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No Fold Blog
10/20/2007
Tonight's Pick

Rubber Gloves(411 E. Sycamore, Denton)
deep Snapper
The Demigs
It's Unamerican To Be Sad
(doors at 9pm, $5 over 21, $7 under)  

Denton's answer to the Minutemen, deep Snapper have all of the power of a rock army stuffed neatly into a three man package. Their debut album, A Drowning Man Can Pull You Under (2007) would stand up to even any national album released this year, then it would push it down, kick sand in its eyes and write ten songs about the experience. Expect to hear a good chunk of that record tonight, mixed in with songs from their upcoming sophomore effort. (well, actually these are the 2nd and 3rd albums, but I'm not counting a CDR they released in 2006).

04/03/2007
It List: Tuesday 4/3/07

Peter And The Wolf deep Snapper Artless Fiction Cory Derden (Club Dada):
deep Snapper is a very tight, concise rock group with influences ranging from the articulate shout of Mike Watt to the cutting, distorted rudeness of Shooting At Unarmed Men. Very good.
posted by Defensive Listening at 3:30 PM

02/09/2007
The Weekender: 2/9/07-2/11/07

Bob White and his F-Electrics Ghost of Ria... deep Snapper (Rubber Gloves):):):
deep Snapper has members of Birth to Burial and is definitely one of the better local no-bullshit rock groups. They utilize a lot of up-tempo chug rhythms, cutting guitars and group shouting all delivered in a very sophisticated style completely devoid of any anthemic cheesiness.
posted by stonedranger at 3:37 PM

09/02/2006
It List: Saturday 9/2/06

Hard Rock Life
How I learned to love an new old genre
by Jonanna Wider
Published: July 5, 2007

... that said, it's fortuitous, then, that three CDs recently landed on my desk amidst the Fair to Midland press releases: deep Snapper, Non Radio Friendly and the Lash Outs, as all three represent excellent local examples of hard rock. Here's a brief introduction to all three:

deep Snapper
A Drowning Man Can Pull You Under
Self-produced

This crew of Dentonites might be the best of the bunch, somehow ripping original sounds from overdriven guitars and growling vocals. Jagged gee-tars move through the songs at angles like that tank in Tron; the vocals simultaneously eschew normal melodies and draw you in, which is a rare thing. The rhythm section, meantime, plays hard and true, holding down the fort. At first listen there's an almost drunken, Hickoids thing going on. On second listen, you realize this is intentional. On third listen, you realize the illusion is brilliant. (See www.deepsnapper.net.)

Secret Headquarters One-Year Anniversary Party
Saturday, June 2, at Secret Headquarters
By Jonanna Widner 
Published: May 31, 2007

Freaks and geeks know the epicenter of their Little D kingdom is located on Hickory Street: For a year now, Secret Headquarters has housed the weird, the loud and the good when it comes to musical excursions and experiments. And, in the process, proprietors/local rock gods Scott Porter (Record Hop), Cody Robinson (Medicine Window) and Rob Black (Birth to Burial) have lost their freakin' asses. To celebrate the milestone of 365 days of a monetary butt whuppin', SHQ is throwing a "One Year of Losing Our Asses" party. But this will be no pity party, mind you, not with musical fabulousness courtesy of the Drams' Brent Best, deep Snapper, Dana Falconberry and many, many mas.

...power trio deep Snapper, who have an excellent live reputation, take a harsher, simpler punk-influenced approach.

History Lesson Pt II.
...deep Snapper got the show going right with their Minutemen set. Complete with a bass player that dressed like Mike Watt and played as furiously as Watt, this trio was spot-on. Highlights included "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" and "This Ain't No Picnic."
posted by Eric Grubbs @ 9:02 AM

SR: Who are some of your favorite locals?

NF: ... Deep Snapper is fantastic. Cody from the No Fold blog. Pat Ferguson from Deep Snapper - a true class act. 
posted by Alison at 11:43am

The group's sound is best summarized by the resemblance it bears to the progressive punk of the late 80's, where the rage was toned down a bit, mid-tempo rhythms started to appear more frequently on SST recordings, and the Washington DC scene added a studious and thoughtful maturity to variations on the "Fuck You" theme.

What's immediately grabbing on "A Drowning Man Can Pull You Under" is the solid playing, and more specifically the manner in which the guitar playing contains more hooks and melody than the actual singing. Guitarist John Newberry's approach to the instrument doesn't divert to the obvious break for a solo as much as he spends his time palming, scratching, and strumming in the high register and the end

 result is more striking and uniquely effective.

If Deep Snapper played more to its strengths, it would do a lot towards opening up some of the density that starts piling up around the album's midpoint. Some songs switch from crunchy barres to open chord chime, which changes the feel, but not always enough to differentiate emotion from emotion as the album progresses. On the other hand, a song like "Autopilot" has more space, tension, and release, resulting in a broken-dam finale that is also the group's most successful moment.

This is a band that has everything lined up to continue being a good, straight-forward rock band. They could easily transcend that and many similar peers by adding some more extremes, whether they be faster, harder, softer, or slower. It's determined dynamics like these that made records such as Pink Flag such a classic, the important characteristics that distinguish each song from the next and a conscious effort to push a different button every time they attack.

There is much to return to here, whether it be the thinly veiled gallows humor often alluding to death and injury (sample song title: "Politics of a Misdiagnosed Head Bleed"), or the audible debt to D.Boon on the vocals, never a bad singer to look up to if you feel like being honest without being cheesy.

I would say that I'd like to hear what Deep Snapper does next, but apparently the wait is already over. According to the band's website, there is already a new release being prepared, less than a year after this record, and their third album overall. Between that and the shit that Violent Squid pulls, we'll be posting this winter's releases sometime in 2010. (3.5) (DL)