The Timeline Post

Yet another weekend in Denton chock full of shows. But other than a rather, um, noisy bill at the house venue House of Tinnitus, it was a rather business-as-usual kind of Saturday night at Denton's venues.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's just that, at some point, seeing the same bands play week after week...well, let's just say that it's always nice to be surprised by a band that, for whatever reason, you've overlooked thus far.

Take The Timeline Post for example: The act's been playing shows for Gutterth Productions since its second "episode" back in January 2006. And though it wasn't a sell-out show Saturday night at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, a nice crowd of a little more than 100 people turned out to see The Timeline Post and others perform. The band did an excellent job warming up the crowd before sets by local favorites Dust Congress, History at Our Disposal and The Angelus; its dense and enveloping sound even managed to completely drown out the clamor of a passing train as it rumbled by outside. But it's more than a wall of sound: The ardent, buttery-smooth vocal delivery offered by the sextet's frontman Bryon Mantooth only adds to the band's captivating sound—the listener has to focus intently to try to decipher the oft soft-spoken lyrics over the layers of instrumentation.

Originally from Sulphur Springs, the band temporarily relocated to Denton while some of the members finished up school.

"When we lived here before," Mantooth says, "we actually played in Dallas more than Denton. But we've made a lot of friends here now, and we really prefer to play Denton. It's a much more enjoyable experience.

"I think that Dallas is kinda depressing."

Now, though, with some of its members living back in Sulphur Springs, the band is carrying on a long-distance relationship of sorts by still practicing and recording there.

"It's not necessarily hard on the band—just inconvenient—but we all want to do this," Mantooth says. "So it's just a matter of getting everyone together. When the stars and planets align, we can all get together in Sulphur Springs and practice and record. We make it work. But there are always sacrifices that have to be made, like someone having to take a day off of work."

And, for now, there will only be more waiting. The band has been working on an album of new material for the last seven months, and Mantooth says that he thought the album would be completed by now. But, because of the logistics of finding a time that will work for the band members to gather together, he now hopes that it will be released by this summer. - Dallas Observer