Christina Aguilera

Braving the Boos: Bob Dylan and 10 More Artists Unafraid to Piss Off Their Fans

Forty-seven years ago this week (wow!), a '60s folk icon by the name of Bob Dylan made his third and final appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, R.I. It was a highly anticipated set -- Dylan was the de facto leader of the American folk-music revival at the time, and his folkie flock ex ... 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 >>

NBC's Smash Just Might Be a Hit

Smash, the newest hopeful for an NBC success, premiered last night, and the Peacock network may have a potential hit on their hands. The show attempts to capitalize on America's latest (returned) obsession with the musical genre and has brought in some heavy hitters to assist. That it's produced by ... More >>

Rape, Scandal, Greed and Cockfighting -- The 2011 Sports Year In Review

2011: Penn State's horrible year​You know how, in the series 24, the way a season unfolds? How just when you think there has been some sort of resolution to the bad guys being bottled up, right then and there a new (often worse) layer is introduced, and ultimately in like Hour 22 Jack Bauer wi ... More >>

Twitter and Tales from Everyone's Childhood on Top Chef: Texas

HERE'S PATTI LABELLE BECAUSE WHY NOT THAT'S WHY.​I left a dinner tonight at Roost earlier than I would have liked -- I really need to stop making dinner plans on Wednesday night, but my job more or less necessitates that I eat out every night -- and will circle back around to this fact shortly. Ne ... More >>

Happy 30th, Amy Lee of Evanescence; Six Reasons We Like You

​While Evanescence and their lead singer, Amy Lee, continue to find mainstream success (their most recent album was number one on the charts when it was released in October), they are a band that is maligned in the same way as other polished heavy bands like Creed and Nickelback, though we are ... More >>

A Roundup of the 2011 Music Industry Based Strictly on Band Names

XL/Columbia​Theologians love saying things like "Man is created superior to animals" and "Animals can't be equal with humans." And then we go scouring philosophy books to see if animals have immortal spirits and if this means we'll someday meet our pets in heaven. That's a bunch of horse dung. ... More >>

DJ EQUE: "Bad Azz Red Gurl" Etches Her Name In Wax

Photo by Marco TorresDJ EQUE at the launch party for Pharrell's Qreme liqueur, Las Vilas, September 23, 2011​DJ EQUE has been making her mark in the industry for more than 10 years, but it was never something that came easy for her. The Houston-bred beauty had a lot to prove before she was tak ... 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 >>

Pop Rocks: Alternatives for Your Iglesia-less Britney Spears Tour

Not opening for Britney, he doesn't.​By now you've all heard the devastating news; not about the continuing problems at Japan's Fukushima nuclear facility, though that's still pretty important...I guess -- no, I'm of course referring to Enrique Iglesias's decision to bail on the just-announced ... More >>

Idol Beat: Brought To You By The Church Of Scientology

​I thought I imagined it at first, or was suffering the onset of hallucinations brought upon by sleep deprivation, strong drink, and three consecutive nights of watching Steven Tyler undress the audience with his eyes. But for maybe the first time since Season 10 of Idol began, I actually rewo ... 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 >>

Idol Beat: The Dirty Two Dozen

​The fallout from Jennifer Lopez's Wednesday night freakout only ate up about ten minutes of last night's show. At least, that's how much it looked like as I was fast-forwarding my DVR. You've got to hand that much the producers of American Idol, they can milk even the most trivial of incident ... More >>

2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest Video Recap

Justin Bieber, your All-Star MVP​Travel day today back from Phoenix, so I'm submitting the ultimate Cliffs Notes version of dominant performances during the NBA All Star weekend. (I'll be back at full blog strength tomorrow.) Here goes: - Justin Bieber was named most valuable player of the c ... More >>

Lady Gaga: Born This Way... As A Meme

John Robert Charlton via Wikipedia​Thursday, Lady Gaga created an Internet tizzy by merely releasing the lyrics to the first single and title track from her new album, Born This Way. It was as if she was released a perfume that smelled like semen and blood or something. The lyrics to "Born T ... More >>

Guns N' Roses, Rolling Stones, Prince Coming In 2011?

Sind Axl und Slash wieder Freunde geworden?​Rocks Off is in the concert business for all intents and purposes. We scour Pollstar and other Web sites and almost hourly looking for new shows and tours to tell you about around the clock. In the span of writing this introduction we just listed Luc ... More >>

Island Of Misfit Christmas Albums: Teen Pop Meltdown

​It happens like this: You are in charge of a major teen-pop act who can sell anything with their face or voice on it, be it training bras, shaving cream, or caskets. You have a week off in the summer from touring. Do you let the talent go home and sleep in their own beds or do you shove the ... More >>

The Houston Act We Most Wish Had Happened

Every day Rocks Off trolls the tubes of you in search of videos to share. If you have something that you think deserves to be video of the day, send a link to jef_rouner at yahoo dot com. ​Several years back, your Daily VJ attended an open-mike event at Hollywood that combined three of Housto ... More >>

