May 31, 2013

Fox and the Bird: Tonight’s venue perfect fit for upcoming album’s narrative

Dallas band Fox and the Bird will debut songs from the band’s upcoming album, Darkest Hours in mere moments at St. David of Wales Episcopal Church in Denton, with Doug Burr and Glen Farris. Band member Dan Bowman talked about the show, the first single and the album. (Listen to the single, “Wreck of the Fallible,” here)

littledTX: Fox and the Bird bills itself as a folk choir. This makes me think two things: 1) vocals and lyrics are central to everythingthe band does and 2) gospel music. Are vocals and lyrics the formative part of the band’s music? And how does gospel music inform the band’s sound?

Dan Bowman: Lyrics are really import in the music we make, mostly because these songs are as much about storytelling as they are about the music. The album we’re releasing in October is a collection of songs with a common theme that tell a story about desolation, hope and the power of people that band together. The lyrics are the backbone of the musicand give it it’s power. Harmonies and group vocals just show that this is a collective story we can relate to as a group. We’ve all contributed to the songwriting and composing the music so group vocal delivery is an easy way to show that. The choir reference doesn’t actually refer to gospel music, but more to the vocal arrangements. Some of us have an affinity for old gospel songs. Really it’s just that the harmonies are layered and delivered like something you’d expect from a more traditional choir.

St. David of Wales is a small, pretty church in Denton. It’s almost an anachronism, with its brick, bells and stained glass standing quietly near the boundary of a neighborhood full of fixed gear bikes and hybrid cars. Any special reason FATB wanted to perform “Wreck of the Fallible” and other tunes in this church?

Wreck of the Fallible is a song about the downtrodden and rejected on our society. The homeless. The beggars. The drug addicts. The prostitutes. And the feel of a church chapel with its stained glass and live acoustics fits the theme of the song (and the other songs that will be on the album). The space in the chapel is completely open. We can perform the songs without much (if any) amplification so they can be heard just as they are. No added effects. It fits the theme – the rejected of society have no choice but to appear just as they really are, without alteration… so that’s how we want our music to be delivered for this release show.

Where are you guys in the process of releasing the upcoming album?

We’ve recorded nine out of the 12-13 tracks that will be on the album. Our final recording session is down at Ramble Creek Studios in Austin on June 14-16. Britton Beisenherz at Ramble Creek is recording and producing our album and he has a knack for capturing the raw sound of folk artists like Fox and the Bird. Doug Burr, Seryn, Telegraph Canyon and other local acts have recorded at Ramble Creek. We plan to have the album finished by the end of June and it will then take several months to create the vinyl. We expect to release the full album the first week in October. On a side note, we’re filming a music video for ‘Wreck of the Fallible’ that we will release in June.

For each song we recorded in the studio, we tracked as many of the instruments and the lead vocal simultaneously. Many bands track songs one instrument at at time, but we had to get everything right in just one take. It was crazy because you’d have one take where the vocal delivery was perfect but the drums and guitar were out of sync here and there. Or another take where the vocal performance could have been better, but the instrumentation was perfect. For some songs it was hard to get that one perfect take, but for others it came naturally. Even though it made for some challenging recording sessions, we wound up with a set of songs that sound authentically like us. Our live performance sound comes through in this album.

Do you think FATB took some risks while writing and working on this upcoming album?

What do you think the band has gotten really good at this far? What do you feel like the musicians have discovered about making art through the work they’ve done in this band?

Fox and the Bird has seen members come and go as the musical collective changed over the years. I am the only original founding member of the band but most of the current members have been playing together for years. The current lineup of musicians is a great fit. We push each other creatively and it shows on the new album, especially when it comes to innovation with the drum and vocal arrangements. As a collective of musicians that each write and contribute their own musical parts (and songs), we’ve had to figure out how to deal with each other as musicians.

We want a collective sound. We want the songs to be collaborations. But I don’t write the same way Jacob Metcalf does, and he thinks about music differently than our drummer does. So it’s learning when to back off and let people explore new compositions, and when you should jump in and provide critique… learning how to work with each other to make the music better while still allowing everyone to contribute what they think is the best thing for the song. And that means dealing with differences in opinions and dealing with amazing musicians that just take different approaches to songwriting.

