THE DEN10: JUNE 19

Let's get down to  brass tacks, as they say. We live in a capitalistic economic system. It's a free market structure characterized by private ownership, personal decisions, prices, production and the distribution of goods (or sandwiches in). This is a real good thing. This system gives the consumer the option of eating fresh sandwiches but also gives the option of some serious and awesome local food choices. So it's time to put your money where your mouths (or stomachs) are and check out PamFood Brunch at Paschall's on Sunday or maybe the Mudbug & Microbrew event at Earthwise. They may not have neon signs to lead you to their front doors, but hey, like always, we've got you covered. There are really talented folks in our community doing what they love and it's just going to be a flat out more productive use of your time and money, and better for our town, to support the good things it has to offer. Because we all know that the best sandwich money can buy in Denton is J&J's Italian Sausage.

Wednesday June 19
Swine & Wine | Wine Squared | 7PM | RSVP prepay only $25
Who doesn't love a good summer time pig roast? Get on this deal ASAP because it's happening tonight.

City Mouse / Pink Smoke / Daikailu / She Banshee | J&J's | 9:30 | FREE
If there ever was a thin line between Mumford and Sons and They Might Be Giants, City Mouse finds that line and sits on it. This is a really odd pairing of bands but it's free and there's opportunity for some good pizza or the best Italian sausage sandwich before or after you catch Pink Smoke which really is the highlight of this odd line up. The more they sound like The Damned, the better they get.

Movie In The Park: Puss In Boots | Quakertown Park | 8:00PM | FREE
 

Friday June 20
Slaid Cleaves | Dan's | 8:00PM | $18
One of the great songwriters of our day takes over Dan's Silverleaf this Friday. This will be quite a treat to hear in the always pristine sounding venue (thanks, Jimmy).

New Science Projects / Diving / Katie And The Lichen / OK Vancouver OK / Christian Medrano | Macaroni Island | 8:00PM | FREE
No Jerks.

Saturday June 22
Radar Brothers / Foe Destroyer / Photo Ops | Rubbergloves | 9:00PM | $13
Fun fact about the Radar Brothers is that Jim Putman is the son of Bill Putman who is the founder of Universal Audio and known as the father of modern music recording. It's a gear thing. This is a stellar lineup with Foe Destroyer rounding out the local side of this bill. Be sure to check out their new release on bandcamp which is a gritty pop mix reminiscent of Self.

Sunday June 23
Old Warhorse Live Album Recording / Burnt Sienna | Dan's | 10PM | FREE

Mudbugs & Microbrew | Earthwise Gardens | 4PM | $25 online
All you can eat crawfish and a chilled green bean salad, caprase salad and homemade bluberry basil ice cream. All produce is locally sourced and they've paired it all with home brew tastings.

PamFood Sunday Brunch | Paschall Bar | 12:30 | $16
If you haven't had PamFood then you really need to get with it. She's serving Eggs in a Basket, Shrimp & Grits and Peach Cobbler this Sunday. Wash it down with a few of Paschall's Older Fashioneds and you're good to go.

Monday June 24
Ferrous Sounds Presents: Oryx / Black Tar Prophet / Terminator 2 / Mountain of Smoke | Rubbergloves | 8PM | $1
These guys have been busy continuing the legacy of House of Tinnitus.

SUMMER ENTERTAINMENT

After you’ve done your Pinterest projects, paper mache solar systems and Twilight Tunes is over - you realize that eight weeks of summer is a long time to fill with activities. 

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Good lord, have you seen how many different kid-centric programs the Denton Public Library offers? Sure, they’re on an ongoing basis, but they seem to have really beefed things up for the summer season. Whether your kid is into Legos, art or photography, there is definitely a class that can hold their attention at one of the local libraries. Checkout this page to see a list of them all. The best part is that they’re all free. Some do require pre-registration, so make sure you call ahead to reserve your kiddo a spot beforehand.

Cool off with the city’s local man-made bodies of water. The Natatorium and waterpark are in north Denton right off of 288. Print out this coupon for $2 off admission before you head out there. If you’re smart and think you’ll head out there a lot, go with the family pack discount or go after 4pm on a Monday, Tuesday or Thursday to get $3 off your admission. Oh, and don’t forget about the civic center pool, crashing all of those apartment pools and the pool your elderly neighbors have.

