Adele (Singer)

SXSW's Class of 2008: Where Are They Now? (w/VIDEO)

My first true SXSW with the Houston Press and Rocks Off was way back in March 2008, when I was given a wristband to explore/maraud Austin looking for trouble and new bands. This was a time when Justice and MSTRKRFT were what would be called EDM now, and Israel's Monotonix was flipping every wig in t ... More >>

Best Shows In Houston This Weekend: Rebelution, Graveyard, Every Time I Die, Walker Lukens, Etc.

Rebelution With J Boog, Hot Rain House Of Blues, Friday, 8 p.m., February 22 For a clue on just how much Rebelution must love ganja, beyond even the exquisitely explicit "So High" on its 2012 release Peace of Mind, consider that the Santa Barbara reggae-pop crew also issued acoustic and dub version ... More >>

Way to Suck All the Fun Out of the Grammys, New CBS Dress Code

With CBS still smarting from its bungling of the Super Bowl XLVII blackout coverage and a (supposed) Beyonce halftime nip-slip, earlier this week the network's Program Practices wing released wardrobe guidelines for Grammy Awards attendees. With the awards show happening this coming Sunday evening ... More >>

The Best-Selling Albums On Our Top 30 Texas Albums List

One thing you will notice about our Texas 30 list is that not everything that made the cut was a best-seller, though the albums have been heavily influential and may be in everyone's private collection. Just look at all the satellite blogs we have written around the Texas 30 mentioning the albums th ... More >>

The 30 Best Texas Albums

Ranking the 30 best Texas albums of the past 30 years seemed like an impossible task. We did it anyway.

10 Surprising Things About This Year's Grammy Nominations

This year music has been dominated by viral pop like "Call Me Maybe" and "Gangnam Style," songs that initially became "hits" from outside the music business' traditional delivery system, usually YouTube. Thursday, the Grammys recognized that by nominating "Maybe," by 17-year-old Justin Bieber proteg ... More >>

Terminal Confusion: Why Are These the UK's Most Popular Funeral Songs?

Recently, a survey conducted in the UK revealed the most popular songs played at funerals. The big news everyone seems to be talking about is that Adele's "Someone Like You -- a song all about how replaceable a person is -- made it to No. 22. But we here at Rocks Off find the Top 5 equally confoundi ... More >>

Marvin Gay, Sr., and the 10 Worst Rock-Star Parents of All Time

Twenty-eight years ago this week, Marvin Gay, Sr., received a six-year suspended sentence and five years of probation for the voluntary manslaughter of his son, the R&B legend Marvin Gaye. Gay pled guilty after shooting his namesake dead in the L.A. home given to him and his wife by Gaye, who was 44 ... More >>

Study: Free Press Summer Fest Brought Houston $14 Million

Is Adele's "Skyfall" the Worst Bond Theme of All Time?

Fifty years after the release of the very first Hollywood adaptation of Ian Fleming's superspy, James Bond returns to make his 23rd appearance on the silver screen this month in Skyfall, Daniel Craig's third crack at the character. The media blitz for the film's premiere is already in full effect, l ... More >>

Shape Shifter: A Conversation With Icon of Style Carlos Santana

National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed annually between September 15t and October 15 as a celebration of the positive cultural impact Hispanic and Latino Americans contribute to this country. This year, guitarist Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carlos Santana was honored by Macy's as the Hispanic ... More >>

HPMA Showcase: DJ Afterparty at Jet Lounge

HPMA Showcase: The 12 Best Artists of 2012 HPMA Showcase: Rocks Off's Top 7 Discoveries HPMA Showcase: Sunday's 11 Best Random Moments SLIDESHOW: HPMA Showcase -- The Bands SLIDESHOW: HPMA Showcase -- The Crowds "After the show it's the afterparty..." -- Jay-Z Another year, another successful ... More >>

