Adam Yauch

Last Night: Zac Brown Band at Reliant Stadium

Zac Brown Band Reliant Stadium February 28, 2013 I knew I was going to be a fan of the Zac Brown Band back in May 2012, when just hours after the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch succumbed to cancer, the group came onstage at New Orleans' Jazz Fest to the strains of a Beasties song. It was that simple to ... More >>

Dear Grammys, I'm Breaking Up With You

Dear Stupid Grammys, I have a bone to pick with you. I sat through Taylor Swift's uninspired opening act while she half-sung/half-yodeled at a guy on a spinning bullseye. It was complete with an insulting and transparent Alice in Wonderland costume ripoff (which I'm not getting, by the way... is s ... More >>

Jazz Fest Scores With Willie, John Mayer, Frank Ocean, Fleetwood Mac, Patti Smith, etc.

Well, I never thought that I would have John Mayer and Patti Smith together in the same headline with Willie Nelson and Frank Ocean, but that's why I kinda love New Orleans Jazz Fest 2013, whose lineup was released earlier this morning. Rewind: A Texican in New Orleans: Lessons Learned from Jazz F ... More >>

Those Are People Who Died, Died: Musical Passings of 2012

Rocks Off put it off as long as we could, because December has been a pretty rough month. It always is for music. (Hollywood, too.) But it's time to call the roll of people who played or sang their last note in 2012, plus a few who were just as instrumental offstage. Precious few corners of the mus ... More >>

ACL 2012: Saturday's 9 Best & Funniest Moments at Zilker

The return of terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad rain made Saturday a muddy but fun mess. Thankfully, the downpours didn't dampen the spirits of the crowd on day two of ACL, but it did seem to thin out the herds. Aside from remembering how to walk in inches-deep goop like we did back at the Dillo ... More >>

Fanning the Flames: The Top 10 Performances at Woodstock 99

This week marks the 13th anniversary of Woodstock 1999, the iconic festival's much-maligned third iteration that kinda dissolved into rape and looting towards the end. As 200,000-strong anarchic gatherings go, everything went off rather pleasantly for much of the festival, but the bonfires, looting ... More >>

Be Pure and Tell the Truth: Our 5 Favorite Musical Buddhists

Today His Holiness the Dalai Lama turns 77. Although he didn't officially become the temporal head of Tibet until he was 15, he's made the most of 62 years in the position. He's won a Nobel Peace Prize, advocated for his country and countrymen, and amassed more than 4 million Twitter followers. He' ... More >>

The Houston Film Critics Society Awards: Best of 2012

New Doc The Art Of Rap Spills Hip-Hop's Secrets

Rap wasn't always like Lil Jon's yelling his famous "What!?" and "Okay!", or repeating your name over and over throughout the song like Houston's own Lil Flip. Nowadays most see rap as lyrics telling a woman how to position herself or look for a man, rhymes about money and talk of toking up. But th ... More >>

The End of the Road: Digital Mourning in 2012

At the Houston Press office, I am usually the first person who finds out when a celebrity or musician dies, usually from a wire or, these days, the fine folks at TMZ. Hell, sometimes even when I am away from my desk I have to be the bearer of bad tidings, like when Adam Yauch passed on a few weeks a ... More >>

9 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Alkari, Black Bananas, Chico Trujillo, Etc.

Pot luck show of the weekend: ElecTrick, The Space Villains and Los Area 51 tonight at Rudyard's. Free. It's the big Art Car Weekend, if you haven't heard, and you can get a peek at Saturday's parade at Discovery Green tonight at 6:30 with two solid hours of a murderer's row of local blues greats ... More >>

Metro's Rapping Puppets Make Sweet Beastie Boys Tribute

When December rolls around, of all the days of the year, I imagine I will remember last Friday pretty well. I have not felt the kind of sadness I felt when Craig called from New Orleans to make sure I knew that Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, had died in a while. (I didn't know.) Losing Levon ... More >>

ACL 2012 Rumors: 10 Bands That Could Make the Cut (No, Not Radiohead)

Before we begin, Radiohead is in Europe for the duration of this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival. They will not fly 12 hours to play a field in Austin. Ah, it just wouldn't be May without ACL rumors running rampant. Rocks Off is guilty every year of stoking the fire, sometimes just one day ... More >>

Friday Night: Social Distortion At House Of Blues

Social Distortion House of Blues May 4, 2012 "If it weren't for good black music, there wouldn't be any good white music," Social Distortion's Mike Ness told Friday's House of Blues crowd. "We'd all still be sitting on the porch, blowing over an empty jug and trying to make a decent sound." The bl ... More >>

RIP Adam Yauch: Beastie Boys' MCA Dead At 47

Well, damn. Adam Yauch, the gravel-voiced third of Noo Yawk '80s and '90s rap-rock superstars the Beastie Boys, has died at age 47, Rolling Stone reports. The exact circumstances of his death were unknown at press time, but Yauch had been battling cancer since being diagnosed with a tumor in his sa ... More >>

Star Wars Day: Recasting The Movie With '70s Rock Stars

Today is Star Wars Day, or "May the 4th be with you." Something less than a national holiday but more than a horrific pun, it's evidence that we still very much live in a Star Wars world 35 years after the movie was released, as well as that once the Internet gets ahold of an idea, the rest of us mi ... More >>

Out Today: Beasties Bite Back, Stevie Nicks Gets Witchier

​What's the best way to celebrate the elimination of Osama Bin Laden? Listening to the Foo Fighters' latest album Wasting Light for the fourth week straight, of course. Send help, or at least the announcement of a late-summer or early fall tour date. Come on, man, just one hit. This week's n ... More >>

ACL 2011 Rumors: Ten Bands Who Could Make The Cut

Marco TorresWill ACL close with classic rock again, like with the Eagles last year? Neil Young?​The Austin City Limits Music Festival's big 2011 lineup announcement is imminent, scheduled for May 17, and Rocks Off will surely be on top of the news after it hits. Last year we sat on the compute ... More >>

Top 10 Hottest Jewish Musicians

​The Festival of Lights is upon us, as the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah officially kicks off at sundown tonight. Some of music's leading bigwigs will likely be sparking up the menorah, among them Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Diamond David Lee Roth, Perry Farrell an ... More >>

Bon Jovi, Rock & Roll Hall Of Famers? It Could Happen...

Stay classy, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame...​This morning the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced this year's ballot of nominees, with the winners to be announced in December and inducted next March in New York. Fifteen names are on this year's ballot, ranging from hip-hoppers, proto-metal icons, ... More >>

Man vs. Megastore

Readers respond to "Walmart vs. the Heights."

Turning the Screw: Chalie Boy, Royce da 5'9", Saigon, Soulja Boy, Jay-Z, Adam Yauch, 50 vs. Fabolous, Young Gunz, Method Man, Big Moe, etc.

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "I Look Good" remix, featuring Bun B, Slim Thug and Juvenile Note: We initally hated Chalie Boy's "I Lo ... More >>

Turning the Screw: Chamillionaire & Z-Ro, UGK, Slim Thug, Trae Day, Chris Brown, Meth & Red, Diddy, MCA, O.G. Style and More

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: Chamillionaire feat. Z-Ro, "Denzel Washington" Wire To Wire Slim Thugga cut off his braids. Not sure ho ... More >>

Playbill

Soul Brains (né Bad Brains)

Rotation

Simply Beastie