cats named Biscuit and Gravy.

THREE SONGS

Here are our top three local songs to check out this month. 

Pageantry from Denton, TX

First off, we have the lead single from the full-length album Pageantry released last October. We're gonna go ahead and throw the term "math rock" out there for this, but with a qualifier. If Don Caballero is Calculus, then Pageantry is College Algebra, and that's not a bad thing. This song has enough driving force that anybody will be quickly sucked in. Over the course of the song the breaks and repetitions gradually build up to a gigantic opus that might even get away with it's use of a synth in an arguably non-synthy song. Pageantry is playing this Saturday at Hailey's with Chambers. 

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You by Sacco & Vanzetti
Denton-wise, S&A is a good mix of Sunnybrook and Matthew and the Arrogant Sea. This song is full of lots of reverb-drenched builds and falls and starts and stops more than most bands' entire EPs. It's always refreshing to hear a band full of so many ideas that they couldn't stick to just one. Sacco & Vanzetti is also playing this Saturday, February 23rd at Hailey's with Chambers, Pageantry and a few other interesting bands. 

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And not least today, we have local group, Bad Design. Bad Design definitely shows that age doesn't necessarily have anything to do with energy level when compared to our other two bands this month. Knockout Rose (track 2 from their LP released last year) moves quickly and before you know it, you've streamed their whole album. This song would fit right in the middle of any Dischord lover's collection. 

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That's it for us this month, y'all. If you have a specific song you'd like to debut on the blog or just like for us to highlight, be sure to send us a message or leave us a comment!

PHOTOGRAPHER SPOTLIGHT: LAUREN APEL

Lauren Apel is one of the many young talents coming out of Denton. She has an eye for quality and an impressive drive. We caught up with Lauren to find out what life for a young photographer in Denton looks like. Read the interview and then follow Lauren for what I am sure will be a promising photography career. 

Pictured above is Lauren Apel and her husband Mark.

Tell us about yourself. What does life in Denton look like?

My name is Lauren Apel. I’m married to writer-musician-co-photographer-Mark Apel and we live in here in the great and wonderful Denton, Texas. We love it here. Denton has such a special culture. It feels like a small town, but it isn’t really all that small. And everyone you meet is an artist of some sort. There are so many musicians and designers and culinary artists—there’s always something going on. And when there isn’t, you can drive thirty minutes and be in Dallas or Forth Worth. We live in northern Denton. We both work in Denton—for UNT. I am a student at UNT as well. Mark leads worship at a new church in Corinth (Lake Sharon Community Church) and on the weekends we shoot weddings and portrait sessions.

What brought you to photography?

This is going to sound cliché, but I’ve always loved pictures. I always loved getting disposable cameras and taking them to summer camp or on trips or wherever. I remember being a thirteen year old and dressing my friends up and styling them and then posing them and taking their picture. And they were awful pictures. But I just loved it. I shot all the time. Five years ago a friend’s parents asked me to shoot their family portraits. It was my first paid job and I knew then that I loved it. It was the most wonderful thing.  

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Describe your style and what inspires you.

It is difficult to describe “my style.” I know what I like and what I don’t like. I like clean photographs if that makes any sense. I like them to look matte—like if you touched them. I also want them to look cohesive. If you scroll from the top page of my blog to the bottom, I want all of the images to have the same feel. I want the images to be consistent. In some ways, that is more important than anything else. Photography is like any other form of artistry—if you want to get better you practice and study. If you want to be a better writer, you write and you read. If you want to be a better photographer, you study the photographer’s work that you admire and identify what makes their images awesome. And you shoot everything.

How do you define a successful photograph?

A successful photograph is a hard thing to define. A successful photograph makes you feel something. Maybe it is as simple as feeling, “wow, that’s beautiful” or maybe it makes you tear up. A successful photograph makes you stop for a second to look at it. It makes you scroll slow.

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What are the benefits and challenges of being a photographer in Denton?

One of the biggest benefits of being a photographer in Denton is the supportive community of photographers that already exists in Denton. There are a LOT of photographers in the DFW, as I am sure you can imagine. Every interaction I have had with any of them has been positive. I think that is important. When I’m unable to take on a job, I love having five names that I can send to that client and being able to know that the names I sent are awesome people.

If you could be invisible one day with your camera, where would you go?

This might sound really lame, but it would be really cool to shoot behind the scenes of the Oscars—the rehearsals and sound checks before the event, and all the chaos that happens backstage. Stars getting their makeup touched up. The tech crew. All the little stuff. The presenters. I bet it’d be a lot of fun.

What is your favorite thing about Denton?

I would say the community. We have so many wonderful friends here. Friends that design custom mid-century furniture, friends that create beautifully hand crafted stationary, friends that make music, refurbish, paint, write, bake, and grow. There are a lot of big servant hearts in Denton that want to work for the good of the city. There are a lot of churches in Denton that want to work for the betterment of the city. It’s really neat to see. We live in a great community.

Find more from Lauren at

Portfolio / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

DENTON LIT - WALKER SMART - "HERE"

The following prose piece is a selection from the upcoming zine entitled Local Lore, to be released next month during the 35 Denton music festival. The zine is the fourth in a series printed by the art collective Spiderweb Salon and will showcase a wide variety of art, prose, poetry, and essays inspired by and within Denton, Texas, USA. Copies of the freshly printed and hand-bound zine will be available at 35 Denton Presents: Spiderweb Salon on March 10th at Dan’s Silverleaf. 2-6 p.m. The show will feature art, readings, music and performance pieces, as well.

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“Here”

by Walker Smart

There used to be a hospital here, the one I was born in. The grounds were donated to the city to make a park. They made the City Park apartments instead. Here used to be a pizza place where I played the Dungeons and Dragons arcade game while my dad wrote in his notebook. They tore it down and built something else, but it was here. Here used to be a school, the school where I met my two oldest friends. There’s the creek we used to explore, to us it was a separate world. Here used to be the video store where we rented the movies that desensitized us. We still see the ghost face of Piggly Wiggly through the trees driving down Greenwood. This was the theater we had our first jobs at, where we first stayed out too late. They spent a million dollars renovating it after it closed. When I saw it after I felt a part of me was gone. But you go up into the projection booth and it’s like walking back in time, they didn’t change a thing. That part of a place that makes it home can’t be changed.

Here’s the house I met your mom in. Later it became the house we lived when you were born. Then it became the house I first felt heartbreak in. Soon it will be the house another baby girl lives after she is born. The part of a place that makes it home can become complicated.

You are the place that makes hell feel like home again. You are the place that can make something old feel new again.

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Walker Smart is the on stage alter ego of Walker Smart. He's twice as weird and loves the sound of his own voice even more than the real Walker Smart. The real Walker Smart has lived in Denton, TX his whole life. You’ve probably seen him around.

You  can find more Walker here... You can get more Spiderweb Salon there and you can catch them at 35 Denton in March!