Saturday Night: thelastplaceyoulook at Warehouse Live

thelastplaceyoulook Warehouse Live July 7, 2012 Music is subjective, and when it hits you is oftentimes related to the circumstances under which you hear it. Maybe you're driving around when a song comes on the radio, and it makes your ears perk up. Something about it -- a voice, a riff, a beat - ... More >>

Digital Chaos: 8 Experiments In Wub Machine Remixing

Contrary to what they want you to think, Diddy his crew at Bad Boy did not invent the remix. If you really wanted to meet the people who first made dance remixes you'd have to go back a bit further in music history, to the land of the mid-'70s. In sweaty discos across the land people were looping so ... More >>

Who's Got the Power?: The Musicians On Forbes's Most Powerful Celebrities List

Fame and fortune might not be the ultimate goal for every person to ever write a song or learn an instrument, but it is for a lot of people out there. It would be lovely to believe that music is done 100% of the time for the "right" reasons, but most of us are cynical enough to know otherwise. Some ... More >>

The 5 Worst Musical Careers By Professional Boxers

Rocks Off is waiting for the day that our 52-year-old mother sits us down for a serious talk and says that she's ready to pursue her dream of becoming a rapper. She'll say, "Mi hijo, you know Lil Casper's mom, Brenda, on 4th Street? Her boyfriend set up a home studio for her. She's spitting that ... More >>

Going The Distance: The Hot 100's 10 Longest-Charting Songs

Let us hop in our time machine and head back to a magical place in the past known as Dec. 23, 2010. Here is a snapshot of things going on at the time: Rocks Off was making wishes for the year 2011; Kanye West was knee deep in Album of the Year wins for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy; Eddie Vedder ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Friday 3/16/2012

If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the chaos, Village Voice Media's roving music editors have selected t ... More >>

Women On Top: 10 Female Artists We're Way Into Right Now

March is Women's History Month, and Rocks Off has been thinking a lot lately about the indelible contributions to popular music made by women over the last few decades. After all, where would Elvis Presley be if it weren't for Big Mama Thornton? Probably still dead, we guess, but you get the point. ... More >>

Saturday Night: Praia Urbana At Last Concert Cafe

Praia Urbana Last Concert Cafe March 10, 2011 Between the unrelenting rain and RodeoHouston traffic, Saturday night got a little messy as Aftermath attempted to weave through the outskirts of downtown for the Last Concert Café's all-day electronica festival Praia Urbana. Nevertheless, considerin ... More >>

Billy Gibbons Interviewed: New ZZ Top Album Sounds Like Tequila

With ZZ Top ready to rock RodeoHouston Thursday, Rocks Off began to ponder whatever happened to the band's long awaited new-album. Last summer, guitarist Billy Gibbons told Rocks Off that the band's first collection of new material since 2003's Mescalero would arrive in stores this winter. So far ... More >>

Friday Night: John Legend At Reliant Stadium

John Legend RodeoHouston, Reliant Stadium March 2, 2012 With a soft smile, seducing glare, and smooth voice, John Legend hit the Rodeo Friday night with his brand of neo-soul, hip-hop and R&B for HLSR's Annual Black Heritage Day. The Springfield, Ohio native, nee John Roger Stephens, looked very co ... More >>

The Beats Go On As Grammys Take Care Of Their Own

Hands up, everyone who is surprised.​The Grammy Awards on CBS Sunday night could have easily turned into a wake - or worse, a funeral. After Whitney Houston's death Saturday, the mood was appropriately somber until a dance party broke out, or perhaps a coming-out party for dance music. Foreve ... More >>

We Tell You Who Will Win Grammys So You Don't Have To Watch Them

SPOILER ALERT​The best thing about the annual Grammy nominations and awards shows is the clamor of anger that rises up when the mere mention of the event even comes up. Immediately people begin calling it a travesty, trotting out all the people who have been snubbed -- Jethro Tull beats Metall ... More >>

Killin' Them Softly: Celebrating 75 Years Of Roberta Flack

To strike someone with the "underrated greatness" term always carries a bit of weight behind it. You know, the quick snap question of "do they deserve it" comes to mind. Sorry, in the class of underrated greatness, diva subsection, lives Roberta Flack who at the platinum age of 75 still takes risks ... More >>

"Dude, You're Getting Adele." Better Late Than Never...

