Iggy Pop

Last Night: The Killers at Bayou Music Center

The Killers, The Virgins Bayou Music Center May 8, 2013 On a less than steamy May evening, a packed house at Bayou Music Center waited patiently in a temperature more commonly associated with Bonnaroo or Dengue Fever. About 30 minutes later than expected burst another hot entity, Brandon Flowers, a ... More >>

Raw Power

Iggy & the Stooges headline the fifth Free Press Summer Fest.

Bizarre Acting Roles by 20 Famous Musicians

It's a toss-up whether actors or musicians will go to greater lengths to make rent, but some musicians have even found themselves so hard up they've been forced to take an acting gig. Such is the case with the haystack-sized Sleepy LaBeef, who in 1968's The Exotic Ones appeared as the "Swamp Monster ... More >>

It Came From the Bowery: Punk Magazine Returns

The Best of Punk Magazine Edited by John Holstrom It Books. 372 pp., $30. While the thought of a hardcover, slick-papered, coffee-table book anthologizing the decidedly low-rent, ragtag Punk magazine might seem the antithesis of punk, even a curmudgeon like Johnny Rotten would have to spit a gob in ... More >>

Houston's Top 5 Alternative Venues

5. NUMBERS Numbers fell off. Numbers ain't what it used to be. No one goes there anymore. Blah, blah, blah. Sure, the venue may be a far cry from what it was during its heyday, when the likes of Iggy Pop and Henry Rollins were stomping through town and nearly tearing its walls down. But Houston, as ... More >>

The Top 5 Artists Written Off By "Serious Music Listeners"

One of the weirdest things to happen in music in 2012 was the revelation that Ke$ha might be, gasp, a talented singer with ambitions beyond brushing her teeth with Jack Daniels. I'm pretty sure when she debuted in 2009, none of us "serious music listeners" appreciated anything about her. I mean, she ... 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 >>

10 More Things I'll Be Doing at ACL Festival This Weekend

That's right folks, it's ACL Music Festival time again in Texas, and Rocks Off will be flying to Austin on the private Rocks Off jet this weekend to cover the fest from Friday until the last notes of "Give It Away" at the end of the Red Hot Chili Peppers set on Sunday night. That's my way of telli ... More >>

Grace Potter: The Lion That Roared

In this week's print edition of the Houston Press, Rocks Off talked to singer Grace Potter about her spot opening this summer's "Brothers of the Sun" tour co-starring country superstars Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, and the hit duet with Chesney that got her there, "You and Tequila." But there's so ... More >>

You're Such a Groove, Please Don't Move, Please Stay Here [And Pour Me A] Mendocino

It's funny, the way we form associations with things. Names are a big one. In recent discussion with a sister-in-law, regarding potential names for a potential kid, we cast names aside willy-nilly, citing former relationships and kids we hated in our youth. At one point, someone advocated Jolene (I ... More >>

Who Should Induct Axl Rose And Guns N' Roses Into The Rock Hall?

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is coming up quick on April 14, and the presenters for the event have been announced, except for one artist. Just who will speak about and induct Guns N' Roses? Who is even qualified? Rapper Chuck D will induct the Beastie Boys, while funnyman Ch ... More >>

Swamp People

Recent local releases by Screwtape, John Egan and Southern Backtones have Houston on the brain.

Show Me Your GIFs: Great Classic Rock 'N Roll GIFs Galore

It seems to me that musical history is made up of fragments of indelible images, good and bad, that inform each person's experience. Then there are the swatches of tunes that grab you by the heart strings or the throat, making you a fan for life. But it's those moving pictures that you first remembe ... More >>

The 10 Most Real Artists of All Time; The Anti-Milli Vanillis

Milli Vanilli​On this day in 1990, the manager for recent Grammy winners for Best New Group Milli Vanilli held a press conference to tell everyone his act was a fraud. They did not do any of the singing on their best-selling record and they lip synced their shows. It was a startling revelation ... More >>

