Jack White

Seven Recent Albums By '60s Artists That Don't Suck

Age gets us all eventually. I'm only in my early twenties and already I'm having to do stupid things like eating healthier, quitting the smokes, and watching my blood pressure. So it really shouldn't come as any surprise that musicians start to slow down in their old age, especially if they've been ... More >>

The Electric Six Is On Tour To Fund Live DVD Project

In my eyes, one of most underrated rock albums of the past decade has been Electric Six's Fire, released in May 2003. It remains a solid set of thirteen, smutty, decadent rock cuts, and personally I find it hard to find a favorite after all these years. "Gay Bar", "She's White", "Naked Pictures (O ... More >>

10 Surprising Things About This Year's Grammy Nominations

This year music has been dominated by viral pop like "Call Me Maybe" and "Gangnam Style," songs that initially became "hits" from outside the music business' traditional delivery system, usually YouTube. Thursday, the Grammys recognized that by nominating "Maybe," by 17-year-old Justin Bieber proteg ... More >>

Wanda Jackson

Rockabilly Legend Wanda Jackson: "I Do Music People Like"

>Wanda Jackson has had a career most musicians would envy. The "Queen of Rockabilly" has entertained audiences for decades with such songs as "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad," "Hard Headed Woman" and "Fujiyama Mama," displaying an originality and bravado that helped pave the way for artists as diverse a ... More >>

Paul McCartney Songs We Secretly Want to Hear at Minute Maid

Paul McCartney usually starts his set lists with "Magical Mystery Tour" and then lives up to it, hopscotching between Beatles, Wings, and his solo stuff. But there are a few cuts out of his 50-plus-year catalog that I want to hear out of total selfishness, songs that I know he could never probably ... More >>

ACL Last Night: Jack White at Zilker Park

Jack White AMD Stage Austin City Limits Festival, Zilker Park October 13, 2012 Rewind: SLIDESHOW: Neil Young, Jack White, The Roots: ACL 2012 Saturday Bands SLIDESHOW: Rainy Saturday at ACL 2012: Crowd Shots ACL 2012: Saturday's 9 Best & Funniest Moments at Zilker ACL Last Night: Neil Young & C ... More >>

Is Adele's "Skyfall" the Worst Bond Theme of All Time?

Fifty years after the release of the very first Hollywood adaptation of Ian Fleming's superspy, James Bond returns to make his 23rd appearance on the silver screen this month in Skyfall, Daniel Craig's third crack at the character. The media blitz for the film's premiere is already in full effect, l ... More >>

5 Bands to Avoid & 5 Bands to See at This Year's ACL

If you are lucky enough to be going to ACL this weekend, you have no doubt been sitting in front of your concert schedule plotting your movements for this coming weekend. Alternately if you are missing out on ACL, a lot of the bands playing have been through Houston lately, or will be in town this ... More >>

SXSW 2012: Our Inner Monologue (Day Two)

If you are here in Austin for SXSW you know that this place has just devolved into free cereal, Doritos, and Red Bull on the streets, which are bathed in lasers from the tops of buildings. Plus there are screaming humans of all ages, races, sizes, and creeds on the streets almost 20 hours a day. Whe ... More >>

The Best (Fake) SXSW 2012 Rumors So Far

It happens every year: an errant rumor turns Austin and SXSW upside down for a few hours or even days, leading to mass hysteria, mild apathy, and sometimes sadness. At my first SXSW in 2001, I got a "hot tip" that the Beastie Boys were going to join Mix Master Mike at La Zona Rosa for a secret show, ... More >>

Are SNL's Divisive Musical Guests Making It Relevant Again??

Even as sketch comedy tastes have changed, and a segment of the population has sadly written it off as an unfunny relic, NBC's Saturday Night Live is still pulling in cutting-edge, marquee musical guests each week, in the process creating national stars or pariahs. Or sometimes both. Case in point ... More >>

Jack White: His Best And Worst So Far

It goes without saying that Jack White is, and has been, one of the most prolific artists in contemporary popular music. From The White Stripes' self-titled album to his WTF collaboration with hardcore hip-hop dup Insane Clown Posse last year, the guy has released or produced an album every year wit ... More >>

White Denim

Electric Six: Love Songs for Mentally Disturbed People

​If Barry White did a record with Al Jourgensen it might sound something like Heartbeats and Brainwaves, the eighth studio album from Electric Six. This is the first time we've come into contact with the band, having only been aware of them vaguely from their song "Gay Bar" and the fact that ... More >>

Single Jack White: 10 Women He Should Date Next

GroovehouseThe Dead Weather's Allison Mosshart at House of Blues, May 2010​Today came word that Jack White and wife Karen Elson are splitting in grand style, with a celebratory party in their hometown of Nashville this evening. Together, the two struck a sultry pose, the brooding, multifaceted ... More >>

Out Today: Other Things Besides Born This Way... Seriously

​This past weekend was magical, what with Rocks Off finally getting to see Foo Fighters play songs from Wasting Light and all. You may remember that we have been wanking over Light since it came out in April, but it's really good. Best rock album of the year? Maybe, unless Jack White or Josh H ... More >>

Wanda Jackson Loves Jesus, Jack White & Adele

​Rocks Off conducted an unusual interview this week. We say "interview," when perhaps a better word is "exchange." Recently we have been tinkering with the composition of our interviews, in the hopes of avoiding boilerplate questions like "Who are your influences?" in favor of something, we h ... More >>

Out Today: Danger Mouse In Rome, Nick Cave & Queen Reissued

​It's back to the usual grind for Rocks Off after last night's late-night Austin City Limits Festival lineup announcement. Sadly, we will not be seeing the Foo Fighters play songs from Wasting Light in Austin come September. And yes, still playing it, along with a steady diet of Guns N' Roses. ... More >>

Detroit Leanin': Who Is The Best Motor City Artist Ever?

detroitrockcity.altervista.org​Some places breed music. Due to sheer size, any big city will produce its fair share of talented musicians, and some - Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago - seem to have music in the water supply. But none, arguably, more than Detroit: John Lee Hooker, the Motown dias ... More >>

SXSW: Jack White's Mobile Third Man Record Store

Craig Hlavaty​If you felt like booking it to the parking lot next to Frank at 4th and Colorado on Wednesday afternoon, you would have been treated to a quick acoustic set from Jack White and the Texas debut of his Third Man Rolling Record Store.