The summer is a great time for your child to get knee deep in a book. Whether they are finishing up the latest adventures of Captain Underpants, or having their first foray into the world of Philip K. Dick, hopefully you’re encouraging your child’s reading. If you’re already doing it, why not have them be rewarded? Both Recycled Books and the Denton Public Library have summer reading programs that just started. Recycled gives kids $5 to spend in their store after they read for 30 minutes a day for 4 days a week. The library awards kids with various books and has a party at the waterpark at the end of the summer.

The Cinemark Theatre on Unicorn Lake has a summer movie special for kids this year. About once a week, they’ll be showing special movies for kids for only $1 per ticket. You can check out the dates and a list of which movies they will be showing here. All movies start at 9am. Plan to hit up the other Beth Marie’s afterwards because it will probably already be over 100 by the time your movie let’s out.

Enroll your son or daughter in one of the many awesome summer camps we highlighted a few weeks ago.

WHAT WE DID - JUNE 17TH

Last weekend was a great one. School was out, the temperatures were rising and the ceremonial ribbon on the long-awaited MLK pedestrian bridge over Loop 288 was cut. We danced around on the lawn a little on Thursday's Twilight Tunes, kept cool with snow cones for the kiddos and cocktails at Paschall's for us and supported local business by getting our lemonade from young burgeoning entrepreneurs. 

What did you do this weekend? Throw #wddi on your Instagrams and we'll include our favorites from week to week.  

A few of our favorite city councilmen chatting on the new bridge

The new MLK pedestrian bridge over Loop 288. 

Pete Kamp and Kevin Roden cutting the ribbon for the new MLK bridge 

A cherry snocone from Happy Campers Snow Cones beat the June heat last week. 

Beth Marie's ran out of bottled water and was only doling out ice cream amidst all of the hippies dancing last Thursday at Twilight Tunes. 

Keeping our lemonade decisions local.  

A go-to for keeping cool this summer - the Pimm's Cup at Paschall's 

Friday night we hid out in the air conditioning of our favorite bar. 

MAY DENTON CREATIVES MIXER VIDEO

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Remember when we all gathered in the hot sun at the end of a long Monday at Oak st. Drafthouse and listened stories about a bunch of the creative things happening in town? You probably shook enough hands to make your palm sore. Maybe you finally met that one dude you've been following on twitter for years? Hopefully, you remember. If not, maybe that Twitter threw some Rohypnol in your beer. 

This was the 2nd of the Creatives Mixers started by District 1 city councilman,Kevin Roden. The encouragement from city leaders for a different kind of business in Denton has been increasing more and more ever since the first of these gatherings. This last one was hosted by Maker Space and featured speeches from the likes of the Denton Community Market, The Dime Store, Pan Ector and Triple Threat Press. 

Thankfully Fisboy (AKA Eric Michener) caught the whole thing with his camera and made a handy dandy highlight video of the evening so you can re-live it over and over. Zoom and enhance to find out if Twitter dude was anywhere near your drink. If you weren't there, you're in luck. You can watch the footage and have the opportunity to hear helpful advice from a few recent Denton business ventures without having to sit in the heat and stare directly into the sun. If you were there, you may now click through and see what you look like squinting and sweating. 

THE SIGNS, THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

Last week, the forthcoming Subway on the corner of Oak St and Locust St. put up their famous green and yellow sign on the front of the Texas Building. We took a picture of said sign and asked your opinion about it on Facebook. The 140+ comments later, your opinion was known. Y'all didn't care much for it, and the powers that be heard your complaints. The Subway sign on the historic Texas Building is coming down, y'all. It will soon be replaced with a metallic Subway sign that better fits to the look of the historic denton square.

It can be easy to think that you don't have much say-so as far as what happens in town that's outside of your normal voting ballots. The Subway sign coming down, however, really shows that people listen. Without violent riot, protest signs, chanting in the street or passing a boycott list, the citizens of Denton have successfully had their voices heard. Well, at least a little bit. 

The original Subway sign on the square really highlighted the issue of the need for a better sign ordinance for our city and it's historic buildings and this change sets a precedent for future signs in downtown. 

