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Ranchera Music and '50s Ethnic Slurs

Amazon's AutoRip Features Delivers MP3s to Vinyl Shoppers

If you have been shopping for vinyl on the Amazon site, you may have noticed the AutoRip logo. No, it is not Amazon making light of late-night purchases splitting your wallet at the seams. It's actually something very cool. The digital retailer is touting the further expansion of its music-deliver ... More >>

Julie & Julia Redux: Top 5 Cookbooks I'd Work My Way Through Besides MtAoFC

I admit, I've got a bit of a copycat streak in me. When I first read Julie and Julia , I was so intrigued with the project I wanted to try it myself. (Me and one million other foodies. Here's hoping Powell believes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery). But I would repeat with a difference: ... More >>

Where to Eat on Christmas Day

Your stress-free dining guide to the holidays.

Is Funding Your Album on Kickstarter Insulting and Wrong?

I do a monthly Kickstarter round-up on Art Attack because I really do think that crowdsourcing is a great way to get projects off of the ground that might otherwise never see the light of day. Some wonderful independent video games, for example, exist because of crowd-funding, and it is certainly th ... More >>

Holiday Gift Guide: 5 Gifts For Kids Who Cook

Every week this holiday season, we'll be posting our favorite food-centric gift ideas. We've looked at 5 Gifts Under $30 That Every Kitchen Needs and attempted to avoid that awkward re-gifting moment with the 5 Useless Gifts That Nobody Actually Wants. This time, we're focusing on the kiddies. Chec ... More >>

Top 10 Kitschy Pop-Related Gift Items to Give This Year

Thanksgiving is in ten days, and then we'll all be fully immersed in the holiday season. While shopping recently, I noticed that Taylor Swift now has her own greeting-card line featuring her photography and sweet words. If you were to receive one such card from a loved one, would you swell with fuz ... More >>

You Won't Get Into Heaven Listening to Christian Dubstep

Driving home the other night, I thought I had come up with the perfect get-rich-quick scheme: Christian dubstep. Roll your eyes if you'd like, but one thing I've noticed is that going to an EDM show is a lot like going to church: They both feature music, alcohol, and standing on your feet for long ... More >>

Black Market Syndicate: Punk Believers Rejoice With Peasants

Black Market Syndicate are true believers. Besides releasing second album And the Peasants Rejoiced at Fitzgerald's Saturday, the Houston punk quartet is streaming it all weekend on their ReverbNation page. For the people. Produced by Street Dogs' Johnny Rioux, Peasants stands up for the powerless ... More >>

Save Yourself: The 10 Worst Online Retailers

Ads like this are the only reason to visit AmericanApparel.com...if you like that sort of thing​It's frustrating enough to shop for friends and family members during the holidays. Do I get my 80-year-old aunt a gift card to Kroger or H-E-B? Decisions, decisions. Unfortunately, some online mer ... More >>

What Google Music Means To The Music Industry

techonzo.com​Google is finally launching its own music service. Google Music is a full-scale music service/store designed to compete with Amazon and Apple. Android boss Andy Rubin says they're very close to launch. About a dozen independent labels are have already joined forces with Google and ... More >>

My Five Most Indispensable Music Technologies

Previously the pinnacle of music technology...and pure awesomeness.​I started listening to music on vinyl way back in biblical times and things seemed just fine. CDs came along and made hauling around music somewhat easier and, once you got past the crispy clarity, the music sounded pretty dam ... More >>

Amazon Crash Hits Reddit, Others: Social Media Armageddon

Now get some work done.​The spinning of the earth has nearly come to a standstill thanks to major server problems with Amazon.com's Web Services, a cloud-computing platform used by dozens of very popular social networking sites. "The cloud," for you luddites, means stuff that's saved in the ... More >>

Vermicomposting: Trash and Worms Are an All-Star Team

​A few weekends ago, I helped my mother set up an indoor vermicomposting bin. By "helped," of course, I mean that I watched and bothered her with questions. She finally sat me down with a DVD she'd purchased on the subject (the woman is serious about her gardening) and was left in peace with h ... More >>

Black Queen Speaks: The Perfect Band Web Site

​Not too long ago, we did a name dissection of Black Queen Speaks. As we prepared for the article, we did something we rarely do anymore, and that's go to the band's actual Web site rather than just sampling them on Facebook or (ugh) MySpace. For some reason, we decided to go straight to the o ... More >>

All I Want for Christmas Is a KitchenAid K45SS Classic 250-Watt 4-1/2-Quart Stand Mixer

rd.comForget the Red Ryder BB Gun. We're asking Santa for Cuisinart CSB-76 Smart Stick Hand Blender. ​Still using your grandmother's split-pea-green handheld mixer (the one that smells like burning and shoots the attachments across the room when you hit eject)? Kitchen appliances have come a l ... More >>