Mosquitoes: A Tiny, Highly Annoying Musical History

​The Texans are in first place (for now), the Texas Rangers may become the Lone Star State's first-ever World Series champions tomorrow (ouch), and early voting for the November 8 mayoral/City Council election started Monday. The Houston Press Music Awards showcase is less than three weeks awa ... More >>

Succinct Stooges Bio Looks Beyond Iggy Pop

​The Stooges: Head On By Brett Callwood Wayne State University Press, 176 pp., $19.95. While there have been a number of books written about the Stooges and Iggy Pop, this slim but substantive volume is the first to really give the non-Iggy members their due both biographically and musically. ... More >>

Piss Off: The Top 10 Punk Rock Movies Of All Time

"Can we have your brother's autograph?"​Tonight the Alamo Drafthouse at West Oaks Mall turns punk rock as the theater shows the 1984 Alex Cox cult classic Repo Man, with a set from Houston punk laureates the Hates to start the evening at 9 p.m. The film, starring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean ... More >>

Which Goth Heroes Deserve Their Own Action Figures?

​Gothtopia has been spending some time working a few shifts at Houston's most excellent new comic shop, 8th Dimension Comics. Mostly it's a way to fund our crippling Magic: The Gathering addiction. As we basked in the glory of geekdom and capitalism on a recent shift, we noticed that the shop ... More >>

Top 6 Ways To Piss Off A Musician At A Gig

Brian Jackson/Bloodshot RecordsDoes this look like someone YOU'D want to antagonize?​Rocks Off first stumbled onto Scott H. Biram about 10 years ago at the Parlor, Austin's recently closed, extremely cramped "punk rock pizza" joint on North Loop, where patrons scarfed their pies while murals o ... More >>

Beyond "Thriller": Top 10 Zombie Music Videos

​One of Rocks Off's choice ambient/shoegaze artists, Grouper, has just released visuals for her song "Alien Observer" and it's full of (almost) everything that we hold dear: Blood, zombies buried beneath foliage, and girl-on-girl action. Oh, and Liz Harris' haunting voice. It's beautiful; whi ... More >>

R.I.P Joey Ramone: Top 10 Ramones Songs...

Besides "I Wanna Be Sedated" And "Blitzkrieg Bop" Dawkeye via Wikipedia​It was ten years ago today that the world lost their first Ramone, when Joey Ramone succumbed to lymphoma in New York City at the age of 49, one month shy of turning 50. The iconic punk frontman would lead the Ramones in ... More >>

Shakira And Music's Eight Other Hottest Bellybuttons

​Shakira shimmies into town tonight at Toyota Center, and frankly, she's pretty much the only artist Rocks Off regrets having to miss while we're in Austin covering ACL. Say what you will about her caterwauling voice and her corny foreign-ness. There's something so playfully goofy about Shakir ... More >>

Beavis And Butt-Head's Greatest Video Hits, Dillhole

​On the night of November 28, 1997, Rocks Off was sitting in his friend Chad's parents' house in Pearland, watching the final episode of MTV's Beavis and Butt-head. The boys had been a part of our daily lives since at least fifth grade, and as we marched into the second semester of ninth grade ... More >>

Great Moments In Douchebaggotry: Courtney Love Bashes Her Daughter On Facebook

Great Moments in Douchebaggotry is brought to you by Rocks Off's upcoming Washington Shore party, Thursday, February 11 at the Washington Avenue Drinkery. All types of douchebags are encouraged to attend. Didn't Iggy Pop write a song about this? "Your Pretty Face" is something something?​We don't ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs That Make Us Feel Like a Man, Baby!