But when we have the patience to deal with the process and the humility to accept our differences, we create songs that are better than anything we’d have written as individuals. And that’s what happened on this album.

May 23, 2013

For Pageantry, less is more when songwriting is on the line

PAGEANTRY

When: doors open 9 p.m. on Friday, May 24, 2013

Where: Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, 411 E. Sycamore St.

With: The Angelus & Lord Buffalo

Cover: $5, $7 for ages 18 to 20

On the web: Pageantry on Facebook, Pageantry on Soundcloud

Denton’s Pageantry, a local trio of established musicians, caught our ear after band member Pablo Burrell mentioned the new band while waiting for drinks at Banter Bistro. We found the Facebok page and checked out the too-few music files available. What we heard was enough to convince us that Pageantry was one of the top Denton bands appearing at 35 Denton last March.

With an EP release on the horizon, and a show on Friday at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, we picked the musician’s brains about what make the band tick, music-wise.

Meet Denton’s Pageantry. From left: Bassist Pablo Burrell, guitarist and singer Roy Robertson and drummer Ramon Muzquiz. Photo courtesy of the band.

littledTX: Can you tell me who plays what in the band?

Roy (Robertson): I sing and play guitar. Ramon (Muzquiz) plays drums and Pablo’s (Burrell) on bass, they both sing back up vocals, too.

What made this group of musicians decide to form a band and make music together?

Ramon: I think admiration for each other more than anything. We all were playing in different projects and our paths crossed at a lot of local shows. Eventually Roy asked me to play on some of his material, and we didn’t click at first. Roughly a year later, we got together again and recorded an EP that, for various reasons, was shelved. Some of those songs actually made up the first Pageantry material. I had been playing in another band with Pablo. Roy had wanted to play with him after seeing him play with yet another band. It was an easy fit due to mine and Pablo’s experience together already.

For such a recently-formed band, Pageantry has a mature, measured and fully-formed sound. To what do you guys credit that?

Ramon: Practice and musicality. We trust ourselves and each other but we are more than willing to try five different things before we decide something is done. We try to practice a couple times a week and our rehearsals are usually pretty rigorous. The longer we play something the more it takes shape and can breathe. In retrospect, the songs on the EP (Friends of the Year) were written in a much shorter time than the new material we are working on, but we also did a lot of self-editing on the final recorded versions of them. We are very proud of how it turned out, though we wish we could have released it sooner. Hopefully, the next album will be more of a happy medium between self-critiquing and trusting our guts. We also are finding our footing as a band more and more as we write. Songs from the EP were presented to us as a whole. New material is coming in parts and we are shaping more of it together. The new songs are different but we are looking ahead to the future and not willing to compromise on what we enjoy playing just to appease older material. That being said, there are elements of the old in the new. It’s hard to explain without sharing the songs but hopefully that will come soon enough.

What is the band working on right now?

Roy: We have our first EP coming out June 11th, with an EP release show at Dan’s Silverleaf on Friday, June 14th with Chambers, Good Field and Senor Fin (go here to get details). We’re also playing a bunch in Austin this summer, working on touring outside of Texas more and hopefully start recording a new album soon.

What needs to happen for the musicians to feel that Pageantry is making good music?

Roy: It’s pretty intuitive.

Ramon: Definitely intuition. We rely a lot (live) on seeing each other and it’s no different in rehearsals. If I look up and see that Pablo is focusing really hard and Roy is smiling really big, then we are on the right track. Also, confusion. I like to think we confuse ourselves into a hole that we then attempt to dig ourselves out of. Sometimes though, it’s like we have to dig to the other side to get back to the surface.

How do songwriting duties break down for the band? Is there a melody maker and lyricist, or does everyone contribute sounds and words?

Ramon: Roy is the main songwriter. He writes melodies and lyrics. Pablo and I contribute more in terms of arrangements and grooves although sometimes this is at the direction of Roy or each other.

