Graceland

Artists Who Need Their Own Sirius/XM Channel Already

I've had satellite radio in my life since Christmas. Nothing is better than falling asleep on the couch on a Saturday afternoon after a big fat lunch with Willie's Roadhouse playing; waking up every few hours to piss during a Ray Price cut and then falling back to sleep. What I love the most, besi ... More >>

5 Folk Acts Who Wandered Down the Synth Road

Mandolin enthusiasts Mumford and Sons have been on top of the world the past couple of years, dominating rock-driven radio with a folk sound that apparently touches the hearts of hard-rock bros around the world. Given that they have an apparently winning formula, one wouldn't expect them to change i ... More >>

Happy E-Day: What If Elvis Had Lived?

Note: Elvis Presley would be 78 years old today, if he had not (supposedly) died in Memphis in August 1977. This article originally appeared as part of Rocks Off's "Elvis Week" in January 2011, and still seems plausible two years later. Do you realize that Woody Allen, Julie Andrews, the dude who w ... More >>

''Carlos Hernandez: Day of the Dead Rock Stars''

Visiting Brits Search For The Soul Of Rock And Roll

Live Fast, Die Young: Misadventures in Rock 'n' Roll America by Chris Price and Joe Harland Trafalgar Square Publishing, 320 pp., $13.95 Friends and former coworkers at the BBC -- where they programmed radio and video music -- Price and Harland's jumping-off point for this music travelogue across ... More >>

Select Elvis Presley Artifacts From Graceland Are On A Media Tour

Angie Marchese started working at Elvis Presley's Graceland over 23 years ago while still in high school, as a tour guide. Today, she is the archival director for the museum and Presley household. The Memphis native travels the country showing items off from the Presley estate, and Rocks Off was luc ... More >>

The Best & Worst-Case Scenarios For The Future Of Musical Holograms

Like most night owls, I spent early Monday morning watching YouTube clips of a holographic Tupac Shakur playing Coachella with his friends Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg nearly 16 years after his death. It was at once creepy and crass, but altogether interesting no matter how you sliced it, and not just bec ... More >>

Last Night: Delta Spirit At Fitzgerald's

Delta Spirit Fitzgerald's April 12, 2012 I am concerned that younger bands these days are not learning the proper value of restraint. It's not even a generational thing, really. I had very little appreciation for or understanding of restraint myself until fairly recently, but a heart attack at age ... More >>

Law and Order: Top 10 Best (Or Worst) Musicians' Arrests

Nobody is above the law - not even musicians even though some of them may think they are. However, some of their outrageous behavior has become legendary. Others have spawned rumors, killed their careers and/or made them the butt of many jokes. In fact, this makes me wonder why there is not a cele ... More >>

Support Staff: 10 Of Pop History's Greatest Backing Bands

Being behind the scenes is what most musicians who don't write songs or sing expect of their lives once they start seriously playing. A career backing someone up can be extremely rewarding, particularly if you are part of a transcendent group of musicians that goes from simply backing up an artist i ... More >>

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Elvis Presley's Graceland: A Peek Inside With My Crappy Cell Phone Camera

A few weeks back I went on a Mid-South trip through Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and sadly, Arkansas. Along the way I followed the Mississippi Blues Trail as much as I could, before hitting Memphis and Sun Studios and Graceland, and moving on to Nashville for a whole new set of museums and att ... More >>

ACL: Adele & Mumford & Sons - Not Here, But Here

Photos by Marco TorresTrain a-Comin': The Secret Sisters​3:30 p.m. Still they file in. Watching the crowds trudge along Barton Springs Road, their eyes fixed on the pavement about five yards in front of them (not their phones), always reminds Rocks Off of a pilgrimage. And each festival has i ... More >>

10 Odd Things Left At Elvis Presley's Grave

Chris GrayAs close as Rocks Off has ever come personally to Elvis' grave. Graceland was already closing for the day by the time we got there in April.​Today is the 34th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, which means that even as you read this, Graceland workers are hard at work sorting, cat ... More >>

Purple, Possessed & Pervy: Rock's Top 10 Houses

harleyslist.blogspot.comJohn Lennon and Yoko Ono in a happy pose in front of their home (and future site of Lennon's assassination).​Celebrity homes will always be a source of fascination, offering a glimpse at the intimate, private side of those who live their lives in the public eye. And it' ... More >>

1986: Best Musical Year Ever?

​For almost two weeks now, Rocks Off has been obsessed with the year exactly 25 flips of the calendar backward from this one. It started when Steve Earle did one of his "Time Machine" shows, where the singer-songwriter who plays House of Blues Wednesday spotlights a dozen or so of his favorite ... More >>

Out Today: Paul Simon Resurgent, Foos Get Loud, Isbell Kills

​It's New Release Tuesday, and this week's is one of the biggest days of the year, with new discs by the Foo Fighters, a reinvigorated Paul Simon and TV On The Radio leading the pack, plus a few other artists returning to the scene after a few years away from the limelight. Next week (April ... More >>

New Music Releases April 5: Leon Russell, Robbie Robertson, The Ravonettes, The Kills, Etc.