Mad Men's Christina Hendricks makes us feel like a man in the best possible way...​He Said's view of manhood wasn't built on sweat and labor the way most guys would probably say. Early on in our musical journey, we always equated music to being sleazy and slithery, or just dancing. It makes sense ... More >>

Reminder: Rocks Off's Free Lego Rock Band Party at Khon's Tomorrow

Tomorrow night at Khon's, Rocks Off lets you open up your first Christmas present of the season, our brand new copy of Lego Rock Band. We promise that you won't have to kiss any of us on the cheek afterwards or write a detailed thank-you note like your Mom would make you do back in the day when you ... More >>

Come Party With Rocks Off and Lego Rock Band at Khon's

Next Tuesday over at Khon's (2808 Milam), Rocks Off is throwing a free Christmas party for Houston, with our new copy of Lego Rock Band. You do remember the drunken scene at our Beatles: Rock Band shindig in September at Coffee Groundz, right? We wish we did, but we're pretty sure that they may hav ... More >>

Listology: The American Heist Soundtracks Their Funerals

​ ​Of all the bands to emerge out of the Houston music puppy mill this year, none has been as steadfastly working class and punk rock as the American Heist. Rocks Off first spied the band opening up for Florida's Fake Problems in May. At the time they were still called Born Anchor, but a Seattle ... More >>

He Said She Said: Our Favorite Fictional Performers, Part 2

​Why is that sometimes the fictional bands in movie and television are cooler than real bands? Sadly, some of He Said's favorite bands don't even have albums or videos to speak of, because they don't even exist. The fun part is imagining how awesome their full-length records and tours would be. Th ... More >>

Three Bassoons Walk Into a Bar...: The Near-Classical "Noncert" at Under the Volcano

Photos by Chris Gray​ Under the Volcano does not feel like Under the Volcano. The TVs are off, so no more NBA on ESPN. Hayes Carll's Trouble In Mind has come and gone - in its entirety - on the jukebox, taking its bad livers, broken hearts and drunken poet's dreams with it... mostly. Earlier, a re ... More >>

He Said She Said: A Stripper Soundtrack

Rocks Off has a naked lady fetish. It's shameful to admit. We really like seeing naked chicks. It's been something we have dealt with since we were four years old and started sneaking into the women's dressing room when our Mom would go clothes shopping. It's not so cute today, what with the beard ... More >>

Aftermath: New York Dolls & Black Joe Lewis at the House Of Blues

Photos by Daniel Kramer Aftermath is not going to purport to know what the New York Dolls were like live, in their Thundered and Killer-ed heyday of kitsch and campy kiss-offs. We weren't even in Pre-K when Buster Poindexter was singing "Hot Hot Hot" on Saturday Night Live. But for chrissakes ... More >>

Aftermath: Morrissey at Jones Hall

Craig HlavatyTropical Storm Morrissey blew through Jones Hall Saturday night, leaving a full house of hyperventilated fans - never more so than when, during "Let Me Kiss You," he removed his shirt to reveal an enviable set of abs - and more than a few moist eyes in its wake; after the sh ... More >>

25 Random Facts About The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

Logo courtesy HLS&RThe Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo is coming to town this week, the sign that spring can't be far behind.We've promised ourselves for weeks that we would never, ever succumb to the "25 Random Things" meme, or phenomenon, or whatever it is, but we have received in the ... More >>

The Year in Albums

This Just In: Alejandro Escovedo Up Close

“Perspectives 161: Tim Lee”

Tim Lee steals celebrities’ identities on film

Grand Theft Auto X: The Screwston Chronicles

Best Non-2007 Music of 2007

The Houston 100: From Harry Choates to Johnny Preston

South By Slideshow

Never Opening Near You

Music biopics Hollywood won't make

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Best Band

Various Artists

Music from Coffee and Cigarettes (Milan)

Peaches

Fatherfucker (Beggar's Banquet)

Playbill

Soul Brains (né Bad Brains)

Raw Power

Stooges add to punk lore with the release of a seven-CD box

Rotation

Hiatt Regency

Spend a few stolen moments in the grand hotel of songwriters -- a perfectly good performer lives there too. Plus: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.