Often a song takes shape when the groove is established. At that point it can take the weight off of the chords or guitar parts to function as the lead. It’s something we are striving to get better at, because it is easy to overcrowd a song even with three people. It’s also different in terms of our live show and our recordings. We have a lot more breathing room on a recording where we can layer instruments and build more of an atmosphere.

In terms of sounds, that’s a number of sources. We all have a pretty good handle on what sounds good and we record a lot of ourselves in rehearsals in order to see if those sounds are meshing. Roy has a great ear for recording and we are lucky to have that in the band. Pablo has a great ear for melodious bass lines. I try to incorporate some electronic elements via a drum triggering pad that we’ve had varying degrees of success with. Overall, we are very open to each other’s criticisms. Rehearsals are an open forum and we rarely butt heads.

EP RELEASE

What: Friends of the Year

When: doors open at 8 p.m., show starts at 9 p.m. on June 14, 2013

Where: Dan’s Silverleaf, 103 Industrial

With: Chambers, Goodfield & Senor Fin

Cover: $5. No smoking.

May 22, 2013

West coast by North Texas: Qm connects with Denton in Rec League

San Francisco emcee Qm, a frequent contributor to Denton’s underground hip-hop scene (by way of Rec League, a mash-up of Cali and Denton rappers) just dropped a video (NSFW) for the track “Juice” with his comrade Maclane. Nothing fussy or deep, just your average San Francisco street party. Qm doesn’t confine his partying to the West Coast. In fact, he tipped back a few in Denton in March. The artist answered some questions about his Denton connections, but didn’t get too serious.

Qm drops "juice," a party track from 'Take Me to Your Liter."

Qm drops “juice” with rapper Maclane. “Juice” is a party track from the EP ‘Take Me to Your Liter.”

littledTX.com: How do you know Denton artist Pudge Brewer and the local Fab Deuce hip-hop crew?

Qm: Me, Pudge and Fab Deuce met in Venice beach in 1992. He was an established basketball player in the area and I was looking to hustle some new courts. I was dating Rosie Perez at the time and life was good…actually that’s the beginning of White Men Can’t Jump. Fab Deuce is actually my cousin.

Can you tell me how Rec League came together, and who all is part of Rec League now?

Rec League was formed together on MTVs reality show Making The Band. Diddy saw our talent early on. There’s prolly 50 members of Rec League.

You live way out in San Francisco, right?

Yeah, been living in San Francisco for 5 years now, but I’ve lived in Northern California my whole life.

Given that there’s some serious flyover mileage between you and Denton Rec Leaguers, why bother working together – what makes the creative relationship worth the travel time & effort when RL decides to travel & gig?

It’s worth it because we always have a kick ass time in Denton. We gets lurked.

Is “Juice” a new single or is it from an album, EP, mixtape or what?

“Juice” is off the Take Me To Your Liter EP I did with Maclane. Grab it for free qmmusic.bandcamp.com or tweet me @qmrecleague and I’ll send it to you. Aren’t I a swell guy?

What are you working on right now?

Right now, we are finishing up the remix album for Take Me To Your Liter. It’s got production by Grip Grand (Rec League), Llyght Stevens (Sacramento), TLit (Denton) and Maclane (Rec League). Proe (Rec League) and Llyght Stevens also have guest verses on the remix album. I’m also working on a new solo project for later this year. Email qm@routinefly.Com for features and booking.

What distinguishes San Francisco underground hip-hop and Denton underground hip-hop?

The Bay Area and Texas have always been down to do music independently, so it’s only natural that we work together to forward our careers. Also, Both San Francisco and Denton like to drink enough booze to kill a small village…so we got that going for us.

Are you a DJ as well as an MC? What crews are you working with these days?

I do not DJ. I’m working with Fab Deuce, Gurp City, and of course Rec League. Stop by qmmusic.bandcamp.com, facebook.com/QM, facebook.com/recleague, routinefly.com, or YouTube QM Rec League for my videos. shouts to LittleDTX for the interview and remember to “Rec Your Life.”

