New Site, New Attitude...Same Asshole
by James

Two years ago, my friends and I were sitting around, saying to our selves, "What shows are going on this weekend?" One friend of mine would spend half the day going to websites trying to see what was going on in Deep Ellum for people who liked heavy music. "Man, it would be cool if there was a site that kept track of the heavy music around here." With that, the seed for what has now become D.T.S. Underground was planted. My main inspiration for finally getting off my ass and doing it was a site called D.A.H.M. (Dallas Area Heavy Music) run by a cat named Rocky, which was, in my humble opinion, a better site than D.T.S. He opened my eyes to how good the heavy scene in Dallas was. D.A.H.M. turned into Death In Dallas, before Rocky finally gave up out of frustration from not being able to see any shows because he was underage. He is the main reason I constantly strive to find all ages venues and tell people about them. So, I went into this deal wanting those two main things - a Shows list and a Bands list. The Clubs list stemmed from the desire to give bands more options on where to play and, again, spread the word about all ages venues, which are home to the best shows I have been to in the last two years. I compiled a list of every heavy band and club I knew of, threw it together in a very simple way and debuted it on December 24, 1999 as Texas Hardcore Central. I honestly never thought it would go anywhere.

Texas Hardcore Central lasted about four months with a minimum of hits and served as just a place for my friends and I to keep tabs on shows. I did not know squat about hardcore and had not intended it to be a hardcore-only site. As I started increasingly getting into hardcore and figured out what it was all about, I realized a name change was in order. I had been kicking around the idea of a new name for a couple of months, anyway. Texas Hardcore Central did not send a message about what I was trying to do, at all. I was not covering all of Texas (or even just Texas, for that matter), I was not covering only Hardcore and the Central thing just reeked of lameness, to me. D.T.S. Underground popped into my head one day and I have never second-guessed it. It says everything you need to know about my site, right in the title. After all, I was only covering Underground metal in Dallas, Tyler and Shreveport. In retrospect, I should have called it D.T.S. Metal or something, to further emphasize that heavy music is all I am covering, but oh well. I got 10,000 hits in that first year, and D.T.S. got a mention in a couple of bands' thanks sections in their CDs. I realized there was no turning back.

In the past two years that I have been doing this site, I have been called an elitist, been accused of favoritism and called an ass kisser on many, many occasions. To be honest, I could care less. Anyone who thinks I am an elitist has, obviously, never taken the time to get to know me. I listen to and appreciate every form of musical expression on the planet, including metal, rock, hardcore, death metal, punk, rap, hip hop, etc. You name it; I listen to it (there are even some Country songs I can get into). In all honesty, I would love to include all of my musical tastes on this site, but I am just one guy. I have to limit my liability, somehow, and metal is my first love, so that is where I went. As for favoritism, all I can say is the people that are bitching would not mind it if I was showing favoritism towards the bands they like. Yes, I tend to show a little more love to the bands that really get me going, but not that much. I was a manager for a band that got almost no exposure on this site, apart from listing all their shows. Every news item I have posted on here, I have had to dig for and hunt for. Very few people send me announcements and most of the mailing lists I am on are used simply to announce the show they are playing that coming weekend, which has been on my site for up to a month beforehand. I go to web sites, all the time, which have not seen an update in three months. I send emails that bounce back to me because the email address is no good, anymore. In short, I try my best to give fair and equal treatment to every band on this site, and most bands will agree that I do that. As someone once said in my guestbook, if you want your band in the news, then do something newsworthy. Even in metal, I am a diversified listener. I listen to Skinless, Lamb of God, Cephalic Carnage, Mudvayne, Deftones, Nothingface, Hatebreed, Throwdown and Vision of Disorder with equal amounts of joy, so, if I don't like your band, odds are pretty good it is because your band needs some work. Take it personal, all you want, but facts are facts. I have listened to enough good music to be able to pick out the crap, when I hear it.

So, now that we have the history out of the way, what does the future hold? Hell, I have no idea. If you had told me in December of '99 that this site would be on the verge of 30,000 visitors in December of '01, I would have assumed you were insane. Nonetheless, here we are. At this point, the visitor count is becoming inconsequential, and the removal of the counter is one of many changes implemented with this new site. I have brought back the guestbook, for the people that refuse to make use of the message board, which, even as you read this, is also being redesigned. The Bands list has been overhauled to be less intimidating. I have added this Rants section, which will, in the future, be my own personal soapbox to discuss topics that I feel are relevant to the heavy scene, or the world at large. The Rants section is open to public submittal, though, and anyone who has something they want to get off their chest is welcome to send it to me. For the record, mine will not normally be this long, but this is a special occasion. I have also added a limited National section with a small list of bands, webzines and labels, that you should keep an eye on, from time to time. Any bands not in the D.T.S. area are in the National section, including quite a few bands from Texas and Louisiana. These bands will not get coverage in my News section, for the sole reason that, again, I am just one guy and I cannot cover the whole nation. The mailing list has been switched over to a list that is hosted on my servers, because Yahoo Groups gets on my nerves. If you are on the Yahoo list, do nothing; I will manually resubscribe everyone to the new list, myself, in the next week or so.

The last big change is in the Reviews section. As of now, the gloves are off. I am still not going to trash a CD, but I am not going to just review the ones I like, anymore. In order to give my positive reviews any kind of credibility, I have to give some negative ones. As I said, though, my comments will be constructive and intelligent, without resorting to "This CD sucks!" I feel more comfortable, now, with my ability to examine music than I did two years ago, and I think every band can benefit from being told what areas they need to improve on, as well as what areas just plain aren't working. I am also open to the idea of reviewing three or four song demos and EPs, since I know a lot of bands don't have the money for fancy studio recordings. Many demos out there have been getting more spins in my CD player than some recent major label studio albums. My hope is to have one CD review a week, if there is something out there to review. I am also thinking about bringing back show reviews, so that bands that do not have anything recorded can still get a little press, now and then.

Now, here I go, getting ready to march head first into my third year doing this site. Special thanks to hyperion and the folks at Heavy Graphix for giving D.T.S. a major facelift, and additional thanks to all the bands, promoters and club owners I have met in the last two years. The fact that yall believe in what I am doing here is what keeps driving me on to do it even better.

Enjoy the new site.

James, the D.T.S. Guy