Last week, the City of Denton became the first city in the state to pass a city-wide ban on fracking. The ban passed in a landslide, with 59 percent in favor of the ban and 41 percent against, after more than five years of struggle between anti-fracking activists and the energy industry. See also: ... More >>
In the dull roar of a post-homecoming crowd at Crooked Crust in Denton, Garrett Gravley has his dining choices mocked. The perpetrator, Albert Louis, scoffs: "Dessert bread sticks and beer?" To which Gravley explains, "He's always giving me shit about how I eat." This is the makeshift office space ... More >>
By the time Denton's city offices opened this morning, officials already had two brand new lawsuits waiting for them. As Denton's attorneys begin the weary post-election process of sorting through a legal defense against this inevitable barrage of suits, it's clear the battle over the ban on frackin ... More >>
Eight months ago, Chase Dugger was staring down the other side of graduation. The recent UNT graduate and long-time Denton dance scene fixture had already achieved much, including his own residency in the much beloved Andy's Bar. Titled "Subsonic Indulgence," the weekly featured Dugger and friends' ... More >>
By H. Drew Blackburn, Jaime-Paul Falcon and James Rambin There ain't much to do in Denton, Texas except party. We're talking about the quintessential college town, a place where the highest percentage of residents are between the ages of 20 and 29. A place where if you didn't end up there because o ... More >>
Punk venues are a little like snowflakes: Each one is different and they're all uniquely special. Well, okay, maybe that comparison will be lost in this part of the country, but the point remains the same. Which is to say, as far as music venues go punk venues are a special breed, meant more often t ... More >>
A new report published by ShaleTest, an independent environmental research agency in Denton, found levels of benzene in several Denton parks that exceed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's long-term exposure limitations. Benzene is a carcinogen found in cigarettes, gasoline and is a comm ... More >>
Oaktopia Festival With Neon Indian, Immortal Technique and more Denton Friday, September 19 and Saturday, September 20, 2014 For a line-up that didn't really move the needle much, Oaktopia sure as hell brought out the kids. Which is a fantastic thing if you were a venue who could charge people who ... More >>
Well, it's the weekend once again. We here at DC9 hope you powered through the week and that you're looking for some relief. We want you to go to some bars and have a few drinks. We want you to pregame beforehand. (That's just being fiscally responsible.) But most importantly, we want you to check o ... More >>
In the fall of 2011, I got a gig as an in-house scribe for 35 Denton. It wasn't paid, save for a complimentary wristband to the four-day festival (which is damn near a golden nugget for any young music fan). One of our tasks leading up to the festival's weekend in March was trodding around Denton an ... More >>
Living up to its name, Hypnotic Donuts seems to have cast a spell on the people of Denton. During my visit on Saturday -- four days after the Lakewood shop opened its newest location in Denton's town square -- a line stretched out the door. Parents, their gazes eerily transfixed on the soft glow e ... More >>
Oh, Free Week. It's officially September and school is back into full swing for UNT and TWC up in Denton. Fortunately, Rubber Gloves is doing its part to help ease the dread by hosting its annual Free Week festivities to promote local Texas music and make the kids forget about that whole "higher edu ... More >>
With around 2,000 students in the district's three campuses, Argyle ISD is a small, quiet district located smack dab in the middle of Denton and Fort Worth, off Interstate 35. And this school year, some teachers at Argyle ISD have a secret: Several of them have a guns hidden away on their bodies whi ... More >>
On a sweaty Sunday night in July, Fort Worth indie labels Dreamy Soundz and Lo-Life Recordings threw a party at the Where House. For Panther City music fans, the Where House is more or less the locus for boozy, large-scale, late-night DIY throwdowns. One of the two stages was set up outside in a spo ... More >>
Denton ISD's new grading policy rolls out today with the first day of school, to the delight of middle and high school students and the chagrin of their teachers. The district-wide policy veritably ensures that Denton students have to work harder to fail than to pass their classes. Their future coll ... More >>
Last year, first-time Denton festival Oaktopia delivered on content but not so much on attendance. As Aaron Ortega reported in November, the largest crowd was 200 or so, for the mighty Del the Funky Homosapien. You might suppose a festival that drew such a modest crowd last time would scale back a l ... More >>
Just a few weeks after Denton failed to pass a ban on fracking, the Texas Railroad Commission is proposing tighter regulation on oil and natural gas drilling in response to the north Texas earthquakes. At its monthly meeting yesterday, the commission accepted a new set of rule proposals regarding ... More >>
Tonight sees one of DFW's favorite bands, Spooky Folk, play a release show for their sophomore album Youth Is A Notion, a follow-up to their much-acclaimed self-titled album from 2010. With various band members residing in different parts of the country, it's become a rare treat to catch the band in ... More >>
The formula for the Denton music scene is no accident: cheap rent and plentiful venues make for a perfect melting pot for bands to pop up all over the place. Whether it's a house or dive bar show, there's somewhere for you to perform. If you either live in Denton or find yourself there, here are fou ... More >>
The initiative to ban fracking in Denton started out as many seemingly hopeless political campaigns often do, just a petition by angry homeowners fighting a well-funded industry that had already trampled the Denton City Council in court and follow-up negotiations. But now that little petition has ... More >>
No one actually hates Chambers. Their recent series of clever promotional videos may have depicted members of various notable local bands chastising their debut record, Inner Room, but they are essentially a beloved member of the landscape of Dallas-Fort Worth and Denton music. That won't necessaril ... More >>
The Mountain Goats With Loamlands Dan's Silverleaf, Denton Friday, June 20, 2014 By Jezy J. Gray I first saw the Mountain Goats in 2006 at The Opolis in Norman, Oklahoma. I was 19 and the band had just released their Get Lonely LP, songwriter John Darnielle's most polite and somber offering to dat ... More >>
