Thriving musical communities tend to sprout up in college towns. Athens, Ga. and Amherst, Mass. are two such towns that have spawned several bands to break out and achieve national success. The small college-town of Denton, Texas may soon join their ranks. Denton is home to the University Of North Texas and a burgeoning music scene. Band-Kits: A Compilation of Denton, Texas Music ca. 2000 expertly captures the essence of that scene.
Compiled by George Neal (of the band Little Grizzly) and Matt Barnhart (owner of Quality Park Records), Band-Kits sets out to document the remarkable breadth of the Denton music scene and suceeds, in a big way. Almost every genre except jazz (University of North Texas has an extremely well-respected jazz program) and Polka (Denton natives Brave Combo are doing quite well on their own) are represented. Though most of these bands have not received much attention outside of the Denton area, a couple (Slobberbone and Centro-matic to be specific) have begun to receive significant amounts of national and international attention.
The music compiled on Band-Kits is, for the most part, stellar. I am somewhat familiar with the Denton scene, but this compilation only serves to show me that I need to dig deeper and become even more familiar with many of these bands.
One of the beauties of Band-Kits is the introspective and aptly named “Cloud Machine” by Wiring Prank, a wonderfully hypnotic instrumental that brings to mind the work of David Sylvian. Mandarin’s “Here and Leaving” mines the same musical territory as Wiring Prank, with soft, whispered vocals. It’s inexpressibly beautiful.
One of the bands that I had been previously familiar with, Slobberbone, checks in with a relatively mellow track, “Scuffed,” recorded in lead singer Brent Best’s kitchen. It’s a moody piece and Brent’s echoing, gruff voice makes it quite haunting. Hearing the chatter of people in the background makes the atmosphere of this track even spookier.
Centro-Matic is another band that I have been familiar with for some time. Virtually everything they put out is of extraordinary quality and “My, My” is no exception. Centro-Matic’s mellow, lo-fi sound is a house of cards, fragile in its construction. You sense that it could all blow over at any moment but, remarkably, it holds up. Also fragile is lead singer Will Johnson’s voice. It cracks and warbles, full of emotion. In my book, Centro-Matic can do no wrong.
George Neal’s own band, Little Grizzly, is recognized with the track “Absolution Is Mine.” You’d think they were a hardcore band by the way the song opens up with a frenetic clash of guitars and feedback, but the song quickly slows down and finds its own slower pace. Neal, like Will Johnson of Centro-Matic, has a warbly voice that is completely endearing because you know he is holding nothing back.
There are a few songs here that really don’t do much for me. If I found myself in Denton on a Saturday night, which happens pretty often, I wouldn’t go see The Meat Helmets or Corn Mo based on their tracks here. Then again, there are a lot of bands that I wouldn’t miss either.
Perhaps the only real problem I have with Band-Kits is the lack of any depth to the liner notes. The liner notes pretty much consist of just songwriter and recording credits. Usually such compilations have some more detailed information about the bands, a little history of the scene, etc. I can forgive such omissions, however, since they have kept the price so cheap. They have succeeded well in the difficult job of documenting a huge and unwieldy scene. As they mention at the end of the liner notes, “For every band compiled here, there are 17 more who weren’t. Go see for yourself.” And though I plan to continue doing just that, I’d be more than happy to see a Band-Kits 2 as well.
