Fort Worth’s Bencjones (pronounced “Ben C. Jones”) is about to release a new 3-song EP, Love Got in the Way. He dropped the title track — a moody, synth-heavy, alt-pop banger that reminds me of the mid-2010s hits from artists like Cobra Man and Twin Shadow — last Friday in anticipation of the new collection’s Oct 7 debut. It will be the producer/multi-instrumentalist’s third EP, in addition to the four albums and three singles he’s put out since 2019, and for his new one, he’s signed with renowned, long-running, Dallas indie label Idol Records, which has been home to many beloved North Texas acts such as The Old 97’s, Flickerstick, Centro-matic, Calhoun, and The O’s.
For Love, Jones took on much of the production and engineering work himself. On his previous recordings, he worked with producers Ty Macklin and Peter Wierenga at Alpha and Omega studios in Fort Worth, but he branched out and recorded parts at CPS Studios in North Richland Hills and his own Bencjones Mobile Studios, as well as at Alpha Omega and Wierenga studios, with mixing and mastering by producer Kent Stump (Toadies, Megan Trainor, Joshua Ray Walker) at his Crystal Clear Sound.
Jones reached his deal with Idol almost casually. After playing a show at House of Blues in Dallas, he was backstage chatting with KXT program director Benji McPhail, who, after asking him if he was shopping his new EP around, suggested sending it to Idol founder, Erv Karwelis, who liked what he heard and wanted to add Bencjones to the label’s roster.
What appealed to Karwelis, according to the EP’s press release, was Jones’ “reputation as a versatile multi-instrumentalist and sharp pop craftsman with a knack for memorable hooks.”
Jones’ sound has always been a little all-over-the-place, mixing alt-rock, pop, R&B, and country, but, in Jones’ words, Love Got in the Way is “the result of songs that had been waiting for their moment,” having come from a collection of more rock-oriented material that didn’t fit the sound of his previous record, 2025’s All We Really Needed Was a Chance. Leaning harder into that genre is a return to the guitar-forward sound of his 2019 debut album, Just One Gun, and he said that his new material is like going back to his roots.
Photo by Brant Photography
Portals to the Underground
At the risk of diluting the promotional juice of this publication, I’d like to direct your scrolling/following finger to a few Instagram accounts for show and event notifications: Fortino Promo (@fortinopromo), NoiseROT (@NoiseROT), and Other Voices (@othervoicesdfw). All three of these accounts showcase lower-profile concerts, dance parties, and other music-centric gatherings around Fort Worth, Dallas, and Denton, drawing attention to bands, DJs, and other performers who represent communities and identities that are non-white, nonmainstream, and all over the gender and sexuality spectrums. While it is up to you to show up to things, these accounts offer not-that-secret-if-you’re-looking-for-them pathways to DFW’s under-the-radar music scenes, and, honestly, those spaces are where the coolest shit is happening.
Thanks for Showing Up!
On behalf of everyone in Son of Stan, Pablo & The Hemphill 7, and Darth Vato, I would like to thank the people who came to our show at Tulips FTW last weekend from the bottom of our collective hearts. Seeing 300+ people packed into the venue and singing along to some veteran bands was really something special. While it did feel a little like 2006 because of the percentage of old-heads that made up the crowd (and the bands), the nostalgia I felt was more for the fact that the whole room was engaged with the music in the way people were 20 years ago, when smartphones didn’t exist and everyone just hung out all the time. Of course, some phones did go up (like mine, for example), some pics and videos were taken, some posts were posted, liked, and shared. But, mostly, the room was full of a few hundred people having a blast drinking beers and belting out choruses along with the bands. Thanks again to everyone who shows up for local music. I hope you all know how much that means to the people making it.
