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We're Interested in Matthew Gray
Carmen Holt
The
same spirit of artful enterprise that got Matthew Gray's whimsical
indie-pop compositions noticed by national mags like Paste and Magnet
makes Gray a fitting leader of a multi-medium arts renaissance.
What sets
Matthew Gray apart from other
Denton
musicians who've opened their homes for intimate shows, spending their
last five bucks on hot dog buns and risking noise violations to provide
havens for experimentation?
Well, Gray has long been an institution unto himself, playing under the moniker
Matthew and the Arrogant Sea
before recruiting even one bandmate to join him. The same spirit of
artful enterprise that got the bandleader's whimsical indie-pop
compositions noticed by national mags like
Paste and
Magnet makes Gray a fitting leader of a multi-medium arts renaissance as maestro of the
Bee's Fifth Collective.Not
since the beloved shows at the Yellow House on Mulberry Street, with
its lineage of live-in musicians from bands like jetscreamer and Lift
to Experience, has one house played host to such reliably jaw-dropping
acts. Often, Gray won't say who's set to play the shows at the house
on Texas Street known as Bee's Manor. International cult folk favorite
Peter and the Wolf of Austin has even played there; sets by house show staples like
Fizzy Dino Pop
are more likely caught at the place, well attended by the young
artistic intelligentsia that will propel Denton forward as a city.
And the music is just the beginning.
Sabra Laval and
Sarah Jaffe
are among the artists who've signed on to perform at venues in town at
benefits for the collective, which Gray has said is close to securing a
space to serve the theater, visual and performance art, and film being
made in the area.
When
that happens, the ponytailed Gray will cement ties between key creative
circles that only he could link, and the unified presence of art in
Denton will be unstoppable.