You heard it here, kids. Rec your life, and maybe appoint a designated driver?

– Lucinda Breeding.

May 19, 2013

Taco Fest 2k13: Sunday’s events

TACO FEST 2K13

What: Total Twit production collective conclude’s its two-day music festival today with bands on two stages.

When: 3 p.m. until close today.

Where: Taqueria El Picante, 1305 Knight St., facing the I-35E frontage road

Details: Admission costs $5, further donations will benefit future remodeling project at the venue and the future purchase of a community PA sound system. Lineup is subject to changes and additions.

On the Web: http://on.fb.me/16hVItu

SUNDAY’S LINEUP: Track Meet, Brain Gang Blue, the Distressers, SeaLion, New Science Projects, the Atomic Tanlines, FOGG, Bukkake Moms, the Half Truths, Special Guest, Varsity Cheerleader and more.

May 19, 2013

Taco Fest shows bump in local creative businesses

Sven Wilde, the representative for Taqueria El Picante in Denton, said he wanted to help out some of his peers during Taco Fest 2k13.

So he invited them to be vendors at the two-day punk and hardcore music festival.

Texas Woman’s University student Billie Buck brought Lunar Imports Emporium, a project she shares with Thomas Cromwell, a University of North Texas student who is studying fashion merchandising. Lunar Imports is a creative re-use business that sells handmade clothing and recycled goods.

Buck said she uses existing clothes, and either alters or embellishes them. A regular T-shirt might become a one-shoulder top, and a pair of jeans might become a pair of shorts with some added designs.

“I learned that in middle school: make your clothes fit you. Still do it today,” Buck said. “We take found clothing, bleach the shit out of it, change it up and recycle it.”

Buck, who is Wilde’s roommate, also painted the murals inside Taqueria El Picante. The small taqueria is dressed up in bright colors — one wall resembling a starry sky, and the opposite bearing a purple cat drifting in the sky between a cactus and a painting of the virgin de guadelupe. There’s a message, too: “Taco cat will set you free.”

Cromwell said Lunar Imports is a pop-up shop that sets up at events and shows that attract customers who have no qualms with buying clothes that came off a rack as mall-ready fashion, but have been reinvented with scissors, thread, lace, appliques and whatever whims might come to the designers.

“What really has impressed me here today is really all of it,” Cromwell said. “This isn’t a typical punk hangout. It’s all of these subgroups. Seeing people create this strange imagination of aesthetics is really cool.”

Cromwell said Lunar Imports wants to dress every type of patron who attended the fest.

“We’re not just about doing small sizes,” he said. “We want to make clothes for all kinds of bodies, because all bodies are beautiful.”

The idea of all-bodies-welcome was a theme on Saturday for vendors and patrons. Total Twit, a Denton production company founded by Alli Play-Nice, is intent on booking punk and harcore bands that include women, people of color and queer artists. Total Twit booked the bands for Taco Fest. The taqueria has become something of a default venue for the production and booking company, and Alli has been up front about Total Twit shows being a place where no racism, sexism, homophobia or ableism is tolerated.

Liz Hernandez, also a friend of Alli and Wilde, debuted her tamalera, Masa de la Raza, at Taco Fest. The booth served three varieties all-organic, vegan tamales. Masa de la Raza will begin serving tamales at the Denton Community Market on May 25. Hernandez also brought her pop-up zine library, Puro Pinche, to the festival.

“The idea behind the tamalera is to serve food made in the mesoamerican tradition,” Hernandez said. “And it’s also to educate people about the Chicana and Latina struggle in everyday life.”

How does a vegan tamale educate foodies about the cultural importance of Latinas, as well as their struggles?

“I think food is inherently an exchange of identity,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said she grew up eating and making foods in mesoamerican tradition, which to her has to do with organic foods cooked and assembled simply — with corn as a staple. The vegan part of the equation has a political dimension to it. Call it protest through flavor and deliberate avoidance of animal products.

“By choosing veganism and not using meat or animal products, we are not supporting an imperialist industry that has exploited the Latin American population since it’s robbed us of our land,” Hernandez said.

