Bono (Musician)

Last Night: Muse at Toyota Center

Muse Toyota Center March 12, 2013 There are certain types of bands you expect to pack arenas: bands who have figured out the power of pop hooks (Maroon 5), bands who play the most populist modern rock imaginable (Nickelback), and the dinosaurs of classic rock (Fleetwood Mac). Muse could have been ... More >>

The 5 Worst Disasters In Benefit Concert History

Benefit concerts are great. The practice of bands playing to raise money for a cause can be as local as helping a fellow unsigned musician pay for their son's hospital bills to as international as world hunger. Though we may pinch our noses at the perceived sanctimoniousness of people like Bono and ... More >>

Living on the Edge: 10 More Onstage Oopsies

Rock stars are just like the rest of us. They eat, love, poop, age, and sometimes they just embarrassingly go ass over tea kettle. Rewind: When Gravity Attacks: 13 Memorable Onstage Stumbles The difference between them and us, besides, you know, money, fame, security, and the like, is that when w ... More >>

True Blood: K'naan and the New Testament

Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He's lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood -- which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. This column is fairly formulaic. I recap the episode, mention the ... More >>

Drops In the Bucket List: 5 Venues To See a Show In Before You Die

I'm not much of a traveler. Outside of a few trips to Vegas, I've never been on a real grownup-type vacation. Every year it's a struggle to think of something to do with my vacation days, one that eventually leads to a few four-day weeks and a couple of midweek shows. Now that I'm getting older, I' ... More >>

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 >>

Chris Gray Day Finalized Schedule

The lineup is finally set for this Saturday's concert benefitting Houston Press music editor Chris Gray and it's a doozy. Tomorrow, we'll give you a rundown of all the silent auction items and you'll be even more impressed. For now, let's focus on the bands. The bonanza of bands gets started at 10 ... More >>

Chris Gray Day Tentative Schedule Released

​Chris Gray Day will be held in Houston, Texas on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at The Continental Club complex, at 3701 Main, affectionately known to locals that live near and haunt the grounds as "The Island". Today Rocks Off gets to announce the first round of bands playing that day's festivit ... 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 >>

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

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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

XM Nation: Catching Up and Moving On

Ted Nugent Reloads, and Lots of Gun Songs

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

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

Tony Bennett

“Thunderstruck” on I-45

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

The Killers

Sam's Town

The Orange Show

Spain Colored Orange takes home four Press Music Awards

Dreams of Syndication

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

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

Playbill

Cowboy Mouth

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