The best joke in the music business right now is, according to Cactus Music's Quinn Bishop, something frequently heard recently at his cash register: "Dude, you're getting Adele." Even I bought 21 yesterday, the swiping of a credit card that completed a cycle that began several months ago. One nigh ... More >>

5 Places I'd Rather Play Than Saturday Night Live

​Recently I returned to being an active musician, and that is peachy with a side of keen. Like most musicians, I'm a day dreamer who spends his bathtub time answering in-depth questions from imaginary hot, red-headed music journalists about the undeniable genius of my art. Also returning are t ... More >>

Golden Throats: Rock Star Health Care in 2012

Last June, current radio darling Adele was forced to cancel a large portion of her North American tour, disappointing scores of twenty-something year old easy-listeners in the process. The culprit? Laryngitis -- the age-old bugaboo of vocalists and recording artists. The diagnosis seemed relative ... More >>

RIP Etta James: A Dynamic Voice And An R&B Legend

​Etta James, whose fiery voice helped influences generations of R&B singers, has died at the age of 73, after a long bout with leukemia. James, known best for her ballad "At Last", had been ill for sometime, and had went home to be with family just a few weeks ago around the holidays. Accord ... More >>

The 39th Pazz And Jop Poll Features Quite A Few Surprises

​And by surprises, I mean that I didn't like most of the albums in the top ten. Usually I fall lock-step in with the crowd, but this year not so much, with my love for arena-rock and Americana dominating my list. Pazz And Jop is the Village Voice's annual critics' poll, with critics from music ... More >>

Forget St. Elmo's Fire: Five Better Tim Tebow Remakes (From Slayer, Adele & Eric Clapton)

The world has been blessed not only by the presence of Tim Tebow, but by the re-emergence of John Parr, who was so inspired by the need to make a quick buck that he produced a Tebow-ized version of his hit "Man in Motion (Theme From St. Elmo's Fire)." To be honest, it wasn't exactly a song anyone h ... More >>

Thank You Tebow God: Five Better Tim Tebow Remakes Than The St. Elmo's Fire Theme

We know next to nothing about football, past 1996 when the the Oilers left, but anyone with any sort of social media account knows who Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow is. The Christian extrovert has brought prayer back to the forefront of the national conversation, and now "Tebowing" - taking a ... More >>

The 10 Best Songs of 2011 You Didn't Hear

​I have absolutely no clue what is going on out there. I know that Beyoncé had that song with the counting, Adele had a song that was maybe about doing ecstasy in a pool, and some guy with a beard got nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy even though For Emma, Forever Ago came out literally ... More >>

Happy 30th, Amy Lee of Evanescence; Six Reasons We Like You

​While Evanescence and their lead singer, Amy Lee, continue to find mainstream success (their most recent album was number one on the charts when it was released in October), they are a band that is maligned in the same way as other polished heavy bands like Creed and Nickelback, though we are ... More >>

Five Curiosities from the Grammy Nominations List

The Grammy nominations were officially presented last night. Not surprisingly, Adele, who is considered a front runner in nearly every category she is nominated in, cleaned up with six nominations for her album 21, but was beaten out by Kanye West who had seven, though curiously not among them a nod ... More >>

French Onion Soup & Deathbugs: Our Nine Musical Turkeys Of 2011

Danzig Shame on us for thinking that a Danzig show would go off without a hitch, and infinite shame on Glenn Danzig for the debacle that was his "appearance" at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin. We will never look at French onion soup ever again without bellowing "Mother". Lulu We're not mad at Metall ... More >>

Do Hit Singles Still Help Sell An Album?

