Bob Dylan

Five Other Musicians We'd Like to See Take on Historical Fiction

This past week Downtown Abbey fans got a hell of a shock when Diddy announced via Twitter that he was going to be starring on the show, his purported favorite. Producers were quick to deny it, but no doubt fans of the PBS period drama were a little hesitant to even imagine Diddy, a rapper with exact ... More >>

5 Folk Acts Who Wandered Down the Synth Road

Mandolin enthusiasts Mumford and Sons have been on top of the world the past couple of years, dominating rock-driven radio with a folk sound that apparently touches the hearts of hard-rock bros around the world. Given that they have an apparently winning formula, one wouldn't expect them to change i ... More >>

Fitz Navidad's Bands Lay Out Their Favorite Christmas Tunes

Thursday night, a heavenly host of Houston's brightest and best musicians will spend a night playing Christmas music to celebrate the holiday season at Fitzgerald's. We decided to catch up with some of the musicians and find out what their favorite Christmas songs are, and why? Austin Smith (A Sea ... More >>

Old Crow Medicine Show

Explaining Classic Rock Bands to Kids

This past Sunday, The New York Times ran a piece by Paul Greenberg where the author explained how important the Beatles were to music and pop culture to his five-year old son. The child didn't know that the band had albums, but only knew the Fab Four from iTunes playlists. "When the Beatles record ... More >>

Second Lovers

5 Intentionally Bad Albums By Geniuses That Really Aren't So Bad

If there's one thing artists hate, it's record labels. Like managers, they were a necessary evil for the music business throughout much of the previous century, at least until piracy and digital uploading became a thing. The way it worked in the olden days, though, was that a record label would giv ... More >>

John Mayer, Cowboy?: 6 WTF Moments Of Musical Reinvention

Oh, you hadn't heard? At some point between his extended hiatus from singing and the recording of his newly announced album, Shadow Days, ol' big-mouth Mayer seems to have stumbled on some old Willie Nelson CDs and raided the nearest Cavender's in a transformation Rocks Off can only assume as bein ... More >>

Health Department Roundup

Societies can be judged by how they treat their most vulnerable members. Bob Dylan said that. Sometimes very old people aren't as vulnerable as they let on. We said that, after learning some hard lessons. Still, the folks at Vosswood Nursing Center (815 S. Voss) probably deserve a little bit better ... More >>

Mourning The Texans' Loss At The #Thurogod's Altar

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to sheaserrano@gmail. ... More >>

With a Rebel Yell: 10 Rockers Gone Country

Photo by Matthew KeeverAaron Lewis at the Verizon Wireless Theater in 2010.​When Staind singer Aaron Lewis rolls into Verizon Wireless Theater tomorrow night, odds are he'll leave his mudshuvel back at the hotel. As modern rock radio turns to the next generation of angst, the former Fred Durs ... More >>

Oh Jesus! Rock's Top 5 Religious Conversions

Rocks Off understands the need for a good detox now and then, as most of our evening antics often leave us feeling less than bright-eyed and bushy-tailed come morning. We also imagine the damage inflicted by lifetime of hard partying and endless touring in the company of morally compromised music-in ... More >>

Evening Shadows

Carolyn Wonderland dusts her broom on new album Peace Meal.

J Roddy Walston & the Business

Purple, Possessed & Pervy: Rock's Top 10 Houses

harleyslist.blogspot.comJohn Lennon and Yoko Ono in a happy pose in front of their home (and future site of Lennon's assassination).​Celebrity homes will always be a source of fascination, offering a glimpse at the intimate, private side of those who live their lives in the public eye. And it' ... More >>

Another Bio Of Bob Dylan: Not Dark Yet, But Getting There

​The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait By Daniel Mark Epstein Harper Books, 512 pp., $27.99 Another biography of Bob Dylan? Does even the most rabid fan at this point need another rehash of Hibbing, Woody Guthrie, folksinger-goes-electric, that "wild, mercury sound," Nashville, Blood on the Tra ... More >>

