- Doors at 8pm,
- $5 over 21, $10 under 21
- All Ages
Much like Iron & Wine or many similar indie outfits, Sea Wolf is the project name of a sole singer/songwriter who drafts in other musicians as the occasion warrants. That singer/songwriter is Alex Church, a California native who looks to local authors like John Steinbeck and Jack London (whose 1904 novel -The Sea Wolf provided the band name) for inspiration. Born in the small former gold rush town of Columbia and raised by a musically inclined, peripatetic mother (in his bio, Church claims to have spent a year living in a tent in the French countryside as a child), Church attended the prestigious NYU film school, then settled in Los Angeles and formed the indie rock band Irving in 1998. As one of three songwriters in Irving, Church soon found himself with a clutch of songs that didn't fit the band's dreamy '60s-inspired psych-pop sound. Church and various friends played a handful of Los Angeles gigs as Sea Wolf between 2003 and 2005, when Church made a batch of home recordings that he completed in Seattle with Irving's producer Phil Ek. Signing with the indie label Dangerbird Records, Sea Wolf released their debut EP, Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low, in the spring of 2007, with a full-length album following. To tour behind the record, Church assembled a stable lineup with himself on vocals and guitar, Aaron Robinson on guitar, Lisa Fendelander on keyboards, Theodore Liscinski on bass, Aniela Perry on cello and Byron Reynolds on drums. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
- Doors at 9pm,
- $10 over 21, $12 under 21
- All Ages
The progressive genius of Grupo Fantasma, now in the tenth year of its long and intriguing musical journey, comes to life on El Existential set for a May 11th, 2010 release on Nat Geo Music. Known as the funkiest, finest, and hardest working Latin orchestra to come out of the United States in the last decade, the band has garnered critical acclaim worldwide for their adventurous albums, prudent songwriting and unprecedented live shows. “Grupo Fantasma is as tight as one would expect from a band that routinely backs up Prince” exclaimed LA Weekly and the Washington Post affirmed that “the ten members represent a new generation of latin music.” Their last effort, the Grammy nominated Sonidos Gold (2008), further trademarked the ensemble’s innovative sound and scored a cover feature in Pollstar Magazine, radio spots on NPR’s “Day to Day” and PRI’s “The World”, top ten status for several months on the CMJ radio charts and extensive press coverage throughout North America and Europe.
- Doors at 9pm,
- $6 over 21, $8 under 21
- All Ages
Sarah Renfro, a Texan turned Brooklynite, uses lush harmony to create carefully crafted folk songs with lyrics that range from heartwrenching to hilarious. It’s all delivered with the most haunting and memorable melodies and a voice that “sounds like an angel dripping with sin.”
Renfro, multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter has been profiled in Quick Magazine, NBC DFW, TexasGigs.com, Pegasus News and MyDentonMusic.com and was recently featured on “The Jump”, a 30 minute program on Manhattan Neighborhood Network dedicated to highlight up and coming musical talent in NYC.
She has shared the stage and recorded with musicians such as Bernard Wright, Tony Scherr, Rob Jost, Ursa Minor, Robert DiPietro, Robert “Sput” Searight, Julie Bonk, Lynn Seaton, Stefan Karlsson, Dave Fiuczynski, Jovino Santos Neto, Paul Slavens, Pamela Rodriguez, and Snarky Puppy.
Sarah discovered a passion for music at a young age by playing piano and a variety of woodwinds. At the University of North Texas, she studied a wide range of vocal styles including jazz, classical, folk, rock, pop, Brazilian and Peruvian. Her artistic influences include Cat Power, Ani DiFranco, Amanda Palmer, Bob Dylan, E.E. Cummings and David Lynch.
