Denton: The New Austin?

[island eagle]

Today's New York Times (which can be accessed on line if you sign up) has a big article on Denton. Of interest to Mean Green fans are such quotes as: "And whenever the local college football team plays at Fouts Field, the entire town seems to put on Mean Green T-shirts." and "Not bad for a college town of 110,000, prompting more than a few music industry insiders to call Denton the next Austin."

[Green Gas]

Today's New York Times (which can be accessed on line if you sign up) has a big article on Denton. Of interest to Mean Green fans are such quotes as: "And whenever the local college football team plays at Fouts Field, the entire town seems to put on Mean Green T-shirts." and "Not bad for a college town of 110,000, prompting more than a few music industry insiders to call Denton the next Austin."

Are they talking about our Denton?

I must have had my eyes closed on game days or I am selectively color blind, because I have yet to see the town as whole break out to support UNT.

[hickoryhouse]

Maybe not, but if that is a perception that others want to propogate I am more than willing to turn a blind eye and not say anything. National perception always seemed to filter down into UNT's student body and because nationwide no one knew or cared, it tended to feel the same way with the students.

I will take positive pub anyday, even if I don't believe it.

Edited May 10, 2008 by hickoryhouse

[meangreendork]

Yes, I like this concept. Please, push it more so this whole area can improve.

[Green Gas]

Maybe not, but if that is a perception that others want to propogate I am more than willing to turn a blind eye and not say anything. National perception always seemed to filter down into UNT's student body and because nationwide no one knew or cared, it tended to feel the same way with the students.

I will take positive pub anyday, even if I don't believe it.

Not arguing with that, I would love to see all of Denton turn green and show-up for the games!

Maybe we should build a bigger stadium!!!

[hickoryhouse]

You know, .... I have never thought of building a new stadium.. I always thought Fouts was fantastic!

Maybe some one should call RV and let him in on that little idea?!

[island eagle]

Maybe not, but if that is a perception that others want to propogate I am more than willing to turn a blind eye and not say anything. National perception always seemed to filter down into UNT's student body and because nationwide no one knew or cared, it tended to feel the same way with the students.

I will take positive pub anyday, even if I don't believe it.

Perception tends to become reality. Hey this is good publicity for both the city and the university.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---Two things really matter...

------What is true, and what people think is true!! --------

This includes what a company is worth (stock prices) , how qualified or capable people are, people's reputations (esp girls) , and a lot of other things ...including this....

Edited May 10, 2008 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Denton turning green on game day....priceless. I don't even mind Denton becoming the "Music Capital of Texas." But please don't turn it into another Austin. We've got enough politics here as it is.

Edited May 10, 2008 by GrayEagleOne

[EagleD]

What a GREAT article! Living in Austin, I now want to move back to Denton to enjoy the music scene I enjoyed so much as a student. Stupid adulthood and responsibility making me stay here and provide for my family!

Anyone remember "Ten Hands", or "Billy Goat"?

About this time of year the "Fry Street Fair" should be rocking Denton. But alas it has gone by the wayside. The article referenced something called "North by 35". I've never heard of it. Is anyone familiar with this festival?

GMG!!!!!!!!!

[RETSO]

"And whenever the local college football team plays at Fouts Field, the entire town seems to put on Mean Green T-shirts."

I think he meant to say " "And whenever the local college football team plays at Fouts Field, the entire town seems to put on Aluminum colored T-shirts"

[Green to the Bone]

I think he meant to say " "And whenever the local college football team plays at Fouts Field, the entire town seems to put on Aluminum colored T-shirts"

Nicely played.

[Harry]

Can some of you guys chill on the negative routine already? It's getting old. I can understand you being negative about losing schollys, that's justified. This is a great article that bodes well for the future of UNT's hometown and all you can do is pi$$ on it.

[KingDL1]

I think it is great, a little surprising, but great!

I can't wait until the time when I drive up to Denton to see a sea of green starting north of the Lewisville bridge!

