So I have had some people approach me about resurrecting DTS Underground. It's something I've kicked around in my head, but never seriously considered doing until recently. There were a lot of aspects of managing DTSU that I loved, but also quite a few that I just hated. Eventually, the hated overtook the loved and I felt I had to walk away. So if I am going to resurrect it, it would have to be in a way that minimizes or eliminates the hated aspects and puts more emphasis on doing the stuff I loved.
What I loved about DTSU on a personal level was discovering new bands from the region. Some were great, some were awful and, if I am being honest, most were pretty mediocre. I still loved finding them and I could usually find something I liked in even the crappiest sounding demos I would get to hear. It was an exciting time and sharing bands with a world that might not have heard of them outside of their home towns or the dive bars they got to play in made me happy. I had always wanted DTSU to be a springboard for getting local bands noticed by local folks. I think I was moderately successful in that goal, but when I would talk to bands, it just never felt like it was hitting the mark I was aiming for. By the end, DTSU had become almost like a social network for bands in the area to hook up and put shows together.
The thing I hated about DTS was writing reviews. CDs, Live Shows, you name it, I just didn't want to write about that. As a music fan, I never read reviews for anything I listen to, so trying to write about an album was always an awkward thing for me. I also refused to give a positive review to an album I didn't like, which made writing reviews for albums I wasn't into or shows I didn't enjoy extraordinarily stressful. These guys aren't Metallica, after all. Some folks scrape together the last bit of their savings to record a five song EP on their cousin's half-assed home studio and I am supposed to sit there and rip it apart? Fuck that. Then, on top of that, you had the fun of dealing with the egos of bands that sucked, but thought their shit didn't stink. It all added up to me not enjoying doing anything on the site, anymore.
My plans for this blog are break it down into two types of posts, with at least one of each, once per week; New Shit and Old Shit.
New Shit will be a little write up on a currently active band in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma or Arkansas. Rather than narrow it down to bands in and around the Dallas, Tyler, Shreveport area, I decided to branch out and include basically any band that could reasonably play shows in these areas. Plus it nails it down to a simple, easily defined area that's not hard to explain. I am not trying to be Lambgoat or theprp.
Old Shit will be a spotlight on one band that used to operate in this area. The initial batch will probably just be the bands I loved when I was more actively going to shows around here (honestly, the first three will probably be deadindustry, GRYN and Myra Mains), but I am hoping that this gets some traction and folks will suggest some older bands that I may not think of or missed out on. My reason for this is that there are a lot of bands that I used to listen to that are almost completely absent from the internet. This will be my way of paying tribute to them so they aren't forgotten.
So that's the plan. It might take a month or so for me to get my rhythm going, but in the mean time, I would honestly love to hear some feedback or thoughts in ye olde comments section. I didn't proof this, so feel free to point out my horrible grammar. I have an empty cup of fucks over here just for the occasion.