Email Author Chris Gray

Awards

• 2012 - Best of the West/First Amendment Funding, Inc., published February 10, 2011

  "Getting Past the Bouncer"

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2008 Stories by Chris Gray

• A compendium of Cure-related information

  published June 5, 2008

  Since forming in 1976, the Cure has weathered punk, disco, new wave, five presidential administrations (soon to be six) and more lineup changes... More >>

• Graveyard BBQ

  published May 29, 2008

  Guitar Hero is a rising tide that lifts all boats. It certainly raised the fortunes of the Waltham, Massachusetts, four-piece Graveyard BBQ.... More >>

• Band of Annuals

  published May 29, 2008

  Hopefully this visit by Salt Lake City’s Band of Annuals will be a balm to soothe the recent tension between Texas and Utah. From the Jazz... More >>

• Creole Heritage Zydeco & Crawfish Festival

  published May 29, 2008

  This weekend the bayou comes to Baytown for the fourth annual Creole Heritage & Zydeco Festival. On the bandstand, a generous sampling of the... More >>

• Sizing up the summer's classic-rock scorecard

  published May 29, 2008

  Deciding which classic rock shows to attend this summer might be as frustrating as enduring a drum solo by Yes's Alan White, but Wack is here... More >>

• The Mother Truckers: Let's All Go to Bed

  published May 29, 2008

  A slight consonant shift in The Mother Truckers' name yields Them Other Truckers, and where the Austin quartet's 2006 debut Broke, Not... More >>

• Zine Fest Houston

  published May 22, 2008

  Now that everyone and their cat has a blog, it’s hard to remember when being a self-published author took real effort: knowledge of... More >>

• Prom Night

  published May 22, 2008

  Ah, prom. The corsages...the awkwardness...the puking. If for some reason you didn’t get enough of all that back in high school, one of... More >>

• Sour Notes

  published May 22, 2008

  Austin’s Sour Notes play lulling, ghostly, fully realized melodies not terribly far from Bright Eyes or the Decemberists. And they do so with... More >>

• Notable tour sponsorships in U.S. history

  published May 22, 2008

  Unless you're U2 or the Stones and can afford to puddle-jump between gigs in your private jet, touring is expensive. More and more bands are... More >>

• Alex Arizpe Benefit

  published May 22, 2008

  Benefits are by nature bittersweet occasions, but the best ones brim with an ­endorphin-arousing mixture of music and fellowship that blots... More >>

• Pink Martini

  published May 22, 2008

  Portland's Pink Martini has elegantly eased its way to the head of the plush-carpeted lounge pack. The 12-person ensemble, anchored by... More >>

• Great Taste of the Heights

  published May 15, 2008

  Eat your way though one of the city’s most historic neighborhoods at the Great Taste of the Heights food festival. Gathering 20 of the... More >>

• Moulin Rouge

  published May 15, 2008

  After reimagining William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as a Pulp Fiction-style shoot-’em-up, director Baz Luhrmann... More >>

• Smoke, Mirrors and Rainbows

  published May 15, 2008

  Dear Radiohead, It pains me to say this, but I'm afraid that, unlike several thousand of my fellow Houstonians, as well as people from... More >>

• Art Car Block Party

  published May 8, 2008

  It’s time once again to shut down Allen Parkway in the name of ridiculous rides. The Art Car Parade will make its way down the thoroughfare... More >>

• Two Hoots and a Holler

  published May 8, 2008

  Rick Broussard knows his rock and roll iconography — the cover of his long--running Austin band Two Hoots and a Holler’s self-titled... More >>

• Golden Axe

  published May 8, 2008

  Forget Obama and Hillary — the issue truly dividing Americans today is real metal vs. hipster metal, which Spin said last month is the... More >>

• Willie Nelson: One Hell of a Ride

  published May 1, 2008

  At 100 songs clocking in just shy of five hours, Sony's latest dip into Willie Nelson's fathomless catalog, a four-CD behemoth timed to... More >>

• Mike Ness, with Jesse Dayton

  published May 1, 2008

  Before Social Distortion became one of the most successful and longest-running American punk rock bands, personifying outlaw cool (with a... More >>

• The Whigs: Mission Control|What Made Milwaukee Famous: What Doesn't Kill Us

  published May 1, 2008

  Like R.E.M., the Whigs call Athens, Georgia, home. And like R.E.M., they're Southerners who really don't make much of their Southernism. Sure,... More >>

• Billy Budd

  published April 24, 2008

  Nautical tragedy Billy Budd, one of the major operatic works of the last century, has impeccable credentials: a script based on Herman... More >>

• Fabulous Fridays

  published April 24, 2008

  Get a jump start on iFest’s second weekend at Fabulous Fridays, the free lunchtime concert series. Today one of Houston’s... More >>

• The Mighty Orq: To the Bone

  published April 24, 2008

  They must hear it every single show, so it was downright gracious (and no doubt ironic) of the Mighty Orq to thank the people who "yelled 'Play... More >>

• Elf Power, with Lazy Horse and the Missing Files

  published April 24, 2008

  Before amorphous Canadian musical collectives like Broken Social Scene rose to prominence (in certain circles, anyway) with forever-changing... More >>