[UNTflyer]

Today's New York Times (which can be accessed on line if you sign up) has a big article on Denton. Of interest to Mean Green fans are such quotes as: "And whenever the local college football team plays at Fouts Field, the entire town seems to put on Mean Green T-shirts." and "Not bad for a college town of 110,000, prompting more than a few music industry insiders to call Denton the next Austin."

Yet another example of why the New York Times is not a valid source of information.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

Today's New York Times (which can be accessed on line if you sign up) has a big article on Denton. Of interest to Mean Green fans are such quotes as: "And whenever the local college football team plays at Fouts Field, the entire town seems to put on Mean Green T-shirts." and "Not bad for a college town of 110,000, prompting more than a few music industry insiders to call Denton the next Austin."

Never heard of the "North of 35" festival. I don't think of Denton as a college town. I think of a college town as being one where the entire town pulls for the home college, and we are miles from that in Denton. I guess I need to go read the article.

[CMJ]

I don't think of Denton as a college town. I think of a college town as being one where the entire town pulls for the home college, and we are miles from that in Denton.

I think of a college town as a town where the entire town revolves around the school. I'm not speaking of sports...but commerce, etc. If you go by the standpoint that Denton basically does depend on TWU and UNT(I routinely saw restaraunts go under during the summer when I was a kid - because the college students had skipped town) I think it qualifies.

[UNTflyer]

I think of a college town as a town where the entire town revolves around the school.

Yeah, and when that school has graduation ceremonies, it is usually covered by the local paper.

No stories on graduation in the DRC today.

[GreenBlooded1]

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

“There’s this combination of artistic fervor and small town naïveté,” said David Sims, a music columnist for The Dallas Observer. “Artists here don’t know they’re not supposed to be Bob Dylan so when they start a band, they shoot for the moon.”

A former agricultural trading post, Denton is a prairie town just north of Dallas’s exurban sprawl, in a part of North Texas known for its tornadoes and tough liquor laws. The highway that goes into town passes through peanut farms and horse ranches, although a few strip malls have also sprung up.

The town manages to combine the bohemian charm of Berkeley with the rural folksiness of the South. Downtown Denton is a grid of squat early-20th-century brick houses, with two notable exceptions: the 10,000-student campus of Texas Woman’s University, whose twin dormitories are the town’s lone skyscrapers, and the campus of the University of North Texas, which has about 35,000 students.

To get a flavor of the town’s quirky mix, stop into Jupiter House, a popular 24-hour hangout where office workers in Dockers and Birkenstocks sip espressos next to tousle-haired hipsters with torn jeans. But hang around town long enough and the music starts drifting in from every which way. Drive by Rubber Gloves, a former cement factory on the outskirts of town, and you might hear musical acts like the Shins or Modest Mouse performing in the still-grimy converted rehearsal space. Pick up a video rental at Strawberry Fields and you might stumble upon Ghosthustler, an electronica trio mixing beats in the back of the cramped store.

Or just stroll through the town square, a manicured green rimmed with mom-and-pop shops, and you might run into folks like Buck Ragsdale, an 80-year-old retired construction worker who holds a weekly bluegrass session on the lawn. On a warm Saturday morning, Mr. Ragsdale and his fiddle were joined by a dozen gray-bearded musicians in cowboy hats, jamming to an out-of-tune rendition of “Whiskey Before Breakfast.”

“A lot of us older ones were raised on farms,” Mr. Ragsdale said. “We would play as often as we could and for as long as we could.”

Indeed, music seems to be ingrained in Denton’s roots. This unassuming town has given birth to musical acts ranging from the Grammy-winning polka band Brave Combo to the one-hit wonder Deep Blue Something (remember that “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” ditty from the 1990s?). In between are musicians as notable and diverse as Sly Stone, Don Henley, Meat Loaf, Pat Boone, Norah Jones and Roy Orbison.

