Band of Horses

Has ACL Festival Jumped the Shark?

A Classic-Rock-Free Morning

Tonight: Donkeys and Listenlisten at Rudyard's

Top Ten Americana Albums of 2008

Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic ... More >>

The Best of ACL Fest

Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic ... More >>

Two Mediocre Adaptations: How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Two movies by directors who really should have known better

Indie Bands Skipping Houston

Two movies by directors who really should have known better

Independence Day

What's indie rock? Who cares? Here's ten great CDs that will blow you away, no matter your definition

Band of Horses

Saturday, June 24, at Walter's on Washington, 4215 Washington Avenue, 713-862-2513

Scott Faingold Listens to Everything

And comes up with a random smattering of tortured musings

Ghosts of Washington Avenue

Noise goes whistling through the scenester artery's music venue graveyard.

Season of the Witch

U2's awe-inspiring Reliant Stadium show prompts a search for the unknown — and unknowable — in music.

Love and Theft

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

Houston 2020: The Future Is Unwritten

But hey, that's not stopping Noise.

Still Not Sold On SXSW? How About Smokey Robinson, High On Fire, She & Him, Band Of Horses, Drive-By Truckers, Deer Tick, Anya Marina, Black Angels, Major Lazer...

Today the organizers of the SXSW Music Festival announced their showcase schedule for the music portion of the industry fest starting on March 17. This is the news Rocks Off has been looking for, so let's get it on. We are now one month away from Sixth Street and one of the world's biggest conglome ... More >>

Run Through The Jungle: A Zoological Field Guide To SXSW 2010

​ Even if you've never pulled a trigger in your life, SXSW is, on some level, an exercise in hunting. Rocks Off had no idea how true this was until earlier this afternoon. As we were looking over the schedule at sxsw.com, we got the brilliant idea to note every band named after any kind of animal, ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: Alex Chilton Haunts A Festival Full Of His Musical Children

Dan OkoThe line for the Black Keys outside the Mohawk Saturday afternoon... we have no idea about the pinata truck, either​ After the mega-shows last SXSW with Metallica and Kanye West, the 2010 version of SXSW launched struck your humble badgeholder as busier than last year, just on a smaller ... More >>

Minus the Bear

Dan OkoThe line for the Black Keys outside the Mohawk Saturday afternoon... we have no idea about the pinata truck, either​ After the mega-shows last SXSW with Metallica and Kanye West, the 2010 version of SXSW launched struck your humble badgeholder as busier than last year, just on a smaller ... More >>

Acts We Think - OK, Hope - Are Playing ACL Fest This Year

​By this time Tuesday, we will all know who is playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October. Damn, it seems like we have speculating about the line-up since, well, we got the last of the "Dillo Dirt" out the middle of our toes after last year's muddy and rainy ACL weekend. Tuesday brig ... More >>

2010 ACL Line-Up Goes Live And (Early) By Surprise

The line-up for the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival went live at the fest's website at midnight this morning while the rest of the world was snoozing. Luckily we are up and stirring to bring it to you. No Pavement and no Soundgarden, but we do have the Strokes down. More commentary coming in ... More >>

Which ACL Headliners Will Play Houston?

www.eaglesband.comWho knew the Eagles shot their publicity stills for The Long Road Out of Eden at ACL 2005?​When the Austin City Limits festival lineup is released every spring, one of Rocks Off's favorite parlor games besides wondering what sort of Biblical weather-related calamity God will visi ... More >>

Buxton, Small Sounds

www.eaglesband.comWho knew the Eagles shot their publicity stills for The Long Road Out of Eden at ACL 2005?​When the Austin City Limits festival lineup is released every spring, one of Rocks Off's favorite parlor games besides wondering what sort of Biblical weather-related calamity God will visi ... More >>

The Expat

Steve Steele finds a harder-edged sound on his debut album.

Last Night: Thrice At Warehouse Live

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Thrice, Kevin Devine & the Goddamn Band Warehouse Live July 6, 2010 Walking up to Warehouse Live for Thrice Tuesday night, Aftermath witnessed one of the most interesting spectacles we've ever seen outside of a venue. As we got there, we heard a gentleman - and we use ... More >>

ACL Fest Releases Schedule; Adds Black Lips, Silversun Pickups

black-lips.com via FlickrBrand-new ACL 2010 adds The Black Lips​The Austin City Limits Music Festival released the schedule grid for this year's gathering in Zilker Park Oct. 7-9. The festival also added several bands, including Atlanta garage-punks (and recovering exhibitionists) the Black Li ... More >>

How Is Houston Doing ACL-Wise?

Marco TorresThe Eagles have flown, at least as far as Houston is concerned.​If you have even bothered to venture out of doors during these days of 105-degree heat indices and "Unhealthy" air-quality advisories, you may have noticed that things have been a little light on the roadshow front lat ... More >>

ACL: What Could Possibly Be Worse Than Last Year's Mudbath?

Mark C. AustinCan't WAIT to go back!​In exactly one week, Rocks Off will be broadcasting live from the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin's Zilker Park. This will be our fourth spin around the grounds since 2007, and every year we swear we won't fall in love with a bartender in the me ... More >>

Live From The Austin City Limits Festival, Day 3

Marco TorresTrombone Shorty​Craig Hlavaty: News coming out of the media tent: Don Henley of the Eagles had a stent put in his heart this past week. He will be singing and possibly playing guitar, but not exerting himself on drums. This could very well be the last Eagles show for a while - if e ... More >>

ACL Day 3 Recap: Eagles, Norah Jones, Wayne Coyne's Diet

Ed. Note: Updated at 1:42 p.m. to include information on Don Henley's medical condition we received from Eagles manager Irving Azoff. Photos by Marco Torres​It's just a few hours after the Eagles left the stage at this year's Austin City Limits Festival, closing out the weekend. Rocks Off mad ... More >>

ACL Day 3 Recap: Devendra Banhart, Band Of Horses, Other Beardos

Photos by Marco Torres​Aftermath doesn't know the bargain Austin City Limits promoter C3 Presents gets by booking both Lollapalooza and ACL, but to this dog-tired participant, this year's Zilker Park festivities ended up feeling less Austin weird and more something-something. Not that it's a ... More >>

Capital Steps

Dispatches from ACL 2010

Top 10 Recent TV-Show Soundtracks

​A few choice adjectives come to mind when musing on bawdy Eastbound & Down character Kenny Powers. "Inspiring" is not one of them. However, as Rocks Off watched this week's season finale of the side-splitting HBO series, we were pleasantly surprised as we heard indie troubadour Kurt Vile's a ... More >>

Katy Perry? For Album Of The Year? Seriously?

​Don't get Craig's Hlist wrong, we think that Katy Perry is extremely attractive. In fact, if we think about her long enough, it makes us want to cry and punch a wall. She's a buxom, bubbly, raven-haired pop star who dresses like she's expensive grandma candy. We even interviewed her last ye ... 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 >>

Music's Biggest Surprises Of 2010

Faith Silva​Editor's Pick: The renewed, and continuing, interest of local indie-rockers and hipsters (and people who are a long way from neither) in traditional honky-tonk as played by Robert Ellis & the Boys and as documented by a certain Lonesome Onry and Mean and myself this summer. Encoura ... More >>

Top Five Songs About Horses

​Rocks Off's regular readers presumably know by now that we love few things more than offbeat anniversaries, and recently we came across one of the oddest yet. Thirty-two years ago Monday, on Feb. 28, 1979, the "actor" who played the original Mr. Ed in the 1960s TV show passed away. Yes, we're ... More >>

Kings Of Leon Return To Houston - Again - July 30

Groovehouse​The Followill boys from Tennessee, Kings Of Leon are coming back to Houston and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on July 30, with openers Band of Horses. The date marks the first Band of Horses stop in Houston in what looks to be forever. As for the Kings, this will be their t ... More >>

More Local Music News Than Fighting Navy SEALs

It's not every week that Arcade Fire returns to the suburbs whose ennui inspired a Grammy-winning album, but it is every week that we bring a brimming local music roundup for all of our Rocks Off readers. Without further ado, we present the latest installment of Magnolia City Mixtape. ​Hot of ... More >>

The 25 Most Influential Bands Of The '90s

Trent Reznor, you know, before the Oscar and all the weightlifting. ​As a music writer, we are asked constantly to compare the new with the old, to decipher the periphery where modern bands' influences come from to understand where we are going and what we are seeing. We can hear everything Ke ... More >>

Band of Horses

Trent Reznor, you know, before the Oscar and all the weightlifting. ​As a music writer, we are asked constantly to compare the new with the old, to decipher the periphery where modern bands' influences come from to understand where we are going and what we are seeing. We can hear everything Ke ... More >>

What Is A Music Critic's Life Really Like?

​Walter Peck: Because I'm curious. I wanna know more about what you do here! Frankly, I've heard a lot of wild stories in the media and we want to assess any possibility of dangerous and possibly hazardous waste chemicals in your basement. - Ghostbusters Rocks Off can promise you we are not h ... More >>

UPDATE: Kings Of Leon Breakdown Onstage In Dallas; Woodlands Rescheduled For Sept. 22

UPDATE X2: Kings of Leon's Woodlands date has been rescheduled for September 22. UPDATE: We have just called the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion business office and they have said the show has been postponed. No further details have been given, and no new date has been set as of this time. Band Of ... More >>

2 Become 1: Musical Match-Ups We'd Like To See

​Kanye "Hitler" West and Jay-Z released their (overused music writer word alert) epic Watch the Throne album this week, to mostly great reviews. This fall the first fruits from the recently announced Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration should be on the store shelves, which still sorta weirds us o ... More >>

Friday Night: Mountain Goats at Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jim Bricker​Let us be clear from the very beginning -- this member of the Rocks Off Aftermath team isn't the most storied fan of The Mountain Goats. Though we'd heard of the legendary John Darnielle before, out first actual exposure to his music was in 2007 with Heretic Pride, and we ... More >>

In Ten Years, Will Indie Be Remembered Like Nu-Metal?

​What exactly do you remember from the summer of 2002? Stop and think -- of the music on the radio, the CDs you were most excited for, who won the Grammy for Best Album, and so on. What exactly stands out from 10 years ago? If you find that your answer is "Not much," then you're probably l ... More >>