Explosions in the Sky

Last Night: Appleseed Cast at House of Creeps

Appleseed Cast Houston House of Creeps February 6, 2013 We'll excuse you if you haven't heard of House of Creeps just yet. Despite heading into its third year holding shows, the DIY warehouse venue on the sleepy north end of downtown isn't quite on the city wide musical radar. Tucked off a side str ... More >>

The 30 Best Texas Albums

Ranking the 30 best Texas albums of the past 30 years seemed like an impossible task. We did it anyway.

The Biggest Surprises From the Texas 30 Ballots

Perusing the final ballots for the Texas 30 with a few highlighters this past week was a blessed odyssey into the past three decades of all things Texas music. For as many no-brainers as there were, there were plenty of head-scratchin' exclusions. Rewind: The 30 Best Texas Albums (cover story) Sl ... More >>

5 Shows We'd Like to See at HMNS' Burke Baker Planetarium

Recently I decided to put down the cash and become an honest-to-God card-carrying member of the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I find that walking the halls of the HMNS is a fine way to kill a few hours before a concert. There is a part of the HMNS that I hold near and dear to my heart, even t ... More >>

Now Broadcasting From The Red Planet: 5 Artists Who Deserve A Premiere On Mars

While it was neither a small step nor a giant leap NASA once again made history on Tuesday. Not content with just beaming music in to space they successfully streamed a song from the Curiosity rover hanging out on Mars back to the little blue orb we call home. If we're being honest we were a bit su ... More >>

Murder By Death

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2012: A$AP Rocky, De La Soul, PiL, Santigold, X, Turbonegro, Etc.

This morning Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest, the best music festival in Texas that isn't Free Press Summer Fest, announced their full 2012 lineup after months of teasing us and leaking a handful of names at a time -- and then hip-hop legends Run-D.M.C Tuesday morning. Scheduled for November 2-4 at Audit ... More >>

A July 4 Playlist That Goes Boom!

July 4 is truly America's national holiday, because it combines two of the country's grandest traditions: Taking the day off work and blowing shit up. Because freedom isn't free, fireworks and other explosives are embedded in America's formative myths and our national character. Also, they're pretty ... More >>

Last Night: Explosions In the Sky at Warehouse Live

Explosions In The Sky, Zammuto Warehouse Live June 17, 2012 Our neighbors from just a few hours away, Explosions In The Sky, dropped in Sunday night to keep the Texas pride going and share more of their elaborate musical talents with not a single lyric spoken. Many may know, Explosions in the Sky ... More >>

Explosions In the Sky: No Vocals Necessary

Known for elaborate guitar work, referred to as "cathartic mini-symphonies," Explosions In the Sky put on emotional shows. Remaining completely devoid of vocals, three guitars and one drummer (a bass guitar is thrown in at times) Explosions combine to create a sound that seems to carry the crowd on ... More >>

Explosions in the Sky

Digital Chaos: 8 Experiments In Wub Machine Remixing

Contrary to what they want you to think, Diddy his crew at Bad Boy did not invent the remix. If you really wanted to meet the people who first made dance remixes you'd have to go back a bit further in music history, to the land of the mid-'70s. In sweaty discos across the land people were looping so ... More >>

Oh My, A List!: 7 Tips For Free Press Summer Fest Newbs

This will be the Rocks Off team's fourth Free Press Summer Fest outing since the festival began that summer of 2009. I remember it well: The small stages, the blistering August heat, The Sword, rolling in the grass with Hippie Mike, all of it. The main stage headliners were Of Montreal, Explosions ... More >>

Summer Fest Round Table: 9 Locals To Watch This Weekend

Rocks Off polled our writers to see which local or regional artist they most wanted to see at Free Press Summer Fest this weekend. Alexa Crenshaw: Robert Ellis recently rebooted his mid-week honky-tonk events, fittingly dubbed Whiskey Wednesday with Robert Ellis. The problem now, though, is that th ... More >>

In Bloom

Spring has sprung with a fresh crop of recent Houston-related releases.

Mudbug Music: The Perfect Soundtrack for Your Next Crawfish Boil

Fat Pat's "Tops Drop" on the way to buy the crawfish in Kemah and UGK's "Wood Wheel" for the drive back. These are just two of the songs that Rocks Off's Nathan Smith recommends to start your day-long crawfish boiling festivities. If you think that zydeco music and only zydeco music is the right ac ... More >>

Co-Pilot

Scale the Summit

Dig This Vol. VII With Western Standards, Dead Mineral & The End Of Young Girls?

