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I usually only have a few minutes a day to post something here, and it seems like lately my free time happens to come up at the exact minute this blogging software is overloaded & it won't let me in. Guess it's a popular time for blogging.
No worries.
Just thought I'd pop in this morning to mention Lowell Brown's article on the latest happenings for the Fry St. area.

Dan's Silverleaf
Two Cow Garage
The DramsGrand ChampeenGlossary

This looks to be like a Denton stop on some sort of New West Records national tour.
The Drams evolved from the ashes of Denton's venerable Slobberbone, & Two Cow Garage could be considered a close cousin that's from the midwest.
Mostly an americana-style rock lineup, click on the links above for some sample songs.

It's a one man show - sometimes intermission takes a little longer.
Here's something neat...
the two main Denton outlets for original local CDs have started releasing a "Weekly Top Sellers" list.

Here they are for the past week or so:

Strawberry Fields Top 3

1. Shiny Around the Edges - Applied Quantum Physics 7"
2. Raised by Tigers - LED
3. Parata - Heads! Heads! Heads!

Recycled Books Top 5

1. Fishboy - Albatross: How We Failed to Save the Lone Star State with the Power of Rock and Roll
2. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
2. Midlake - Bamnan & Slivercork
3. Snarky Puppy - The World is Getting Smaller
4. Mom - Little Brite

By this time tomorrow I'll be 100 miles away, napping off a turkey overdose while the brothers watch football. I'll be back Friday with some culinary tales and maybe even some music updates.

Remember to leave room for dessert.

Not the motor oil with little plastic cups of "cream" you get at the office.
I mean aromatic, freshly ground, give me the jitters coffee.
Normally I'm a fan of iced coffee, but with the weather finally starting to cool off
I could go for a cup of freshly ground java.

Denton's actually home to a few coffee growers, importers, & distributors.
I've heard good things about Bookish, a local roasting/delivery operation, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet.
What's your go-to cup?

I come from the land of Collin St. Bakery, known all over the world for those familiar round red tins of Deluxe fruitcakes. I'm not usually a fruitcake fan, but I can hardly pass one of those up. But that's more of a Christmas thing, right?
What I'm looking forward to is another family tradition and a lesser-known Collin St. creation - the Chocolate Fudge Pecan Pie.

At almost $40 a pop (if ordered online) it's not an every day kind of treat,
but it just isn't Thanksgiving without one. Luckily I'll be in the area later
this week, so I'll probably pick up one of those and a box of cherry icebox
cookies while I'm at it... but I'll save those to talk about another day.

So we've already talked about home-made.. what's the "store-bought" favorites
in your house? What's the one-of-a-kind place in your home town that you can't drive by without stopping in for a taste?
One interesting thing about Texas is that it seems like since so many towns were so far apart for so long(pre-urban sprawl, that is) that many unique mom & pop operations grew to a healthy enough size to survive today's chain store world.
I can't go through West, Ennis, or Carl's Corner without stopping for a kolache.
Anywhere near Conroe or Huntsville & I have to have some BBQ. If I'm down around New Braunfels you can bet I'll stop at Oma's Haus for some schnitzel...
And when I'm in Corsicana it has to be Collin St. Bakery.

How about you?

Is it wrong to be so excited about fresh bread?
I've always thought of bread as the most basic identifier of a culture's food....
I was born & raised in rural Texas, and a good loaf of basic bread just reminds me of home. My grandfather might have called it "soppin' bread".
With that in mind I made a little giblet gravy to go along with it.

I started
with this basic recipe and added a few touches of my own.

Here's the result, minus a few slices:

No shows of note until Friday or Saturday.
Since it's such a nice day for baking the wife & I are in the kitchen.
I haven't brought it up much, but the one thing most bands in Denton have
in common more than anything is a love for food.
Since Thanksgiving is the holiday of all that is tasty I'm thinking all of my posts this week might just be food-related.

Today I'm diving headfirst into breadmaking. Dunno why, but I've never tried making it from scratch. I'm starting today with a simple bread recipe, then adding in some garlic, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and random spices. I just can't seem to follow a recipe by the book. Cooking is a lot like music. You start with a tradditional recipe, substitute what you have available and what you think might make it better and then you hope for the best. Sometimes it's a disaster and sometimes it's sublime, but it's always an adventure.