Mesoamerican history treats corn with some reverence. Hernandez said historical mesoamericans studied their staple crop, looking for ways to make it as vital as possible, preserving proteins for warrior and clan alike. Community market and festival patrons might not be looking for a historical and cultural anecdote with a tamale, but conversations often get rolling when food gets handed across a booth.

Buck said Taco Fest was a good spot to sell her goods, while Hernandez said it was a chance to road-test her savory tamales (She’ll likely introduce her sweet and breakfast tamales at the Denton Community Market, which is 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday through November in Denton Historical Park, at 317 W. Mulberry St.

“I absolutely love finding the right piece for the right person,” Buck said. “When someone tries something on and they see it looks perfect on them, they light up. I love that.”

May 19, 2013

Jaffe announces festival performance

Kirtland Records reports:

“Sarah Jaffe announced that she will be joining her Spring tourmates Why? for this year’s Northside Festival in Brooklyn, New York. Jaffe (who honed her considerable skills in Denton before re-locating to Dallas) and Why? will be joining an already impressive list of artists confirmed for the fifth year of this growing DIY festival including Iceage, The Men, Swans, The Walkmen, and Twin Sister. Jaffe and Why? are scheduled to perform on June 16th and the festival is from the 13th through the 20th. Please visit www.northsidefestival.com for the most up-to-date information on the schedule, venues and artists confirmed to play.”

And remember, guys, June marks the release of Disney/Pixar’s release, The Blue Umbrella, a short film that feature’s Jaffe’s voice. The short film will screen before the animated feature Monsters University, the sequel to Monsters, Inc.

May 19, 2013

Taco Fest 2k13: Sights & Sounds from day 1

Before the fall. A skater launches himself into the air — and then loses his board — on the giant half-pipe at Taco Fest 2k13 on May 18, 2013. Photo by Lucinda Breeding.

No Outlet performs inside Taqueria El Picante at Taco Fest 2k13. The two-day fest — which continues today — is a punk and harcore music bash featuring mostly Denton, and Dallas-Fort Worth bands. Photo by Lucinda Breeding.

An old mattress with a brief suggestion spray painted on it rests against a wall in between sets at Taco Fest 2K13 at Taqueria El Picante, Saturday, May 18, 2013, in Denton, TX. Photo by David Minton.

A skater who calls himself Domino checks out the crowd at Taco Fest 2K13 at Taqueria El Picante, Saturday, May 18, 2013, in Denton, TX. Photo by David Minton.

No Outlet grinds through their set at Taco Fest 2K13 at Taqueria El Picante, Saturday, May 18, 2013, in Denton, TX. Photo by David Minton.

Taco Fest 2k13 kept the punk and hardcore music going with a stage inside Taqueria El Picante and another in the taqueria garage, which doubled as an outdoor stage. Photo by Lucinda Breeding.

May 19, 2013

Taco Fest 2k13: The Commonwealth of American Natives earn love from Denton punks

The Nashville three-piece with a long name and infectious hooks got the garage at Taqueria El Picante churning on Saturday night during the noisy, sweltering Taco Fest 2k13.

Bassist Alex Rowe traded vocals with guitarist Edwin Coombs while Ross Winchel pummeled the drums during a set that was all too short.

Between Rowe’s fierce, raspy vocals and Coombs confident shredding, Commonwealth made straight-up punk rock that was poppy-enough to lure in the day’s biggest crowd before sundown, and punk enough to set off a wild mosh pit that bloodied at least one forehead and spilled horchata and beer.

The Commonwealth of American Natives, a Nashville punk three-piece, made room for a serious mosher during the band’s set at Taco Fest 2K13 on May 18, 2013. Photo by Lucinda Breeding.

The kids, as they say, seemed like they wouldn’t have it any other way. They lined up at the band’s merch table four deep, shoveling out cash and praise in equal measure.

“We played here last night,” Coombs said. “We were booked with a band we’re touring with, Infected, and it was a great show. We asked if there was a spot we could play today.”

