Best Buy Co. Inc.

Fan Direction: 5 Great Music-Video Contest Winners

One of the latest trends I've observed in music is that almost everyone is outsourcing their videos these days, even top artists. It's much easier and cheaper to hold a fan contest, asking your fans to create videos for you, than it is to go out and shoot the video yourself on your (or your record l ... More >>

Hearing Garth Brooks' No Fences for the Very First Time

Twenty-two years ago this week, Garth Brooks' second album, No Fences entered the charts and made itself comfortable. It was a titanic, monumental record for country music, eventually going platinum 17 times over on its way to becoming a global smash. No Fences is often credited with ushering in a ... More >>

Happy Birthday, Phil Anselmo: The Trendkiller's Top 5 Side Projects

On June 30, ex-Pantera and current Down frontman Philip H. Anselmo turns 44 years old. For a while there, it didn't look like he was going to make it this long. The metal titan suffers from chronic back pain caused by degenerative disc disease in his spine, and beginning in the mid-'90s, Phil self-m ... More >>

What Is the Springboard South Music Festival Anyway?

The 2012 Springboard South Music Festival makes its debut this weekend, starting today and running through Sunday at CityCentre Houston. The event, boasting three days of music from 45 bands on two stages, is being touted by organizers as an opportunity for independent artists and musicians and educ ... More >>

Rocks Off Lists Our Favorite Downloads of 2011

It's getting to be that time of year, when the temperature drops and the lists start rolling in. Read any blog, magazine or newspaper and you're bound to run across at least a handfull of year-end lists, particularly when it comes to music. We all like to talk about the stuff we like. It's just what ... More >>

Top 5 Reasons Cyber Monday Is Better Than Black Friday

To bastardize a line from Groundhog Day, "Well, it's Black Friday...again." It's that oh-so-magical time of year when the strong walk away from predawn shopping trips with armfuls of electronic goodies while the weak get treated by EMS for boot marks left by shoppers stampeding into Best Buy. Since ... More >>

5 Reasons You Should Skip Black Friday for Cyber Monday

Well, it's Black Friday again. I sincerely hope you and your loved ones remain un-trampled and filled with holiday spirit or, if retailers got their wish, with carloads of merchandise. Since 2005, the nerdy cousin to Black Friday has been Cyber Monday. Traditionally, and I hesitate to even use that ... More >>

Musicians Can Wait: Black Friday More About Flat Screens Than Instruments

Back in college -- yes, in the stone age -- I worked for a musical instrument store on the north side of Houston. Over the years, there were busy days where I just stood behind the counter while a line of people handed me guitars to buy without the hint of a sales push and there were days we sat in ... More >>

10 Things You Need To Grab At Black Friday Record Store Day

While your other shopping contemporaries are slashing each others' throats at Walmart and Best Buy for $20 plasma televisions and six Blu-Ray players for $5 on Black Friday next week, why not sleep in and head up to your favorite local record store and fight other music nerds for limited edition vin ... More >>

Invasion of Piracy

Illegal downloading costs the film industry billions of dollars per year. But does the legal strategy designed to recoup this lost bounty amount to extortion?

10 Albums Guaranteed To Blow Your Car Speakers

G N' R: Keeping Best Buy In Business Since 1987​It started innocently enough, leaving a friend's house in the Heights, when during one of our epic air-drum solos to the Foo Fighters' "Bridge Burning," we heard the speakers on the left side of our car, a hearse-like HHR, just pop and die, reduc ... More >>

Montrose Muffled

Residents take sides on bar noise issue.

Super Bowl XLV: Livebloggin' the Commercials!

Betty White enjoys a Snickers.​For someone who watches the biggest television event in America strictly for the breaks, last year was a bummer. Betty White's Snicker's ad, and the Kia commercial featuring a posse of partying toys were two standouts in a year of boring, sexist and outright dumb ... More >>

Musicians Will Shill Literally Anything For A Buck

gossip-juice.com​This Sunday, the Super (Marketing) Bowl will enlist the help of the Prince of Darkness to target a new demographic: The Glee-ber market. With Glee's season premiere directly following the game, advertisers hope to seduce younger spectators into watching through bait like Justi ... More >>

Electric Cars In Houston: There Will Be A Charging Station At Spec's!!

Photo courtesy eVgoeVgo: Jes' juicin' up mah ride​Houston will be home to the nation's first electric vehicle charging ecosystem. Just what is an electric vehicle charging ecosystem? It's a network of charging stations for electric vehicles strategically setup across the Houston area. These c ... More >>

What Is The Best Album Cover Ever?

