Akron

How to Get Signed In Five Easy Steps, Starring Hacienda

Maybe it all comes down to being in the right place at the right time. Maybe luck has something to do with it. Or maybe it's crafting a vintage-era sound with odes of talent that landed Hacienda a lottery ticket to musical gold. It's no secret that The Black Keys likes to take on extra projects, a ... More >>

Top 10 Restaurants in the Third Ward

All of Houston's original six wards are rich with history, but none captivate me quite as much as the Third Ward. Once home to the city's wealthiest residents, the area just southeast of downtown has gone through a tremendous amount of change since it was first established in 1836. The Third Ward h ... More >>

Last Night: Devo & Blondie at Arena Theatre

Blondie, Devo Arena Theatre September 19, 2012 What a week for New Wave around here. Psychedelic Furs and Go-Go's still to come, and Blondie and Devo teaming up for the "Whip It to Shreds" tour Wednesday night at the Arena Theatre. New Wave is as good a term as any to describe a style of music tha ... More >>

Pro Football's Birthday: The Oh-So-Manly Hupmobile, A Star Named "Pudge" And Drafting Off Baseball's Heat

For an incredibly high-profile operation like the NFL, the league's beginnings are somewhat murky. A loose collection of teams, players, schedules and shifting alliances, the early days of the league bear almost no resemblance to the streamlined corporate machine that dominates the current sports l ... More >>

Houston Officially Great For Businesses & Careers, If You Believe Forbes (And Who Shouldn't?)

The Forbes magazine item touting Houston as one of the 20 best U.S. cities for businesses and careers has finally gone online, available for maximum touting by the folks who tout such things. Tout away, Mayor Annise Parker: It's great for our city to have national recognition for something Houston ... More >>

The Black Keys

Heartless Bastards

Dio Disciples Keep Ronnie James' Metal Flame Alive

When Ronnie James Dio succumbed to stomach cancer in May 2010 (some reports say it occurred here at M.D. Anderson), heavy metal lost its arguably greatest voice. And with a career spanning decades in bands like Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell, and his own Dio, he left a lot of material to ... More >>

Black Pistol Fire: The Austin Blues Duo's Favorite Bands

Black Pistol Fire whipping it on live​This week we talked to Black Pistol Fire, who headline tonight at Warehouse Live in the studio with Animal Farmacy. The Austin duo and proud transplants from Toronto are loud, aggressive and bluesy. Though they get comparisons to the Black Keys, they don't ... More >>

Freedom of Choice

No time like the present for satirical synth masters Devo.

Devo In Jail: Bassist Gerald Casale Talks 1982 U Of H Arrest

Joshua Dalismer​For a bunch of geeky-looking guys from the Midwest, Devo sure has a knack for trouble. In this week's print feature, bassist Gerald Casale tells Rocks Off how the 1970 National Guard shootings at Kent State University near the band's hometown of Akron, Ohio, "transformed me and ... More >>

The Five Reasons the Dynamo Will Be Back in the Playoffs in 2011

Will the Dynamo be back in the playoffs this year?​The Houston Dynamo kick off their 2011 campaign this Saturday at 7:30 pm, when they host the Philadelphia Union. The Orange look to rebound from an abysmal 2010 season, where they missed the MLS Cup playoffs for the first time since coming to ... More >>

Backmasking Bieber, Black Keys, Kanye, Etc.: What Do You Hear?

​"It's my sweet Satan ... Oh I will sing because I live with Satan." "Turn me on, dead man." "Turned out nice again." "Eat donkey crap." Every since the beginning of rock and roll, listeners and disgruntled parents alike have been searching for hidden meanings in music. Was Paul dead, w ... More >>

Live From The Austin City Limits Festival, Day 3

Marco TorresTrombone Shorty​Craig Hlavaty: News coming out of the media tent: Don Henley of the Eagles had a stent put in his heart this past week. He will be singing and possibly playing guitar, but not exerting himself on drums. This could very well be the last Eagles show for a while - if e ... More >>

Last Night: The Black Keys At The Woodlands

Photos by Marc Brubaker​The Black Keys Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 20, 2010 "Howlin' at midnight, winter creepin' in/ Feel like I've gone and lost my best friend" - Lucinda Williams, "Howlin' At Midnight" Did you see the moon Wednesday night? The "Super Harvest Moon" that, acco ... More >>

Kings of Leon, The Black Keys

Game Time: LeBron James -- A Lesson In Sales

Debase yourself, Cleveland​The older you get, the more you realize that ultimately every decision in life has a "sales" element to it. Getting married, getting divorced, having kids, purchasing a house or a car, choosing a movie, picking an appetizer,...whatever decision it is, there's some level ... More >>

What Rhymes With Anahuac? We Ask The Rapping Weatherman

Nick Kosir, Beaumont's Rapping Weatherman, has a posse​We wrote about Beaumont's rapping weatherman Nick Kosir last week, and as we mentioned then, we weren't the first to do so. ESPN2's Sports Nation, The Huffington Post and the ever-illustrious Ryan Seacrest have all recognized Kosir for his ... More >>

Game Time: Cheer Up Coogs Fan, There's Still A Chance Mack Rhoades Just Has A Killer Sense Of Humor

​Today is the first day of the Shell Houston Open. If you remember, last year the first day had to be postponed because of some nasty winds that had blown into the Houston area. Suffice it to say that if there is a strong breeze in the Houston area on this first day of the Shell Houston Open, it's ... More >>

Ohio Barbecue

The art of smoke, ten years later, at Bobbie Que's Rib Shack.

