Depeche Mode

Street Knowledge

The Geto Boys MC is also Rocks Off's brand-new advice columnist.

Top 10 Bands Your Girlfriend Cannot Stand

A shared taste in music can be a critical part of any couple's relationship, from going to a concert on their first date to narrowing down that one special song for their first wedding dance. But what if that's not the case? Just from a bit of casual Googling, it's not difficult to find divorce atto ... More >>

Houston's Top 10 Dance Clubs

10. CLUB TROPICANA If the word alone makes you thirsty, you can quench that parched palate at Tropicana every weekend. Now's your chance to try out those dance moves you learned in Zumba class, or coax your quiet friend into shaking her "bum bum." Tropicana is known for its great Latin music, and Sa ... More >>

Now Houston Baseball Fans Know What It's Like to Hate the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Before I became enamored of rock stars, rock journalists, punk rockers, metal mavens, or DJs, the first idols in my life were Houston Astros players, namely Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and the late Ken Caminiti. So on Wednesday, when the Baseball Hall of Fame failed to induct Biggio or Bagwell, or ... More >>

10 Songs That Will Pack Your Wedding Reception's Dance Floor

Jan Hammer and the Top 10 TV Theme Songs of the '80s

Not a lot of television shows win multiple Grammys. Then again, not a lot of television shows ever sounded (or looked) like Miami Vice. The cutting-edge series perfectly captured the pastel zeitgeist of its time when it debuted in 1984, influencing film, fashion, design and music in a way that few T ... More >>

Who's Ripping Off the '80s This Year?: The 5 Biggest Offenders

In case you hadn't noticed, the '80s are back. They have been for a few years, but it seems like with each passing year we get more and more new bands wearing their influences on their sleeve. That's putting it mildly. The influence is, in fact, so pervasive as to make these bands practically offens ... More >>

ACL 2013: What's Next For Texas' Other Big Music Festival?

As we close the books on ACL's 2012 festivities, full of mud -- but not too much mud, Iggy Pop's elastic skin, Neil Young's reverb, and light shows aplenty, we look forward to the 2013 edition of the Austin megafest. Rewind: ACL Festival Expanding to 2 Weekends in 2013 Rocks Off's Complete ACL 2 ... More >>

UPDATED: Memorable Houston Concerts of 1992

UPDATE (2:03 p.m.): Alice In Chains was advertised but dropped out, and was replaced with Australia's Baby Animals. The year 1992 was an important one for me as far as Houston concerts are concerned: It's the first time I went to a concert within the Houston city limits, the "Outside Broadcast" leg ... More >>

Saturday Night: Cafe Tacuba at House of Blues

Cafe Tacuba House of Blues August 18, 2012 Imagine for just a second that Fishbone, the raucous L.A. band that threw all sorts of music into a blender with minor success in the late '80s and early '90s, grew to an award-winning, arena-size act that could draw tens or even hundreds of thousands of p ... More >>

Prydz & Prejudice: Top 5 Remixes for Saturday's IDentity Festival

Saturday the IDentify Fest returns to town to once again take EDM out of the dark of the club and into the light of day. Your humble blog writer missed last year's show, so I'm curious to see how well glowsticks work during the daylight. While this year may not feature big names like Pretty Lights ... More >>

New Wave Crazy: Blondie & Devo Hit Arena Theatre September 19 (UPDATED)

UPDATE: According to Press Here Publicity, the venue is Arena Theatre, not Bayou Music Center. Everything else is the same. This makes me happier than anything on a Monday morning should. I listen to music in cycles, and for the past several months have been stuck in the '80s, more specifically any ... More >>

Gothic Council Presents the Best Goth Music Videos

Gothtopia spent last weekend on a beach dressed in designer black looking sad at the waves... for a purpose, we swear. Despite having been a musician in Houston for quite a while, it was our first music-video shoot. Well, unless you count this one, which isn't so much a music video as a sign that th ... More >>

Father Figures: 100 Famous Musicians' Paternal Professions

If you're a Texan of a certain age, this week you've probably spent some time mourning the death of Jerry Haynes, the children's TV host better known as Mr. Peppermint. Haynes' show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Peppermint Place, ran from the '60s to the '90s and was widely syndicated across the state, incl ... More >>

The Eagle Flies Away With "Houston's Alternative Hits"

All that's left of The Zone's Web site.​Cox Communications has shuttered its fledgling "alternative hits" concept, 106.9 The Zone, and begun simulcasting The Eagle, The Zone's "classic hits" next-door neighbor, on that frequency as of 5:30 a.m. this morning. "The Eagle's Classic Hits forma ... 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 >>

The Seven Ages Of Goth

​This is not meant as a complete history of goth, as that would be a huge book. Instead, we're aiming to give a simple overview of the musicians, songs and albums that have most defined the genre. Many deserving artists have been left out, and some that we're sure some people feel are not wor ... More >>

Top 10 Hottest Jewish Musicians

​The Festival of Lights is upon us, as the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah officially kicks off at sundown tonight. Some of music's leading bigwigs will likely be sparking up the menorah, among them Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Diamond David Lee Roth, Perry Farrell an ... More >>

What Is Classic Rock Today?

