Death From Above 1979

Getting to Know Nine Inch Nails All Over Again Through Ancient YouTube Footage

With the coming return of Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails to the touring and recording grind, fan excitement is at a high. It's almost as high as it was when NIN finally followed up the massive Downward Spiral with The Fragile double disc in 1999, or when they returned again six years after that for ... More >>

Why Do We Always Expect Our Favorite Bands To Reunite?

John Hammond, the billionaire CEO of InGen and the curator of Jurassic Park found out the hard way that sometimes things from another time and place don't mesh well with different surroundings. A guy even got eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex while he was taking a dump, and one of those spitting dinosaur ... More >>

The Hype Machine: Top 10 Indie Buzz Bands You May Have Forgotten

So you're a hipster. Not you specifically. I would never accuse the great Rocks Off readers of being hipsters. But hypothetically, say you're a hipster. How do you choose your favorite bands? Well, you stroll on over to any indie-rock blog and check out all the latest buzz bands obviously. The probl ... More >>

Finnegan and Friends

This loud, folky six-piece likes to have fun.

Chafing 101: Rocks Off's 2011 Music Festival Odyssey

Music festivals are now a part of our lives, just like deadlines, angry commenters, lack of sleep, and eye fatigue. And eating at our desk. That sucks. But at least we have food and a desk, right? Rocks Off ventured all over the state -- OK, really mostly Austin -- to cover festivals for the blog. ... More >>

10 Things We're Probably Doing At ACL This Year

villagevoice.comBjork at ACL '07, when part of her staging caught fire.​This is the Rocks Off team's (well, Craig Hlavaty and Chris Gray) fifth year covering the Austin City Limits Music Festival. The first year this smart guy wore black jeans and a black shirt to try to look cool, which made ... More >>

No Smoking At ACL: Five Ways To Still Get Your Nic Fix

​That heavy sigh and occasional sniffles you heard on Monday was the Rocks Off team finding out the Austin Parks Department has banned smoking at the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend, for which we will all be leaving tomorrow evening. The team of smokers on this crew nearly canc ... More >>

10 Albums Guaranteed To Blow Your Car Speakers

G N' R: Keeping Best Buy In Business Since 1987​It started innocently enough, leaving a friend's house in the Heights, when during one of our epic air-drum solos to the Foo Fighters' "Bridge Burning," we heard the speakers on the left side of our car, a hearse-like HHR, just pop and die, reduc ... More >>

The 71's: Harder, Louder, More Alive Than Ever

​Rocks Off has been covering The 71s since pretty much the first day we worked here, when a slight attention-span problem ended up obligating us to attend a Christian rock concert at which we somehow had a massively fun time. Since then, we've watched the group grow, invade a Walmart, get sign ... More >>

ACL Fest Schedule Released; Your Guide To The "Death Duels"

Stevie Wonder on FacebookStevie Wonder: Even My Morning Jacket will be watching.​This morning, the organizers of the Austin City Limits Music Festival announced the schedule for the September 16-18 Zilker Park throwdown. We all knew there would be some tough choices, but Rocks Off found that w ... More >>

A Dream Austin City Limits Weekend For Houston

Craig HlavatyColdplay at The Woodlands, July 2009​Summer is creeping in, which means the fall concert calendars are filling up fast, and we should know which Austin City Limits Music Festival artists will book side dates in our area sooner rather than later. The standard disclaimer: Rocks Off ... More >>

ACL 2011 Rumors: Ten Bands Who Could Make The Cut

Marco TorresWill ACL close with classic rock again, like with the Eagles last year? Neil Young?​The Austin City Limits Music Festival's big 2011 lineup announcement is imminent, scheduled for May 17, and Rocks Off will surely be on top of the news after it hits. Last year we sat on the compute ... More >>

Last Night: Sleigh Bells & CSS At Warehouse Live

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Sleigh Bells, CSS Warehouse Live April 24, 2011 See more photos in our slideshow. The concept of loud music is in Aftermath's blood. From the sweet-ass two-page Van Halen mural our Uncle Kelly drew inside his junior high yearbook in 1984, the blown-out speakers in our ... More >>

March Madness

At SXSW 2011, almost everything that could go wrong did — except the music.

