Austin City Limits

Why Electric Daisy Carnival Texas Should Be In Houston

The largest music festival in the United States in terms of attendance is not Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, or Austin City Limits. While each sees thousands of music fans pass through the gates every year, the real attendance champ is Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas. The 2012 version of the e ... More >>

The Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend

What Made Milwaukee Famous Fitzgerald's, January 25 What Made Milwaukee Famous have been plying their melodic, emotionally fraught brand of indie-rock for a decade now, appearing on Austin City Limits (the festival and the TV show) and releasing a pair of albums on Seattle indie Barsuk. The brand-n ... More >>

ACL 2012: Sunday's 10 Best & Funniest Moments at Zilker

The rains came early on Sunday morning, but by the time the ACL opened up for business before noon, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, making for an extremely warm and muddy day. The biggest acts of the day -- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iggy & the Stooges, Crystal Castles, and the Avett Brothers -- he ... More >>

Last Night: The Shins at House of Blues

The Shins House of Blues October 10, 2012 People give the Shins a hard time. Hard to say if it's because they're so closely associated with Garden State - which, all these years later, was a pretty smug, annoying little movie - of if their gentle brand of psychedelic popcraft makes some people unco ... More >>

For Beach House, Everything Is Necessary

Baltimore's dreamy duo turned down Starbucks to keep their music pure.

Summer Fest Round Table: What About Next Year?

Assuming we all survive this weekend, and then the supposed Mayan apocalypse, Free Press Summer Fest will return to Eleanor Tinsley Park in June 2013. Pegstar's Jagi Katial and Jason Petzold told the Houston Press this week that they'll start booking next year's acts in about a month, so Rocks Off p ... More >>

15 Things Rocks Off Learned Watching The ACM Awards

Sunday nights, I usually like to watch The Amazing Race after 60 Minutes. I don't usually watch much reality television at all, but something about the combination of total incompetence, vicious backstabbing and exotic locales as several, two-person teams race around the globe is completely intoxica ... More >>

The Relatives, Kool & Together

App of the Week: Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo App

App: Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Platform: iPhone, Android Website: Apple Store, Android Store Cost: Free One of the growing trends in app development is the use of location-based apps for very specific events. It started with large concerts like Austin City Limits and spread to big conference ... More >>

Top 9 Comments On Summer Fest 2012: Where's The Women?

As most of Houston and the surrounding area knows by now, Free Press Summer Fest announced its 2012 lineup in the wee hours this morning. By now Rocks Off has had a few more hours to reflect on the festival, entering its fourth year at Eleanor Tinsley Park June 2 and 3, and also to take a shower. O ... More >>

Obama's Best Campaign Strategy: Keep Singing The Blues

After President Obama crooning Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" at a Harlem fundraiser became an unlikely iTunes sensation, even topping the ringtone chart, history is now repeating itself with his version of "Sweet Home Chicago" caught on an episode of PBS' In Performance at the White House Tuesd ... More >>

A Band to Save Me

The first Best of Houston® BestFest makes itself at home in Midtown.

ACL Last Night: The One, The Only, Stevie Wonder

Photos by Marco Torres​Stevie Wonder Austin City Limits Music Festival Bud Light Stage, Zilker Park, Austin September 17, 2011 Stevie Wonder says we're all part of the same family. Saturday night at Austin City Limits, he had about 45,000 (we're guessing) Jesus children of America in the palm ... More >>

ACL Last Night: Kanye West At Zilker Park

Marco Torres​By the end of the first night of this year's Austin City Limits, Kanye West had gone over his allotted set time by 15 minutes, turning in one of the most un-rap, rap shows, injecting a Bjork and Talking Heads stage-commanding sensibility into a collection of champion singles. It w ... More >>

Epic Meal Time

Deadmau5 feasts on the energy of enthusiastic electronica fans.

Heartless Bastards, Bright Light Social Hour, The Wheeler Brothers

Raging Moderate

Between Facebook rants, David Lowery juggles Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven and a solo project.

Saturday Night: Dengue Fever At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jim Bricker​Dengue Fever Fitzgerald's May 7, 2011 Someone asked Aftermath Saturday afternoon to describe what kind of music Dengue Fever plays. "Well, it's like '60 psychedelic pop with Cambodian lyrics, and also some California surf guitar and Ethiopian jazz and and girl-group thro ... More >>

Serving Detention at Bernie's Burger Bus

Courtesy of FacebookDetention, served hot and fresh.​The parking lot at Inversion has become my newest food mecca for lightning-fast weekday lunches. The cozy coffee shop is close to the office, you can get a great cortado inside (as well as goodies from local bakers Michael's Cookie Jar, Sinf ... More >>

Mojo Working

Shock-rocker Nixon foresees baby-making future for his music.

ZZ Top To Receive Texas Medal Of Arts

Jim BrickerZZ Top at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, September 2010​While they take their sweet time getting around to record that long-anticipated, Rick Rubin-produced next album - which, at this point, could well come out a solid decade after their last, 2003's Mescalero - ZZ Top has be ... More >>

App of the Week: GroupMe

Group texting through GroupMe​App: GroupMe Platforms: iPhone, Android Website: GroupMe.com Many experts are predicting that more people will text than make actual phone calls in the coming years. This is already true for younger people, but the convenience of a short message over a long conve ... More >>

Hurt: Concert Injuries In And Out Of The Line Of Duty

Marco Torres​About ten days ago, my parents and brother came into Houston for Sunday dinner, and I noticed my brother - whom we'll call "John," because that's his name - was limping something awful. It turns out John decided to take a spin in the mosh pit at the end of the Bad Religion show I ... More >>

Rocks Off Has Officially Reached ACL Fest

Craig Hlavaty​Well, we were afraid of this. While Rocks Off Sr. remains at Mission Control here in Houston (appropriate, don't you think?), Craig Hlavaty and Brittanie Shey have sallied forth to the Live Music Capital of Travis County to cover this year's Austin City Limits music festival in Z ... More >>

Die Antwoord's "Evil Boy": More Disturbing Than Gaga?

