Bono (Musician)

Cole Porter’s Great American Songbook

Joshua Tree: 7 Musicians Who Have Felt The High Desert's Pull

Twenty-five years ago today, U2 released their paramount record, The Joshua Tree. The record was intended to be a spiritual quest for Bono: A meditative dissection of the "spoiled child" he saw in American culture. Before Bono blessed the area with his humanitarian spirit, however, many other musici ... More >>

World AIDS Day: Artists Who Have Contributed to the Cause

​Today is World AIDS Day. The theme this year is "Getting to Zero," focusing on zero AIDS related deaths. In hopes of achieving this goal, there has been many a celebrity to endorse AIDS awareness and various charities around the world. Quite a few musicians have used their celebrity status ... More >>

Looking Back at A Very Special Christmas Track by Track

In the late 1980's, music empresario Jimmy Iovine cobbled together quite a collection of pop and rock artists to record songs for a Christmas album benefitting the Special Olympics. In 1987, A Very Special Christmas was released and rapidly became an instant holiday classic thanks to the star powere ... More >>

"Change Your Name To A Symbol" & Other Dumb Ways To Derail Your Music Career

brightestyoungthings.comThe sign officially known as "Love Symbol #2"​Sunday marked the 18th anniversary of the date Prince changed his name to that confounded "Love Symbol", and we can't help but wonder if he would have had more success had he waited a decade or two. Like it or not, in toda ... More >>

Five Questionable Musical Tributes To Nelson Mandela

White House Photographic Office, Clinton Administration​As recognized by the United Nations, today is Mandela Day, honoring the birthday of the beloved South African president, humanitarian, and all-around badass Nelson Mandela, who turns 93. Mandela is a living legend, leader, hero and inspir ... More >>

Creepy Crawlies: Medical Conference Looks into Morgellons Disease

Comin' to getcha.​If you're one of the thousands of people, mostly from Texas, who believe weird, freaky fibers are wiggling out from under their skin, then you may want to check out the fourth annual medical conference on Morgellons Disease in Austin April 2. Our sister paper in Dallas wrot ... More >>

Top 10 Musical U.S. Presidents

"The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music." - Gerald Ford gwu.eduWhen else are we going to use this picture?​Today is President's Day, and if you'll think back to high-school U.S. History, you'll remember that potential Commande ... More >>

25 Famous Bands' Less Famous Previous Names

​As promised, here are the answers to Rocks Off's "Original Band Name" quiz from Tuesday. John St. Lee, if you'd care to email us, we'll see what we can do about getting you a prize. Do you like Devo? 1. Chicago: At about 25 or 6 to 4, the Windy City jazz-rockers realized The Big Thing sucked ... More >>

Top 10 Super Bowl Halftime Shows

idontlikeyouinthatway.com​This Sunday, Rocks Off will be live-blogging and tweeting this year's Super Bowl halftime show, which will feature noted scholars The Black Eyed Peas. We are diligently studying the entire BEP canon and that of all of their solo members, like the dedicated pop histori ... More >>

Top Eight Freedom Songs For MLK Day

​Rocks Off sincerely prays that those of you with today off are at least peripherally aware of why you have today off. For our annual MLK Day reflection this year, we thought we'd leave the songs about Dr. King to Bono, and instead share a few of our favorite songs that set his dream to music ... More >>

Pocket Rockers: Ten Musicians 5'5" And Under

Photo illustration by Monica Fuentes; click image to enlargeThe Tall Guys, l-r: Ric Ocasek (The Cars), John Mayer, Joey Ramone​Saturday night, closet cat lover and reigning Dark Lord Glenn Danzig will be in town for a headlining gig over at Warehouse Live. The diminutive, but no less awesome, ... More >>

The Week In TV: Louis C.K. vs. Mississippi

The same face we made when trying to comprehend why people would voluntarily live in Mississippi.​The weather's terrible, I'm living off DVR'd episodes of Community, and it's possible this is all just a dream. This was the week in TV Land: • AT&T reached a deal with Rainbow Media last week ... More >>

Top 5 Bands That Should Relax For A Bit

Craig Hlavaty​Wednesday, Rocks Off got an e-mail from the Dave Matthews Band PR team saying that the group would be taking 2011 off so they could come back in 2012. Whether or not this is to hasten the coming Apocalypse that year or just to live a normal life for a bit remains to be seen. God ... More >>

Van Morrison

Craig Hlavaty​Wednesday, Rocks Off got an e-mail from the Dave Matthews Band PR team saying that the group would be taking 2011 off so they could come back in 2012. Whether or not this is to hasten the coming Apocalypse that year or just to live a normal life for a bit remains to be seen. God ... More >>

Can't Forget The Motor City: Our Favorite Motown Jams, Part 2

​ Rocks Off - sorry, He Said; we're still getting used to this whole identity-shift thing - is sure some of our readers think we do nothing except sit around and listen to the Drive-By Truckers all day. To which we say: Have you heard Bettye LaVette's The Scene of the Crime or Booker T's Potato Ho ... More >>

American Idol: Later, Lacey

We w@nt t* punch Ke$ha !n the f@ce.​Last night was my first real elimination round of American Idol. Sure, they've been thinning the ranks for weeks, but that was a rapid-fire bloodletting that sent home four bad singers a week. This is the big show, the top 12, with more lights and makeup and ... More >>

Idol Beat: Later, Lacey

We w@nt t* punch Ke$ha !n the f@ce.​Last night was my first real elimination round of American Idol. Sure, they've been thinning the ranks for weeks, but that was a rapid-fire bloodletting that sent home four bad singers a week. This is the big show, the top 12, with more lights and makeup and ... More >>

For St. Patrick's Day: Five Irish Movies You Need To See

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, when everyone's Irish, yadda yadda yadda.How best to get ready for it? Watching a movie tonight would be one way. Unfortunately, a lot of the "great" Irish movies suck. The Quiet Man? Oy vey. Maureen O'Hara is nicely feisty, but John Wayne is as wooden as ever and the ... More >>

Five Spot: The Kanye Is Not Going To Act Like A Dick In 2010... Until He Does

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. ​We take in a ton of music each week... turns out that's actually a major p ... More >>

Live with Me

The best Houston concerts of 2009: U2, George Strait, Kid Cudi, Jandek, Peaches and even T-Pain.

