Carrie Underwood

Friday Chart Check

Chart Check

Country Music Awards

Drenched In Blog: Jack FM

One Small Step for Billboard, One Giant Debut for the Eagles

Houstonian Kady Malloy = Early American Idol Front-runner

The Blog of Lists: 25 Vegan Musicians

Ten Performers Besides Bruce Springsteen Who Were Considered for the Super Bowl

Lonesome Onry and Mean: 2008's Heavy Rotation

For the second (third?) year in a row, LOM didn't vote in either the Nashville Scene's best of country music poll or the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop best of American music poll. I'm just not a good list-maker. Detest that stuff. Just trying to compile a list of possibles makes my brain hate me. ... More >>

American Idol Returns Tonight... Yawn

Come back Kelly Clarkson, all is forgiven... If you've been lucky enough to spend the past several months in a media-deprivation tank - or maybe you just don't read the Houston Chronicle - then you no doubt know Fox's shrill-singing flagship series American Idol returns tonight at 7 p.m. (As ... More >>

Idol Beat: The Top 11

Photo by Ray Mickshaw / FOXPictured: Matt Giraud, exquisite gumline Traditionally, I've concluded the first Idol Beat of any given week with predictions as to who the American Idol judges or viewing public will send home the next night. This week I'm upending that, and predicting that no one will go ... More >>

Unusual Suspects at The Usual

Trackside bar welcomes amateur karaoke stars — and everybody else

Just How Texan are Hayes Carll and Miranda Lambert?

Trackside bar welcomes amateur karaoke stars — and everybody else

Miss Leslie: Between the Whiskey and the Wine

Trackside bar welcomes amateur karaoke stars — and everybody else

Miranda Lambert

Trackside bar welcomes amateur karaoke stars — and everybody else

Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride

Carnival Ride

Idol Chatter

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

Hope Springs Eternal

A northern suburb tops our third installment of rating greater Houston's taste in music

Never Go to a Party in Friendswood

Where does your town rank in the Houston-area good-taste stakes?

Idol Beat: The Top Three

Disclaimer: Thanks to technical difficulties brought about by the crap DVR capture feature of our limp-ass new cable box/provider, I missed the first 15-20 minutes of Tuesday's episode of American Idol. Please feel free to attempt to conjecture about whatever you think I would have said - had I been ... More >>

Creep Show

O Pioneers!!! turns growing up into unrelenting punk rock.

Randy Travis

O Pioneers!!! turns growing up into unrelenting punk rock.

It's 4:30 p.m. and Taylor Hicks, Clay Aiken, John Mayer, Nickelback and ICP Still Suck

Er... no comment. OK, maybe one or two...​In the world of rock writing, there are just some artists' fans that you can't help but fuck with. While you're alternately enamored and disgusted by their chosen obsession, they exert a near religious fanaticism for their fixation of worship, making them ... More >>

What Rocks Off Found When We Hacked Tiger Woods' iPod

Since Rocks Off kindly suggested several musicians who would perhaps have made better trysting partners for Tiger Woods than waitresses, porn stars and what have you, the number of the maritally embattled golf superstar's alleged paramours has risen from nine to 11. Whoops, it's gone up from 11 to ... More >>

Distant Early Warning: Carrie Underwood, Eric Benet, Kinky Friedman, Muse, Rogue Wave, Supersuckers, etc.

​The Audition, Sparks The Rescue, The Right Coast: Thu., Jan. 28. Meridian. The Bellamy Brothers: Thu., Feb. 4. The Firehouse Saloon. The Black Dahlia Murder, Obscura, Augury: Mon., March 1. Meridian. Carrie Underwood: Mon., May 10. Ford Pavilion (Beaumont). Citizen Cope: Sat., March 13. House of ... More >>

Pop Rocks: American Idol -- What The Hell Is Wrong With You People?

​The ninth season of America's national karaoke showcase -- also known as American Idol -- premiered last Tuesday. The show that has contributed such legends as Jordin Sparks and Taylor Hicks to the world of music continues to chug along in spite of the absence of original judge Paula Abdul and th ... More >>

Anatomy of a Diss

Breaking Curfew, Houston rapper MC Kane explains the protocol for putting people down.

Chatter: Long Ball

Ex-ballplayer and busker George Thorogood: Now playing in a kid's movie near you.

Austin City Limits Festival Tickets On Sale Tomorrow At 10 A.M.

We're not saying Soundgarden is playing ACL, but you never know...​That's right. Now why would Rocks Off make something like that up? Hope you have $180 lying around and don't have any meetings or classes or anything like that tomorrow morning, because they're going to go quick. Better go ahead an ... More >>

The Week In TV: Futurama Lives!

​I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a summer of transcredible exploits. This was the week in TV Land: • Last week I asked what you watch during the summer, and the responses covered the bases for summer shows: Burn Notice, Leverage (really?), The Closer (really?!), sporting events, ... More >>

Five Memorable Athlete-Musician Hookups

​In a few hours, Carrie Underwood will be onstage at Toyota Center. Besides being an all-around American girl who will mess you up if you cheat on her, Underwood once dated Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and married Mike Fisher of the Ottawa Senators back in July. That's right, a hockey ... More >>

Last Night: Carrie Underwood At Toyota Center

Photos by Marco Torres​Carrie Underwood Toyota Center October 6, 2010 Carrie Underwood is perfect for Vegas. That's not a knock - mostly. Underwood is wholesome, engaging and dynamic. She's no Tina Turner, but she can strut onstage. Her voice is excellent - good range and control, on key and ... More >>

Hands Up Post: Honky-Tonk Houston's Done Got Out Of Hand

​A recent thread on the Hands Up Houston message board found poster "honky honk" complaining (and mangling the English language): Dear Houston. Why are you excepting [sic] this right wing, overtly white genre of music known as honky tonk or country? Why do we have to travel that far back ... More >>

How Much Does Houston Like Rush? A Lot.