I would like to hear what you've got going on in the kitchen.
Post it in the comments section or just e-mail me and I'll put it in a later post.
Send me your recipes or just brag about how good your dinner is going to be.

cbrobinson

at dentonrc

dot com

Your best bet for tonight (Saturday) is Rubber Gloves for Novemberfest, or the rock'n'roll bakesale as some are calling it.
Too many bands to mention, and they're all bringing home made baked goods to sell at the show - proceeds benefit the local food bank.
Go see some good bands, eat some home made goodies, and help a local charity in a time of need. What could be more in the spirit of Denton's music scene than that?

First, there's:
Rubber Gloves(411 E Sycamore, $8, 9pm)
The PonysChin Up Chin Up
Handbrake

You can check out Rubber Gloves' site for a long resume on The Ponys, but the real band to see tonight is Handbrake. In a good review of Handbrake you might see words like angular, stop-start, and comparisons to various Chicago & DC bands.
That last sentence counts, so I'll totally consider this a good review. Just a lazy one.
I have other jobs to do around here, you know. I'll just say they never disappoint me when I'm in the mood for a good rock band.

... and then a few blocks away you have:
Dan's Silverleaf(103 Industrial, cover varies, 10pm)
North Texas Latin Jazz Ensemble
Mariachi Aguilas

I can't claim to be an expert on Mariachi bands, but I was really impressed with Mariachi Aguilas the last time I saw them. You don't have to be a big fan of the genre to recognize just how talented these folks are.

Rubber Gloves(411 E Sycamore, $5, 10pm)
Dana Falconberry
+ Short Attention Span Theatre (video brought to you by Strawberry Fields)

What I like most about Dana is that she's just as genuine on stage as she is off.
There's a certain vulnerability to her voice, and she comes of as an average girl
trying to figure everything out. Maybe it's just me, but sincerity is just as important
as song-writing ability in a solo act. Seems to me like she's got both.

P&Z Public Hearing on the Fry St Project - Wednesday, Nov. 14th- 6:30 PM at the City Council Chambers, City Hall, East Entrance, 215 E. McKinney

If you've been living under a rock for the past year, here's the short version:

The block of Fry St. between Hickory and Oak was once largely owned by one person and housed several locally owned bars, venues, stores and restaurants. Much to the disappointment to the business owners and patrons that lot was sold to a developer that plans to build a different sort of retail/restaurant strip anchored by chain stores. Some people were pretty upset about that given the age of the buildings and history of the area, and the entire situation has been one drama after another.
After an apparent act of arson on June 27th of this year (the day before the bulk of the buildings were scheduled to be torn down) the block was mostly leveled (save for a few buildings owned by other folks) and has remained that way ever since.
Tonight's meeting is to decide on a few SUPs (permits) the developer has requested for things such as a drive-through for an anticipated anchor store. That means the things they would like to do aren't normally allowed for one reason or another, and each of those requests would be evaluated to see if any exceptions could be made.
Cities do this because sometimes the benefits of the development might sometimes outweigh the possible detrimental effects, and this meeting is more or less weighing out those issues.
Residents of the area or anyone else affected are encouraged to attend the meeting and voice any concerns or support to the committee. This is civil politics at its finest, one of the few places in our society where the thoughtfully expressed opinion of average citizens can directly influence the decision of a government official.

I know this has little to do with music, but the culture of a city is reflected in its creative outlets. Our city takes pride in the artistic people that call Denton home, but it's your job as an artist and a resident to make sure it also takes note of their opinions.

Regarding this article from Nylon.

What looks like it could have been an interesting and helpful article about particularly music-heavy towns in America gets a big fat "fail" from me when it comes to commentary on Denton, TX.
Apparently the "compilers" of the article asked people from each town to write up a little blurb, and the person they tapped (Annie Clark - aka St. Vincent) isn't even a Dentonite. Oh, she's from the metroplex (though she now lives in Brooklyn, NY), and she's played here a time or two.
But apparently "a time or two" isn't enough for her to know that both The Cavern and The Grenada Theater aren't in Denton.
For that matter, neither is her own act, St. Vincent, which is listed among Denton's notable bands.
I'm no music journalist, but that's either flat out laziness or blatent self-promotion.
Granted, self-promotion is a necessary evil when you're a musician, but it sure is an ugly beast.

Thanks to Chris Flemmons (Baptist Generals) for pointing this article out to me.
You should read his response to both Annie Clark and the Nylon Magazine staff involved.