Dish: Bobbie Que's Rib Shack

UH Begins To Look At Renovating Its Football And Basketball Facilities

Photo by krisandapril​Lost amidst the news of a tuition increase and the "leave of absence" granted to associate basketball coach Marvin Haralson last week at the University of Houston was some big news coming out of the athletic department. That news was the school's retaining of Fortune 500 comp ... More >>

UH Steps Up With Sumlin Contract Extension; Will The Fans Do Their Part?

Photo courtesy UH​Let's hear it for UH Athletic Director Mack Rhoades. He got one of the nation's hottest coaches, Kevin Sumlin, to put his signature to a new six-year contract which is a rather a good deal for the Sumlin and the Cougars. The deal is for six years and $6.8 million with another ... More >>

A Talk With UH's New Athletic Director: Facilities, Graduation Rates And Selling The Program

Photo courtesy UH​Mack Rhoades has been on the job as the University of Houston athletic director for a little over five weeks. He's settling in. He's meeting his coaches and the support staff. He's meeting the players. He's touring the facilities.And he's been thinking and analyzing and tryi ... More >>

True Blood, Episode 10: Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "Frenzy" and a Naked Crazy Town In Peril

Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He's lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood - which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. Though we're picking up midway through Season 2, from here on out as ... More >>

Jessica Lea Mayfield, Castanets

UH's Choice For New Athletic Director: From USC Or Akron?

The University of Houston has supposedly narrowed its search for an Athletic Director to replace Dave Maggard down to two choices. The first choice is Brandon Martin, a former college basketball player for USC who is currently the senior associate AD for the Trojans. The second choice is Mack Rhoade ... More >>

Akron Reacts To Losing Their AD To UH, With A Shrug Of Its Shoulders

As we noted below, UH has itself a new athletic director -- Mack Rhoades from the University of Akron, which we are reliably informed is in Ohio. Or somewhere around there.Speaking personally, we only know of the Akron Zips because that is the purgatory Gerry Faust was banished to for running the No ... More >>

How About Some SXSW Day Parties? A LOT of SXSW Day Parties?

We here at Rocks Off are only about a week away from chafed inner thighs, weird Japanese punk bands puking in hotel pools and sweating out our morning mojitos while walking to an art space off 4th Street. South By Southwest is now only a week away. It was all fun and games in December when we w ... More >>

Pretenders: Break Up the Concrete

Album of the Week: Pretenders, Break Up the Concrete

Pretenders Break Up the Concrete www.thepretenders.com Old punk rockers - or, in this case, post-punks - never die, they just go country. On the Pretenders' first album since 2002's barely-registering Loose Screw, Chrissie Hynde confronts middle age by revisiting the musical styles of the mid-2 ... More >>

Dolemite No More: R.I.P. Rudy Ray Moore

Aftermath: The Black Keys at Meridian

The Black Keys Doggy-Paddle from Akron to Stardom

Rubber City Roots

The 2008 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase Is Filled with Talent and Absurdity

Some of the best rock and roll in town right now is en español

HPMA Aftermath: Indian Jewelry, Wild Moccasins, Espantapajaros, Poor Dumb Bastards and More

"Vivid Vernacular" at the Menil Collection

This show may be small in scale, but it's worth some time

SXSW: Health, The Cribs, The Black Keys, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead

Big Mac Boogie

Would You Like Fries with Those Lyrics?

Heartless Bastards

The Heartless Bastards perform Wednesday, January 17, at the Continental Club, 3700 Main, 713-529-9899.

Conflict of Interest

A gay Republican for City Council?

¡Viva Eléctrico!

Spain's answer to Devo brings the Korgs

Mötley Goüge

Wanna hang out with Vince Neil? Got an extra five grand on ya?

Gravity Games

Future racing stars gun it at the Greater Houston Soapbox Derby

Rust Belt Blues

The Black Keys bounce their Rubber Factory out of Akron, Ohio

The Black Keys

thickfreakness (Fat Possum)

Bow-Tied Wonder

Plus: Boola Boola, Fault and Pepper, On Blue Berryhill

Played Out

The filmmakers have consumed all the standard clichés and yakked them up in the humorless Rock Star

Deep Shallow

Undercover cop film is underdeveloped, too

Sound Check