Much of the musical genius can be traced back to the University of North Texas’s College of Music. Walk through the college’s leafy campus and you can eavesdrop on any number of lab bands polishing their chops, or pianists pounding away on a Steinway in the racquetball-court-like rehearsal studios.

“These kids are definitely more educated than your average garage band,” said Jay Saunders, a trumpet instructor at the university.

There’s another reason that Denton has emerged as a hotbed of alternative music. It has to do with another indie rock capital, 200 miles to the south.

“While Austin’s become more and more commercial, here it’s stayed more independent,” said Erik Herbst, owner of the Panhandle House recording studio. With its high-tech boom and music festivals like South by Southwest, Austin has seen its profile swell, leaving some artists disenchanted by the commercialism and higher rents. Even MTV’s “Real World,” mind you, has invaded the city. The cooler kids have decamped to Denton.

“It has a smaller-town feel than Austin,” said Isaac Hoskins, a 26-year-old former beer-truck driver who was moving to Austin four years ago when he made a pit stop in Denton and decided to stay. He now fronts for a local alt-country band called the Heelers.

Not that Denton is above riding Austin’s coattails. Since 2004, Dentonites have staged something called North by 35, or NX35 (the name refers to the highway linking Denton with Dallas), which showcases Denton-only music.

STILL, unlike Austin, downtown Denton has no liquor stores or a Starbucks, and it sometimes feels more like a suburb of Dallas than a subcultural oasis. It didn’t help things when a developer last year bulldozed much of historic Fry Street, the former epicenter of Denton’s live music scene, to make way for a CVS (a plan since stalled by a permit issue). All that remains today of the Haight-Ashburyesque strip is a mosquito-infested mud pit and a graveyard of frat bars and head shops.

But in a testament to the town’s musical resilience, the night life simply migrated over to the main square. Pick any side street and you’ll find partygoers noshing on tacos, outside a smattering of derelict warehouses that have been transformed into clubs and live music stages.

No developer could stop the movement... The Fry Street music crowd lives... it's just migrated a bit!!

And where exactly are the peanut farms???

Edited May 12, 2008 by GreenBlooded1

[Censored by Laurie]

I can't believe any of you would try and piss on this article...this is nothing but amazing national publicity for our school...a school that very few outside a 200 mile radius of DFW have never heard of...living in the Northeast I've run across about 1 in 100 who have some knowledge of UNT when I tell them where I went to school and thats mostly for the music program.

Denton turning into the next Austin...especially the Austin of 10-15 years ago would be the absolute best thing that could happen to our town...and I love that the Industrial Street area is taking up the slack following the city's raping of Fry Street. I am afraid that the town will find a way to screw this up...much like the city government of Austin is trying...but for now those in the area need to take advantage of the burgeoning music and cultural scene...and I'll look with even more anticipation to my future visits.

And if you are looking for a great Denton band...Midlake...their 2006 release The Trials of Van Occupanther was considered a Top 10 release of the year by Paste Magazine and garnered lots of accolades from many Indie music publications and music blogs

[UNTLifer]

And where exactly are the peanut farms???

Aubrey

[Eagle1855]

I can't believe any of you would try and piss on this article..

you can't?

[Go_UTA]

Great article. I would think you would have to be tickled pink (or green, in this case).

You never know what you are going to get from an eastern newspaper or magazine. It all depends on the preconceived angle the writer wants and whether or not they have an axe to grind. Count your blessings. Awesome publicity.

[Censored by Laurie]

you can't?

When you put it that way...

[Green Mean]

I am not sure about everybody in the City of Denton wearing green on gamedays but the comments made about Denton being the next Austin is very true. I am not sure how close it will get like Austin because Austin is still the state capitol and so much of the commerce and traffic is just from that. However in general, Denton has a lot of similarities to what Austin used to be say 30 years ago. I say thats a nice comment and some great pub for the city which in turn will benefit UNT and TWU.