She also garnered a following with Dallas jazz bands and her own project, 80 sheets. In both worlds, she became a familiar face on stage at Denton rock venues as well as the Dallas Museum of Art and many DFW jazz venues and festivals including the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, NL. Since moving to Brooklyn in 2006, her songwriting has matured and taken a more acoustic flavor. In that time she has played venues such as Caffé Vivaldi, Rockwood Music Hall, Banjo Jim’s, The Knitting Factory, The Delancey, Santos Party House, Southpaw and BAMcafé Live.
* stuff people say *
"Her show is not to be missed." - NBC D/FW
"Imagine a folky, more upbeat Cat Power, as comfortable with irony-tinged western waltzes as with the sincerest of ballads." - BAM café Live
"That's some music that people on a very high level will be impressed with." - Bernard Wright (Miles Davis, Marcus Miller)
"Sarah Renfro is a phenomenon in and of herself. The honesty and directness with which Sarah delivers melodies and lyrics cannot be overstated; she is music in its purest form. Sarah is, quite simply, one of the only people on earth that I would feel honored to play with every night for the rest of my life." - Michael League (Snarky Puppy)
"Sarah Renfro's voice sounds like an angel dripping with sin." - Gezellig in Dallas, TX.
"I was entranced by Sarah's near perfect voice and ability to span genres... sounded fantastic... vocals adding that next dimension." - Jay B. Stevens, Pegusus News
- Doors at 9pm,
- $6 over 21, $6 under 21
- All Ages
Live, the über-duo ... can channel the gale force of a Zeppelin, the angular angst of a Beefheart, and break it all down and reassemble at will.
--Steve Carter,
Modern Luxury
The Denton boys put on absolutely raucous live shows that simultaneously display their raw energy and instrumental dexterity--only to top it all off with vocals so soulfully sweet that they'll send chills down your spine.
--Cory Graves,
Dallas Observer
RTB2 have so much energy. Hailing from the northern Texas area they pack a mighty punch! Ryan Thomas Becker, the man on guitar and vocal duties, has some of the most chaotic guitar skills I've ever heard. It's funk and soul with a classic rock tinge to it and so much more. Their songs just kind of slam at you with so much force, especially with the help of drummer Grady Don Sandlin just blasting the beats from left and right. See for yourself.
--Philip Bennett,
Stop Sleeping, Yo
Check it: two spicy souls removed from the bodies of troubled rule-breakers emerge from their holding tanks, wracked with energy and curiously potent musical talent. They emit unadulterated blues in their raw, bouncing forms, with no human to hold them.
--Lyndsay Knecht Milne,
NBCDFW.com
I was immediately enthralled by their crunchy take on rock. They have the raw energy of De*dboy and The Elephantmen that will punch you in the gut and enough energy to give The Bl*ck Keys a run for their money, and they have the loud-quiet-loud thing down to where Fr*nk Black would put down his sandwich long enough to take notice.
--Lance Lester,
Bona Fide Darling
With its slamming, spare garage rock streaked with grime, fueled by the go-for-broke enthusiasm of Ryan Thomas Becker and Grady Don Sandlin, this North Texas duo is steeped in soul. Appropriately enough, the pair’s 2007 full-length debut, The Both of It, was laid down live in the studio — and local critics have been falling all over themselves with accolades.
--Preston Jones,
DFW.com
Behind Sandlin's Watts-like backbeat, Becker's angular guitar work is raw and throaty, rooted in blues and punk but with the slightly twisted sensibility of Captain Beefheart…
--Dave Sims,
Dallas Observer
Ryan Thomas Becker play(s) his guitar in ways reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes- absolute mischief and occasional mayhem in the form of rock music.
--Sarah Crisman,
MyDentonMusic.com
What a mighty, quirky noise comes from the Denton duo of Ryan Thomas Becker and Grady Don Sandlin! They run the gamut musically from rock to blues to twangy almost-country to odd pop and beyond...
--Colleen Morgan,
Metro ANE Magazine
If you haven't heard the oddly soulful RTB2, shame on you... Denton's Ryan Thomas Becker and Grady Sandlin can do more with a guitar and a drum than a lot of bands can do with four or five pieces... the duo somehow achieves a full-band sound, thanks to Grady Sandlin's slow, deliberate drumming and guitarist/frontman Ryan Thomas Becker's marriage of classic rock and soul. I don't think I've heard a more affecting vocal performance... whew. I need a cigarette...
