Alice in Chains

The Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend: Jeezy, CCA Conservation Concert, etc.

Jeezy Arena Theatre, May 17 A self-proclaimed hustler on the mike, the Atlanta rapper known as Young Jeezy has grown up quite a bit since his 2001 debut album dropped under the name Lil J. Rising through the ranks via his several independently released Dirty South mixtapes, he's now sittin' pretty ... More >>

UPDATED: Memorable Houston Concerts of 1992

UPDATE (2:03 p.m.): Alice In Chains was advertised but dropped out, and was replaced with Australia's Baby Animals. The year 1992 was an important one for me as far as Houston concerts are concerned: It's the first time I went to a concert within the Houston city limits, the "Outside Broadcast" leg ... More >>

Lil Keke's Heart of a Hustla

Are These the Most Anticipated Albums of 2013? Seriously?

A Web site (magazine?) called Loudwire posted their list of the most anticipated rock albums of 2013. The first question we have is "anticipated by whom?" Because if the answer is "people who love music," then we've got some major problems here. 10. Motley Crue Really? The tenth most anticipated n ... More >>

Is There Any Chance the New Thin Lizzy Album Won't Suck?

This week, Rolling Stone and NME got wind of the fact that '70s hard-rock heroes Thin Lizzy will hit the studio this fall to record their first new album since band founder/leader/icon Phil Lynott's death 26 years ago. The news was actually broken by HotPress.com last week, but it took a while for w ... More >>

Happy Malaria Day! A Feverish Playlist

Tuesday night, as blooming flowers filled the Spring air with a heady fragrance, Rocks Off hung a wreath made of empty insect repellant cans on our door, and gently tucked our young daughter in with mosquito netting in order to ensure Santa Carrier wouldn't visit her with his magic bag of plague. ... More >>

MTV Unplugged's 10 Strangest Moments

Those of you fond of criticizing the lack of music on MTV, take note: The network's venerable Unplugged series returns on Sunday with a performance by British indie-poppers Florence and the Machine. It'll be the first of eight shows planned for this year, with The Civil Wars and Dierks Bentley alrea ... More >>

Kick It Out: 9 Other Great Songs by Heart

Heart is one of the most enduring, influential, and underrated rock bands of all time. They aren't afraid to tell you how they feel -- even if they are in a pissed-off mood as they seem to be a good portion of the time with classics like "Barracuda," "Heartless," and "Even It Up." For those of use ... More >>

Tori, Tool, TLC And The Other Musical Debuts Of 1992

1992 was a pretty heady year for music in general, with the masses gobbling up all the gangsta rap, grunge, and pop-country they could. That year would see the release of not only R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People, Peter Gabriel's Us, Pantera's Vulgar Display Of Power, but also what is arguably The ... More >>

The Best & Worst Of All Possible Buzzfests

Photo by Marc BrubakerWe did it all for the nookie.​This weekend is Buzzfest XXVII in Houston, 94.5 The Buzz's bi-annual all-day throwdown at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Rocks Off has covered a few of the shows in the past few years, including the May 2010 edition where we took along ... More >>

The Best Episodes Of MTV's Unplugged

​MTV Unplugged was like health food for your soul during its heyday on the music channel, which was full of junk food. When artists stuck to the template and went untethered to electronic instruments and really dug into their music with new eyes it was amazing. Debuting in 1989 with Squeeze ... More >>

Dazed And Confused 2: A Rock Of Ages For The '90s

​Broadway loves nostalgia, and they also love a sure thing. That's why most of the biggest hit musicals on Broadway right now are jukebox musicals that string together narratives out of popular songs. Musicals like Movin' Out, Jersey Boys, and especially Rock of Ages utilize hits from the past ... More >>

Pumping 1983 Iron With Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Body Workout

​It's no secret that Arnold Schwarzenegger, the onetime Mr. Universe, former California governor, and action hero has found himself in the ultimate life pickle. A failed marriage and 10-year-old love child with a family maid are straining at the image that we all had of the gentle actor and (s ... More >>

Top 10 Worst Top 10 Lists Of 2010

​Now that's a headline, ladies and germs. It has the added benefit of being succinct as well. That's exactly what we're summing up here, the worst Top 10 lists our peers have written this year. Let's get started, as we've got a lot of ground to cover. 10. This One Not really, this is just t ... More >>

Long Live Pik N Pak

Readers trade tales of storied venue.

