Hip To Be Square

» NYT: An Indie Scene That Comes With a Texas Twang in Denton (Lionel Beehner)

Midlake may be the current poster boys for Denton's indie music scene -- with gushy write-ups in Rolling Stone and cameos among its members for trendy causes like Al Gore's We Campaign -- but they are not the only ones vying for that title. The town's lo-fi sound, a mélange of Southern twang and experimental indie-rock that suggests Wilco and Radiohead, has garnered an eclectic following that stretches from alt-country die-hards and college radio listeners to MySpace fanatics and clubbers in Europe.

At last count, more than 100 bands were polishing their sound in the city's dive bars, rooftop spaces and fraternity basements. Even the local record store, a converted opera house called Recycled, has a section devoted to Denton bands. The bin dividers read like a Lollapalooza T-shirt: Lift to Experience, Centro-matic, Jetscreamer, Vortexas, Robert Gomez, Stanton Meadowdale, Mom, Mandarin, and Matthew and the Arrogant Sea, to name just a few.

Not bad for a college town of 110,000, prompting more than a few music industry insiders to call Denton the next Austin.

Trust me, if you're reading about the Denton music scene in the New York Times and Guardian, it's not exactly a well-kept secret. Still, I think the charm that exists for the scene is a direct outgrowth of the town itself - well-populated by the geriatric set, but with a sizable college infusing it. That's not exactly the makings of the next glam rock scene, so it makes sense that you'd get the style you do out of Denton.

Whatever it leads to, I'm not so much worried about the commerciality of Denton music as I am the pretentiousness that seems to have existed in the Austin scene. If they avoid that, more power to 'em ... whatever they're playing. Oh, and I think it's natural to acknowledge Todd Snider as the prophet of telling us when a good thing has officially gone bad. Much in the way he did back in the 90s with this song: