At the Drive-In

The Rocks Off 100: Football, etc., Giving Emo Back Its Good Name

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? When modern indie-rock was being Big B ... More >>

Five Weird Bands to Watch in 2013

I have to be honest with you here, readers: when I see a "bands to watch in (insert year here)" list, I usually give it a cursory look, wretch in disgust, and x out of it as quickly as possible. Not because the bands are awful, because they're bland! Almost every list focuses on some flavor-of-the-w ... More >>

REWIND: The Mars Volta at Verizon, 9/17/09

​Note: In a series of tweets Wednesday night, Cedric Bixler-Zavala of latter-day prog-rockers The Mars Volta announced he was effectively done with the band, the result of an evident falling-out with partner Omar Rodriguez-Lopez over touring. "What am I suppose to do be some progressive house wife ... 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.

Fun Fun Fun Fest Sunday In Review: Turbonegro, De La Soul, Araab Muzik & More

The last day of Fun Fun Fun Fest 2012 was another dusty affair. I can feel about a pound of crud in my lungs, and my ears are ringing like a mother-fluffer, which means I had a great Sabbath at Auditorium Shores. SLIDESHOWS: The Girls of Fun Fun Fun Fest Turbonegro, De La Soul and Edward Sharpe: F ... More >>

When the Voice Goes: 5 Rock Singers Who Have Lost It Live

Last week, this video of Guns n' Roses playing at the Bridge School Benefit in California surfaced on YouTube, raising a lot of eyebrows among music fans. It was an acoustic performance of "Welcome to the Jungle" which might sound like a confusing prospect in and of itself, but what has everyone tal ... More >>

Rocks Off's Picks For This Weekend's Fun Fun Fun Fest

First off, the entire Rocks Off team agrees unanimously that we are all excited to see Run-D.M.C. at this year's edition of Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, even though writer /photographer Marco Torres has already seen them this year at Jay-Z's Made In America Music Festival. REWIND: Fun Fun Fun Fest ... More >>

Hyro Da Chameleon

Houston’s Hyro Da Hero rhymes with a side of hardcore punk.

UME's Lauren Larson: "Summer Fest Will Always Be Special To Us"

Not until I conversed with UME frontwoman Lauren Larson did I realize that 2009's Summer Fest was the band's first real festival, and afterwards they would find themselves on even bigger stages than the one at Eleanor Tinsley Park. The Austin-based band plays this year's fest at 6 p.m. on Sunday eve ... More >>

They're Ba-a-ack!: The Six Best Coachella Reunion Performances

Over the weekend, we experienced one of the most exciting musical events of the year: The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. One of the main features of the festival is the reunion aspect. For most of Coachella's lifespan, it has featured at least one classic band back together for the first ti ... More >>

La Dispute

Bonna-What?: How 7 U.S. Music Festivals Got Their Names

This whole week, the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, featuring the Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg, Pulp, At the Drive-In, the Shins, AVICII, David Guetta and maybe one or two others, will be all anyone who follows music these days will be talking about. Then early next week, it' ... More >>

Texas Sons The Mars Volta Strip Down To Progress With New Album, Movie

El Paso natives Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta have long been known for their bombast and progressive-rock self-indulgence. Ever since they departed the seminal post-hardcore band At the Drive-In, they've spent their time making what can only be described as "epics." ... More >>

Readers Poll: The Best Third Albums Ever

This week in 1980, Van Halen released their third album Women And Children First, which contained the hits "And the Cradle Will Rock...," "Everybody Wants Some!! and fan favorite "Romeo Delight." It's not the best VH album ever, but it was, in fact, their third album. Most VH super-freaks I know an ... More >>

Put On A Happy Face: 6 Ex-Emos Who Found More Success By Being Happy

Emo. The word conjures so many images. For your average American, it will make them think of black eyeliner, wrist-cutting, and essentially hair metal for the '00s. For hardcore kids, they'll think of Jawbreaker. But either way you slice it, emo has had its ups and downs as a genre and has changed ... More >>

The Best (Fake) SXSW 2012 Rumors So Far

It happens every year: an errant rumor turns Austin and SXSW upside down for a few hours or even days, leading to mass hysteria, mild apathy, and sometimes sadness. At my first SXSW in 2001, I got a "hot tip" that the Beastie Boys were going to join Mix Master Mike at La Zona Rosa for a secret show, ... More >>

Why Do We Always Expect Our Favorite Bands To Reunite?

John Hammond, the billionaire CEO of InGen and the curator of Jurassic Park found out the hard way that sometimes things from another time and place don't mesh well with different surroundings. A guy even got eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex while he was taking a dump, and one of those spitting dinosaur ... More >>

Which Metal Bands Should Reunite?: Revocation Tells Us

Tony Norkus/ www.facebook.com/Revocationn​The music industry has lit up with some pretty high-profile reunions in the past few months. At The Drive-In and Refused both announced comeback shows within days of one another, and even Black Sabbath decided to reconvene for a new album and a world t ... More >>

Noise For The Ages: Top Post-Hardcore Guitarists Through the Years

While it may not often be recognized by "mainstream listening audiences," post-hardcore is not a dead genre. Though its popularity has often waxed and waned throughout the years since its inception in the mid '80s, there are always great upstart bands keeping it alive. As of late, the genre has seen ... More >>

Ben Folds Five Returns: An Essential Playlist

Photo By GroovehouseBen Folds solo in 2010 at the House Of Blues​The eight-year run of '90s indie act the Ben Folds Five was fruitful in many ways. We got the most catchy song about a Christmas abortion ever in 1997's "Brick", three excellent studio albums full of snarky, romantically-challeng ... More >>

This Station Is Now Operational: At The Drive-In Is Reuniting. Finally.

With the beginning of a Twitter account and an official website, heavily influential El Paso-based rock act At The Drive-In has announced their reformation today. What the future will hold for the group, which splintered into the Mars Volta and Sparta after their 2001 split, is anyone's guess. SXSW? ... More >>