​What is classic rock in 2010? 15 years ago, it was was the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, anything Eric Clapton touched and every band your dad played in his car while he was making out with the girls he met before your mom. That's how we know classic rock: Big riffs, big voices, in ... More >>

Ten Songs Worse Than A TSA Pat-Down

​Today is the biggest travel day in the United States, according to the airlines. That means many of you will be experiencing for the first time the intrusive X-rays or demeaning pat-downs handed out by TSA as part of their new "You Assholes Don't Have to Fly, You Know" business strategy. Kee ... More >>

Stars

Music's Top 10 Biggest Post-Drug Comebacks

​The list of drug casualties in rock and roll is a long and sad one. All the suicides, car crashes and the stray gang-related murder are outweighed by the amount of people who just can't stop putting junk into their system, or at least moderate it to a point where they aren't lying cold on a h ... More >>

Bartender Chat: Geronimo Villalobos of Etro Lounge

​Geronimo Villalobos is not only one of the coolest bartenders at Etro Lounge (1424 Westheimer ) - he's also the owner. And we love the fact that this doesn't stop him from pouring some of the best drinks in town. Villalobos had been bartending for 12 years, two of those at Etro, when he took ... More >>

Taylor Swift: Goth Icon In The Making

​ As the summer and its hateful amount of sunlight begins to creep towards us like some kind of humid, rat-borne plague, Gothtopia has been a bit hard-pressed to find spooky news to bring Houston. But today we have an emerging Goth icon whose presence MUST be discussed before she blows through tow ... More >>

Love and Theft

The decade with no name left behind plenty of memorable music.

Season of the Witch

U2's awe-inspiring Reliant Stadium show prompts a search for the unknown — and unknowable — in music.

ACL 2009 Day One: Aftermath

Photo by Mark C. AustinSchool of Seven Bells​Before we start discussing the great music we heard yesterday, we would like to take time to thank the Gods Of Rock for blessing Day One of the Austin City Limits Festival (ACL) 2009 with an amazing afternoon and evening of weather. Anyone who has ... More >>

Bayou Beat: Cougars for a Cause at House of Blues, Mandy Moore Hearts Jandek, Bun B Orders Up Some PB&J, etc.

​Want to help fight breast cancer and possibly get pawed by some of Houston's hottest older ladies? Boy, is this the right weekend for you. Sugar Ray, pimping its new album Music for Cougars, headlines House of Blues' "Cougars for a Cause" show Saturday night with Austin power-pop heroes Fastball, ... More >>

Aftermath: Blue October and Its Mystifying Cult at Verizon Wireless Theater

Chris Gray​ Friday's sold-out Blue October show at Verizon left Aftermath wondering one of the most vexing, troublesome things any reviewer can: "What is it about this band," the voice in our head kept asking over and over again like a car alarm, sometimes even threatening to drown out the band it ... More >>

Summer Stock

Hello, Houston!

Noise breaks down the months of live music ahead

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 >>

Five Spot: Baracking Your Balls Off

Music to Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil

Johnny Cash/Various Artists: Johnny Cash Remixed

Johnny Cash Up In Da Club

Aftermath: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and Steve Winwood at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Weekend Music: Setting Things Straight

Last Night: Gram Rabbit at Super Happy Fun Land

ASK A MEXICAN

LCD Soundsystem, Reverend Horton Heat, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Muse, Wilco and Ghostland Observatory: Chris Gray Closes the Notebook on ACL

Honor Bound

A fictional look at the future of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Less Pain Forever and Peachcake

Now We Have Something to Celebrate

Rotation

Tiësto

Just Be (Nettwerk)

Bertrand Burgalat

The Sssound of Mmmusic (Tricatel/Emperor Norton)

Flowers and Machines

Remembrance (ToneZone)

Hail to the '80s

A rash of new compilations makes a case for the Me Decade's place in rock history

Static

Critic's Choice