Best Buy Co. Inc.

Great Savings on Turkish Fare at Nazif's, Plus FREE Bernie's Burgers

There are too many delicious deals on the menu for us to deliver just one deals roundup this week, plus with the holidays coming we're probably all a bit overextended. So save a few bucks but impress your taste buds with today's Houston Press Voice Daily Deal, good for half-off yummy Turkish fare ($ ... More >>

What Was Your Favorite Concert at The Summit?

It must be music-venue day today. Rocks Off would like to thank Jon Harvey of Houston (@oompahead) for alerting us via Twitter to the fact that on this day in 1975, when I was a few weeks away from turning one year old, the sports and entertainment arena then known as the Summit opened in Greenway P ... 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 >>

Vinyl Gets Another Spin

Showing it has more lives than a cockroach, vinyl has been reborn, resulting in some beautiful music. But sometimes production values in records and turntables are lacking.

For Cold and Flu Season: Which Cough Syrup Tastes Best?

Nature Fusion had points docked for being ridiculously, outlandishly difficult to open.​General holiday stress, wildly schizophrenic weather and two weekends in a row of driving to Dallas-Fort Worth has taken its toll on me: I have a cold. It happens once a year, despite my best efforts. And ... More >>

For Savvy Shoppers, Black Friday Started Last Tuesday

If you missed out on a great deal for a humongous flat-screen television at Best Buy today, you can only blame yourself. Some folks, like Becky H., put a lot of effort into making sure they got door buster prices for televisions, computers and other big-ticket electronics. "Tuesday night we were l ... More >>

7 Gifts for Your Nerdy Little Audiophile

In a classic bit of stand up comedy, Steve Martin described his obsessive search for the best stereo system of the day. He kept adding more and more speakers until he finally reached the "google-phonic" stereo with the closest number of speakers to infinity, which, like all the rest, sounded like sh ... More >>

Marcus Manchild: NYC Flips For UGK

Houston rapper Marcus Manchild and his label partners at AMG (Authentik Music Group), George, Chad and Nate, are currently traveling the country as part of the Smoker's Club Tour, headlined by Method Man, Curren$y and Big K.R.I.T. The Smoker's Club tour comes to Warehouse Live November 11, and Marcu ... More >>

David Allen Smith: Busted for Kiddy Porn after Wife Turns Geek Squad Loose on Computer

He doesn't look like he'd have kiddie porn at ALL.​Marriage and a weakness for child porn. It's a combo that doesn't mix. The latest area man to find that out the hard way is 67-year-old David Allen Smith of Lufkin. Police there say Smith's vile stash came to light after his wife took thei ... More >>

Christmas Eve Store Hours, For All You Procrastinators

The doors!! They are closing!!​Maybe you've got today off and are planning to do your Christmas shopping. Maybe you don't have today off, or maybe you just like putting things off to the last minute. A Friday Christmas Eve shopping trip sounds like hell to us, but if you're determined to go t ... More >>

Walmart vs Best Buy: Rice Studies Why Walmart's Kicking Butt

Best Buy might become the next Blockbuster, Rice researchers say​Walmart is going to kick Best Buy's ass this holiday shopping season, and researchers at Rice say they know why. And the stunning answer is.....prices. Though they maintained equivalent levels of overall customer satisfaction ( ... More >>

Lamar's eLibrary

Goodbye paper books, hello Facebook.

The Five Most Annoying Christmas Ads

Anyone who's watched football (or What Not to Wear, we guess) recently knows that the onslaught has begun: The horror of Christmas commercials. These heinous 30-second bits of torture can abuse viewers in several ways. Here are five of the worst. 5. Jewelry for the Meek, Submissive Weaker Sex Whet ... More >>

Shop 'Til You Drop: People Already Lined Up for Black Friday

Like Blair Witch Project, but without the death and black and white photography.​If you're wondering if it's too early to get in Black-Friday mode, no, it's not. Customers are already lining up in front of Best Buys, Targets and other popular stores for those early Friday morning openings. (Ta ... 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 >>

Space Shuttle Discovery: Five Notable Missions, For Better Or Worse

Godspeed, Discovery​The space shuttle Discovery headed to the pad yesterday for its last trip into space.The 26-year-old craft has seen a lot in its career, some good, some bad, some odd. Here are five highlights:5. Being used as an old-folks' tour busIn 1998 Discovery took John Glenn up to space ... More >>

Rockin' His Life Away, Jerry Lee Lewis Shows Signs Of Age

​Lonesome, Onry and Mean waited anxiously as the appointed hour neared. We'd had this feeling around this time last year as we awaited the appearance of Shane MacGowan and the Pogues. Would MacGowan die onstage, spilling his drink? Would he be so drunk he'd make a pathetic fool of himself? We ... More >>

Houston Slammed By European Travel Blog: We're Boooorrring

But...but...there's the Kemah Boardwalk!!​Among world cities, in which category does Houston rank second only to Brussels, the capital of the European Union? Tedium, at least according to the European Union-funded wiki blog OpenTravel. According to "Chili," an English-language challenged scr ... More >>

Magnolia City Mixtape: Nameless Sound Kids' Classes, Runaway Sun to NYC, '59 Nash for Sale, etc.