The trio was pushing its latest and third release, a seven inch split with Random Conflict. The seven inch was released by Shit Starter Records.

“This record is really kind of us starting over with a new drummer (Winchel) and us starting over with a new writing direction,” Coombs said. “We really tried to integrate dual vocals. I sing and Alex sings. I write half the lyrics and she writes half. We take one idea and then we write about it.””very lyrically based,” which shows. The Commonwealth of American Natives performed the single day-time set in which vocals were discernible. (Taco Fest is a punk and hardcore bash, and most of the vocals amounted to a roar that sounded like a twentysomething man vomiting up something like “BRAAAAAAAAAAWWWHHH!”)

Rowe said the band is “very lyrically based.”

“I sing these lyrics like I sing songs by other bands, you know, when you sing just to get through the day. That’s how I sing these songs,” Rowe said.

Coombs said the two-track record is a punk rock treatment of daily life, and the struggles it can bring. “Do You Read Sutter Cane” is a tribute to the John Carpenter horror film In the Mouth of Madness (an insurance investigator questions his sanity as he watches the fans of a horror writer seem to lose touch with reality.

“You know how sometimes, you think about all the violence around you and all of the crazy stuff all around you and you start wondering ‘am I the only sane person left?’ That’s where that song came from,” Coombs said.

“Bird in a Cage” is a shout-out to the wage slaves clocking in so they might make music – or follow their true passion, whatever it might be.

The band is on a three week tour with Infected, and heads to Kansas City, Missouri, on Sunday. The band continues to Minneapolis, Minn. and, eventually, Chicago.

– Lucinda Breeding.

May 17, 2013

Tacos + punk + hardcore = a fest only Denton could dream up

TACO FEST 2K13

What: Total Twit production collective presents a two-day music festival with bands on two stages.

When: Starting 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Where: Taqueria El Picante, 1305 Knight St., facing the I-35E frontage road

Details: Admission costs $5 each day. Lineups are subject to changes and additions.

On the Web: http://on.fb.me/16hVItu

SATURDAY’S LINEUP: Negaduck, Primitive Orgasm, Sin Motivo, the Sentenced, Mean and Ugly, Chainchomp, Contusions, Estonia at the 1944 Olympics, No Outlet, Macaulay Culkin, Night Crimes and more.

“I never thought of the taqueria as a (DIY) spot,” said Sven Wilde, who morphed his business, Taqueria El Picante into a taqueria-punk venue in Denton. “People just seemed to want it.” The taquieria is the hotspot for this weekend’s Taco Fest 2k13, a two-day bash celebrating a growing punk & hardcore music scene. Photo by David Minton.

Tacos and punk rock go together like peanut butter and jelly, as far as Denton’s ~~Ally~~ Alli Play-Nice* and Sven Wilde are concerned.

And it makes sense. Tacos are simple and spicy affairs, messy food you eat with your hands and wash down with a cold drink. Punk is young, bare-knuckle conviction screamed into a microphone and caterwauled from a guitar.

Punk and tacos have no pretense, and neither do Alli and Wilde.

Alli, the front woman of the rising Denton punk band the Atomic Tanlines, met Wilde, local music fan and ~~owner~~ representative of Taqueria El Picante, at a bar.**

“We started dancing with each other,” Alli said. “We caught other’s gaze. He was dancing really silly and I started dancing right next to him.”

“It got some attention, if I remember right,” Wilde said.

“Oh, yeah. The dance floor cleared out around us because we were dancing crazy,” Alli said.

They got a drink afterward and a fast friendship was sealed. Saturday’s Taco Fest 2k13 grew out of an instant connection.

But first came the punk and hardcore shows Alli booked at the small taqueria (which Wilde calls Denton’s oldest taqueria).

“There needs to be more DIY places in Denton,” Alli said. “I just asked Sven if I could book a few shows at the taqueria and that was pretty much it.”

Wilde served up tacos for the first few shows, and eventually started making tamales for the young bands and fans who gathered to watch. The birth of Saturday’s Taco Fest 2k13 is a weekend celebration of this Denton concoction – tacos, cold drinks and punk music.

