Bad Religion

Last Night: Bad Religion at House of Blues

Bad Religion, Polar Bear Club, Dead Rabbits House of Blues March 13, 2013 At this point, part of Bad Religion's appeal is their utter reliability. Tour after tour and album after album, the consummate L.A. punks have trained audiences thoroughly to know what to expect from them: chainsaw guitar rif ... More >>

Bad Religion's Brian Baker: "Rage Is a Powerful Tool"

It's not uncommon for punk bands to live by the credo that it's better to burn out than fade away. Naturally, neither option has ever suited Bad Religion. After 16 albums over three decades spent toting the genre's banner across the globe, it doesn't appear as though the ultimate Southern California ... More >>

The Best Concerts In Houston This Week: Muse, Major Lazer, Pitbull, etc.

Muse Toyota Center, March 12 The prospect of a new Muse album (The 2nd Law) was overshadowed by the band's dalliance with dubstep, which was a shame, but not surprising in the current musical climate. When one of the world's biggest stadium-rock bands' tinkering with electronics becomes a dealbreak ... More >>

Christmas Past: Our 5 Favorite Punk Rock Christmas Songs

While we celebrate the holidays, Rocks Off is resurrecting a few of our best Christmas-themed blogs from the past few years. (Wait... resurrecting is Easter. Never mind.) This blog originally appeared December 11, 2009. Aside from the heavy metal Christmas songs we threw your way earlier this week, ... More >>

4:50 a.m.: The 15 Best Fishing Songs We Could Find

Rocks Off never thought we'd say this, but the country eye candy behind "Pretty Good at Drinkin' Beer," Billy Currington, turned out to be pretty wise. He was smart enough to record the song "Bad Day of Fishin'" anyway, which contains the sage advice "a bad day of fishing beats a good day of anythin ... More >>

The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: T.S.O.L., Girl In a Coma, Etc.

The true sounds of liberty since 1978, whether those sounds are Black Flag-ish hardcore or Danzig-like mook-rock, the decidedly gothic T.S.O.L. sprang from the surfer's paradise of Huntington Beach, Calif., and palled around with the Damned and Dead Kennedys before helping their younger SoCal siblin ... More >>

Contessa Andrea Von Schmidt, Dwayne Gator Liggins: It's the Quarterly Strange (Accused) Criminal Name Report

As we head into what passes for fall down here, it's high time we came up with another list of the strangest, funniest and most awesome names to pass through the Harris County Criminal Justice Center over the last few months. (Or years. We stumbled on some older ones.) As always, some of these peop ... More >>

Readers Poll: What Are Your Favorite Summer Albums?

You know technically if you live in Houston, summer never really goes away. It just sort of lingers on top of the region, every now and then rousing from slumber to pound us with heat and humidity. Northern parts of the country have a firm line separating the seasons, but thankfully global warming ... More >>

The Case Against Change: Five Acts Whose Sound Evolved for the Worse

If you're one of the many Muse fans around the world or you checked out Nathan's excellent post last week, then you've probably seen the teaser the band put out for their new album, The 2nd Law. To say it's been controversial with a certain segment of their fanbase is putting it lightly. Some people ... More >>

True Believers and Other Local Releases

Doctors Who Rock: 9 Musicians With Their Ph.Ds

Alice Cooper recently received an Honorary Doctorate from The Musician's Institute in Los Angeles. After receiving the award, he said, "One more of these and I can write prescriptions." Now you know that Alice Cooper could one day write you a prescription... to rock. You're welcome. Out of sheer c ... 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 >>

Todd Rundgren

Our Top Ten Picks For Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011

Photo By Marc BrubakerBest Coast at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010​This weekend the Rocks Off team will cover their third Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, at the festival's new home Auditorium Shores. Each year this fest seems to get bigger and better, without losing it's grimy luster. Is it the Austin City ... More >>

April 29, 1992: Ten Songs About The L.A Riots

​It was 19 years ago today that the Los Angeles riots began after four white police officers, caught on videotape beating the African-American Rodney King after a drug-fueled high-speed chase, were acquitted by a Simi Valley, Calif. jury. The rest of the world watched in shock and sadness as ... More >>

The Media Loves Your Album. Who Are You?

​If Rolling Stone loves your album, it means... • You are a well-established musician with legions of loyal fans who may be interested in perhaps taking out some full-page advertisements in, oh, say, some kind of mainstream rock publication. • Your album was released 30 years ago and our ... More >>

Saturday Night: NOFX At House Of Blues

Photos by Groovehouse​NOFX House of Blues January 22, 2011 See lots of pics of NOFX and friends in our slideshow. NOFX has been the Fisher-Price My First Real Punk Band of the past 25 years, with Green Day sadly coming in a close second with Bad Religion and, yes, Blink-182 bringing up the r ... 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 >>

Friday Night: Bad Religion At Warehouse Live

Photos by Marco Torres​Bad Religion, Aggrolites, Off With Their Heads Warehouse Live November 5, 2010 Fun Fun Fun Fest may have beckoned tantalizingly from Austin, but we resisted its pull to see what is, for us, the greatest punk rock band still putting out new material. It was Bad Religions ... More >>

The Dwarves' Blag Dahlia Tells One Hell Of An Emo's Story

Marc Brubaker​While Rocks Off was lumbering around the artist lounge waiting for GWAR and Bad Religion's closing sets at Fun Fun Fun Fest, we caught up with Blag Dahlia of the Dwarves. He had just finished an interview with another outlet, and we were lucky enough to snag him for a few minutes ... More >>

Bad Religion

The Top 20 Iconic Rock T-Shirts Of All Time

​When you are young and exploring all the magic that rock and roll offers, wearing a shirt of your favorite band feels like an act of defiance. You want everyone to know who you support, even if the shirt doesn't fit right or it's faded. We remember a time when kids were getting suspended from ... More >>

Devo, MGMT, Mastodon, Devin, Black Congress Head Fun Fun Fun Lineup

GroovehouseMGMT at House of Blues in June​The official lineup for this year's Fun Fun Fun Fest, set for November 5-7 at Waterloo Park in the heart of downtown Austin, was released moments ago. In terms of firepower, this year's Fun Fun Fun roster arguably brings the festival within striking di ... More >>

Friday: The (Very Wet) Vans Warped Tour At Sam Houston Race Park

Photos by Marc BrubakerTyson Ritter of the All-American Rejects​Vans Warped Tour Sam Houston Race Park July 2, 2010 As they always have, teenagers get a bad rap these days. In our minds, any kid who was willing to brave the dirty side of Hurricane Alex on Friday afternoon to see their favorit ... More >>

Metallica Likes Death... A LOT

​This video (watch it after the jump) claims to collect every single time that Metallica has mentioned death or dying in the band's music, which tallies up to 81 instances. Somehow that seems awfully low to us, being almost life-long Metallica rats, and fans of, well, death. According to the v ... More >>

3OH!3

Allergic To Myself: Songs Guaranteed Not To Make You Sneeze

​ If you're new to Houston, you may be wondering what all that yellow crap on your car (and on the road, and in your hair...) is. Well, it's oak pollen, and along with sweltering humidity, infuriating traffic, and the occasional hurricane, it's one of the things that makes living here such a delig ... More >>

Back To The Future: The Dirty Rotten Imbeciles That Meet In D.R.I.

metal-archives.comA hometown D.R.I. gig, 1982​Tonight at Wired Live, formerly the Meridian - or still the Meridian, just not for much longer; we don't even know at this point - you can watch part of punk and hardcore history duke it out with some of the new wave. Legendary crossover thrash band an ... More >>

Our Five Favorite Punk Rock Christmas Songs

​ Aside from the heavy metal Christmas songs we threw your way earlier this week, Rocks Off also loves us some punk rock Yuletide jams. Over the years plenty of punks have tried their scabby and tattooed hands at holiday songs, especially the pop-punks, who are very fond of those ironic covers ... 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 Distillery: Rancid's Let the Dominoes Fall

What it do, Rancid? What's crackin', formerly crusty-punk rude boys? Been a long time since we last hang, bros. When Dan Zeller lent me Let's Go during senior year of high school, I knew y'all were onto something special: three-billy-goats-gruff sung scrabbling punk anthems and routs with just a hin ... More >>

Aftermath: Vans Warped Tour at Sam Houston Race Park

Photos by Craig Hlavaty Aiden stirred up the moshers on a sizzling afternoon. For anyone out there thinking that kids don't care about music anymore, or that all they want out of it is illegal downloads and faux guitars connected to gaming consoles, Rocks Off would like to kindly direct you t ... More >>

Summer Sounds

Enough shows to keep concertgoers busy all season long

Tonight: Volbeat at Warehouse Live

Photo by Andreas BondingEvery time us Yanks think we've got the market cornered on strangeness, along come those darn Europeans to show us how much we still have to learn. It's most entertaining when they do it by re-interpreting classic American concepts such as gangsters, country music and punk ro ... More >>

Pennywise and Strung Out, with Authority Zero

2007 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase

American Idols Live

Which megatour is really more punk rock?

Circle Jerks

Circle Jerks perform Monday, December 3, at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, 713-225-5483.

Powerman 5000

Destroy What You Enjoy

Matchbook Romance

Wednesday, July 26, at Verizon Wireless Theater, 520 Texas, 713-230-1600

Papa Roach

Tuesday, February 4

Bad Religion

Friday, March 1

Rotation

Young Dubliners: Red

Not Your Average Angst

Living Out Loud

Loudmouth makes metal cool again

Rotation

Uncommon Cause

Cult of Ferocity

True to punk's roots, Bad Religion keeps the anger alive

Static

Trancey Groove