Greg Johnson, the owner of the Texas Building, watched the local news, read your comments and made a call to Subway franchisee, Bob Suarez, to work with the wishes of Denton citizens to find a happy medium. They decided to change the look of the signage to fit with the current aesthetics of the downtown. The new Subway sign will be a painted brushed metal sign -  and will look more in line with the square's more historic buildings and other signage. While it might not be very visible in the rendering below, the lack of glowing neon will surely make a large difference when viewed in person. 

A rendering of what the new sign should look like.  

The property is actually managed by Verus Real Estate who say that their business philosophy is to enhance, "asset values by understanding the needs of each client and applying sound fundamental principles to achieve success," and in this particular case, we'd say they have done just that. While many of the complaints we heard were about having a Subway on the square at all and not necessarily the look of the sign, keep in mind that those opinions were still heard by both the owner of the Texas Building and the franchiser of the Subway, itself. 

District 1 city councilman, Kevin Roden, pushed for a review of the current sign ordinance at the city council meeting last week, the same night that the Subway sign went up. Hopefully our council will see the holes in the current ordinance and will make the appropriate changes to keep our historic buildings looking stately and historic, and prevent things like glaring neon signs from marring their facades. 

Keep in mind that this is not a one time thing. Your elected leaders and the business owners in Denton listen. If you have an opinion about something, let them know. Write your city councilman or talk to business owners. Keep yourself educated on what's happening in Denton by reading our monthly Mr. Farris Goes to City Hall column and if you don't like something (or if you DO like something), make your opinion known. 

The Subway on the square is set to open its doors on July 6th. We Denton Do It would personally like to thank Greg Johnson, Bob Suarez, Kevin Roden and Julie Glover for hearing the cries of the city and responding so quickly.

THE DEN10: JUNE 12

That extra long Spring was too good to last. The hot breeze has finally returned and is here to stay until Christmas. At least this week there are three extremely solid CD Releases in the usual mix of things to occupy your leisure time.

Got a hot tip you think should make The Den10? Send it in to info@wedentondoit.com.

Wednesday June 12
Daniel Markham (CD Release) / RTB2 / Grant Cross | Dan's | 9PM | $5
Daniel Markham Ruined My Life get's it's proper release tonight at Dan's. It's a strong effort drenched in fuzzy hooks and backed by the most able musicians this town has to offer (Becker, Sandlin, Ferrarro).

Thursday June 13
Chris Watson / The Mighty Orq (solo) | Dan's | 9PM | $7
Summertime blues anyone? Here's a great pair of guitar-slinger / Texas Blues players continuing the tradition of Hopkins, Vaugn and Gibbons. Yeah, the guitar-slinger thing's been done before (overdone) but there's a craft to the Texas Tradition that spans the invention of the guitar. Robert Johnson recorded half his catalog in Dallas. Lightning Hopkins roamed the piney woods decades after Blind Willie Johnson (blind from getting lye thrown in his eyes by his mother) died from pneumonia in his soaking wet bed weeks after his house burnt down waiting for his wife to return. This is a lineage you can be proud of when you're out-of-state.

Friday June 14
Armadillo Ale Works Pint Night  | The Labb | 7PM | FREE
Things people love: pint nights / Armadillo Ale Works. This is a good pre-game combo for Dan's Pageantry CD Release.

Pageantry (CD Release) / Chambers / Good Field / Senor Fin | Dan's | 9PM | $5
A solid collection of the area's locals gather in support of Pageantry's CD release

Saturday June 15
Faun Fables / Warren Jackson Hearn & Le Leek Electrique | Dan's | 9PM | $15
Frykdahl, known for his work with Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum brings you this new project, Faun Fables. British, Scandinavian and Appalachian influences complete with puppets and a side of Renaissance Fair and remenescent of Polish "dark angel" Ewa Demarczyk. Is neo-folk puppet performance jam a genre?

Juneteenth Parade | The Denton Civic Center | 9AM | FREE
The 43rd Annual Juneteenth celebrations will be held at Fred Moore Park. There will be food, vendors, music and in dutiful Denton tradition, a parade. 