--Hunter Hauk,
Quick DFW
The loudest duo in North Texas... RTB2 is clearly the one to watch here; if you haven't seen this duo's bl*es-r*ck live show yet, you really should...
--Pete Freedman,
Dallas Observer
...a forward-thinking duo taking some very old ideas and accelerating them into slightly strange but absolutely compelling directions.
--Andrew Reilly,
MadeLoud.com
RTB2 will build a song, destroy the whole thing, and rebuild it as you watch in some renewed phoenician form. He plays his guitar like it's made of water and sings like a stone skipping on a tumbling river. Get up in it!
--Freddie Schulze,
The Heartstring Stranglers
Their music is feverishly addicting, with Becker's outstanding guitar playing ability as the driving force behind the madness. Like a fine wine, the genius of Becker's guitar playing exists in the subtleties. It is dirty, and powerful, and also like a fine wine, will fuck you up bad! Your jaw will drop while watching this artist at work, stampeding across stage and creating the raunchy yet beautiful sound that has become this bands signature. Sandlin, on the drums, holds the act together, but just barely. At times, while taking cues from one another on stage, this duo will play itself to near oblivion, taking the meter way into the red before bringing it back down again with some soothing and soulful blues licks, or perhaps even a sharp bookend note that simply brings the turmoil to a screeching halt... they are explosive, they are soulful, they are incredibly talented, and most importantly they are passionate about their trade... evolution on the go...
--Josh Hogan,
MyDentonMusic.com
Ryan Thomas Becker drives this duo with slashing, blues-inflected, post-punk guitar work, propelled by Grady Don Sandlin’s MG’s-redolent backbeat.
--Dave Sims,
Paste Magazine
...a word as ample as "demonstrative" fails to encompass Becker's presence. His gesticulating, the frightening ease with which he plays, both wreckless and precise, his Screamin' Jay Hawkins-cum-verbose librarian. No one term can encompass all that. Becker's indefinable oeuvre rests solidly on Grady Sandlin's unflagging backbeat. Being in a living room with RTB2 is like being in a living room with a cyclone.
--Richard Sullivan,
Deep Ellum Sullie
Its like, he's sticking his indie stick into a bucket of art, and then painting a small dog and sending him on his way.
--danny GARCIA,
Oso Closo
Ya'll are like jalapeno jelly.
--Rahul Basu,
Kunsthaus
Apparitions, the first full length album by Chicago’s Light Pollution has blown the roof off the building. This moody masterpiece of a record combines catchy melodic flights with an edgy sensibility that manifests itself in the subtle flourishes of pop-psychedelia, sophisticated harmonies and the evocative lyrics of front man Jim Cicero. The band’s dazzlingly inventive soundscapes and choral arrangements push the current boundaries of pop music far beyond the breaking point to create a perfect hybrid of moody indie pop and psychedelia. Apparitions is incredibly formed and informed for a debut full length
Like many bands before them, School of Seven Bells were born as the result of a late-night revelation. Benjamin Curtis connected with sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza in 2004 while their bands—Secret Machines and On-Air Library!, respectively—were on tour. While watching PBS at 3am, Alejandra caught a show about the School of Seven Bells: a mythical South American pickpocket academy that may or may not have existed in the ‘80s. The idea of seven minds working as one appealed to her, as did the phrase’s cryptic musicality, and a creative spark ignited.
By the end of 2006, Curtis and the Deheza sisters had completely disappeared into School of Seven Bells. From the outset, it was clear that the trio’s music transcended the usual genre restrictions. Early recordings popped up on Sonic Cathedral, Table of Elements, and Suicide Squeeze, then Blonde
Redhead tapped School of Seven Bells for a tour. Remixes came from Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie and Prefuse 73, whose “Class of 73 Bells,” a re-imagining of SVIIB’s “Iamundernodisguise,” ended up on his 2007 album Preparations (Warp).
