July 12th, 2010
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Newdust.com is having a birthday BBQ bash in Denton, TX! Come celebrate it with us, we’ll be cookin’ up hot dogs and rockin’ it with MONT LYONS, MARMALAKES, & LARRY LLODRA. Location: 619 Pearl St. $5 Donation (Help the bands pay for gas!) MONT LYONS MARMALAKES LARRY LLODRA JR. BYOB // Free Food // Free Show |
August 17th, 2009
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The Fungi Girls are no joke. While it’s easy to get caught up in the hype and praise and write them off as some sort of gimmick due to their young age (all 3 members are in their mid teens), this is a group with tons of talent and motivation. Here’s our interview with these hard partying, up and coming musicians.
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| Newdust: Who’s your favorite local band? |     Seafaring Pyramids |
| Fungi Girls: No one in particular, but here’s several: Fergus & Geronimo, Orange Coax, Scoff (new project is called Stoned Men, though), Eat Avery’s Bones, and Darktown Strutters. |
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| ND:You obviously have a pretty large library of musicians and bands that you are influenced by, how were you able to acquire such tastes at such a young age? | |
| FG: When I was 10 or so, my aunt and uncle got me into some shoegaze and other stuff and I kind of branched off from there with the help of the internet. In seventh grade, I believe, I started getting some of my friends into the same music and soon enough we all had “such tastes.” |
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| ND:What’s it like living in Cleburne? | |
| FG: Cleburne is a bummer. It feels like home to us, but I think we all hate it for the most part. There’s absolutely nothing to do, the people suck for the most part, and it’s relatively far from anything worthwhile. |
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| ND:How did you guys all meet and start playing together? | |
| FG: I’ve known Deryck since birth. His grandparents and my grandparents have been best friends since they were in their teens. Deryck met Jacob through school, from what I know of, and after I moved back to Cleburne from living in California and Nevada, I became good friends with Jacob. |
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| ND: Do people at your high school know of the attention you guys get? How do they react? | |
| FG: I go to a different high school than the other two girls, but from what they’ve told me, no one really knows about our band. I guess we’re all kind of reserved for the most part, so that might be why. |
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| ND:How do you deal with comparisons to other bands that you may not like? | |
| FG: We don’t really care. We’re oftentimes compared to Wavves and Vivian Girls, but we really don’t think we sound all the much like them. A lot of people like those bands quite a bit, though, so I guess it’s somewhat flattering. We’ve also been compared to the Pooh Sticks and Pavement, though, and that’s definitely awesome to hear because both of those bands are really great. |
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| ND:Young bands have a history of burning out, how do you guys see yourself staying together? | |
| FG: I think we’ll stay together for at least another couple of years. Or at least, we hope to. We’ve all been friends for a long time and were playing music for a couple of years before Fungi Girls, so we shouldn’t have too much of a problem staying together. |
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| ND: Do you view your lo-fi sound as an intentional artistic decision, or a necessity of not having access to great equipment that you may evolve from? | |
| FG: Well, the stuff on the new album isn’t really lo-fi at all. The demo’s quality was because of the latter part of yr question. At the time, we didn’t have any kind of recording equipment whatsoever and didn’t really know how to record properly on anything, so using a digital camera was a simple solution. |
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| ND: Beaches and oceans are a theme through some of your songs, besides surf rock, how has the ocean come to influence you while living in the middle of Texas? | |
| FG: Actually, I think we only have two songs that are ocean-related, Pacifica Nostalgia and Sun Surfing. Sun Surfing’s lyrics weren’t even really about the ocean or beaches, they were more of a metaphor for something, and Pacifica Nostalgia’s lyrics were written in regards to me missing the California coast. The Bay Area and around Santa Cruz, to be more specific. |
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| ND:It’s been almost a year since you guys started making noise in the Denton scene, how has your music changed in that time? | |
| FG: Our sound hasn’t really changed all that much until semi-recently, but I like to think it has became less amateurish and controlled than before. We’ve also started writing better lyrics and have became much better live. |
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| ND:How long before you guys get to go on tour? | |
| FG: Probably next summer. Plans fell through this summer, so we’re going to have to wait. School is starting back up very soon, so there’s not really going to be any time to tour. We’re wanting to plan a mini-tour of some sorts on Christmas Break or Thanksgiving Break, but we’re not sure if it’ll happen or not. |
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| ND:Finally, what are you guys listening to these days? | |
| FG: I’ve been listening to a lot of blues lately. Namely Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bukka White, and Mississippi John Hurt. In addition to them, I’ve been all about 13th Floor Elevators, surf rock, Blue Cheer, and the Fresh & Onlys lately. Jacob has been listening to a lot of Fresh & Onlys as well and Deryck has been all about John Maus and The Faceless. |
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So there you have it. The Fungi Girl’s know where they’ve been, and they certainly know where they want to go. The only people who can hold them back now is themselves, because at this point they certainly seem poised to have the world at their fingertips. Be on the lookout for their next release, Seafaring Pyramids on Play Pinball Records. Stay Tuned. -interview by Ryan |
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August 10th, 2009
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 Anyone who has spent any amount of time in the Denton DIY scene has certainly ran into Daniel Ziegler and Jared Lawson at some point. So when you listen to their collaboration Hoop Dreamz it seems like a no brainer. Two of the most talented guys in Denton giving themselves and each other free reign to showcase their abilities. It’s almost as if they are in a battle to the death with their instruments. Ziegler’s blood lust for the perfect guitar tone is displayed in all it’s glory, while Lawson delivers body blow after body blow of drumming chaos. The only downside is these guys are involved in so many other projects that a show or even a new song is pretty rare. Stay Tuned. |
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