Cat People (CD Release) / New Science Projects / Kilgore Trout / Elesh Norn | Macaroni Island | 8PM | FREE + Donations for the touring band
The shock of reading Slaughterhouse-5 as an eighth grader is something you really never shake. Vonnegut was always such a confirming writer in the mind of the young and awkward. At any rate, Cat People release their CD (allegedly) recorded at Macaroni Island by Michael Briggs (Gutterth / Violitionist). Remember kids, the universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest and no jerks please.

Sunday June 16
Wooden Indian Burial Ground / Dome Dwellers / The Vuvs | Gloves | 9PM | $3

Hares On The Mountain | Dan's | 5PM | FREE
Hares return to their Dan's residency this week and like always, it's free and will get weird.

Tuesday June 18
A Taste Of Herb: A Tribute to Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Band | Dan's | 5PM | FREE
Here's a serious batch of musicians paying tribute to a serious musician.

LYRIC LEAK: TONY FERRARO AND THE SATANS OF SOFT ROCK

by Harlin Anderson  

 photo by Aubrey Salsman

Lyric Leak is a monthly column in which Harlin Anderson highlights the lyrics from a local band's song. In it, we'll try to get down to the gnitty-gritty of what the artist(s) was going for when they wrote the song. This month, we spoke with Tony Ferraro of the infamous Tony Ferraro and the Satans of Soft Rock. 

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We recently hit the patio at Dan’s Silverleaf for a beer and some story swapping with the irrepressible Tony Ferraro. Amidst the rumbling of thunder clouds and the rattling of trains across the nearby tracks, talk turned to his band – Tony Ferraro and the Satans of Soft Rock – and a song that won’t stop spinning on the turntable in our brains, “Children in Fur Coats.” Sweetheart that he is, Tony was kind enough to pull back the curtain and sneak us a peek at how he do what he do.

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Where did you come up with the name “Children in Fur Coats?”

TF: [Laughing] I worked at a book store for a couple of years. We had all kinds of goofy ephemera and silly bookmarks and calendars. One of them was a dog calendar that said: Your pets are like children in fur coats. I was like, isn’t that fucking weird?

What about that phrase appealed to you?

I’ve always been fascinated with royalty, religion, and the ways of old. The ways of yore. Just imagining children in fur coats. Of course, you’ve got the dog metaphor, but also my mind was like, what’s the other one? Actual children – young human children – in fur coats. It seemed silly to me at the time. Maybe not as much now. Rich people are always of interest because they’re usually pretty bratty. And…like animals in a lot of ways. They get tested, and they become, in a way, less human. So I thought what’s less human than a child wearing a fucking dead animal on their fucking shoulders? How can I tie that into the song?

So it’s a commentary of sorts?

You could say that. The interpretation is always and forever completely up to the listener. I don’t ever want to tell anybody the one thing that my song is about. I find it cheapening – as a music fan – to have an artist tell me exactly when, where, and why a song was written.

Do you enjoy sitting down and trying to unravel the mysteries of specific songs?

I really do. I’ll write out my interpretations. I’ll write out what I think is happening in between each line. I’ve written songs that are what I think the characters are saying in between the lines of an already recorded song by my favorite artists. It’s just a big fucking game. And I feel like I get to play on this playground with these dudes even though I don’t know them.

There’s a line from the song that stuck with me. “No one will ever know your first name.”

It’s kind of a weird thing. Imagine if someone said that to you. Your identity gets kind of stripped away. You know what I mean? Like animals. They may be aware of who their mother is through very basic instinctual shit. But they don’t know names. I think that line is a play on the meaning of the names we give to things. Which are just symbols of how we feel.

How does that quality serve you as a songwriter?

Words are just words, man. Songs are great because you can do anything in them. You can do anything in art. Anything at all. Some topics are scary to people, and that’s the stuff that’s fun to talk about. The stuff that cuts. The stuff that hurts. Most of the love songs are about heartbreak. They’re not even about the good stuff that comes from love. You know? [trails into laughter]

Who are your songwriting influences?

Obviously, the shit I grew up on. The Beatles. Tom Petty. Billy Joel. But also a lot of hip hop. I love Kool Keith. He’s a big, big, big one for me – even though his catalog is so wildly hit or miss. His ethic un-fucking-stoppable. And while he doesn’t always put out great records, he doesn’t stop. He says crazy wild things, and that makes me feel like I can do anything. It’s like the fucking possibilities are, in fact, endless. And that’s an empowering feeling.  