Inquiring Minds: Pocket Full of Soul Director and Harmonica Apologist Marc Lempert

As you can also see in this week's print edition of the Press - yes, we still make those - Rocks Off recently had a chance to chat via email with Marc Lempert, director of the harmonica documentary Pocket Full of Soul that screens Saturday night at Verizon before a demonstration of the instrument's ... More >>

Uprising

2009 wasn't a great year for albums, but songs were a different story.

This Week In Deliciousness

Smallpox vaccination scars are sexy as hell.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup at Eating Our Words, where we never roll less than three sous-chefs deep, y'all. Paul Knight started off the week by attending the Grand Opening of Lucky Strike Lanes and sampling their grub. We'll spare you the in ... More >>

Rocks Off Loves Muse - So What If Idiot-Arguer Glenn Beck Does Too?

It's easy to forget that tonight another band is actually playing before U2 at Reliant Stadium. But Bono and the boys couldn't have found a better band to heat up their adoring throngs than space-rock overlords Muse. Hell, even conservative hand-wringer Glenn Beck likes them. We swear that that's n ... More >>

Texas Spider-Man Fans: You Could Be A Broadway Star! (Or, Maybe Not)

Spider-Man geeks, rejoice!! You may not only get to live out your fantasy -- being Peter Parker and his alter ego -- but you can be a Broadway star!! Or, on the other hand, you can participate in a huge publicity stunt. They're making a musical out of Spiderman, complete with a new (to us, anyw ... More >>

Gazing Ahead into 2009, Part 2

[Note: see here for Rocks Off's previous prognostications.]   U2 (March) Best Case Scenario: Armed with the backing of Live Nation, they release their best album in over a decade and Bono shuts his face as they sell out Reliant Stadium in two minutes. Worst Case Scenario: The recession (fi ... More >>

Top Ten Hip-Hop Albums Of 2008

A couple of weeks ago, an expert on the Harry Potter series told an audience of high school kids how lucky they were to have this Big Shared Experience--these seven books and 41,000 words in common. What does Harry Potter have to do with hip-hop in 2008? In an age when many year-end lists should ... More >>

Aftermath: Coldplay at Toyota Center

Photos by Mark C. Austin The problem with Chris Martin isn’t the fact that the Coldplay frontman writes lyrics that resemble something that might come from the diary of a seventh grader who sniffs magic markers (snow, it turns out, is white after all). No, it’s the fact that he almost forces p ... More >>

Music to Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil

Photos by Mark C. Austin The problem with Chris Martin isn’t the fact that the Coldplay frontman writes lyrics that resemble something that might come from the diary of a seventh grader who sniffs magic markers (snow, it turns out, is white after all). No, it’s the fact that he almost forces p ... More >>

Ted Nugent Reloads, and Lots of Gun Songs

Photos by Mark C. Austin The problem with Chris Martin isn’t the fact that the Coldplay frontman writes lyrics that resemble something that might come from the diary of a seventh grader who sniffs magic markers (snow, it turns out, is white after all). No, it’s the fact that he almost forces p ... More >>

Retro Active: A Nuclear Era, But I Have No Fear

Photos by Mark C. Austin The problem with Chris Martin isn’t the fact that the Coldplay frontman writes lyrics that resemble something that might come from the diary of a seventh grader who sniffs magic markers (snow, it turns out, is white after all). No, it’s the fact that he almost forces p ... More >>

Being There

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

Drenched In Blog: Bob Dylan, Robert Earl Keen, Billy Joe Shaver, Wilco and My Morning Jacket Round Out the Weekend

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

Tony Bennett

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

“Thunderstruck” on I-45

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

Fuck-off Friday: It’s Too Hot to Work Anyway

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

Idol Chatter

Opening day for America's fourth national sport is upon us

The Killers

Sam's Town

The Orange Show

Spain Colored Orange takes home four Press Music Awards

Dreams of Syndication

Spain Colored Orange takes home four Press Music Awards

Year of the Concept

Green Day opens the Idiot-ic floodgates

Karachi Rock

Haven't heard of Junoon? They've sold 20 million albums, and they're at the Meridian this week.

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Haven't heard of Junoon? They've sold 20 million albums, and they're at the Meridian this week.

Nine Inch Nails

And All That Could Have Been (Nothing)

Reach for the Sky

The selfishness of Hands Up Houston nourishes Space City's beleaguered indie scene

Burying the Brakeman

The selfishness of Hands Up Houston nourishes Space City's beleaguered indie scene

Rich Stuff

Regine's may not be light on the pocketbook, but it's lovely on the tongue

Ethnical Questions

Plus: Shimmying with Mary Jane on the Washington Avenue shuttle

Celting Point

Plus: Less Donna McK., archiving Texas folk music, and Iggy's eats Jelly