This week back in 1980, the rock world lost a good one. John Bonham, the fantastic, heavy-footed drummer for Led Zeppelin was found dead in bed in Jimmy Page's Windsor manor house. It was an ugly end for Bonzo. A longtime heavy drinker -- particularly when separated from his family -- Bonham had ... More >>
This week, Rolling Stone and NME got wind of the fact that '70s hard-rock heroes Thin Lizzy will hit the studio this fall to record their first new album since band founder/leader/icon Phil Lynott's death 26 years ago. The news was actually broken by HotPress.com last week, but it took a while for w ... More >>
Shout-out to the oenophiles out there, there is a new kid on the wine block these days, with the introduction of two varieties of vino geared towards fans of classic-rock band AC/DC. Now, I know what you are saying: Since their music goes so well with the hard stuff, shouldn't AC/DC be making their ... More >>
See more metal and Mayhem from Wednesday in our slideshow. Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion July 11, 2012 This year's main-stage bill is probably as close to a genuine, bona fide legacy that Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival will ever come up with, ever. Be ... More >>
See Rocks Off's complete Free Press Summer Fest coverage. Be sure to also check out our slideshows: the sexy, sweaty Summer Fest crowds and the bands of Summer Fest 2012. Cory Garcia: Stage 7 isn't the most glamorous. Most of your set will be spent playing to the handful of people who came out to y ... More >>
One of the most notable trends emerging from SXSW earlier this month was the increasing prevalence of financial partnerships between artists and brands. The highest-profile example of this phenomenon came courtesy of Lil Wayne, who taped a Mountain Dew spot from the stage at his Young Money/Cash Mon ... More >>
Almost half a century ago this month, the Beatles released their first U.S. single, "Please Please Me." Though a fine example of the group's early pop sound, it wasn't an immediate smash in the States. After being issued in England on the EMI-owned Parlophone label on Jan. 12, 1963, Capitol ... More >>
Former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson has been everywhere over the last few years, trying to re-invent himself and rehabilitate his image. From his impersonation of Herman Cain on Funny or Die to his hilarious turn in The Hangover, Tyson has been doing a pretty good job of making people laugh. But, a ... More >>
Get Lit: Dirty Deeds - My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC By Mark Evans 288 pp., $19.95, Bazillion Points Books The Thunder from Down Under that is AC/DC has been blasting eardrums for nearly four decades, continuing to move millions of records and tour huge arenas worldwide. And though the lineup ha ... More >>
AC/DC: The Only Four-Letter Band That MattersThe other day while we were tooling around with a collection of music we had inherited from some family members that had passed away, we realized that of all the compact discs that we had in the box, the Miles Davis, the Ravi Shankar box set, the T ... More >>
While he's of course best known as the longtime front man for AC/DC, or perhaps the rocker with the most consistent wardrobe, Brian Johnson is also a very serious gearhead, a collector/tinkerer of classic cars and a competitive race driver who has seen the checkered flag on tracks all over th ... More >>
Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd's seminal album about mental illness, the inevitability of death, and anxiety born of living in modern society, turns 38 today. It remains one of the most successful... Wait a minute? DSotM is 38 years old? How is that possible? It seems like just yesterday ... More >>
AC/DC: High Voltage Rock 'n' Roll - The Ultimate Illustrated History By Phil Sutcliffe Voyageur Press, 224 pp., $35 A genuine coffee table book on the greatest exports to ever come from Down Under is cool enough, but the fact that the cover has a cut-out circle that allows you to "spin" Angu ... More >>
Your humble narrator went to our day job on Saturday like we always do. We stopped at Sonic on the way and got a bacon sandwich like we always do. Then we spent the rest of the weekend praying to every Non-Jewish, Non Muslim God we could think of to please not make us throw up the delicious b ... More >>
Hell's Belles guitarist Adrian Conner isn't put off by "Givin' the Dog a Bone."