​Wednesday, Rocks Off came across the full length video for Die Antwoord's new song, "Evil Boy," which makes Lady Gaga seem like Celine Dion. The South African hip-hop trio is poised to break big, if not majorly weird, over the next few months with their album 5. Rapping in part English and ... More >>

Last Night: Silversun Pickups And Against Me! At Warehouse Live

Photos by Faith SilvaAgainst Me!​Silversun Pickups, Against Me! Warehouse Live July 20, 2010 Against Me! opening up for Silversun Pickups would be like the Replacements opening up for My Bloody Valentine in 1991. Except that Against Me! isn't on the wane of their career and Silversun has way ... More >>

Lilith Fair's Top 5 Headline-Grabbing Moments

​Friday, while Rocks Off was enjoying a blissful if soggy day off, Lilith Fair canceled the final ten dates of this year's summer resurrection, including all three scheduled Texas stops. The news was hardly shocking: One headliner, Norah Jones, had already bailed, and The New York Times report ... More >>

Summer Tours We'd Like To See: Bring Back Texxas Jam!

Reminder: Tickets for Lady Gaga's Toyota Center show next year go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m.​ Summer concert season doesn't last as long as hurricane season, and leaves somewhat less damage in its aftermath, but at least it gives us something to look forward to during those long, hot months. This ... More >>

iFest Aftermath: Not Bad For a Non-Music Festival

Breaking iFest news: Nigeria's King Sunny Ade & his African Beats have been forced to cancel their entire U.S. tour, including a scheduled appearance Saturday at iFest. According to a press release from the group's PR firm, Rock Paper Scissors, the U.S. Embassy has refused to grant visas to two ... More >>

Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

"Why Can't It Be More Like Jazzfest?" Rick Mitchell Debunks The Top 10 Gripes He's Overheard About Houston's iFest

All photos courtesy of www.ifest.orgOzomatli: 8 p.m. Saturday, April 17, Bud Light World Music Stage​ A couple of days ago, Houston International Festival Director of Performing Arts Rick Mitchell emailed Rocks Off and asked us if we'd mind reprinting something he wrote for the blog on iFest's Web ... More >>

Kinky Friedman

Love and Theft

The decade with no name left behind plenty of memorable music.

Not to Stoke the SXSW '10 Rumor Mill at All, But Might Pavement and Soundgarden Show Up?

Well here it goes, the year's first official blog entry about South by Southwest 2010. Yes, we know that it doesn't start until March 17, but the hype machines have already been running since the fall and rumors have been getting stoked since before Austin City Limits in October. So let's get this ... More >>

Aftermath: Metric's New Wave Coming-Out Party at Warehouse Live

[Ed note: Yes, we stayed for the entire show this time, but then... oh, never mind.] Photos by Marc Brubaker​ When Aftermath first walked into Warehouse Live Monday night, we figured there must be some sort of secret Canada-to-Houston information pipeline we'd never heard about. We didn't think To ... More >>

Ain't No Party (Around Here) Like Houston's The Factory Party

www.myspace.com/thefactorypartymusic​ It always amazes Rocks Off how we'll start liking one band - Bunnymen-loving London post-punks White Lies, in this case - and then a little while later, stumble across a local band who could be their twin. If only, you know, they weren't from halfway around th ... More >>

ACL 2009 Day Three: Aftermath

Photos by Mark C. AustinDavid Garza​So, what happens to freshly laid grass in a public park after a day full of rain and thousands of people walking back and forth across it at the same time? Well, as anyone who was present for Day Three of Austin City Limits Festival 2009 (ACL) could tell you ... More >>

ACL 2009 Day Two: Aftermath

Photo by Mark C. Austin​Was it something we said or did? Aftermath openly gushed about how great the weather was on Friday and how it seemed that maybe, just maybe, we were going to finally attend an Austin City Limits (ACL) that didn't consist of heat and dust. Well, it seems that the powers ... More >>

Aftermath: Grupo Fantasma at Discovery Green

Photos by Bryan Parras​Grupo Fantasma found their way back to Houston last night to "rock the green" for the third installation of the Capital One Bank Thursday concert series at Discovery Green. Billed as "hip-shaking, horn-blaring, Grammy-nominated Latin funk at its best," Grupo didn't fail ... More >>

The Living Bubba

HPMA Aftermath: Born Liars, Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans, B L A C K I E, Metavenge and Buxton

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​This member of Rocks Off has never felt so proud of his city, especially after last night's Houston Press Music Awards showcase. He was wont to call it "his" city just a few years back, commuting back and forth into the Inner-Loop breach to review show after show from the s ... More >>

Slideshow: Saturday at Rock the Bayou

Texans Electric Touch Top Amazon's MP3 Chart

Roky Erickson and the Explosives: Halloween: Live 1979-1981

Friday Night: Wilco at Verizon Wireless Theater

Three Quick Things: Kashmere Director Passes Away; Free Beethoven Lookalike; ACL Fest Tickets On Sale

Our top DVD picks for the week of June 20

Reach for the Stars

Astra Heights returns from L.A. with a major-label deal in hand

Robert Randolph and the Family Band

Static