School of Seven Bells’ music is full of tensions—Curtis’ gentle guitars wrap around jagged beats; silky vocals hide behind grumpy, alien synthesizers—but the resulting songs are effortlessly cohesive, and insidiously catchy. Elements of dream-pop, Afrobeat, IDM, and 4AD’s gauzier moments provide a constantly shifting frame for the Dehezas’ lyrics, which they write as mysterious missives between the School’s imaginary seven members. On their Ghostly debut, Alpinisms, we get the impression that the three seasoned musicians have taken up full-time residence in a dizzying fantasy world; they move freely within the realm of pickpockets and dreamers, composing a soundtrack according to their own odd, beautiful logic.
- Doors at 9pm,
- $10 over 21, $12 under 21
- All Ages
Doug Burr
A singer and songwriter of uncommon resonance, Doug Burr was born in 1972 in Dallas, TX, growing up in a Southern Baptist family, the spiritual residue of which has been a lifelong influence on his musical endeavors. Burr took up the guitar at age 16, and by 18 he was writing songs. After a dozen or so years of home recording, open mikes, church performances, and coffeehouse gigs in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, he began fronting the roots rock band the Lonelies. In 2003 he independently released The Sickle & the Sheaves, an ambitious and atmospheric gospel concept album produced by Deadman's Steven Collins that worked around the themes of birth, death, and renewal and brought him a good deal of critical attention. The equally impressive On Promenade appeared in 2007 from Spune/Velvet Blue Music. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
Corey Chisel
Like many artists before him, Cory Chisel first connected with the power of song – and the spellbinding possibilities of live performance – through the music he heard in church. The gospel’s rich vernacular of loss and redemption also informed his innate poetic sense and lyrical range. “For most of my life,” he says, “my dad was a Baptist minister, so I learned a lot about being a showman, and I learned a lot about music. Many of the hymns from church still are the most beautiful songs I know. I'm thankful for growing up where stories and the pursuit of happiness were on everybody's mind. I think I’m still trying to achieve the same euphoria I felt at a very young age, when I would be completely taken over by these rhythms and these sounds and these stories.”
Monahans
Austin-based band Monahans (not "The Monahans"), named for a region of desolate West Texas sand hills, balances thundering rhythms and atmospheric "landscape rock" with urgent pop anthems and spiritual campfire balladry (Explosions In the Sky + R.E.M + Neil Young). Since their 2006 inception, Monahans have toured in support of Centro-matic and Cowboy Junkies, and played alongside the likes of J. Tillman & Magnolia Electric Co. Albums to date include Low Pining (2007, Undertow) and the 2009 Misra debut Dim The Aurora.
The current lineup includes Ramble Creek studio engineer/producer Britton Beisenherz, Roberto Sanchez and Greg Vanderpool (both former Milton Mapes members), and longtime Spoon bassist Joshua Zarbo.
Toronto's Born Ruffians features Luke LaLonde (vocals/guitar), Mitch DeRosier (bass/vocals), and Steve Hamelin (drums). Formed in 2002, the indie rock trio creates a jaunty mix of shifty guitar riffs and hyper-chic vocals for a Pixies-esque shredded kind of sweetness. An appearance at the annual Pop Montreal festival and U.S. tour dates with Hot Chip and Shy Child coincided the release of Born Ruffians' self-titled debut EP for Warp Records in October 2006. The band's first full-length, Red, Yellow & Blue, arrived in spring 2008. MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
- Doors at 9pm,
- $6 over 21, $8 under 21
- All Ages
"These United States’ intoxicating third album brilliantly captures the overwhelming jolt of simply being alive ... swings between a sleazy leer and a dreamy purr ... deftly blurring the line between carnal and cosmic. [8 of 10 stars]"
-- SPIN --
"Superb ... equally at home with quiet, morose tales and galloping punky-tonk adventures ... a rambunctious alt-country band with story-songs that are both tangled and aphoristic."
