Documentary filmmakers Scott Sloan and Steve LaBate set out from Colorado this summer for 40 consecutive days. Their mission? To create a “state of the union” of rock ’n’ roll through musician interviews and live shows.

One of those nights was spent in Denton, in a neighborhood house known as the Schoolhouse, where bands make the walls buzz with unbridled noise.

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Denton's own Record Hop (above), Doug Burr, Shiny Around the Edges and Manned Missiles were part of a May show filmed for the documentary 40 Nights of Rock & Roll.

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The Schoolhouse managers — if you can call them that in a loose sense — put together an evening that packed a lot of Denton’s musical quirks into a single night in May. Dear Human showed off its instrumental heft; Manned Missiles dealt its poppish garage music; Shiny Around the Edges cut loose with its noisy experimental music; Doug Burr brought the volume down with his folk rock. 

Sloan already knew about Denton, having considered attending the University of North Texas to study music. Because the film’s route was going to pass through Dallas on the way back from Austin, Sloan said the team decided Denton would be a prime spot to let the cameras role.

“Denton is a little bit of an anomaly,” said Sloan, explaining how he and LaBate had to plot an itinerary that would let them drive across the country in 40 days and see a show every night. “I think it’s old school. I think it’s old school in a good way. You’ve got some of the most passionate bands about music. And I’ve never seen a more attentive and tolerant audience.”

Sloan and LaBate’s finished product will be a 90- to 120-minute documentary titled 40 Nights of Rock & Roll. The filmmakers plan to submit their movie for consideration in the 2011 film festival circuit. Sloan said he and LaBate are just now beginning to sift through their footage.

Sloan said Denton bands are known for cranking up the volume, or using a lot of clashing chords and notes in their music.

“In other parts of the country, if the music is really loud or there is a lot of dissonance, the audience will stand there making ‘poo’ face. Not in Denton,” he said. “In Denton, it’s a bit, ‘Let’s turn this up louder.’ I think the attitude is really punk, which is awesome.”

Sloan and LaBate went in search of rock music to take the genre’s temperature. Rap, hip-hop and hip-pop dominate the airwaves, with Latin hip-hop and reggaeton demanding a growing share of the popular music market right now. Sloan and LaBate wanted to find out if rock has been forced into a sort of ghetto, available only to dogged music fans who troll the Internet for new acts, and old acts who aren’t producing in the mainstream or getting noticed by it.

“I’m comfortable saying it: All the trip did was confirm my suspicions about rock ’n’ roll,” Sloan said. “It’s alive and well, and it’s going to be around for a long time to come.”

Pop culture critics have predicted the slow death of rock as record companies have floundered and failed. Sloan doesn’t believe all that.

“The record companies, which pretty much own the magazines who cover music, are just mad because someone killed their cash cow,” Sloan said. “Now people can do music in their garage and put it on iTunes themselves. You can print your own T-shirts and get your own vinyl. Bands have more control than they ever have, which is a bad thing for record companies as more bands are doing just that.”

The filmmakers shot music by some high-profile rock bands and artists: Jon Por, known as Jonsi from the Icelandic band Sigur Ros; Reverend Horton Heat;  Ratt; the Subhumans; Drive-By Truckers and the Dubliners.

They had to plan carefully. Live music is a nightly thing in places like New York City and Los Angeles. In small Midwest towns, the music scene comes alive on Fridays and Saturdays.

Rock ’n’ roll has become a form that is defined by live performance.

“When I was younger, concerts were really just kind of the follow-up to a band’s album,” Sloan said. “You didn’t have to have a great show to sell records. How many rock concerts did you go to in the 1990s that sucked? The bands released these polished albums from the studio, but their shows just sucked. These days, it’s your live show that really matters. That’s where you sell your merch. That’s where you pick up your fans.”

Sloan said music consumption has a part in the rising importance of the live show. Music consumers used to high-tail it to the record store, where they’d either buy an album because the cover art was interesting, or because they’d heard half of a single on the radio. Regardless of why you bought an album, you got familiar with the band because you listened to an entire record — both sides.

Now music lovers collect tracks they hear from the Internet. Often, a few songs will lead a buyer to a live show, where newcomers become converts and fans deepen their music collection.   

Sloan didn’t dodge a question about what constitutes rock ’n’ roll.

“Our discussion point on that was very oriented around the bands,” Sloan said. “Rock ’n’  roll, to me, is much more an attitude, a delivery, the way you convey your message. You can play a banjo and you can play a traditional banjo song, but if you play it aggressively, that’s rock. The big question with rock is: Does it make you want to move? If it makes you want to move, that’s rock. If you’re swing-dancing to a band, that’s rock.”

To follow the production, visit the documentary’s website, www.40nightsofrock.com.

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@dentonrc.com.