Taco Fest is the first big test of Total Twit, Alli’s fresh young production and booking group that aims to increase the profile of female, ethnic and queer artists in Denton, Dallas and Fort Worth.

“Sven and I are part of the local queer community, and we’re a couple of kids of color,” Alli said.

Another part of Total Twit’s mission is space.

“There aren’t a lot of DIY spaces for punk and hardcore music in Denton, which is a real shame because the punk and hardcore scene in Denton is exploding right now. The number of bands has tripled in the last year. And all the best punk bands in DFW have played the taqueria,” she said.

Ally Play-Nice, shown here growling into the mic at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, has started Total Twit, a booking and production company that specializes in getting more punk and hardcore music gigs fronted by women, people of color and queers.

Alli Play-Nice, shown here growling into the mic at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, has started Total Twit, a booking and production company that specializes in getting more punk and hardcore music gigs fronted by women, people of color and queers.

Total Twit is upfront about its show policy: no sexist, racist, homophobic or ableist attitudes or behaviors are acceptable.

“If your music is sexist, racist or any of that shit, sorry, you’re not playing the taqueria,” Alli said. “Sometimes people get upset with me for talking about it. They’re like ‘why do you even need to bring that stuff up?’ I bring it up because there aren’t many spaces in the music scene for women, people of color and queer people.”

Taco Fest is a fundraiser for the taqueria and a community PA system.

“My parents started the taqueria eight years ago, and I’d like to give it more of my own aesthetic,” Wilde said. “I’d like to stretch the kitchen. I’d like to have the seating area be just a seating area, with no refrigerator and no buffet table. We don’t have a buffet, but we have a buffet table. I’d just like to make some changes.”

Alli said that if there’s anything left over, she’d like to work on getting a sound system that Total Twit could rent out to bands.

“PA systems are expensive, and not really easy to move around, and I think it’d be cool to have a community PA we could rent out to other bands,” she said.

Taco Fest starts at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Taqueria El Picante, 1305 Knight St. The bands will play 20 minute sets on two stages — one inside the restaurant and the other in the garage.

Alli said all the bands are worth the $5 cover for both days. Some acts, though, she’s excited about.

“Negaduck is a band that was around two or three years ago, and they’re having a reunion. They’re just really rowdy hip-hop. They’ll fit in great.”

Alli also looks forward to seeing Brain Gang, a new band called Contusions, and Sin Motivo.

“Saturday is a Golden Triangle punk-hardcore show, and Sunday is our party-on day,” she said.

Wilde said the pair hopes to make Taco Fest a semi-annual bash.

“I think we should think about doing another Taco Fest after school starts,” he said.

– Lucinda Breeding

* Alli spelled her name during the interview, and we still managed to get it wrong.

** Wilde will inherit the taqueria from his mother, who owns the family business.

May 8, 2013

A show for the servants: Brave Combo leads benefit for West firefighters

BENEFIT FOR THE VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS OF WEST, TEXAS

Who: Brave Combo, Isaac Hoskins & the Charlie Shafter Band

When: 8:30 today

Where: Dan’s Silverleaf, 103 Industrial

How much: a suggested donation of $10, proceeds will benefit the fighfighters who served the town of West following a catastrophic explosion at a fertilizer pant on April 17.

SCHEDULE

8:30 p.m. – Brave Combo

9:30 p.m. – Isaac Hoskins

10:30 p.m. – The Charlie Shafter Band

Grammy Award-winning Denton group, Brave Combo brought their nuclear polka sound to the Dallas Museum of Art atrium during Late Nights at the DMA January 18, 2013. The event celebrated The Dallas Museum of Art’s 110th birthday.

Denton polka band Brave Combo appears tonight in a benefit concert for firefighters in West. The two-time Grammy-winning band has participated in West Fest since its inception, and founder and front man Carl Finch planned a fundraiser for the town’s public servants. Finch recently took time to field questions about Brave Combo’s long-running commitment to the Denton Arts & Jazz Combo. He also waxed humble about his accordion skills and gave “real” accordion player and Brave Combo member Ginny Mac some serious props. He also talked a little about the band’s late 2012 release, Sounds of the Hollow.