The current volume of local music is staggering. New Houston bands are born daily, and all too often pass away just as quickly. Rocks Off wants to help you (and ourselves) keep up. Courtesy of Dead Mineral​Stay seated smugly at that desk and continue tossing that half-priced Halloween candy ... More >>

Co-Pilot, The Calm Blue Sea

Top 10 Texas Movie Soundtracks

​This weekend, as the rest of the world catches Harry Potter mania for (perhaps) the final time, Houston gets a serious dose of Urban Cowboy nostalgia. Theater Under the Stars' production of the Tony-nominated 2003 musical - which The New York Times called "a conclusive demonstration that it's ... More >>

Ponderosa Gives House Of Blues A Mouthful

Photos by Jason Wolter​Rocks Off is usually ambivalent, at best, about restaurant shows. One of the few times we're not interested in live music at all is when we're eating, and we imagine we're hardly the only person who feels that way. Strolling violinists and mariachi groups especially get ... More >>

Little Smoke

Texas post-rockers This Will Destroy You take a dark turn

An Offender List Offends

Last Night: Mogwai At Warehouse Live

Photos by Steve Gullick/Sub Pop RecordsMogwai: No photos please, we're Scottish.​While the slapping of stylistic labels onto music may irk bands, such terms are often warranted, accurate, and most importantly, not necessarily negative. Scottish rockers Mogwai hold a laundry list of said labels ... More >>

Last Night: Arcade Fire At Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Arcade Fire, Explosions In the Sky Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion May 4, 2011 It was a sort of homecoming for titanic indie-rockers Arcade Fire Wednesday night in the Woodlands, as the band returned to Houston after five momentous years to play songs from The Suburbs, ... More >>

More Local Music News Than Half-Price Deals At Cactus

Another week, another teeming cup runneth over, full of local music news. Here's our latest installment of Magnolia City Mixtape. ​This week's soundtrack comes from Roosh Williams, whose Common Struggles of a Modern Man album just dropped. Roosh also has a video for the track "No Hard Feeling ... More >>

Out Today: Steve Earle Is Alive, Bootsy's Aged Funk, And The Late Poly Styrene's Last Disc

​Yep, it's the third week now that we have been listening to the new Foo Fighters album, Wasting Light. We even acquired it on vinyl this weekend, so we are doubly screwed. Now we just need it on cassette tape and one of those toothbrushes that play music in your skull like you are schizophren ... More >>

Out Today: Glee Warbles, Gorillaz Fall, Kinks Ride Again

​It's been a week since the Foo Fighters' album, Wasting Light, hit the stores, and Rocks Off has probably averaged at least one or two spins of the solid disc per day. Right now, we are actually on track four. Will anything top Light this week? That remains to be seen. Next week will bring ... More >>

By the End of Tonight

Arcade Fire Headed To Houston May 4 For Pavilion Date

cnn.com​Arcade Fire is finally heading to Houston on May 4 for a date up at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, in the Woodlands. Last Sunday the band played upsetters at the Grammys winning the award for Album Of The Year for their album The Suburbs which was based on frontman Win Butler's childhood ... More >>

Co-Pilot

Aftermath: Another Round Of Bands Watching Bands At SXSW Overflow Fest

The Extraordinaires, debating a late night or early start. Videos by Matthew Keever Two days had gone by since we last visited the SXSW Overflow Fest at Super Happy Fun Land, and the number of people in attendance seemed to have quadrupled. Tuesday night, the bands had much better luck than those w ... More >>

Mono

Coming of Age

Against long, long odds and punishing heat, Free Press Summer Fest is a hit.

Aftermath: Free Press Summer Fest at Eleanor Tinsley Park

Photos by Amber Roussel/ Click here for slideshows from Day 1 and Day 2​ They said it couldn't be done, that no one in Houston would dream of spending two days in the punishing August heat at an outdoor music festival.An anonymous Of Montreal member shows off his tiger style.​Rightfully (somewha ... More >>

Girl Star, Grown Up

Still proud of her family band, Susan Cowsill does her own thing now.

Before We Go: House of Blues' "Rock & Roll" Night, Tontons, Gallant Knight, a Willie D Tribute, Britney Returns and More

Tonight, see how - or where, anyway - the beautiful people kick back at House of Blues' new weekly "Rock & Roll" night in the venue's ultra-plush and oddly brothel-like Foundation Room (entrance on Dallas Street), with no cover, $3 beer and whiskey, tunes curated by Metropol/Stuka/Mink veteran T ... More >>

Searching for Signal

Dredg, Torche

Mogwai

Tomorrow Night: The Paper Chase at Walter's on Washington

Much like their associates in Houston's own Bring Back the Guns, the Paper Chase (a.k.a. the pAper chAse) combine the infectious weirdness of the Pixies with the wry self-consciousness of the Dismemberment Plan and the menace of Drive Like Jehu. The Dallas quartet is led by acclaimed independent ... More >>

Pelican, with Thrice and Circa Survive

This Will Destroy You, Unwed Sailor

Ambient and/or progressive fans will find plenty to like with these two instrumental groups

Mono

Maserati

Riff Tiffs

Afflictinnitus

How to Be Musically Hip

A cheat-sheet for the culturally challenged

Rotation: Explosions in the Sky

Explosions in the Sky, with the Octopus Project and A Hawk and a Hacksaw

Saturday, January 28, at the Engine Room, 1515 Pease, 713-654-7846.