myspace.com/hellcitykings Tonight the Hell City Kings invade the indie confines of Mango's to celebrate the release of their new seven-inch Wolf EP, with Austin's White Rhino and locals Shit City High and the Wrong Ones in tow. It's going to be one of those shows where the doors open at 8 p.m. an ... More >>
Mad Men's Christina Hendricks makes us feel like a man in the best possible way...He Said's view of manhood wasn't built on sweat and labor the way most guys would probably say. Early on in our musical journey, we always equated music to being sleazy and slithery, or just dancing. It makes sense ... More >>
In a few weeks, Rocks Off loses another friend to marriage when one of our best friends from high school gets hitched at a church in Sugar Land. Quite honestly, out of all of our best friends, the smart money was on Rocks Off to get married first while Brett was going to linger on as a swinging bac ... More >>
Every year the Christmas gods try to throw us the same old boring and tired holiday music. Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Hall & Oates are just fine, but this member of Rocks Off needs the blood of the innocent and punishing power chords under his dead, decaying tree. We sought ... More >>
A few Saturdays ago, Rocks Off was in the grocery store a few blocks from our house, slumming around Oak Forest wearing sandals and an old Misfits T-shirt when a group of junior-high punk rockers approached and applauded us for our good taste. We got to talking about the band, and they remarked tha ... More >>
Photos by Craig HlavatyAll my friends know the Low Rider: Black CongressIt's getting harder and harder every day here in Houston to find bands who know how to rock the ever-loving fuck out. Sure some of you do a good job at riding straight grooves and crafting shit-hot slabs of indie swoon. We ap ... More >>
Chicks, man. Can't live with them, can't play music that objectifies them while in the car on the first date. What's up with that? You play one song with the queen mother c-word in it and she leaves the car before we get our complimentary paper crowns. We compiled a list of songs guaranteed to offe ... More >>
In last week's Houston Music Fight Club, we pitted six of Houston's brightest-shining musical diamonds against one another in a sort of cruel Internet death match. The only blood drawn was the dark crimson blood of laughter that...yeah, we need to work on our metaphors. Anyhow, we came up with three ... More >>
Photos by Chris Gray Th' Legendary Shack Shakers are a sort of Blue Ridge Parkway answer to Los Skarnales, mining Anglo-American roots music and all things Memphis - Sun Records, Beale Street and the Oblivians - to create a turbo-charged, gypsy-flavored, punk-speed rockabilly dynamo with a metric ... More >>
Craig HlavatyWallet, keys, lighter, cellphone, camera(s). We had it all last night as we walked into the arty confines of the East End's Super Happy Fun Land. But one thing we didn't have was a pair of earplugs, and right about now we feel kinda silly not dishing out the extra buck for the ones sitt ... More >>
A pacer by nature, Rocks Off is already so excited about Sunday's AC/DC show he can hardly sit down long enough to type a complete sentence. So imagine how difficult it was to sit at the keyboard while listening to a solid hour of Sirius/XM's "AC/DC Radio" channel. Or don't, actually, because ther ... More >>
No one else in thrash metal's so-called Original Top 4 (Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Metallica) will ever be as a pleasing to the average pop fan’s palate as James Hetfield and pals. Slayer, is well, Slayer. Need we say more? Songs about blood and the Holocaust don’t really move units. The other ... More >>
A preview of the 60 bands and five DJs that are taking over downtown this weekend
Alterna-god Perry Farrell's been caught spinning
Live from the Full Throttle CD-DVD (Sanctuary)
Jerker doesn't have a big costume budget
Time to say "ska-dios" to the Suspects; also, the Music Awards jinx strikes again
The Me Generation hasn't stopped believin' in its own soundtrack
A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC (Dualtone)
AC/DC still works its balls off to achieve rock godhood
Supagroup and the Violent Femmes
Detroit Rock City wallows through teens and concert tickets
That's what it's about with D Generation, man
After two decades, AC/DC still stands for down and dirty fun
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