Sarah Crisman has a public fantasy: to appear in an Oso Closo music video. As fate would have it, three-fifths of the Denton rock band are the first guests on Crisman's new music chat show via My Denton Music, named The Crisman Show after its music-obsessed host. The Webshow series will feature Crisman frolicking about town wearing locally made or sold clothing styled by University of North Texas designer Emily Grace Rogers, interviewing local musicians at local restaurants.
It's the first time we know of that all things everyone loves or loves to loathe about Denton -- the patioed mom-and-pops, the crunchy, muted fashion and the bearded musicians -- will be captured together on camera and aired weekly twice monthly in a neat package. And a theme song composed by Graham Richards, set to be covered by each interview subject to open the show, is inspiring an animated sequence by Toronto Montreal artist Anthony Imperioli that will make the minivan-driving Crisman a cartoon character in later episodes.
Crisman, a writer and local music advocate who's touring with Backside Pick, has a knack for interjecting about how much she really, really loves that one part in the guitar solo when he's all like ... (ejects tongue and wails on air guitar.) We saw her do this three times during takes for the first episode as it was being filmed at The Greenhouse, land of sweet potato fries and jazz-themed cocktails.
Cameraman and documentarian Patrick Flaherty had to cut off the conversation between Crisman and Oso Closo's Chris McQueen, Adrian Hulet and Danny Garcia due to imposing train whistles three different times. Anyone who's been listening to a band at Rubber Gloves when a train blows through at exactly the right time knows that interrupting sound is just as Denton as jumprope clubs or Cupboard smoothies made with rice milk. But, as MDM's Tony Spiro pointed out when we asked why the talent wasn't chugging Shiner with the host, the show's creators want the show to be seen by more than the band's friends and Denton ex-pats who'd appreciate the referential toot-toot.
Crisman told us her goal as a host is to channel Conan O'Brien and Chuck Klosterman while simply talking to her friends about the music and the town she loves. In the first episode we've embedded below, the guys from Oso Closo discuss the making of their forthcoming record "Today Is Beauty's Birthday," life in what Crisman calls "the Oso Closo compound," and the innovative fundraiser detailed in this Denton Record-Chronicle piece that rescued the album from its doomed financial status. There's a plug for My Denton Music's first live showcase at Hailey's this Saturday, featuring Oso Closo in the headlining spot.
Expect to see RTB2, blues legend Pops Carter, Sleep Whale, and Paul Slavens in the hot seats soon, with Fuzzy's Taco confirmed to make an appearance.
