Hall & Oates

Yes, Hall & Oates Tickets Are $100, But They Could Also Be $375

Pop-rock wonders and '80s radio mavens Daryl Hall and John Oates are coming to Arena Theatre on Saturday, May 25, their second time through the Houston area in the past few months. Most people outside the Loop may think that the duo has been in mothballs since 1987, but the pair tour on the reg, a ... More >>

30 Seconds With IAmDynamite

Chris Martin and Chris Phillips as IAmDynamite is one of the great modern duo-bands that manages to make two guys sound like an army, easily putting them up there with acts like Chromeo and our own Morgue City. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Supermegafantastic f or the infectious rock an ... More >>

Jazz Fest Scores With Willie, John Mayer, Frank Ocean, Fleetwood Mac, Patti Smith, etc.

Well, I never thought that I would have John Mayer and Patti Smith together in the same headline with Willie Nelson and Frank Ocean, but that's why I kinda love New Orleans Jazz Fest 2013, whose lineup was released earlier this morning. Rewind: A Texican in New Orleans: Lessons Learned from Jazz F ... More >>

5 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: December 7-9

Come See My Dead Person Walters, December 8 The gypsy-punks in Come See My Dead Person have come out of hibernation to release an eponymous new 13-song set of songs. The manic pickin', the boisterous drinking anthems, and strange old-world stank are here in spades, with the proverbial fur really f ... More >>

Top 5 Old Songs Ripe for Hipster Updates

After having grown up in a pop-music culture that every day grows more adept at rehashing, re-imagining and (let's be frank) flat-out stealing sounds from those who came before, today's indie bands are no strangers to aping their influences. And unlike post-punk and grunge before them, this class do ... More >>

Know Your Local Media: Jim Kovacik of 97.9 The Box Talks About Being White and The Atascocita Thugz

It is difficult surviving local music radio in any city, but Houston in particular. Imagine doing that when you are basically the antithesis of the stereotype most assigned to your position. Think a punk rocker working at a country station. Jim Kovacik -- Jimbo or Jimbeazy as he is known to listener ... More >>

Top 5 Musical NBA Players

The NBA All-Star Game is coming up in a couple of weeks. There may not be any Rockets on the roster - even ex-Rocket/Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin didn't blow up in time to be added as a reserve - but musical names such as Kanye West, Rihanna (the halftime entertainment), Lenny Kravitz, Josh Groban, ... More >>

Love is the Answer: Ten Classic Light Rock Tunes on Dan Seals' Birthday

Today would have been the 64th birthday of Dan Seals, one half of England Dan and John Ford Coley, the songwriting duo that had a big hit with "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" and a minor one with "Love is the Answer." He also had a string of chart hits in country music in the '80s and '90s. Unf ... More >>

Having A Hall & Oates Emergency? Callin' Oates Is Here To Help

​We've all been there. Stuck in traffic after a long day at work, at your iPod just isn't cutting it, you're sick of AM talk radio, the birthday scams are getting stale, FM radio is just Maroon 5 and LMFAO, and you don't feel like calling your grandmother to say "I love you." You dear friend, ... More >>

No Surprises: Rock Hall Set To Induct Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys

Photo By Marco TorresGuns N' Roses are Rock Hall bound, but which version of GNR will show up? ​This morning (well, it leaked last night) the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland announced their 2012 class of inductees. Included on the list are Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Bo ... More >>

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs Rush...Again

Photo by Jeff Balke​A couple years ago, I was sitting on the back porch at the Continental Club talking music with a fairly well known music writer who seemed to believe that anything with a big hook or the slightest inkling of musicianship beyond the garage band aesthetic was utter garbage. I ... More >>

Rocks Off's Annual Descent Into Sunny 99.1's Christmas Music K-Hole

Since 2008, I have spent an hour listening to Sunny 99.1 FM's Christmas music for the Rocks Off blog. Right after Thanksgiving, it's the first thing on my checklist, right next to finding new, weird holiday music for you and trying not to gain 20 pounds in merriment by January. Most of the time on ... More >>

G N' R, The Cure & Chili Peppers Could Be Hall Of Famers Next Year

Oh, this will be a fun induction ceremony...​This morning, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland announced the list of nominees for its Class of 2012: The Small Faces & The Faces, Freddie King, The Cure, Guns 'N Roses, Heart, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Spinners, War, Joan Jett and the Bl ... More >>

The X Factor Does Dallas (And Miami)

Fox​Audition round two of The X Factor is held in Miami and Dallas, and they tell a different story than Los Angeles. In my first recap, I was impressed with the consistently great talent The X Factor delivered, keeping the freak-show acts to a minimum. When the judges hit Miami, the dearth of ... More >>

Fun Fun Fun Fest Leaking 2011 Lineup On Turntable.fm

​After leaking artists including Okkervil River, Odd Future, X and - most people believe - Slayer, Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest has officially begun announcing its 2011 lineup via the brand-new file-sharing/social-media hybrid Turntable FM. Fun Fun Fun began streaming songs from this year's arti ... More >>

Match These Bands With Their Awful Original Names

​Provided they didn't take the easy way out and name themselves after a song (Rolling Stones), their hometown (Boston) or each other (Hall & Oates), almost every band that went on to sell millions of records, get tons of radio play and sell out arenas has had some form of the following convers ... 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 >>