Top 10 Musician Movie Cameos

Rocks Off has no idea why Mick Jagger might prefer Performance to Ned Kelly.​Over recent years, Rocks Off has been repeatedly surprised by the quality performances of musicians in films. Naturally, there are some duds in the mix; even Mick Jagger himself, who starred in 1970's Ned Kelly, disow ... More >>

The 31 Best Music Documentaries Of All Time

​Hands down, above all of these following music documentaries, Craig's Hlist's two favorite of all-time are The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2: The Metal Years, and The Beatles Anthology. We can watch both on repeat for days and not complain. That will probably all change once we see ... More >>

The Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp From Hell

Rocks Off recently got invited to cover something known as Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp, which works a lot like baseball fantasy camp, except none of the participants can field a line-drive grounder. Among the idols rock campers will meet include 3 Doors Down, Mark Farner, the drummer from the Hooters a ... More >>

Music's Top Five Hottest Trends For 2011

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray​Every year-end Rocks Off prognosticates the likeliest trends in music for the upcoming year. So far, we've got a 100 percent success rate, although since the FBI made us take down all of our previous predictions, we have no way to prove it. So you'll j ... More >>

Busted! 20 Musician Mugshots

​ Getting arrested and booked isn't the end of the world, by any means. Well unless you just killed a shit-ton of people at a bowling alley or something, it really is. But if you are a rocker or a celebrity who committed a minor offense, it's just a funny footnote in your public life you can look ... More >>

The Dead Weather Leaves Us Dumbfounded And Dirty

Photos by Groovehouse​ For more photos from the concert, see our slideshow here. Sometimes bands come along that burn so hot and bright that words fail you. And sometimes all you can do at their shows is stand there with your hands at your side in utter shock at what you are seeing. If you were at ... More >>

Heavy Weather

A band that started by accident, the Dead Weather is now here to stay.

Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs

Uprising

2009 wasn't a great year for albums, but songs were a different story.

Five Musicians Who'd Make Better Vampires than Those Sparkly Twilight Douchebags

​New Moon, the second movie in the Twilight series, hits theaters this week, and even though the trailers alone have us ready to put it on our "Worst of 2009" lists ("Jake! NOOOO!"), there's no denying the movie is going to make more money than an underaged prostitute at a Promise Keepers conventi ... More >>

Million-Dollar Mud

The 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival became a quagmire everywhere but onstage.

ACL 2009 Day Three: Aftermath

Photos by Mark C. AustinDavid Garza​So, what happens to freshly laid grass in a public park after a day full of rain and thousands of people walking back and forth across it at the same time? Well, as anyone who was present for Day Three of Austin City Limits Festival 2009 (ACL) could tell you ... More >>

ACL Aftermath, Part 2: Now That That "Dillo Dirt" Unpleasantness Is Out of the Way, How About Some Music?

Mark C. AustinSeems like we recognize this guy from somewhere...​ More and more, Aftermath uses ACL more than SXSW to see which recent buzz bands are worth their salt, and of course to check on how some old favorites are doing. This year, tops on our new-to-us list were Blitzen Trapper, who manage ... More >>

Our Favorite ZZ Top Covers: QOTSA, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, Tina Turner and... Rapeman?

[Note: Now with added Ministry.] Counting down to Friday's ZZ Top/Aerosmith show in The Woodlands is starting to feel like the week Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers played there last year: a steady build of anticipation and antsiness, until Friday we're flat-out squirming to get out of the office. ... More >>

Playbill: Pontiak Tonight At The Mink

Some albums, indeed some artists, can only be truly appreciated when listened to at near injury-inducing volume. Pontiak, with its earthy blend of bluesy psychedelia, proto-metal and sub-harmonic doom drone, is one such band. When you crank it all the way up, Maker hits like a mild concussion with ... More >>

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 >>

The Five Best Bond Themes

Critics may have found the 22nd James Bond caper, Quantum of Solace, "grim and downcast" (The New York Times), but audiences didn't seem to mind, turning out in sufficient numbers for Quantum to set a new 007 opening-weekend record of more than $70.4 million (domestic). But never mind the movie ... More >>

Five Spot: Jack White, The Edge, Jimmy Page and the Mediocrity of Your Life

Them’s Fighting Words, Broseph!

The Raconteurs

Broken Boy Soldiers

The Hipster's Guide to Rock and Roll Vendettas

And you thought rappers were the only ones who had beefs

The White Stripes

Get Behind Me Satan

Americana Pie

Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot

Americana Pie

Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot

Holly's Hobby

How did an elusive Brit become a garage-rock cult figure? Hell if she knows.

Best Place to Buy a Musical Instrument

Loretta Lynn

Van Lear Rose (Interscope)

Joss Stone

The Soul Sessions (S-Curve)

Whirlwind Heat, with the Kills and the Singles

Wednesday, September 10