J: Cole: Zero hit singles, 218K first-week sales.​​The music industry has been reeling from a host of ailments, none more severe than crippling record sales. Fortunately, 2011 has been a strong year so far, with CD sales on the rise. Spearheaded by the likes of Adele, Lady Gaga and Lil Wayn ... More >>

The 12 Best Remakes of Hip Hop and Pop Songs by Heavy Bands

​Rock bands covering music in a different genre can sometimes be a sensitive subject. You have people that love both genres separately but then there are fans who prefer their music to be a bit blended. Punk Goes... is a series of compilation albums that feature punk rock artists covering m ... More >>

Adele Cancels U.S. Tour Due To Bad Vocal Chords (UPDATED)

UPDATE (6:56 p.m.): According to Live Nation, the show will "most likely" be rescheduled, so you may not want to cash in on those refunds just yet. Stay tuned. Chart-topping, world-beating British neo-soul singer Adele has canceled her upcoming U.S. tour, including a stop at the Cynthia Woods Mitch ... More >>

Father Figures: 100 Famous Musicians' Paternal Professions

If you're a Texan of a certain age, this week you've probably spent some time mourning the death of Jerry Haynes, the children's TV host better known as Mr. Peppermint. Haynes' show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Peppermint Place, ran from the '60s to the '90s and was widely syndicated across the state, incl ... More >>

BestFest: thelastplaceyoulook Rolls In The Deep & All That Jazz

Photos by GroovehouseHair of the Dog: thelastplaceyoulook's Nava​If you missed Hell City Kings, the first band that played today, you missed out on a really religious experience. That could have been because frontman Josh Wolf made the set look like a Christian summer camp. Since it was so ea ... More >>

What's The Leading Cause Of Poor Record Sales?

​Last week, the music world laughed up a hiccup as Lil Wayne pranced around the VMA stage in nut-suffocating, Le Tigre-inspired jeggings. While that performance affirmed that Wayne is no fashion guru, his chart performance a week later reminded us that he's very good at something else-selling ... More >>

George Strait's Top 20 Songs Of All Time: Nos. 20-16

​Tuesday, George Strait released Here For a Good Time, by our count his 39th album overall. Some may call that the Madness of King George, but Rocks Off the Elder and Younger have both heard Good Time; we both think it's one of his stronger sets, continuing the bout of second wind (Third? Four ... More >>

2 Become 1: Musical Match-Ups We'd Like To See

​Kanye "Hitler" West and Jay-Z released their (overused music writer word alert) epic Watch the Throne album this week, to mostly great reviews. This fall the first fruits from the recently announced Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration should be on the store shelves, which still sorta weirds us o ... More >>

Five '60s Soul Stars Jay-Z & Kanye West Should Hit Next

thelocal478.comWelcome back to Billboard, Otis.​Say what you will about Watch the Throne - and people, including several members of Team Rocks Off, have said a lot - but it's all anyone in music seems to be talking about these days. Which makes sense; it's not every day that two megastars (the ... More >>

Arctic Monkeys & The Rock N' Pop Class Of 2006

Arctic Monkeys, Version 2011​This past decade, 2006 was one of the better years in music, with a ton of debuts, great albums and catchy singles. It was also the year this member of Rocks Off started putting his musical critiques into a computer, joining the great circus known as the music indu ... More >>

Saturday Night: Sade & John Legend At Toyota Center

Photos by Groovehouse​Sade, John Legend Toyota Center July 23, 2011 See more smooth operation from Sade & John Legend in our slideshow. As word of Amy Winehouse's death spread across the Internet Saturday, another British soul singer was preparing to perform in Houston for the first time in ... More >>

The Black Lips

The Black Lips' Favorite Garage Albums & Bands

Zach Wolfe​In the Black Lips' recent video for "Go Out and Get It," the Atlanta garage boys are seen on a cruise ship and on some tropical beach surrounded by vacationing bikini-clad hipster gals, all messy hair and sunglasses, sipping drinks like some endless Sunday Funday. The band will be ... More >>

A Classic-Rock-Free Morning