ABBA

The Rocks Off 100: Blaggards, Houston's St. Paddy's Day House Band

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 in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Take a little Thin Lizzy and a little ... More >>

Reader's Poll: The Bright Lights Tonight Is Your Favorite Dancing Spot

Houston has so many places to dance, probably hundreds, but what is your absolute favorite? Rocks Off has been wondering about this lately, so Monday we put the question to those of you who like us Facebook, which you should do. Surprisingly (to us), the clear favorite was not a club but The Bright ... More >>

Facebook Weirdness

A&M Shooter Thomas Caffall's Disturbing Facebook Page: Yoda, Emily Dickinson, Commie Guns

Thomas Caffall's mother told the media yesterday that she had been worried about her son's mental state, and from looking at his Facebook page, it's easy to see why. Having a right-wing gun nut in the family is one thing. Having one who goes around quoting Yoda and Emily Dickinson is another. Caffa ... More >>

Girl Gone Wild: Madonna's Top 10 Dance/Club Chart-Toppers

For the past two weeks, Madonna's latest single, "Girl Gone Wild," has been sitting pretty at the top of Billboard's Hot Dance/Club Play chart. That's the chart that tabulates which songs are getting the most spins in discos and dance clubs. It's a cool, upbeat track about losing control of your de ... More >>

Russian Radio: Top 5 Tasty Cold War Synth Jamz

Hey, remember the Russians? Before they had a gajillion oil dollars and all those supermodels, they wanted to kill us all. But it wasn't all creeping dread and mutually assured destruction. Until the Berlin Wall came down, the Cold War was a common subject in popular culture. Besides KGB trenchcoat ... More >>

The American Bandstand (Extended) Hot 100

Somehow it's hard to believe that Dick Clark was only 82 years old when he died after suffering a "massive heart attack" Wednesday morning in Santa Monica, Calif. (Since I managed to survive one myself, I've noticed that anytime someone dies of a heart attack, it's always "massive."). Despite his yo ... More >>

Obama's Best Campaign Strategy: Keep Singing The Blues

After President Obama crooning Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" at a Harlem fundraiser became an unlikely iTunes sensation, even topping the ringtone chart, history is now repeating itself with his version of "Sweet Home Chicago" caught on an episode of PBS' In Performance at the White House Tuesd ... More >>

Your Biggest Fan: When Rockers Get Stalkers

cinemafestival/shutterstock.com​This past week a statement by pop institution Madonna helped put away one of her newest stalkers, Polish citizen Grzegorz Matlok, who broke into Madge's London home and the residence of her ex-hubby Guy Ritchie. Madonna submitted the statement to Southwark Crown ... More >>

Some Girls: When Rock Met Disco And Disco Met Rock

Rent money is for posers anyway. ​Tonight for one night only at the Houston Marq*E Stadium 23, Rolling Stones fans can finally catch The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas, a 1978 concert from the band's Fort Worth stop. The tour came on the heels of the May 1978 release of the band's So ... More >>

The Modern Age: 10 Facts You May Not Know About The Strokes

Marco TorresThe Strokes' Julian Casablancas at ACL 2010​This week marks 12 years since the Strokes debuted as a live band, at NYC's Spiral on September 14, 1999. The crowd, they recall, was five paying customers and assorted band girlfriends - humble beginnings for a band that would be both ex ... More >>

Don Kirshner, Late-Night Rock TV Mogul, Dies At 76

Don Kirshner, the music-business impresario responsible for hits by the Monkees and the Archies, as well as introducing scores of pre-MTV American youth to rock via his late-night network program Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, died Monday. Kirshner, a songwriter, producer and publisher, was 76 and ... More >>

The Ten Funniest Misunderstood Lyrics Ever

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn GrayJust another day of kicking the dancing queen...​Everybody knows that the part in "Purple Haze" where Jimi Hendrix (who died 40 years ago this month) sings "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" sounds a lot like "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy." There's even ... More >>

Ten French Lyrics Google-Translated For Bastille Day

​Here at Rocks Off, we loves us some French culture. French toast, French horns, French breakfast, The French Connection, French ticklers... wait, never mind. We even took a whole semester in college once. Seriously, though, we are big fans of Bizet, Berlioz, Debussy, Edith Piaf, Air, Justice ... More >>

An Americana "Billie Jean," Fried-Chicken Fight And More Great Shows From The Fabulous Satellite Lounge

[Part 2 of a three-part series. Read Part 1 here.] Richard Thomspon: LOM's brother-in-law called us on a Sunday afternoon and said Thompson was playing the Satellite that night; we'd heard nothing about it. Thompson had just released his rock record, Mock Tudor, and we went what we thought was ear ... More >>

Got Live If You Want It

Our Spring/Summer concert preview, part deux

We Now Present... Steroids, The Musical

The Most Demanding Songs in Rock History

SXSW: Carbon/Silicon, Ting Tings, Santogold, MGMT, The Cribs, White Rabbits, Supersuckers and Robyn

The Houston 100: The Master List

Robbie Fulks and Danny Barnes

Robbie Fulks and Danny Barnes perform Tuesday, October 17, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk. Call 713-528-5999 for more info.

True Aim, Blue Flame

How Elvis Costello turned his eclectic nature into career gold

Mama Mia

Our blushing Nightfly takes his Catholic mom to see R. Kelly

The Easy Road

In Honky Tonk Angels, three gals get what they wish for -- but the audience doesn't

Christmas in July

Six dozen of Houston's finest bands for a mere $7

Guilty Pleasures, Part II

More music figures confess their deep, dark secrets

New Angels in Rock Heaven

Scoring the grim reaper's 2004 harvest

Classics Rock

Which Greek god is your favorite musician?

The Class of '03

Grab your gift certificates and trade in your white elephants -- here's what you really wanted for Christmas

Drastic Unilateral Action

Universal hopes to JumpSTART flagging CD sales with aggressive price cuts. Who benefits the most?

Ratt Steaks

Austin's Meat Purveyors beef up their songbook with unlikely grade-A covers

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

The Velvet Viking

Norwegian phenom Sondre Lerche brings his precocious sunny-day pop straight outta the fjords

Letters

Elvis Costello

When I Was Cruel (Island Def Jam)

Law of Averages

Jason Salavon sets his computer in motion and sits back to see what it tells us about ourselves

Crap Shoot

Nothing's guaranteed at SXSW - not even a seat to Dee Dee Ramone's show

Static