Krayolas Score Surprise Hit With Bob Dylan Cover

​If you follow these pages you may have noticed that Rocks Off recently tabbed Tipsy Topsy Turvy by veteran San Antonio rockers The Krayolas as our choice for best Texas album of the year so far. Yes, we understand that this may be running counter to the other members of the local media and ev ... More >>

Oprah Vs. Bob Dylan: A Side-By-Side Showdown

Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​In case you've been under a complete self-imposed total media blackout - how do those work, by the way? - you no doubt know this week is a pretty important milestone in the lives of two of America's most important cultural figureheads. Maybe the two most ... More >>

Ten Years After: Our Favorite 2001 Albums

​This hlist is kind of funny now, seeing that the dearly departed White Stripes are smack-dab in the middle with White Blood Cells. We swear this final hlist was made Tuesday afternoon, before Wednesday's breakup announcement. Funny how the band has actually been on the tips of our lips for a ... More >>

Drive-By Truckers

Going Platinum: Artists We'd Pay $10,000 To See - And When

​It started one night on the patio of Big Star Bar in the Heights; over Lone Star and cigarettes, a handful of Houston music wags debated the shows they would pay top dollar to see from lartists, iving or dead. We argued the aspects of an At the Drive-In reformation, seeing Sam Cooke in 1963, ... More >>

The Krayolas

The Krayolas

Fails Of The Week: Insane Clown Posse Hates Science, No Dylan In China, Rihanna & Ke$ha's Auto-Tour

If you're reading this, you're either on the Internet, or else you've mastered multi-dimensional thought-projection processes that would make Michio Kaku cry like a little girl. We'll assume the former, and just in case you don't already know, the Internet has decided that the word "failure" is too ... More >>

He Said She Said: The Sweet, Sweet Sounds of Revenge

"A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well." - Sir Francis Bacon ihasahotdog.com​She Said has never been one for revenge, preferring to believe (at least), that people make their own beds. But if she was the vengeful type, she'd seek it out not ... More >>

Midwinter Graces

The sounds of Christmas 2009 from Bob Dylan, Sting, Tori Amos, Rob Halford and more.

Overnight Delivery: Bob Dylan's "If You Ever Go To Houston"

We thought we'd try something a little different here at Rocks Off today. We're usually gone for the evening by now, but we figure a lot of wait until you get home from work to surf the Web for the day you deserve a reward for your productivity. What? What do you mean you don't? Oh, hell. Anyway, ... More >>

Songs To Fight Swine Flu By

Working overtime to give natural selection the finger, a former member of the Texas medical Association's Committee on Infectious Diseases has issued a press release telling people how to wash their hands.        "I'm not just talking about running your hands under the ... More >>

Moments the Grammy Awards Would Rather Forget

Soy Bombed

So There's This Little Festival In Austin This Weekend...

Band of Annuals

The news from Salt Lake City isn’t all bad

Get Lit: Doo Wop: The Music, The Times, The Era, by "Cousin Brucie" Morrow with Rich Maloof

No End in Sight, Twin Peaks, The Other Side of the Mirror and Talk to Me

Being There

The Sixth Annual Austin City Limits Festival feels like home...almost

Rick Mitchell Pops His ACL Cherry

ACL Fest: Where the Streets Have No Name

Wheel Good Time

Clay's the Thing

Snooks Eaglin

New Orleans Street Singer

Charlie In Charge

Sexton has gone from child roots rocker to Spin cover boy to Dylanesque bard

The Dome and Dylan

Knock-knock-knocking on Reliant's door

Look Ahead

D.A. Pennebaker doesn't make history, but he's captured so much of it

Self-Righteous Leftists

Smithsonian Folkways releases Broadside magazine's long-forgotten tracks

Grand Pops

Bob Dylan and Paul Simon tour together

Night & Day

June 11 - 17, 1998

Rotation

Burying the Brakeman

It's Alright, Ma

Let It Rock

The Nields turn up the volume on their folk-tinged sound

Highway 10 Revisited

San Antonio's True Infidelslook east for inspiration