Happy Anniversary, Nirvana's Nevermind

​This past Friday, a significant musical anniversary came and went with barely a peep. It was only 19 years to the day the last album to cause a legitimate sea change in popular music - both the industry and the art - was released. Rocks Off knows that was a few days ago, but hey, we had a bus ... More >>

FAIL: Kanye And Taylor, Lupe Fiasco, Kings Of Leon

​Taylor and Kanye Need To Move the Hell On: The MTV Video Music Awards happened this past Sunday, so you had to know there was going to be at least one sizable fail in there somewhere, and of course they didn't disappoint. Taylor Swift took the stage and sang a melodramatic tune she'd written ... More >>

Shove This J-O-B: A Mixtape For The Unintentionally Unemployed

​In the wake of last week's announcement that the number of unemployed Americans filing for unemployment insurance has hit its highest level in nine months, Rocks Off figured it was time for a "fuck insolvency" mixtape. This isn't hyperbole on our part; as we type this, we're well into our sec ... More >>

Go-Go Girl

Throw beer on Southern Culture on the Skids bassist Mary Huff at your own risk.

Buyer Beware: Bands With Different Lead Singers Are Almost Never Up to the Original Standards

A few Saturdays ago, Rocks Off was in the grocery store a few blocks from our house, slumming around Oak Forest wearing sandals and an old Misfits T-shirt when a group of junior-high punk rockers approached and applauded us for our good taste. We got to talking about the band, and they remarked tha ... More >>

For World Toilet Day, the Most Creative Lyrical Uses of the S-Word

According to an email Rocks Off received from none other than the World Toilet Organization, today is World Toilet Day. We're told it's an "internationally recognized" occasion for drawing attention to the plight of the 2.5 billion people on the planet who lack proper facilities. To this end (heh), ... More >>

He Said, She Said: Gone Too Soon

A rash of recent musical deaths (Michael Jackson and DJ AM among others) have led us here at Rocks Off to do some speculating of our own: Which musicians do we feel were taken from us too soon? Obvious answers like the Famous Js (John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin) or the dual ... More >>

Houston Remembers Green Day, Back In the Day

Photos by Rachelle Mendez and Matthew Juarez​Saturday night, one of the most polarizing bands of the past 20 years rolls into town. Since its 1994 mainstream breakthrough, Dookie, Green Day has been dividing fans and critics alike. Some damned the trio for leaving their punk-rock roots behind at 9 ... More >>

The Last Roundup: A Palin Resignation Playlist, Texas Heat Fizzles, Mathletes LP Release and More

There's always that one thing that makes the week great, even though it's barely begun. This week, it comes courtesy of Houston Music Examiner David Sadof's three-part playlist for Sarah Palin's resignation. The Texas Heat Music Festival's goose was cooked, says 29-95. Thought things were slow ... More >>

Playbill: Matisyahu & Les Claypool Tonight at the House Of Blues

Fans of the 1990s funk-metal band Primus can't forget that famous Woodstock '94 footage, where the band's resident bass god, Les Claypool, dexterously covered Metallica's "Master of Puppets," slapping out the guitar part on his signature Carl Thompson. To top it off, he then brought out legendary gr ... More >>

Les Claypool

The '90s Continue Unabated At House Of Blues, Homeslice!

Seriously, what's with the House of Blues downtown toying around with all our '90s modern rock nostalgia as of late? In the past eight months or so since the HOB has opened, the folks on Caroline have booked almost every quasi-major alt-rock band of the last decade, that has not died of an overdos ... More >>

Roger Clemens' Former Flame To Be On Rehab Reality Show

Photo by MACSURAKRoger Clemens unsullied march from adored pitcher to worshipped Hall of Famer continues unabated.If the steroids thing hasn't tarred him -- and really, who is not gonna believe Roger against the word of just about everyone else in the world? -- it's his penchant for great publicity ... More >>

Pro Athlete Musicians

Athletes step off the field and into the studio

Drenched In Blog: Some Boys Are Bigger Than Others

Retro Active: 1987, Here We Come

Godsmack

Godsmack performs Tuesday, July 17, at Verizon Wireless Theater, 520 Texas, 713-230-1600.

Hella

Concert preview

Planes Mistaken For Stars

Mercy

Between the Cracks

Profiling local bands

Rock Radio (and Rock Romano) Redux

Bo knows good rock when he sees it. Do Houston radio programmers?

Rotation

Faceless

Universal (Republic)

Tin Henry

Twisted (Dingo Gold Records)

Siren Songs

Lords of Acid sells sex to ravers

God Awful

In the Black

Rotation

Rotations

Digital Bloating

Without question, enhanced CDs offer more but of what?

Rotation

The Year of Living Anxiously

Are We Having Fun Yet? Or is it just the jangly buzz of advanced urban stress syndrome?

Crit Picks

Jazz Reconsidered

On the road to Lafayette with Planet Shock!