In part three of our three-part look back at the last year in music, 35 Conferette’s Natalie Davila, solo artist Sarah Alexander, Pastime Tavern booker Kara Howell, musician George Quartz, and Dharma’s Kevyn Green offer their favorites in local and national new music. (Click for Part 1 and Part 2)

Photo above: Cuckoo Birds performing at Majestic Dwelling of Doom (Credit: Natalie Davila)

Natalie Davila (Booking person, 35 Conferette, Majestic Dwelling Of Doom)

Local Scene: Quite a few interesting bands came out of Denton this year. Some of my favorites included Vulgar Fashion and Cuckoo Byrds. Both bands have an extremely unique approach to music that is not commonly featured in Denton. Those artists really came into their own this year. I caught quite a few of their shows and had the privilege of hosting them at Doom a couple times. Bands like these make me optimistic about the future of Denton’s music scene.

Beach House

However, there were a lot of really lackluster folk bands that were birthed in Denton this year. I can enjoy any genre of music if it is done well, but this year the over-representation of generic folk was pretty uninspiring. This new wave of angsty, singer-songwriter college kids was a little overwhelming at times.

National Scene: This year started off slow, but seemed to pick up the pace towards the end. There were some nice little treasures out there if you looked hard enough. With music blogs becoming more prevalent, I felt there was more access and ease when seeking out new music.

Best Trend: Hmm, this is a difficult question. I hate to say it, but there were a couple awesome little “Witchhouse” house bands that I came across in the past few months. This trend can be equally annoying, but there were some interesting things that spawned from it.

Nick Cave's Grinderman

Worst Trend: Auto-tuning: pretty obvious why that sucks. Four Loko: I’d rather eat glass. “Silly Bandz”: those goofy rubber bracelets that all the kids wear (FYI: slap bracelets were way cooler). Cutesy (harmlessly boring) bands: They popped up all over the place, quite a few of them successfully ripped off Animal Collective in a really gross way.

Albums Of The Year:
Sailors with Waxed Wings
Grinderman
Onra- Long Distance
Beach House – Teen Dream
Liars – Sisterworld
Sun kil Moon- Admiral Fell Promises
Wild Nothings- Gemini
No Joy – Ghost Blonde
WALSH- Smoke Weed About It EP
LA Vampires and Matrix Metals – So Unreal
Ariel Pink – Before Today and With Added Pizzazz
Bardo Pond
Toro y Moi – Causers of This

Sarah Alexander (Denton musician, solo artist and Zanzibar Snails)

Local Scene: I’m really enjoying a lot of darker, heavier sorts of music that are taking chances, experimenting with their space. Pinkish Black, Geistheistler, and George Quartz, though GQ is a bit of an anomaly compared to the other two. In regards to GQ, there is nothing sexier than clever. Clever is hot, which also makes me think of Vulgar Fashion, which is my new favorite band, come to think of it. One of Vulgar Fashion’s lyrics that I always use to describe them is, “vampires make great gifts, they never grow old.” Ah, wisdom!

National Scene: I’m too nostalgic to comment on anything released this year. I’ve been suffering from nostalgia for about a year or so, so…

Best Trend: I’m really into how a lot of bands are embracing this sort of white elephant exoticism.

Worst Trend: No Comment.

Kara Howell (Dallas musician, Darktown Strutters. Booking person for Pastime Tavern)

Balaclavas "Roman Holiday"

Best Trend: Horror Soundtracks
Worst Trend: Video Game Soundtracks

My favorite albums this year are:
Balaclavas: Roman Holiday
Umberto: From the Grave’ (In your face, Gatekeeper!)
Ensemble Economique’s: Psychical
Indian Jewelry: Totaled
Purling Hiss: Hissteria
Nervous Curtains: Out of Sync With Time

George Quartz (Dallas musician, solo artist)

Local Scene: The local scene in Dallas is as nebulous as a spider’s web. There are few artists to get excited about here, but the ones worth seeing are terrific. I actually feel more of a bond with specific weirdoes here and in Austin, Denton, and Houston. There is a very friendly underground of people who embrace the eccentricity of one another without any attitude or competition. I suppose the magic of internet, a recent invention, has something to do with that.

National Scene: The national scene is similar, with strongholds of interesting artists strewn about the country who are very aware of one another. We just don’t get to visit one another as often.

Best Trend: The overall embrace of all-things-strange in music. Though some may feel some ambivalence toward outlets such as Pitchfork and its oddball sister site, Altered Zones, the latter’s existence seems to suggest a greater interest in the left-field. I think it’s a good thing.

Worst Trend: The attempt at naming these cottage micro-genres within this new wave of batsh*t music. Chillwave aside, I think I may buy the farm if I hear the terms Witchhouse and Rapegaze ever again. Also, and apologies to some of my dear friends, but please, let’s step away from the early 90′s goth aesthetic already. Let a little light in.

Favorite albums off the top of my head, in no particular order:

Sade: Soldier Of Love
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti: Before Today
Florene: Homemade Extacy
Darktown Strutters: Self-Titled
Checkhuddersfax: Spen Back

Kevyn Green (Denton musician, Dharma)

Local Scene: I thought local music in DFW was pretty solid this year. There were a few new bands that came up that kind of spiced things up and kept it interesting. There was usually a good show most nights. The only negative aspect would be that there weren’t too many bands around, so the same people were usually playing every other week. That’s not too bad, though; it would just be nice to see a little more variety this year.

Indian Jewelry, "Totaled"

National Scene: I didn’t listen to many national acts this year. I found the newer music to be very dull and played, but I didn’t really listen too much of it to give a solid opinion. I’m sure something decent probably came out, but I wasn’t interested enough to seek it out. I heard a few records that I really enjoyed though.

Best Trend: EPs, short albums.

Worst Trend: Two word band names.

Albums Of The Year (In No Particular Order)
Indian Jewelry – Totaled
Ariel Pink – Before Today
Clipd Beaks – To Realize
Salem – King Night
Caribou – Swim