Five Bad New Year's Eve Party Guests: Don't Be This Guy

Some people shouldn't have champagne​New Year's Eve means parties, which can be either lots of fun or a forced march through dull hell. Here's hoping yours is the former. How can you tell you might be at one that fits in the latter category? You meet one of these five people. 5. The "amateu ... More >>

Drive-By Truckers: Hard At Work And Loving Hall & Oates

UPDATE: 6 p.m.: The contest is over. Thanks for playing! Danny Clinch​Grand Funk Railroad may have got there first, but Drive-By Truckers are an American band. If not for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, for whom the Truckers opened the Midwestern leg of their summer tour, the Georgia six-piece ... More >>

In Dreams: 15 Songs For Mr. Sandman

Rocks Off Sr. is curious why Rocks Off Jr. chose a picture of Christina Hendricks for an article about dreams.​For some reason, Craig's Hlist has been sleeping way too much lately. Blame the booze, fear of the sun, or just plain lack of giving a rat's ass about the daylight. With sleep comes d ... 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 >>

Win Passes To Hot Tub Time Machine, And Learn Of Strange Things From The `80s

Hot Tub Time Machine takes us back to a simpler time; a time before every nano-second of our lives needed to be tweeted; a time when all a gal needed to fit in with the cool kids was a bitchin' pair of leg-warmers.Here's a list of some 1980s icons we'd like to see make a comeback. Or maybe it's a li ... More >>

Thanks, But No Thanks: See What Dallas Has to Deal With All the Time?

We know, we know... it's just too easy.​ Rocks Off would like to thank Force Field PR and, we suppose, Neon Indian for sending the above picture to our email this morning. It nearly made us spray coffee all over our monitor. We don't quite know where to start, except to venture a guess that if you ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs For A First Date, Assuming They Still Exist

​It's been a long time since the committed She Said has been on a first date, and while the romantic in her likes to think of how exciting, flustering and fun a first date can be, the realist in her knows that life is full of hundreds of awkward first dates and very few successful ones. She Said h ... More >>

He Said She Said: 10 Artists Who Never Got Their Due, Part Deux

It's the plight of every musician. You struggle and struggle to make it big in the business, only to find that even the most modest margin of fame barely comes with a modicum of respect. Even artists with a lot of influence on later, more popular musicians fall by the wayside in the annals of rock ... More >>

Our Five Favorite Heavy Metal Christmas Carols

​Every year the Christmas gods try to throw us the same old boring and tired holiday music. Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Hall & Oates are just fine, but this member of Rocks Off needs the blood of the innocent and punishing power chords under his dead, decaying tree. We sought ... More >>

Westheimer Block Party Listology: The Watermarks (Minus One) Choose Their Favorite Duets

All this week, Rocks Off is previewing Saturday and Sunday's Westheimer Block Party by asking WBP performers to fill out a list from Lisa Nola's Music Listography book we're so fond of. Next up, four-fifths of local electro-tinged post-punks the Watermarks choose their favorite duets. Jessica Brand ... More >>

Kick 'em While They're Down: The Worst Songs Ever Recorded For Charity

Please take this thing away from me. Please.​ When Rocks Off received an email touting Sting's new MySpace charity video for the Prince of Wales' Rainforest Project, we almost chipped a fingernail hurriedly clicking on the link, which promised oodles of celebrities such as Olivia Newton-John, Rich ... More >>

Cutout Bin: Novo Combo's Animation Generation

Novo Combo Animation Generation (Polydor, 1982) The 1980s: everything was changing. A new generation was taking over the musical and cultural landscape. Heavy Metal showed that even animated boobs could be a turn-on. Tron told us that even crappy, monochromatic animation made by crappy, low-p ... More >>

Drenched in Blog: Oates Watch 2008!

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

Playing Hard to Get

A DiverseWorks show so complicated, it has a reference section

Relax, Metros

The Raw Power of Really Smooth Music

Climb aboard the Yacht Rock revolution at this week's Michael McDonald/Steely Dan show

Mixtape Masters

Caps and Jones keep the party Moving

Class Conscious

Live and learn with some of Houston's most entertaining courses

Vagina Music Roundup

A scintillating survey

How Low Can You Go?

Let's see with the last installment of our guilty-pleasures project

The Cannonball Run

Ten competitors. One mile along the Katy Freeway. No cars allowed.

On the Down-Low

Shovel away all that Usher, Prince and Lil Jon you've been jamming, and dig this year's buried black-music treasures

On the Down-Low

Shovel away all that Usher, Prince and Lil Jon you've been jamming and dig this year's buried black-music treasures

How to Dismantle an Atomic Mom

A critic debates the merits of U2's latest with his mother

An ABBA to Zebra of Guilty Pleasures

Music figures tell all abou their most shameful faves

Playbill

Look Back in Anger

A short-film series plumbs a dark cultural data bank

On the Surf's Side

Party and protect our beaches

De La Soul

Tuesday, July 2

De La Soul

Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (Tommy Boy)

Back in Touch?

Former arena stars Hall and Oates scale down without incident -- mostly