Last Night: Kesha At House of Blues

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Kesha House of Blues July 26, 2010 If Lady Gaga is Chipotle, arguably the trendiest gourmet fast-food burrito on Earth, then Kesha is a frozen gas-station burrito. The kind that you buy drunk while you have gas on your hands, and ends up burning your mouth and you tast ... More >>

Top 10 Pop-Star Bobbleheads We'd Like To See

​The good people over at Aggronautix have done it again. The toy company has been releasing bobbleheads of punk-rock luminaries such as GG Allin and the Descendents' Milo Aukerman for the past year. Rocks Off has been lucky enough to snag a few. Sitting a few feet from us right now are the t ... More >>

La Roux Puts House Of Blues Under Its Electro-Pop Thumb

Photos by Jason Wolter​ The past year has been a year of renewal for pop music when it comes to new roles for women. In these previous 12 months, the archetype of what a female pop singer is supposed to look and sound like has been completely gutted and reconstituted, leaving room for the more inv ... More >>

Idol Beat: That's All, Folks

Um...really? This was it? This was the best you could do, America?​And so, the ninth season of American Idol comes to a lumbering and terrible end. The show is frequently boring and often aggressive in its desire to force viewers to sit through bad guest performances, but even by the show's ow ... More >>

American Idol: That's All, Folks

Um...really? This was it? This was the best you could do, America?​And so, the ninth season of American Idol comes to a lumbering and terrible end. The show is frequently boring and often aggressive in its desire to force viewers to sit through bad guest performances, but even by the show's ow ... More >>

Upcoming: Asia, Hawthorne Heights, Natalie Merchant, Silversun Pickups, Etc.

​Ana Egge, Michael Kingcaid, Frank Smith: Wed., May 26. Rudyard's. Asia: Sat., Aug. 21. House of Blues. Asleep At The Wheel: Sat., June 26. House of Blues. Benny Benassi: Fri., June 18. Stereo Live. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy: Fri., June 25. House of Blues. The Burden, Side Arms, Ghost Town Electric, F ... More >>

Glee: Marking Time

​At the outset, it looked like another Sue Sylvester-heavy episode. First, she gave Mercedes (and, less emphatically, Kurt) an ultimatum to lose weight or be dropped from the squad, then she commandeered the McKinley High auditorium for an entire week, forcing New Directions to secure a new l ... More >>

Glee: Marking Time

​At the outset, it looked like another Sue Sylvester-heavy episode. First, she gave Mercedes (and, less emphatically, Kurt) an ultimatum to lose weight or be dropped from the squad, then she commandeered the McKinley High auditorium for an entire week, forcing New Directions to secure a new lo ... More >>

Born to Runoff: Playlists for Saturday's Mayoral Election-Night Parties

​ Thursday evening Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker, clearly anticipating a weekend of celebration, posted the following message to Twitter asking for playlist suggestions for her election night party. So far the official suggestions are pretty lame, so Rocks Off is coming to the rescue ... More >>

Tween Dreams

HPMA Aftermath: Heptic Skeptic, Runaway Sun, the McKenzies, B L A C K I E, the Tontons and Spain Colored Orange

Photos by Shea Serrano​ 5:08 p.m.: About two weeks ago, vocalist Kammera Franklin broke her ankle. It has not stopped her hustle. Sunday, she sang for Heptic Skeptic, Umbrella Man and every single other band on the HPMA schedule. 5:27 p.m.: The Skeptics, who have always been a little more soulful ... More >>

Recent Super Bowl Halftime Highlights and Lowlights

Backfield in Motion

Aftermath: Danzig at House of Blues

Shine a Light, The Stones and Scorsese

This film is a treat for movie and music fans alike

The Wayback Machine: 5, 10 and 15 Years Ago in Houston Music

The improbable redemption of Ashlee Simpson

"La La" Love You

Houstonian Kady Malloy = Early American Idol Front-runner

Evelyn Rubio y Calvin Owens Orchestra Azul

La Mujer

Hip-hop as She Is Rapped

Translating the German Wikipedia entries of Houston's top MCs

Tube Boobs

American Dreamz's nation of idiots lands a little close to home

John Legend, with De La Soul and Rahzel

Saturday, August 13, at HUSH, 15625 Katy Freeway, 713-330-HUSH.

The Hipster's Guide to Rock and Roll Vendettas

And you thought rappers were the only ones who had beefs

Time Out, Mack

Rewarding bad behavior by underachievers

Lillix Fair

Life on a major label is no carnival for teenage sisters Lacey-Lee and Tasha-Ray Evin

Filling the Blue-Eyed-Soul Hole

Justin Timberlake leads the charge of new melanin-challenged soul brothers

Cheating the Reaper

Vic Chesnutt died 20 years ago. Catch him live this week.

Macy Gray

Not So Complic8ted

Our latest pop phenomenon, Avril Lavigne, deconstructed for your convenience

Hot? Not.

Rob Schneider jerks around with his feminine side

Pop Goes the Bastard

Unlike the UK, Houston resists the urge to commit plagiarhythm

Mandy Moore

Maximizing her 15 minutes

Helping Hands

Coming This Week