-- New York Times --
"One of indie-rock's - no, make that American rock's - best kept secrets."
-- WXPN --
Along the white sands of Barcelona, a community of music makers have been combining the delirious house sounds of the sundazed club scene with the irresistible melodies of contemporary pop. At the forefront of this scene is Delorean, a Barcelona-via-Zarautz quartet whose uniquely Mediterranean sound has made them one of Spain’s most popular independent bands. Taking cues from Spain’s native Balearic beat, Madchester house, techno, R&B and indie rock, Delorean carves out a sunny sweet spot between the stage and the dance floor.
Delorean formed in 2000, in the Basque coastal town of Zarautz, as the outlet for a group of teenagers wrapped up in their local punk scene. Eventually, though, bassist/singer Ekhi Lopetegi, drummer Igor Escudeo, keyboardist Unai Lazcano, and guitarist Guillermo Astrain began exploring their mutual interest in electronic music. After moving to Barcelona in 2007, they focused on computer-based writing and production, and started their own eclectic club night, Desperrame, as an antidote to the relative darkness of the techno scene. Like-minded clubgoers expanded Delorean’s rich palette of influences, and their remixes for bands like the XX, Cold Cave, Franz Ferdinand, Lemonade, El Guincho, and Glasser provided the band with playgrounds for digital experimentation to hone their own sound. Last year’s lauded Ayrton Senna EP took them further away from their rock influences and toward the euphoric club-inspired sound that feels like their destiny all along.
- Doors at 9pm,
- $6 over 21, $8 under 21
- All Ages
Jesse Beaman was born on July 15, 1987 in Miami, Florida. A year after he was born his family moved to New York City for ten years where he was raised observing lots of art, music and culture at a young age. After years in New York his family moved to the big state of Texas where he began to self teach himself instruments like Drums and Piano. Beaman now resides in the live music capitol of Austin, Texas performing under the name My Empty Phantom on tours and at local shows. He is known for his unique style of looping instruments like Piano, Guitar, Samples and Drums to fill a room of melodies and thought provoking sounds, crossing into genre's of Instrumental, Indie, Classical, Ambient, Minimalist, and Visual Rock. My Empty Phantom has been on three North American Tours playing shows in cities like New York City, Brooklyn, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Portland, Salt Lake City, Dallas, San Antonio, Seattle, Philadelphia, Austin, Nashville and many more.
Read more: http://www.myspace.com/emptyphantommusic#ixzz0wyq28ulI
Doomtree
The Doomtree hip hop collective based in minneapolis, minnesota. Members of Doomtree bring various bases of knowledge and musical backgrounds together to create honest and original music. Their main influence is punk and their lyrics are frequently introspective and self-degrading. They often do shows with fellow Minnesota hip-hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment. Emcees perform solo or with one another, each contributing a different approach to their music.
- Doors at 9pm,
- $10 over 21, $12 under 21
- All Ages
Spune Presents
Pomegranates hail from Cincinnati, OH, where drummer Jacob Merritt, guitarist Isaac Karns, and vocalist/guitarist Joey Cook launched the pop-based indie rock band in 2006. Taking influence from early Modest Mouse and Wolf Parade, the musicians honed their craft and issued the Two Eyes EP in June 2007. Bassist Josh Kufeldt joined the following year, and Pomegranates released their full-length debut, Everything Is Alive, that May. After sharing stages with the likes of Javelins, Islands, and Headlights, the band decamped to northern Kentucky to record their sophomore album, which was subsequently mixed and mastered by Aloha's TJ Lipple in Arlington, VA. The resulting Everybody, Come Outside!, a conceptual record whose sound paid homage to both Talking Heads and French Kicks, was released in April 2009 by Lujo Records. ~ Andrew Leahey, Rovi