Littledtx.com: Have you ever felt like BC is an odd headliner for a festival associated so strongly with jazz and blues? Or do you consider BC the deeply “Denton” part of the Denton Arts & Jazz Fest?

Carl Finch: On one hand, I feel like we fit the theme of the festival pretty well, from a musical perspective. From a “Denton” perspective, I think we totally make sense. How does Denton define jazz, or music, for that matter? Yeah, we seem to be a good fit with the town. To be honest, I’ve always thought the word “jazz” in the name of the festival was a little misleading, though it’s certainly the cornerstone. But, obviously, Brave Combo is not the only band at the festival that isn’t traditional jazz. And, I say this every year, our set is the family reunion part of the weekend. We’re the comfort food. And we work really hard to do the best show we can. Lots of new songs this year mixed in with the standards. Lots of people on stage, too. (Mike Dillon and Joe Cripps chipped in on percussion and Finch’s good friend and NICE MUSICS partner, Danny Jerabek came from Wisconsin to play button box and trombone at the jazz fest.)

Jazz is a huge umbrella, and generally, I think of jazz as being about rhythm — syncopation — and improvisation. Brave Combo is very much distinguished by its approach to polka standards and BC songs in terms of rhythm. And every Brave Combo show I’ve ever been to seemed to have a very improvisational ingredient to it. Do you ever think of Brave Combo as borrowing from jazz – in idea or even in structure – in making music?

If one listens closely to what Brave Combo does, it’s easy to hear a lot of jazz influence, including improvisation, in the BC mix. We realized a long time ago, decades ago, actually, that making the band a novelty act would not work for long. So we followed our curiosity down as many musical paths as we could, looking for the essence of each and seeing how that fits in a band that’s more like a rock band. If a listener only wants to hear “The Chicken Dance” or “The Hokey Pokey” there’s not much we can do about that, but most people know that the crazy group dance things represent only about 1 % of what we actually do… The coolest thing about being in Brave Combo is experiencing all the situations where we’re invited to perform, whether it’s a little Polish club in New Jersey, The Getty Museum in Los Angeles or an alternative punk polka festival in Berlin.

Isaac Hoskins plays at 9:30 p.m. today during a benefit for West.

Here’s a question from the peanut gallery: Ginny Mac. Combo fans are nuts about her. I have always, ALWAYS seen you as the accordion player of Brave Combo. How did you recruit Ginny, and what special something do you think she brings to the group?

Concerning me being the accordionist for Brave Combo, I can do what I do pretty well. I know how to make the accordion loud enough to be heard with any band, but I have never been a real accordionist. I have filled the bill, sorta. Ginny is a real accordionist. We do a few songs where she and I both play accordions and I do get requests for some of my signature tunes, but she’s the real deal and in Brave Combo’s quest to “do it our way but also do it right” she’s a great addition. Makes perfect sense to me, anyway.

I have been wanting to talk to you about Sounds of the Hollow for eons. As an album, there is a sort of… how do I put this?… a hot intensity to the record. Can you recall what was happening that created an album that wasn’t the sort of signature “fun Brave Combo” recording that feels iconic to Denton Brave Combo fans?

Sounds From The Hollow needed to be made from a practical point of view because Ginny had joined the band. We were playing all these new songs with her and we didn’t have a CD to sell to fans at live shows. So we picked a bunch of the newest things, threw in some BC standards that I’ve always wanted to record and add a few left-field tracks.

Where does the album title come from?

The title comes from an idea I had that music comes from nothing and thqt you can, indeed, make music from nothing. Basically, it just is, like air.

There’s something very American about this record. The Spanish, the Czech, the doo-wop, the ‘Snowflake Reel’ – they all bring a feeling of American sprawl to them. Did Brave Combo set out to do that, or is it more the result of the band’s many trips to town festivals and cross-country drives?

As well, these modern times are redefining music and the role of music in society. But it’s like non-news. We should probably talk about this when we have more time, but that’s basically it.