Jesse Sublett

His essays and journalism have appeared in a wide range of publications, and he is also known for his mystery novels featuring a bass-playing sleuth named Martin Fender.

With his replacement on guitar, Jon Dee Graham, the band saw some touring success as headliners and as opening act for The Clash, The Ramones, and John Cale.

Sublett's 2004 memoir, Never the Same Again: A Rock 'N' Roll Gothic,[4] relates the story of his girlfriend's murder when he was 22, his career with The Skunks, and his battle with throat cancer.

[18] Austin Chronicle critic Greg Beets described it as "a gripping memoir that never feels forced or emotionally manipulative... Sublett's prose remains rich, fierce, and humbling.

"[19] "Adaptation," Sublett's 2008 piece in The Texas Observer, chronicles his years-long work researching and writing a book about the Austin underworld of the 1950s-1970s, centered largely upon a group known as the Overton Gang.

The Austin Chronicle called it "a remarkable piece of scholarship" that "makes you think that Sublett should be hailed as an Ellroy-level master of modern crime writing.

The book is "a rollicking narrative of a criminal underworld," wrote critic Jason Mellard, as well as "an exemplary microhistory with close attention to currents that broader accounts of modern Austin have missed, if not outright ignored.

[25] Sublett's adaptation (written with director/producer Stephen Purvis and Tom Huckabee) of the Austin play In the West was produced as a feature film entitled Deep in the Heart (of Texas).

[26][27] Sublett has also written extensively for non-fiction television, contributing to numerous series broadcast on History such as The Great Ships, Search and Rescue, and Boneyards: The Secret Lives of Machines."