Tell me about the line: “you don’t have to fight for your right to be free.”

Freedom untethered.

How difficult is that to achieve?

Well, that lines not really about freedom, is it? I mean, not to me. If I could step outside of it, I would say it’s about the right to be free. Yes, we’re Americans. That right to things is stuck in us. So it’s an interesting concept to play with. Having a vague line like that leaves if more open to interpretation. It’s more of a mystery to me, which is why I wanted to put it down. But if I had to hit it like an English major, I’d say it’s not about freedom necessarily. It’s about whether you have to fight for it or not. Take the kids in fur coats. They don’t have to fight for shit. They’re given everything. It gives a grandiose, romantic image to freedom – and your right to it. But it’s also saying you don’t have to fight for this. We’re going to hand this to you. Just be quiet. Don’t drink out of the toilet. You’ll always have a home because I chose you.

Do you consider yourself free?

Of course. Yes.

Have you had to sacrifice certain things to maintain that freedom?

We all do. Every one of us has to.

What do you think working a 9 to 5 job would do to your creativity and freedom?

A 9 to 5? Insurance. Definitely insurance. I don’t know. I just consider myself wildly lucky that I get to do this, and it’s only gotten better over the last few years. The last time I worked a 9 to 5 was right before I started making records. I ditched that and went back to easy fast cash, so I could have time to work on this. I get by. Sometimes the shows give me food. Sometimes they give me beer. Sometimes they help me pay my phone bill. You know?

If you could sit down with any songwriter from any generation, who would it be?

Oh my god. That is the worst question ever. You son of a bitch. [Laughing] Fuck you, man. [More laughing.] Elvis Costello is the easy choice, but if I really have to answer that – Billy Joel. We’d probably write a song. It’d probably take us three hours. Six hours, maybe. I don’t know. We’d be drunk. We would get drunk. But we’d start somewhere strong. Then maybe keep emailing each other over a couple weeks. Be like, ah, I wrote a fucking coda! I don’t know. I love him because of my childhood. I recognize his powerful lameness in the grand scheme of his career, but I would still love to just hang out with him. He reminds me a lot of my father – my father’s a New York guy. Let’s go with Billy Joel. You know it, I know it, anyone reading this is gonna know that I love Billy Joel. 

As it has so many times before, the broaching of Billy Joel in a Denton bar – along with the raining of cats and dogs – signaled the end of the evening’s festivities. Keep your ears on and your eyes out for the next appearance of Tony Ferraro and the Satans of Soft Rock. It’s a helluva a show, and your absence will not be excused.

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“Children in Fur Coats”

Children in fur coats

Always thinking

How to kill two birds

Pass us the olives

No, no Peeps now

I’m watching my stories

No that is not a fountain

No you don’t have to fight for your

Right to be free

No one will ever

Know your first names/I am not joking

Children in fur coats

You need to know

That you will always have a home here

You don’t have to fight for your right to be free

You will always have a home here

You don’t have to fight for your right to be free

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Harlin Anderson is the underground BBQ champion of Denton, Texas. When he's not digging through crates of vinyl at Recycled Books or Mad World Records, he can be found manning the smoker on the back patio at Dan's Silver Leaf - or wherever there are hungry musicians. His lives with his wife, Ashley, and their three furry children: Earl, Jake, and Nanette the Pocket Beagle. He prefers to stay comfortably within the Denton city limits at all times.

Tony Ferraro, Ryan Thomas Becker, Justin Collins, Chris Gomez, & formerly Dave Howard are The Satans of Soft Rock. 

You can check out Satans of Soft Rock here. 

WEEKEND PHOTO RECAP - FEATURING ETSY DENTON

That was probably the last weekend of (semi) decent weather we'll have until October, Dentonites. Hope you made the most of it. It was hard not to with all of the various events going on. While many Denton ISD seniors prepared to graduate on Friday, the folks over at DIME and Etsy Denton prepared for their annual Summer Bazaar. We hit it up and had a blast. Did you manage to grab one of our stickers while you were there? Slap it on your neighbor's car and rep WDDI for us, if you did! Below, you'll find photos from our excursions at the Etsy Denton Summer Bazaar at the Greater Denton Arts Council building and a few random photos from other events this weekend. Before we craft fair'ed it up - we managed to hit up the now smoke free Rubber Gloves to kick off our weekend properly with a Sweet Talk/World of Pleasure/Pink Smoke showdown.  Throw #WDDI in your 'grams and we'll post our favorites in our Monday photo recap next week!

