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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2012 Stories by Chris Gray

• Saturday Night: Brian Setzer Orchestra's "Christmas Rocks" at Arena Theatre

  published Dec 17, 2012

  Brian Setzer Orchestra Arena Theatre December 15, 2012 Within the taxonomy of rock and roll, rockabilly (bless its hot rod heart) can get dismissed as a one-trick pony with a ducktail for a mane and ... More >>

• Introducing the Texas 30: The 30 Best Texas Albums of the Past 30 Years

  published Dec 12, 2012

  We forget if it was Muhammad the Prophet or a different kind of prophet, Willie Nelson, who answered the question about why he climbed the mountain with a simple, "Because it's there." In Willie's ca... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Behold the Texas 30, Plus Albums 40-31

  published Dec 12, 2012

  At this point, hopefully you know what the Texas 30 is and why Rocks Off is counting down to the Top 30 Texas albums of the past 30 years, as determined by a statewide panel of professional music writ... More >>

• Trish & Darin

  published December 13, 2012

  Sunny folk-pop siblings Trish & Darin (Murphy) were one of Houston's most popular local acts in the early and mid-'90s before being bitten by the... More >>

• Kinky

  published December 13, 2012

  In the same class as Cafe Tacuba, Kinky is a Mexican alt-rock band no stranger to electronic music and hip-hop. The group formed in Monterrey in... More >>

• New Orleans Suspects

  published December 13, 2012

  If you think New Orleans music can't show you something new, or that the Neville Brothers, Meters, and the Radiators have funkdafied you as much... More >>

• The Texas 30: The Second Runners-Up, Albums 50-41

  published Dec 11, 2012

  On our computer, Rocks Off has been looking at that damn Texas 30 spreadsheet so long our eyes are frosting over. Monday we said about 400 different albums were spread across the ballots we received f... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  The 30 Best Texas Albums

  published December 13, 2012

  Enough about Townes Van Zandt already. No disrespect to the Fort Worth-born singer, who kick-started his career as an existential... More >>

• The Texas 30: The Third Runners-Up, Albums 60-51

  published Dec 10, 2012

  Friday, Rocks Off told you about our "Texas 30" project, compiling a list of the best 30 albums of the past 30 years. Today we're about to show you the first of three bubbling-under appetizer lists we... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Fans Mourn Popular Mexican-American Banda Singer Jenni Rivera's Death

  published Dec 10, 2012

  Fans reacted with a mixture of sadness and disbelief to the news that Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera, "la Diva de la Banda," was apparently killed in a plane crash in Northern Mexico early Sunda... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: December 10-13

  published Dec 10, 2012

  Sometimes when things look slowest, like this week, that's good reason to go out anyway. You never know what might be lurking out there - just not Rick Ross and friends, which remember is canceled. Fo... More >>

• Serrano's Rap Coloring Book to Become Actual Book

  published Dec 07, 2012

  Some weeks ago, Rocks Off told you that one of our writers, Shea Serrano, had constructed a Tumblr featuring his drawings of various rappers and curated by the King of the Trill, Bun B, called the "Ra... More >>

• Coming Next Week: The Texas 30

  published Dec 07, 2012

  One day this summer, it must have been, a certain Mr. Craig Hlavaty brought a book he had found at a Houston-area thrift shop called (the) Genuine Texas Handbook into the office. This book is about ev... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  5 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: December 7-9

  published Dec 07, 2012

  Come See My Dead Person Walters, December 8 The gypsy-punks in Come See My Dead Person have come out of hibernation to release an eponymous new 13-song set of songs. The manic pickin', the boisterou... More >>

• 10 Surprising Things About This Year's Grammy Nominations

  published Dec 06, 2012

  This year music has been dominated by viral pop like "Call Me Maybe" and "Gangnam Style," songs that initially became "hits" from outside the music business' traditional delivery system, usually YouTu... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  RIP Dave Brubeck: "Take Five" Jazz Great Dies at 91

  published Dec 05, 2012

  Dave Brubeck, the professorial jazz pianist and composer whose No. 2 album Time Out was a standard of the Mad Men era, has died at age 91, the Associated Press reported Wednesday morning. Brubeck's ma... More >>

• Uncle Lucius, Brian Keane

  published December 6, 2012

  For some inexplicable reason, Uncle Lucius tends to get lumped into the yee-haw "Texas Music" crowd, when their thoughtful, square-jawed rock and... More >>

• Chris Knight, Cody Canada, Jason Boland

  published December 6, 2012

  For country folk, stripped-down guitar pulls like KILT's "10 Man Jam" seem to be popular around this time of year. However, this House of Blues... More >>

• Civil Twilight

  published December 6, 2012

  Nashville has come a long way in becoming an indie mecca to go along with all the rootsy stuff, but Civil Twilight has come even further. The... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The Rocks Off 100: Miss Leslie, Queen of the Honky-Tonks

  published Dec 04, 2012

  Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're i... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: December 3-6

  published Dec 03, 2012

  Of Montreal, Wild Moccasins, French Horn Rebellion Warehouse Live, December 3 Of Montreal's sunny psych-pop brims with such starry-eyed youthful bliss that it might be a little sobering for aging hip... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The Rocks Off 100: Tyagaraja, Truly Mystical Musician

  published Nov 29, 2012

  Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're i... More >>

• Trae and Z-Ro

  published June 14, 2012

  The original Assholes by Nature, cousins Trae and Z-Ro remain two of Houston's most durable rap heavyweights. A gruff but oddly... More >>

• Wanda Jackson

  published November 29, 2012

  Known as the "First Lady of Rockabilly" since the days she toured with (and briefly dated) Elvis, Jackson is also a honky-tonk queen bar none and... More >>

• Of Montreal, French Horn Rebellion

  published November 29, 2012

  Of Montreal's sunny psych-pop brims with such starry-eyed youthful bliss that it might be a little sobering for aging hipsters to remember that... More >>