Samuel Gross

Austin

Writer and Reporter and Copywriter at Freelance

Writer/journalist/editor/filmmaker. @NYTimes, @Rollingstone, @texasmonthly, @texashighways etc. Everything interests me. Venmo @Joe-Gross-65. Big tsundoku.

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Articles

Psych, Blues, and Conjunto Festivals Headline Our Crucial Concerts

1 month ago | austinchronicle.com | Derek Udensi |Carys Anderson |Samuel Gross |Tim Stegall

Friday 25, Radio/EastLast year, Silverada took the cover of the Chronicle as the hard-driving country quintet shed the Mike & the Moonpies moniker they’d ridden for nearly two decades and reloaded for the next phase of the band. Their ethos remained the same, though, with a grinding mindset and crowd-winning combination of rocked-out live shows and sincere ballads that has carved their mark on the independent country scene.
Lunar Vacation, Nané Day, and More Crucial Concerts for the Week

1 month ago | austinchronicle.com | Derek Udensi |Carys Anderson |Samuel Gross

Grab the earplugs and hit the clubs Thursday 10, SagebrushThe charm of the Cactus Blossoms arises from the irresistible harmonies of brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum, yet over the past 15 years, the Minneapolis duo has evolved into an eclectic quintet that sweeps across country, blues, and vintage rock & roll to expand their sweet, Everly-esque connection.
SXSW Film Review: Cotton Candy Bubble Gum

2 months ago | austinchronicle.com | Samuel Gross

The first thing you need to know about Carter (Nick Darnell) is that he has the anxiety, to the point that he has a fanny pack worn across his chest, full of cotton candy bubble gum, which he chews when he feels a panic attack coming on. The second thing you need to know about Carter is that he lives with his beloved mom, a seemingly cushy arrangement until a new potential stepdad (Rodney J. Hobbs) says he has to move out.
SXSW Film Review: For Worse

2 months ago | austinchronicle.com | Samuel Gross

A divorced woman over 50 vs. the millennials in her life Does two movies make a trend? Does it have to be three? For Worse is the second movie of SXSW 2025 that focuses on a divorced woman in her 50s trying to make sense of the culture that now surrounds her. Hilarity does in fact ensue and in a different tone and timbre from its secret sharer, Fantasy Life.
SXSW Film Review: Fantasy Life

Mar 9, 2025 | austinchronicle.com | Samuel Gross

The Gen X movie canon is well-known: Slacker, Singles, the Before trilogy, Grosse Pointe Blank, and so on. SXSW Narrative Competition feature Fantasy Life – about a nervous, 35-year old manny who falls for his 52-year old boss – is an interesting addition to the roster.
SXSW Film Review: The Spies Among Us

Mar 8, 2025 | austinchronicle.com | Samuel Gross

Peter Keup, a former political prisoner in East Germany, holds up proof that his brother was secretly informing on their family As the depressingly relevant documentary The Spies Among Us chronicles, when Peter Keup, a German dancer and dance instructor was about 54, he learned that his long-deceased brother, Uli, was an informant for the Stasi, East Germany’s terrifying and infamous secret police. This new knowledge upended Keup’s life.
SXSW Film Review: Another Simple Favor

Mar 7, 2025 | austinchronicle.com | Samuel Gross

A Simple Favor, the fun-yet-tonally-baffling 2018 comedy-noir about a mom vlogger (Anna Kendrick) who becomes entangled with an impossibly cool con artist (Blake Lively) built a word-of-mouth cult on Kendrick’s comic chops, Lively’s incredible suits, and their sexual tension. The sequel is more yet less. Again directed by Paul Feig from a script written by a returning Jessica Sharzer (and Laeta Kalogridis), Another Simple Favor takes the duo to Capri – the gals go Italian, essentially.
SXSW Doc Tells the Story of Local Psych-Punk Legends Butthole Surfers

Mar 6, 2025 | austinchronicle.com | Samuel Gross

Butthole Surfers There’s a photo you’ve seen before. It’s of Willie Nelson, the late psychedelic rock pioneer Roky Erickson, and Gibby Haynes, singer in the Butthole Surfers. It was taken in Luck, Texas, by photographer Scott Newton in 1995. There is straw on the floor and they are in front of a Texas flag, which looks huge but is the size of a flag you might see flying at a car dealership.
Mdou Moctar's Quiet Revolution

Feb 26, 2025 | rollingstone.com | Samuel Gross

February 26, 2025 Nelson Espinal* There have always been two sides to the music of Nigerien guitarist and bandleader Mdou Moctar: the electric and the acoustic, the sweaty ballroom and the evening campfire, the wedding dance and the lament. If Mdou Moctar’s terrific 2024 album Funeral for Justice was the electric sound of the furious political protest, Tears of Injustice is the mourning after, the bonding that takes place when people huddle together for strength as your friends are dying and...
A Cult-Classic Doc About Indie Rock's Greatest Feud Returns—as a Meditation on a Revolution That Never Happened | Flipboard

Feb 3, 2025 | flipboard.com | Samuel Gross

NowThe Jonas Brothers Return With A Landmark Smash SingleThe Jonas Brothers are not wasting any time when it comes to making 2025 a productive year. The sibling trio has already released a pair of singles, and the year is only a little more than a month old. As one of those tracks debuts on the Billboard charts, it helps the band score a very important …15 hours agoBen Affleck and brother Casey sport DunKings tracksuits, recruit Jeremy Strong for new Dunkin' Super Bowl adBoston in the house.