​ New Year, new feature for Rocks Off. Each week we'll digest the Houston music scene's subtle notes you might not have caught in your online travels. We call it Magnolia City Mixtape. Like to hear it? Here it go. Starting today, Nameless Sound is offering free creative music classes for youths, t ... More >>

I Hate the Holidays Cabaret

Phoenix, INC. musically explores the horrendousness of the holidays

For Black Friday, The Top 5 Videos Set In Shopping Malls

"Are you off your fucking meds or something?"​We at Rocks Off are a bit puzzled by the continued practice of cramming ourselves into local malls on "Black Friday," or whatever we're calling the day after Thanksgiving this year (we perfer to remember it as a Megadeth song). Wasn't online shoppi ... More >>

Does Anyone Care About Super Tuesdays Anymore? Besides Us?

​Time was that Tuesdays used to be the best day of the week for your average recorded-music consumer. Since Rocks Off was just a wee music nerd, Tuesdays were his favorite days of the week because it was always the universal day for all new releases to hit the stores. It started with begging our p ... More >>

Branch Water Tavern: The Best New Restaurant Not Open Yet?

​Branch Water Tavern at 510 Shepherd will be a new American tavern with outstanding whiskeys, microbrewery beers and one of the hottest chefs in the city behind the stove. CIA grad David Grossman used to cook at Gravitas and Reef. Before that, he worked with the legendary Alfred Portale at Got ... More >>

Turning the Screw: J-Dawg, DMX, Birdman/Weezy, Kelis/Nas, Weezy/Obama, Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J, Geto Boys 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. Single of the Week: J-Dawg, "Never" Wire To Wire Did you know that it costs $240,000 to impersonate an FBI agent? DMX does. ... More >>

Hightower High Broadcast Academy Scores Another Grant

This past January, when the Houston Press awarded its first-ever MasterMinds Awards to three local groups showing cutting edge creativity and determination, one of the recipients of a $2,000 check from us was the Hightower High School's Broadcast Academy, headed up by Ted Irving, the media academy c ... More >>

The Derek Trucks Band: Already Free

The Stars of HISD

"Prominent" takes on new meaning

Houston's Child-Porn-Lovin' Attorney Arrested Again

Man, the Christmas season really blows for disbarred attorney Tom Zaratti.First, on Christmas Eve 2003, he was arrested for possession of child pornography, which ultimately led to a ten-year, $10,000 sentence. But while fortune smiled in the form of early parole, the anti-Christmas spirit came back ... More >>

Chinese Democracy's Liner Notes Upstage Axl Rose's Would-Be Magnum opus

Amuse Your Delusion

Chinese Democracy Not Exactly Flying Off the Shelves

  Photos by Craig Hlavaty For curiosity's sake, Rocks Off drove over to the Galleria-area Best Buy at 5133 Richmond yesterday afternoon to see if Guns 'N' Roses' new album, Chinese Democracy, was flying off the shelves. This record has taken over thirteen years to come out. Thirteen years ag ... More >>

Slideshow: Things that Took Less Time than Chinese Democracy

      As many of you no doubt know by now, what passes for Guns 'N' Roses these days did the unthinkable Sunday and released Chinese Democracy (available exclusively at Best Buy), disappointing thousands of critics who are going to have to think of some other metaphor for something ... More >>

Holy Crap: "Chinese Democracy" is Real

Maxim Magazine Readers: The Uncoolest Boys Around

Drenched in Blog: Nickelback DVD Collection! Yeah!!

Vinyl Heads

They're turning to needles, looking for purity

Fighting Tech with Tech: Red-light Camera Detectors Soon Available in Houston

DISConnect

Sales of CDs are falling faster than you can say iPod

Midnight in the Garden of PS3

Camping out at Best Buy with gamers -- and entrepreneurs

PS3 Party, Houston

Letters to the Editor

Reliantly Unhelpful

The abyss of customer service gets deeper

Told You So

Racket gets his gloat on

Black-Ass Fleas

Are they sellouts -- or just really bad rappers?

Cowboy Mouth

Friday, May 6, at Fitzgerald's, 2706 White Oak Drive, 713-862-3838.

Best Video Selection

Cactus Music and Video

Drastic Unilateral Action

Universal hopes to JumpSTART flagging CD sales with aggressive price cuts. Who benefits the most?

A Prickly Pair of Problems

Cactus Music and Video battles to keep its marquee and to get the Eagles on its shelves

The Wreck of the Record Rack

Another local music institution bites the dust

Quadruple Weird

"Experimental" doesn't quite describe Flaming Lips' Zaireeka