SXSW 2011: Videos and Photos Galore

What the @#$% happened last night? A City Pages SXSW recap of 3/17 from MPLS.TV on Vimeo. Want to experience SXSW 2011 but have a short attention span? Then check out the above video compiled by our sister paper City Pages which features several big-name performers plus highlight footage from the V ... More >>

SXSW: The 10 Best Of The Fest This Year

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​

SXSW: Festival Approaching Suitably Chaotic End

UPDATE: According to Pitchfork Media via Twitter, Kanye West went onstage around 2:30 a.m. Craig Hlavaty​SXSW's pattern of general mayhem - brawls, collapsing cranes, gate-crashing, performers jumping off of roofs and assaulting audience members - does not seem to be letting up as the festiva ... More >>

BREAKING SXSW NEWS: Death From Above 1979 Reunion Show Mayhem

Craig Hlavaty​It was a music nerd's dream, one of your favorite bands of the past ten years reuniting. Even though the titanic-sounding Canadian bass and drums duo Death From Above 1979 only released one LP, one EP, and a remix album, they managed to cultivate a following of rabid punks, indie ... More >>

Two Timing: The 11 Best Rock Duos

Todd Cole​Wednesday night, noisy indie duo No Age (above) pulls into Fitzgerald's. The two-piece of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer Dean Allen Spunt, starting making waves in 2007 with their debut Weirdo Rippers. 2008's Nouns brought them even more acclaim, and along the way they gained fo ... More >>

Still Fun Fun Fun, Festival Is On The Cusp Of Change

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Miss the bands in Austin this weekend? See as many as we could squeeze into our handy slideshow. Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin is on the cusp of change. A renovation to its home base, Waterloo Park, is due within the next year, so come next November the festival more than ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs For A First (Perhaps Only) Date, Part 2

​He Said is going to admit right here and now that he has never been a master of the first date. True it is that we have dated some very awesome and artistic women, but we always lack when it comes to that first swing out of the box. He Said is way better at the weeks, months and years after that ... More >>

He Said She Said: Albums From the Past Decade of Our Lives

​When this decade began, He Said was but 15 years old, bored, jobless and chubby. It ends with him 26, overworked, overstimulated and chasing away his self-imposed demons with too much of everything and too little of most things. But the one constant has been the power of music to lead him out of ... More >>

Aftermath: Basses Loaded's Second Last Show Ever at Mango's

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​ There are lots of awesome things about the beginning of the holiday season. Reconnecting with far-flung relatives, old friends coming home to visit their parents and intermittingly sneaking off with you to run up a bar tab in between family excursions, and ungodly amounts ... More >>

Aftermath: Conspiracies, Prog-Metal, Gypsy-Folk, Hardcore and Remembering a Fallen Friend Sunday at Westheimer Block Party

Craig HlavatyRoom 101​ Day 2 of the Westheimer Block Party started with slightly cooler temperatures and an hour-long caffeine-fueled session speaking with the 9/11 conspiracy booth in the parking lot at Numbers. Did you know that there were three shooters at Columbine, and bombs planted inside th ... More >>

Ghosts of Washington Avenue

Noise goes whistling through the scenester artery's music venue graveyard.

He Said She Said: Songs for Getting It On, Part 2

[Ed. Note: Here's Web Editor Katharine Shilcutt's top 10 picks for baby-makin' music. Now it's the boys' turn.] 1. Ryan Adams, "Come Pick Me Up": This has to work, because it shows vulnerability and warmth. It tells her you are the kind of guy who will be the one to get out of bed to get the Wet On ... More >>

SXSW Update: Sonics, Bar-Kays, Black Lips, Young Mammals, Wild Moccasins Added

The Sonics, "Psycho a Go-Go" Another week goes by, with yet gigantic list of SXSW performers coming to Austin in March. The final list comes out January 30, so be prepared for maximum bloggage. We're still crossing our fingers and polishing up the nondescript white van in the hopes that Katy Perry ... More >>

SXSW: Fourteen Bands in Eight Hours

Drenched In Blog: MFing EMF

Yes, MSTR

Wonder Twin Powers, Activate!

A scientific study of the two-piece indie-rock boom

The Return of the Band of Rhythm and Pleasure

The Hollisters reunite to rock the East Texas pines

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Let's Go Down-town!

Now, live music is waiting for you

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