Cory Graves
Record Hop Rises Again (Kinda), The Vliets Wake Up and The Prophet Bar Gets a Makeover.
Turns out, in the time when he hasn't been heading up organizational duties for events like next weekend's Rock Lottery in Denton, Denton guitarist Scott Porter has been forming a new band.
After a decade of reigning over Denton's hard rock scene with their unheralded brand of raw power, Porter's previous band, Record Hop, called it quits earlier this year. Over the weekend, however, Porter and fellow Record Hop alumni Tony Wann and Cory Ward debuted their newest outfit, called Strange Towers, at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios in Denton. Joining them in the band? Oh, just Undoing of David Wright mastermind Lars Larsen. Given his other role as the proprietor of LZX Industries — the force responsible for creating the video synthesizers that powered Neon Indian's live visuals — expect Larsen to include plenty of visual elements at future Strange Towers shows.
Unlike Record Hop, dormant Dallas psych-pop outfit The Vliets never actually broke up their band. In fact, the band quietly released a new EP back in September called God's Drug.
“We didn't split up,” project songwriter Ty Bohrnstedt says. “Daniel — the guy I write the songs with — moved to Chicago. [We're] still recording. We'll probably release another [EP] in the spring.”
An October 29 Facebook status update from drummer John Solis hints, however, that the band may be on the verge of performing live again soon, too. Wrote Solis: “The Vliets are back up and running. Had a decent rehearsal after several months of being away.”
It was also back in September that Dallas alt-rockers Somebody's Darling released their sophomore effort, Jank City Shakedown. Before that album's release show at Club Dada in early October, the band honed their chops on the road with a nearly month-long tour — during which the band had the opportunity to record a Daytrotter session. That session, which contains live-in-studio versions of Jank City cuts “Wedding Clothes,” “Cold Hands,” “Keep Shakin',” “The Middle,” and “Pretty Leaves,” was posted to the Daytrotter over the weekend. A subscription is required to hear the tracks, but, as always, the opportunity to see Amber Farris and the rest of the band's members in cartoon form remains free.
Speaking of free: Starting tomorrow, Ryan Thomas Becker will become Sundown at Granada's latest local artist with a weekly residency. Unlike the venue's other residencies, however, Becker's “And Friends”-style shows will feature a rotation of five of the projects he's currently associated with, starting with RTB2 tomorrow, Hares on the Mountain on the 14th, Last Joke and The Treelines both on the 21st and The Satans of Soft Rock on the 28th.
In a semi-related note, Sundown's big brother venue, the Granada Theater, is set to see more direct competition booking-wise in the near future. On Thursday, Deep Ellum venue The Prophet Bar unveiled some changes coming to their big room. The renovations find the room's bar, once positioned in the middle of the mid-sized room, moved to the far left portion of the room, right near the venue's kitchen.
The changes, which are very reminiscent of Dada's reconfiguration from a couple years back, open up the venue tremendously and boost the room's capacity to nearly 1,800 people. Venue manager Joel Fruth also promises that concert attendees can expect more upgrades to the room in the near future, including a leveling-off of the floor, for starters.
Cover image via Strange Towers' Facebook page. Got a tip for White Noise? Email us!