Photos by Groovehouse/ Click link for a slideshowRush's Geddy Lee: "Hmmm... looks like a sellout to me."​Rush's "Time Machine" tour was well-named in more ways than one. Not only did the Canadian trio perform 1981's Moving Pictures in its entirety, but the tour transported the concert industry ... More >>

Houston Gets Over-The-Air Country-Music Channel

​Believe it or not, some of us get by just fine without cable or satellite TV. When Rocks Off goes home at night - the odd evenings we stay home, that is - not only do we enjoy the finest network television has to offer, but the cornucopia of choices across the digital-TV spectrum: B- and C-mo ... More >>

New Dynamo Stadium May Not Change Concert Climate Much

Marco TorresLady Gaga at Toyota Center, July 25​Conceivably, today's announcement that the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority has agreed to act as landlord for the proposed Houston Dynamo stadium in downtown's East End could present a serious challenge to the Houston area's reigning concer ... More >>

Lonesome Onry And Mean's Top 11 Obscure 2010 Albums

​As per previous years, Lonesome Onry and Mean isn't going to bother with running down all this year's major-label releases. Ranking the relative merits of Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood and Adam Lambert is the Houston Chronicle's job, we suppose. Seeing major players like Robert Plant, Bruce Sp ... More >>

Idol Beat: Some Girls

​I missed most of last night's introduction because I was still trying to get my head around how they're going to milk tonight's selection show for two freaking hours. American Idol is just another example of domestic ineffeciency: take what should be -- at best -- a thirty minute program and ... More >>

Jesus Is On the Mainline: The Son Of God In Rock & Roll

​With Easter Sunday coming up, we delved into all the instances of Jesus Christ in rock and roll. He's been a popular lyrical subject since he was born over 2,000 years ago, and his family enterprise runs neck and neck with sex when it comes to the entire lyrical history of music. Hymns or lov ... More >>

Idol Beat: Not So Fast, Five

Winter is coming... Wait, wrong show.​Dear American Idol: I don't like you - I think that's been pretty well established at this point - and I know you don't like me, otherwise you wouldn't still be dragging along for 90 minutes on Wednesday even though there are only five contestants left, a ... More >>

Houston Teen Payton Rae Scores 2.5 Million YouTube Views

"My haters are my motivators" ​As young female stars like Miley Cyrus exit their teen years and welcome young adulthood with open limbs, their boots are left behind for other starry-eyed aspiring musicians to fill. One of them might even be from Space City: A 15-year-old YouTube sensation nam ... More >>

Out Today: Other Things Besides Born This Way... Seriously

​This past weekend was magical, what with Rocks Off finally getting to see Foo Fighters play songs from Wasting Light and all. You may remember that we have been wanking over Light since it came out in April, but it's really good. Best rock album of the year? Maybe, unless Jack White or Josh H ... More >>

Idol Beat: American Idiots

Spoiler alert: the smug one wins.​Thanks to Shea Serrano for taking the bullet yesterday. After what felt like eons, the 10th season of American Idol lurched to its inevitable anticlimax last night. It was as especially torturous affair, stretching well over two hours and mixing performances ... More >>

Out Today: Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See, Black Lips Get Cosmic, Joe Ely Satisfied At Last

​This week of new releases brings a Mark Ronson-produced Black Lips album, the country debut of psychobilly idol Nick 13, an inventive career-spanning set from Randy Travis, and another Arctic Monkeys album, continuing their interesting progression from Brit garage brats into muscular rockers ... More >>

Fifteen Of Our Favorite Cheating Songs

zazzle.com​Songwriters find inspiration many of life's varied realms: Joy, grief, sex, drugs, anger and, evidently, two-timing. Some are sad, some cheeky, some violent and revengeful, but we've collected a sad-sack grab-bag of cheating-related songs. Here is our Top 15, along with their lyric ... More >>

Top 5 Country Music Feuds

The great mullet smackdown of 1992, starring Travis Tritt and Billy Ray Cyrus​Country music singers, Hank Williams Jr. once sang, are a real close family. And like most families, sometimes they don't get along. But unlike rap or British rock, where there are so many feuds it can be hard to ke ... More >>

Saturday Night: Rihanna At Toyota Center

Photos by Groovehouse​Rihanna Toyota Center July 9, 2011 Don't stop the music photos in our slideshow. It may be cutting against the grain to say this, but Rihanna may be the most transgressive pop star out there right now. She can do spectacle just fine - can she ever - but she doesn't need ... More >>

Boobylicious: Music's 20 Most Memorable Breasts (Semi-NSFW)

ztams.comWendy O. Williams, seen here with Motorhead front man Lemmy Kilmister​It may sound silly, but boobs are powerful things. Men are fascinated and entranced by them, while women constantly obsess over their size and shape. In a way, they're not unlike the ring in Lord of the Rings: Capab ... More >>

Lyrical Life Lessons: Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned

straightpinkie.com​Blame it on the humidity, but there's something about Houston that makes women go off the deep end. In fact, the Bayou City is home to three of the past decade's most notorious female-perpetrated crimes. There was Dr. Clara Harris (2002), who responded to the news of her hu ... More >>

Connie Smith: Classic Country Queen Returns With New Heartaches

Photos by Russ Harrington/Sugar Hill Records​People often get a bit confrontational with Lonesome Onry and Mean about "country music," like the last time we went to the bank in our father's little ranching town in Central Texas. As soon as we were introduced as a "music writer," one fellow - t ... More >>