Rachel Aughtry of RACHELelise smiles as she talks to patrons of the Etsy Denton Summer Bazaar. 

 photo by Amelia McBride

Customers, young and old, rummaged through the various homemade items and vintage finds at the Etsy Denton Summer Bazaar this past Saturday. 

 photo by Amelia McBride

Caitlin Crawford of Austin St. Apothecary. 

 photo by Amelia McBride

Shelley Christner of DIME and Home Again, Home Again. 

 photo by Amelia McBride

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The weekend saw lots of other interesting things, too. We were surprised to find Oak St. Drafthouse to be standing room only Friday evening seeing as so many of the college students have already vacated for the summer. 

In what seemed to be rather quick, Vigne has already started operating in their new location further down on Hickory St. in the old Cellar 22 spot. 
#WDDI

Oak St. Drafthouse was attacked by a cardboard robot on Saturday evening. Extremely cheap viral marketing for Pacific Rim maybe? 
#WDDI

Rusty Taco kept us coming back for more. We apparently weren't the only ones. Their patio seemed to be pretty packed the entire weekend. Did you get a chance to try their jalepeno-watermelon margarita yet? 

Clint Jerome of Pink Smoke

photo by Dave Koen 

World of Pleasure

photo by Dave Koen 

Jeff Burke of World of Pleasure

photo by Dave Koen 

Steven Svacina of Sweet Talk

photo by Dave Koen 

Sweet Talk

photo by Dave Koen 

 photo by Dave Koen

JIVE FIVE: THE DIME SUMMER BAZAAR

Rachel Aughtry and Shelley Christner of The Dime Store have been hosting the Etsy Denton Summer Bazaar for a few years now. This weekend, our favorite handmade market is sure to please. We're excited for some of our favorite local makers and artists to all be under one roof where we can find art for our walls, pillows for our couches, gifts for all of those summer weddings and new hand towels for the kitchen since ours seem to always be stained from chocolate, wine and darker colored alcohols. 

This isn't our first time at the Summer Bazaar. We've gone elbows to elbows with other handcrafted patrons before. Thusly, we took it upon ourselves to assemble some do's and dont's in the form of a Jive Five for you to abide by when you hit up the Bazaar on Saturday. Read 'em below and add your tips in the comments!

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The talented Mandy Cave will have a few Denton-centric watercolors available

TO DO'S:  

Get there early. The first 50 people in line get a 'goody bag' stuffed with fun things, like 'free drink' cards from Jupiter House and stickers from us. 

Come a little hungry. Plenty of food vendors will be around. Make sure to grab a bite at one of the food trucks while you're waiting in line to get in. If you see Shiitake Swerve around, try their original taco!

Smile! We'll be out there taking a few photographs and want to see happy, peppy people buying goodies. 

Encourage your friends from Dallas to take the A Train in and join you at the market. Then, hike across the parking lot to Hoochie's for cold PBRs and a po-boy afterwards. 

Make sure not to miss the Dowdy Studio Wagon - aka the world's smallest handmade shop - setup outside of the Greater Denton Arts Council building. 

Grenade plushie from Fuzzy Muffins

Dino-plushie from Fuzzy Muffins

TO DON'TS:  

Don't complain about the line. Just be friendly and be excited that local artists are drawing such a great crowd. 

Don't overlook Fuzzy Muffins, located behind the plushie octopus. There is likely hiding a stuffed grenade and dinosaur, both of which are way too cute to handle. 

Forgot to grab cash? Don't worry about it too much. Just about all of the vendors use Square now. 

Don't take a snack from the 'honor snack bar' provided by Amitea and the Cupboard without leaving a little cash. That's just rude. 

Father's Day is just around the corner. Don't forget to grab a gift for your pops or grandpops while you're there. We can personally vouch for the beard oil from Austin St. Apothecary for the hairy old men in your life.