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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2011 Stories by Chris Gray

• Erasure

  published September 22, 2011

  It's now been a full quarter-century since Erasure's debut The Innocents, but you'd never know it. Back from wherever it is arty electro... More >>

• Touch the Sky

  published September 22, 2011

  Since I skipped last year's Austin City Limits Music Festival, I must have been trying to make up for lost time. Friday I bounced around... More >>

• Midtown Throwdown

  published September 22, 2011

  After years of covering other people's festivals, the Houston Press has decided to toss our own hat in the ring with this weekend's... More >>

• Evening Shadows

  published September 22, 2011

  When Chatter asked Carolyn Wonderland how many Houston Press Music Awards she's won, she confessed she couldn't remember, as she was often... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  ACL: Arcade Fire, Big As The Great Outdoors

  published Sep 19, 2011

  Check out all our ACL 2011 coverage, including our hottest crowd shots and slideshow from Sunday featuring Randy Newman, Arcade Fire and The Walkmen. Arcade Fire Bud Light Stage, Austin City Limits M... More >>

• ACL: The Sound (Or Lack Thereof) & The Fury

  published Sep 18, 2011

  Check out all of our coverage from ACL 2011, including our hottest crowd shots and our slideshow from Saturday with Stevie Wonder and Alison Krauss. When a bleary Rocks Off arrived at the media area ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  ACL Last Night: The One, The Only, Stevie Wonder

  published Sep 18, 2011

  Check out all of our coverage from ACL 2011, including our hottest crowd shots and our slideshow from Saturday with Stevie Wonder and Alison Krauss. Stevie Wonder Austin City Limits Music Festival Bu... More >>

• ACL: Black Dub In The Hour Of Tranquility

  published Sep 17, 2011

  Check out all of our coverage from ACL 2011, including our hottest crowd shots and our slideshow from Saturday with Stevie Wonder and Alison Krauss. It's been a low-key afternoon. It rained again. St... More >>

• ACL: Molly's Revenge & Other Encounters

  published Sep 17, 2011

  Check out all of our coverage from ACL 2011, including our hottest crowd shots and our slideshow from Friday featuring Kanye West and Coldplay. At Zilker field. As Friday's shadows lengthened, a youn... More >>

• ACL: Adele & Mumford & Sons - Not Here, But Here

  published Sep 16, 2011

  3:30 p.m. Still they file in. Watching the crowds trudge along Barton Springs Road, their eyes fixed on the pavement about five yards in front of them (not their phones), always reminds Rocks Off of ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Five Can't-Miss Acts At ACL Fest This Year

  published Sep 15, 2011

  For weeks after we skipped last year's Austin City Limits Music Festival to man the controls in Houston, Rocks Off found ourselves thinking, "Man, I wish I would have gone just to see Richard Thompson... More >>

• Five ACL Acts We're Totally Not Making Up

  published Sep 15, 2011

  Aloha, Susan... Stevie Wonder Coldplay Arcade Fire Kanye Kanye Kanye blah blah blah yada yada yada. Rocks Off could write about this year's ACL headliners until we're blue in the face - and we prob... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  10 Houston Artists Who Should Be Playing ACL This Year

  published Sep 14, 2011

  Rocks Off has been putting it off as long as we can, but we have finally started seriously thinking about this weekend's Austin City Limits Music Festival. And the more we thought about it, the more i... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  BestFest Finalizes Lineup, Releases Schedule

  published Sep 14, 2011

  ... More >>

• Texas Pop Festival Finally Getting Historical Marker

  published Sep 13, 2011

  Rocks Off can't do anything about the drought, but this weekend we will be breaking our own personal drought and returning to the Austin City Limits Music Festival after taking 2010 off. But long bef... More >>

• ECHO Lounge 8th Anniversary

  published September 15, 2011

  Jet Lounge, which officially becomes ECHO Lounge as of this weekend, is sort of the little engine that could of the local music scene. The tiny... More >>

• Ana Popovic

  published September 15, 2011

  If there's one place that loves the blues more than Houston (and, okay, Chicago), it's Europe. Back when there was still a Yugoslavia, Belgrade... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Friday Night: Sideshow Tramps CD Release At Fitzgerald's

  published Sep 12, 2011

  Sideshow Tramps Fitzgerald's September 9, 2011 If Aftermath doesn't have to be at the office first thing in the morning, sometimes we let our personal hygiene slide a little. Some days stretch well i... More >>

• Sittin Sidewayz: Paul Wall Busted For Pot In El Paso

  published Sep 12, 2011

  Paul Wall followed in the footsteps of his outlaw country heroes over the weekend... all the way to jail. Wall, fellow Houston rapper Baby Bash ("Suga Suga") and producer BiggRoy were arrested early ... More >>

• BestFest Adds Los Skarnales, The Last Place You Look, Umbrella Man & Honky Tonk Blood Trio

  published Sep 07, 2011

  ... More >>

• Saturday Night: Wild Men Of Rock At The Continental Club

  published Sep 06, 2011

  Wild Men of Rock feat. Andre Williams, Archie Bell, Roy Head, Little Joe Washington, the Allen Oldies Band & special guest Sundance Head Continental Club September 3, 2011 Question: How much "Mustang... More >>

• Leroy Thomas & the Zydeco Roadrunners

  published September 8, 2011

  Lake Charles native Leroy Thomas has driven the "zydeco corridor" so much that he can probably tell you which I-10 rest-stop Subway serves the... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Mink Changes Owners, Management Nearly Overnight

  published Sep 04, 2011

  White Mystery wasn't just the name of the band playing The Mink on Saturday night. There was a palpable feeling of tension and "weirdness," as one person put it, at the Midtown venue as word continued... More >>

• Rocks Off Working It Out On Labor Day

  published Sep 02, 2011

  Rocks Off thinks we'll drink to all of the above. If you find yourself near a computer (or one of them fancy cellular phones with the Internets on there) and feel like doing a little surfing, we'll be... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  10 Awesome, Awful & Odd "Hey Jude" Covers

  published Sep 02, 2011

  This week in 1968, The Beatles inaugurated their Apple Records label in a most auspicious fashion, releasing "Hey Jude" as a 45. The B-side was "Revolution." Written by Paul McCartney and employing a ... More >>