Hailey's(122 Mulberry, $6, 10pm)

Shipwreck(Champaign, IL)
Zest Of Yore
Ella Minnow

A rare rock show on a Monday night.
I can't tell you much about Ella Minnow (save for the silly name), but from listening to a few songs I think they're a good fit with Shipwreck... but if you go out for one band tonight make sure you catch locals Zest Of Yore.
Zest of Yore has been around for a while now, and they're probably the strongest song-writing team I've ever seen in a single band.
That would be enough for me, but as an added bonus they also pull of their songs flawlessly live. Zest Of Yore are often underrated and go unnoticed by the press way too often, but expect big things from these guys. BIG things.

Campus Barber Shop (on Hickory in the Fry St. area) is celebrating an anniversary today, and kicking it off is the Denton County Revelators at 6pm.

I'm also told there'll be some BBQ sandwiches in the vicinity, and who can pass that up?

After that head over to 715 Panhandle (one of Denton's best DIY house show venues) around 8pm for Record Hop, Nouns Group, & more.

And if you still haven't had your fill, Rubber Gloves is hosting Bridges And Blinking Lights, who plan to release a long-awaited album tonight. The cover there is $5, but more importantly they're also collecting non-perishable food at the door for Emergency Food Relief Center, who we're told is in serious need of food.

Hogpig's done. Why this normally "keep to ourselves until it counts" band felt the need to announce it via e-mail to some of the more prominent music outlets (which means I heard by word of mouth) I don't know, but it's bad news nonetheless.

That rustling sound here in "little d" is every guitar player in Denton rushing to try to grab the now-free-agent drummer Colin Carter. Drummers are tough to come by in this town.

Be right back.. I, er, um.. have to make a phone call...

... and then I stumbled across Rose County Fair who opens the show (10pm, $5 over $7 under 21)) at Hailey's tonight.
Though I wouldn't say they'd fall into my usual favorite genre, there is some really seriously good song-writing going on there.

The second act, Odis, would pretty much run me out of a bar if I was looking for a rock show, but I would say they would make one mean Lenny Kravitz cover band sound-wise. The recordings I've heard are really good, just definitely not my thing.

But this is why I take the time to give you all of those nifty links - so you can check things out for yourself.

I'm not gonna spoon-feed you your musical opinions, man. I'll leave that to corporate radio.

Here's the thing:
How savvy are you on the scene? Can you find Denton's hidden gems?

Show one: Tonight at Strawberry Fields (hint: W. Hickory st), Paul Slavens, Heartstring Stranglers, and Mike McNasty.

Show two: Tonight at The Eighth Continent (hint: Mingo not far from the Bell ave. split)
Monotonix, Life-Death Continuum, Young Widows, and Rival Gang.

Find one (or both) of those places, prove to me that you went, and claim a prize.
What's the prize? I dunno. Maybe a good local CD or something.

Hey, it's not like they give a blog a budget or anything.

Dallas has gone insane lately and most of your favorite Deep Ellum and Expo Park venues are begging for their heads before the king at this very minute.

Our brother-from-another-Belo-mother Hunter Hauk is blogging live on the proceedings here.

So there was an ad in today's Denton Time promoting this blog, which is a cool thing.
If you're curious, the guitar player in that photo is Scott Porter (Record Hop, Spitfire Tumbleweeds) and the guy in the background that's scratching his chin as if he has an evil plan is Tyler Adams (Pinebox Serenade, How Hard).

Don't be fooled, though. I'm sure they both have evil plans.

I'll post some good stuff later today, but in the meantime check out the links to the bands mentioned above.

If ya don't click you won't never learn nothin'.

Dan's Silverleaf
10:00 - FREE

FIGHTSONG

featuring

BRIAN VANDIVIER (History at our Disposal)
JASON REIMER (History at our Disposal)
MCKENZIE SMITH (Midlake)
SCOTT DANBOM (Centromatic)
ROBERT GOMEZ

All I know about Fight Song for sure is that they're an improv outfit, and they're brand new (this being their second show).
But with the talent represented in this band I can't imagine it being anything less than awesome. Seriously - check out the links above.

Rubber Gloves(411 E. Sycamore)
$10, doors at 9pm

Don Caballero
Jay Reatard
Maaster Gaiden
Magnets

Here's a snippet borrowed from the RGRS site, it's got all the info and I don't actually have to think of anything clever. My brain's taking the weekend off, the flu has taken its toll.

Don Caballero (affectionately called "Don Cab" or "The Don" by fans) formed in the summer of 1991, released five albums on Touch and Go Records between 1993 and 2000, then disbanded in November 2000. Drummer Damon Che recruited new personnel for a reconstituted Don Caballero in 2003, but this new lineup has been met with mixed reception from fans. They have since signed to Relapse Records and released a new album, titled World Class Listening Problem, on May 16, 2006.