​Last week brought new releases from Britney Spears, Radiohead, and a few Pearl Jam re-issues hitting store shelves amid reports that the industry was finally starting to see some improvement. Spears' Femme Fatale is currently projected to enter the top spot of the Billboard 200 chart with sal ... More >>

Bob Schneider's Five Favorite Albums Of All Time

Jeff Swensen/ Bob Schneider on Facebook​It's been said that if you have lived in Texas for at least a decade and you haven't at least been in the vicinity of a Bob Schneider show, you are probably lying. Our introduction to Schneider was kind of heartbreaking, but that's another story for anot ... More >>

The United States Of Music

Monica FuentesFull-size image below​Rocks Off's sister blog Hair Balls did it with murderers and serial killers. Food blog Eating Our Words, riled the beer snobs with one about the best beers from each state in the union, and a teetotaling follow-up chronicling the best soda pops. For the pas ... More >>

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Future Elvis: What If The King Had Lived?

​Do you realize that Woody Allen, Julie Andrews, the dude who was in the Darth Vader suit, and Ron Paul are all the same age as Elvis Presley would be on Saturday? Look at Woody Allen next time you see him on TMZ and just think, he's as old as Elvis. In order to get in the frame of mind to t ... More >>

Celebrate Elvis' 76th Birthday with a Feast Fit for the King

Stuff that diet indeed, Mr. Presley.​I'll never forget my first trip to Graceland. Memphis is a magical city in and of itself -- Civil War sites, steamboats, Beale Street, the Smithsonian Museum of Rock & Soul, amazing meals at the Inn at Hunt Phelan -- but there's something about the great, h ... More >>

11 Musical New Year's Resolutions For 2011

​Craig's Hlist stopped making New Year's Eve resolutions the older and more stubborn we got. We normally don't quit or change things forever unless we are forced to do so. ('Sup, ladies?) This makes it hard for us to keep any New Year's Eve resolutions. If anything, it's easier to change organ ... More >>

Return Of The King: Elvis Presley's Great Comeback

​In 1957, Elvis Presley was the epitome of cool. But what a difference a decade makes. By the Summer of Love, the still-pompadoured singer was - at the ripe old age of 32 - a musical anachronism in a year that brought the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Monterey Pop and Sgt. Pepper's. Plus, he'd been c ... More >>

Godsmacked: 27 Years Of Mouthwash Buzz And Birthday Shame

​This coming Monday, Craig's Hlist enters his 27th year of decadence and shame. One year closer to 30, with no signs of getting wiser or smarter. This year we have no clue as to what to do or where to go, other than see live music and drink too much. But that's a typical weekend anyway and will mo ... More >>

Pop Rocks: The King Is Dead

​Last Friday -- January 8 -- marked what would have been the 75th birthday of Elvis Presley. The milestone was dutifully noted on most national new broadcasts and publications, tastefully hitting the high points of the King's life without dwelling overmuch on this drug- addled final years. ... More >>

Our Decade In iTunes, Ol' Dirty Bastard Through the Fleshtones and Good Ol' Morrissey

​Maybe the biggest evolution in music this decade has been the availability of online downloads, starting with Napster and ending with half a dozen legitimately - licensed venues for purchasing music over the tubes. Rocks Off will admit it. Back in the day, we were illegal downloaders. Waiting 20 ... More >>

Bayou Body Count: Who Says Mothers And Daughters Can't Work Together?

​It's not often that Bayou Body Count kicks off with a story that doesn't include a dead body, but then again, it's not often that we see a story about a mother-daughter team allegedly trying to hire an assassin to kill their husband/father.Needless to say, then, but Mr. David Shamp does not seem ... More >>

MP3 of the Day: Benjamin Wesley

Craig HlavatyWe always loved Tha Fucking Transmissions, especially seeing them upstairs at Boondocks, or pumping "Die Mother-Fucka Die" in the car on the way to or from work (depending on the day of the week). When the band's multi-instrumentalist Benjamin Wesley announced he was working on a solo p ... More >>

Moody Gardens, A Bigger Tourist Attraction Than The White House

If you had your choice to stand anywhere as a tourist in the United States, where would you choose?The Las Vegas Strip? Mount Rushmore? The White House?No way, dude -- you prefer to be standing in Moody Gardens in Galveston.At least you do if you're one of the respondents to what has to be described ... More >>

Eyeballin': Paul Simon - Live from Philadelphia

The early '80s were an interesting time in the career of Paul Simon. The past glories of hits with Simon & Garfunkel - along with his sizable solo charting - were behind. And he had yet to reinvent himself as a world music maven with 1986's fine Graceland. His 1980 album One-Trick Pony had yielded ... More >>

The Whole Wide World: Ladysmith Black Mambazo's Live! DVD

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Live! (Heads Up) http://www.mambazo.com Though international audiences did not discover this South African vocal group until it appeared on Paul Simon's landmark 1986 album Graceland, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been active since the early '60s, when founder Joseph S ... More >>

Afropop Arrives

Motherland music hit a fever pitch with U.S. bands this year

Brett Dennen

Islands: Arm's Way

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

Suspicious Minds

commercial tie-ins

Various Artists

Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly

Rhymin' Simon

King Me

Dream Catcher

Doherty's photos capture archetypal energies like a Kodak camera captures memories

Elvis Is Dead!

Grand Pops

Bob Dylan and Paul Simon tour together

Elvis-American

The Asian Worldwide Elvis Fan Club Celebrates Elvis Week

World of Their Own

Carolina retronauts the Squirrel Nut Zippers swing clear of camp

In the Blessed Name of Elvis

An upcoming federal trial may decide the true meaning of "cheesy"

The Horn of Africa

Trumpeter Hugh Masekela hears the beat of the music in the world