To say the past year was an eventful one for Parquet Courts and frontman Andrew Savage would be a mammoth understatement. As NPR noted in this First Listen featuring Sunbathing Animal, Parquet Courts went from playing "humble Brooklyn warehouse spaces to Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in the span of 1 ... More >>
We have to hand it to Chambers: there is, indeed, more than one way to promote a record. If you're a major-label artist, that's a good chance that will mean over-the-top self-aggrandizement. But for the moody four-piece from Denton, they opted to take the opposite route: complete self-laceration. An ... More >>
After the Denton City Council had its butt handed to it in court by oil company EagleRidge last Fall, Denton civic leaders decided to pretty much stop fighting EagleRidge altogether and let it drill close to a few residential neighborhoods. Residents complained, but the city said it had no choice, b ... More >>
It might seem like an obvious point: no, you can't just start a massive industrial operation right next to a middle-class residential neighborhood. Most homeowners aren't cool with that. But Dallas-based EagleRidge Energy has boldly gone ahead and extracted oil on sites next to a few Denton resident ... More >>
Last fall, Eagleridge Energy won some permits to frack right next to a few Denton neighborhoods, despite a new city ordinance that was supposed to keep the company further away. The city said sorry, it was powerless to stop Eagleridge, because the company had found an extremely clever loophole. So n ... More >>
Perhaps it couldn't be helped. With somewhat spring-like weather in the Denton air on Thursday afternoon, it was hard to not have festival fever. In years past around this time, when 35 Denton would be taking place, you couldn't get past Dan's Silverleaf near Hickory Street before the festival fun w ... More >>
Editor: Lumberjack Fest is this weekend at Dan's Silverleaf. For the first time ever, the festivities will stretch over two nights -- you can find more information on Saturday's installment on one Facebook page and the details for Sunday on another. Steve Steward had a very serious conversation with ... More >>
Before 2014, the Thin Line Film Festival was Texas' only documentary film festival fest that prided itself on conceptually blurring the ever-thinning line between fact and fiction. But after six progressive years as the internationally known 10-day short film party, Thin Line will blur even more lin ... More >>
Maybe you've heard, Denton is pretty cool. And not just because of our close proximity to Canada. We're so cool, in fact, that noted Dallas-y places like Rusty Taco and Hypnotic Donuts are starting to find their way north. Way north. Like, caught between the moon and Downtown Daaaaaallas. It's a lan ... More >>
Earlier this year, the city of Denton approved regulations that would supposedly stop gas companies from drilling new wells near homes. Yet recently, residents in the Vintage neighborhood began noticing some suspicious noises and vibrations. They were coming from an old gas well site nearby. Denton ... More >>
In many ways, Denton is DFW's little Austin, our small slice of "weird." Its inexpensive living costs and college town environment have made it something of a cultural hotbed, a landscape as readily filled with bohemians as fraternity herds. This unique melting pot of backgrounds and social interest ... More >>
Doughnut shops are one of the few establishments that can get away without actually having a proper name, either on their building or anywhere else. All they need is a sign, preferably one that lights up, that proclaims "DONUTS" to the world. Pawn shops may be one of the only other places that can g ... More >>
It's the 25th Anniversary of the DOMA. And while it's true that bands and venues come and go, many of the people behind them have been here all along. We asked a few of these long standing music veterans -- now behind the scenes at DOMA nominated venues The Kessler, The Foundry and Rubber Gloves Reh ... More >>
Since its gradual formation in 2011, Denton's Pageantry has perfected a heady sound, big and open and dreamlike. You can year on that on the Friends of the Year EP, released this summer. It's the band's debut, but people are taking notice. They just toured their way to Chicago, scored an opening g ... More >>
Dallas County recently discovered its sixth person to test positive for the West Nile virus this year, in a season that's seen one death. It's a much less troubling situation than last year, when there were 400 human infections and 20 deaths. The Dallas Morning News has an easy explanation for the ... More >>
Of all North Texas' music festivals, 35 Denton is unique. The magnitude alone is singular -- this year's installment featured several hundred bands. And when the festival's creative director (Kyle LaValley), talent buyer (Natalie Davila) and primary financial backer (Little Guys Movers) left their p ... More >>
Raw and Underground event organizer AV The Great isn't the least bit shy about proclaiming his freestyle battle and beat competition being the "best representation of the Dallas hip-hop scene." In fact, in the spirit of rap battles and DJ swagger, he's not the least bit shy about anything. "This i ... More >>
Local bookers Spune have announced the Canned Festival for the first Saturday in October, an extension of their Untapped series of festivals. These festivals aim to combine high quality music and alcohol into one intoxicating day out. After the success of the Fort Worth event, there's also been a ... More >>
Just off one of the finest little town squares in North Texas, a recurring series of free gigs are starting to draw a real following. At 5:30 p.m. on every other Tuesday, an insanely early time for a gig in Denton, some unlikely heroes take to the stage in the form of a Herb Alpert and His Tijuana B ... More >>
In this week's Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area's most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Jennifer Seman was driving to class one day last summer. She stopped for coffee. She s ... More >>
If one of North Texas' biggest music festivals happens again, it will do so without its creative director, programming director and chief financial backer. 35 Denton started in Austin as a SXSW day party in 2005 and by 2013 featured in the vicinity of 200 acts from around the globe. Kyle LaValley, w ... More >>
In this week's Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area's most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Amanda Newton fidgets with her hands on the stage of Denton's Banter Bistro, trying to ... More >>