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. ​This Week's Panel: Bun B, Lil Flip, Hollywood FLOSS, hasHBrown, Kyle Hubbard, Renzo, Brad Gilmore and Nash White Not Invited: Kanye, bec ... More >>

The Twitterverse

More than just cyberspace, the tweet life inspires people to make friends and adopt causes in person. It has a few problems, too.

The 11 Stupidest Events from the World of Music, 2009 Edition

Hi there, 2009. Please have a seat. Are you comfortable? Would you like some coffee, or perhaps a cigarette? No? Okay, good. Let's just cut straight to the point, then. You suck, and frankly we're sick of your bullshit. You were an awful year, filled not just with economic collapse, scary right-wi ... More >>

Year in Film: Rent a Wreck

For a former video store giant, not such a blockbuster decade.

Game Time: Rating The Smack Of Mark Mangino

​Less than two years removed from taking home the Bear Bryant Award which goes to college football's top head coach, Kansas coach Mark Mangino's mouth is getting him in trouble. No, I'm not talking about the fifth serving of cheesecake he may or may not have had (ok, DID have) after dinner tonight ... More >>

I Wanna Be Your Dog (Or Cat): This Edition Has A Cool Theme Song

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to alleviate the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care's crowded conditions while welcoming a loving, loyal, possibly slobber-ridden companion into your life. Attached are the photos of your primary targets. If you or any team member are caught or ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 15: Chamillionaire's Original Mixtape Messiah, or 20-Plus Ways to Dis Mike Jones

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com. "You drop one track, he's still alive." - Chamillionaire, on why he ai ... More >>

A Chat with Reid McGraff of a bar and grille

Photo by Sarah Rufka​Seeing Reid McGraff at the Alden-Houston's a bar and grille -- an affable and friendly bartender, but with a certain polished bearing -- you'd never guess he'd ever tended a less elegant bar. Asked about his past positions, he mentions Hotel ZaZa, House of Blues, Warren's ... More >>

Pump Up the Volume

St. Louis post-punks So Many Dynamos are ready for battle with The Loud Wars.

Five Spot: Remembering "Five Star General" Big Hawk

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.MTV's Cribs has to be one of this generation's finest cultural achievements. F ... More >>

Playing Favorites

Radar Eyes: Hangin' With the Homopolice

Hello and welcome back to Radar Eyes. I've been away for the last three weeks... Our Focus = Underground/ Unreleased/ Underexposed/ Misunderstood/ Unappreciated/ Etc., etc. I am Chemical Mange. R.I.P. Sandor Benczedi. Rosa GuerreroWelcome Beau Beasley of Homopolice, Heavy Leather Records, etc ... More >>

Artist of the Week, San Antonio Edition: Audiotap (and Mathew Barker)

Last Night: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at Super Bowl XLII

"Rebecca Ward / Jason Rogenes / Dan Steinhilber"

Finesilver hosts three gallery-specific installations

LCD Soundsystem, Reverend Horton Heat, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Muse, Wilco and Ghostland Observatory: Chris Gray Closes the Notebook on ACL

All Dressed Up...

PlayStation 3 has potential -- but for the moment, little else

The Orange Show

Spain Colored Orange takes home four Press Music Awards

A Crying Shame

RIP, Cactus Music and Video

Million Dollar Smile

Paul Wall joins George Foreman in the famous Houston grill club

Cherry on Top

The 40-Year-Old Virgin gets a heart-on while telling wonderfully dirty jokes

The Halo Challenge

Master Chief, a weapons-toting super-enhanced human, is the only being who can save the earth. A video gamer from Texas is the world champion at helping him do just that — thousands of times over.

She's Got Game

Video game vixen Morgan Webb stops by for a little X-Play

Young Loves

Tom Zaratti was just a lawyer of modest means, looking out for his boy. Then the revelations began.

College Credit

Shopping spree for your first apartment: $2,500
Spring break in Cabo: $1,000
Avoiding college credit card debt: priceless

Cram Shop

A-Plus makes the money even if students don't make the grade

Human Nature

Dieselboy saves the world -- or maybe just American drum 'n' bass

When In Doubt...

Classic gifts

Will the Real Texas Musician Please Stand Up

The land of gee-tars and fiddles

And the Survey Says...

Local Restaurant News

Rotation

Shop Art

Sculptor Williams has a Monkey on his back

Letters

Fourth and Long

Dreams of Glory Die Hard in Semipro football

Mom Muse