Five Reasons Not to Shop on Black Friday

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Shopping Free-For-All!​Every year around this time in the United States, we celebrate a day so important, so American that it brings people together like no other day can. Around 3 a.m. this Friday, bleary-eyed shopaholics will power into retail outlets all over the country in ... More >>

Vintage Cocktails: The Fine Art of the Daiquiri

It's a fine art indeed.​The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks is a hard-to-find but indispensable cocktail manual first published in 1948. My barstained copy (it was stained before I got to it) came from a southside Houston thrift store and was marked down to $9.95. The out-of-print book now goes on A ... More >>

The World's Hottest Weapon

​The world's hottest pepper is now a weapon? Yep! According to today's Houston Chronicle, the Indian military in now using what we know as the ghost pepper to make a type of tear-gas hand grenade. We've seen enough Man vs. Food episodes to know that this will be an effective weapon. Just the t ... More >>

Slide Show: Albums Almost as Old as We Are

The other day, the Rocks Off brain trust was sitting around talking, and one of us happened to mention whatever album it was we were talking about - it might have been Duran Duran's Rio - came out the year one of us was born. That got us thinking, "How much have albums released within 12 months aft ... More >>

Byte This

Consumers try hawking "old" digital music files through new Web sites.

Classic Rock Corner: Living Colour's The Paris Concert

Living Colour The Paris Concert To order on Amazon.com, click here www.myspace.com/livingcolourmusicOne of the most criminally underrated rock bands of the '80s and '90s - remembered by too many just for their Day-Glo outfits, painted guitars and big hit "Cult of Personality" - Living Colour has be ... More >>

Stuff The Ballot Box For A Local Author! Maybe Even Read His Book!

A local author is making a concerted run at the big time, and he's looking for help.John Oehler has written a book called Papyrus, a thriller that deals with modern and ancient Egypt in what seems like a not-exactly-un-Da Vinci Code way. But hey, if you're looking to be a best-selling author, there ... More >>

Harris County's Death-Row Rep Gets Another Workout

As we first reported last October, the year 2008 marked the first time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977 that Harris County would not be sending anyone to Death Row.The high cost of capital murder trials, some setbacks in prosecutions that may have indicated changing public sentiment, n ... More >>

Artist of the Week: Soulbrotha

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. Sitting in the ornate ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Navigating the Economic Crisis

Down Payment Blues

Artist of the Week: Small Sounds

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. It seems contradictory, ... More >>

Robb's Oyster Book

My new book Sex, Death & Oysters: A Half Shell Lover's World Tour was released January 1 and is now selling on Amazon. I'll make the rounds of Houston bookstores this week signing as many copies as I can find. It was a 2004 cover story by the same name in the Houston Press that got the ball rollin ... More >>

Welcome Back to Work...

So, the boss made you come in the day after Thanksgiving, huh? Yeah, and we're guessing there isn't a whole lot to do seeing as how everyone else's boss gave them the day off. (Luckily for us, the news never rests! ... or something.) Well, nod off not, Internet friends. Hair Balls is here with lin ... More >>

Turning the Screw: Von Won, Lil O, Ludacris, Flo Rida, the Roots, Suge Knight, Too $hort, The Kanye, Ghostface Killah 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.       (Churchy) Single of the Week:  "I Love You," Von Won     Wire To Wire     ... More >>

Turning The Screw: Crew54, DJ AM & Travis Barker, G- Unit, Pharrell, Eminem, Nate Dogg, Kanye, Wu-Tang vs. UFC and More

Turning the Screw: Hollywood F.L.O.S.S., LL Cool J, The Kanye West, Lil' Wayne, Russell Crowe (!?), MF Doom, Beyonce and More

Turning the Screw: TxHustla, Beanie Sigel, Lil' Wayne, Ciara, Kanye, Tupac, Akon, Usher and More

Turning the Screw: Chamillionaire, Z-Ro, Suge Knight, KRS-One, Snoop, Lil’ Kim, Yung Berg and More

Turning the Screw: Lower Life Form, Slim Thug, R.I.P. Bernie Mac, Chris Brown & T.I. Team Up, Master P and More

Poi Dog Pondering

The Chicago band visits the Continental Club

Pink Martini

Dwarves

I Want My MP3

Get Lit: Charmed & Deadly

Mexican-American Culture

Ask a Mexican! hits the stalls

Big Ben

Breaking Benjamin's front man Ben Burnley

Hope Springs Eternal

A northern suburb tops our third installment of rating greater Houston's taste in music

Tough Crowd

The Nightfly croons "Come On Eileen" to the roughest women in Montrose

The Return of the Band of Rhythm and Pleasure

The Hollisters reunite to rock the East Texas pines

Broken Social Scene

Saturday, March 20

Country Teasers, with NTX+ Electric Deth

Friday, January 23

Sacré Bleu Bayou!

France takes center stage at the Houston International Festival

Full Steam Ahead

HGO's riverboat adventure Florencia navigates through some rough waters

Monkey Business

Who needs a product when you can sell stock? The mind-boggling success of PinkMonkey.com.