Jane's Addiction

The Rocks Off 100: Sean Ozz, Wizard of The Abyss

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Sean Ozz fronts what might be Houston' ... More >>

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs Album-Cover "Controversy" Bores Me

The release of the "controversial" cover art for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' forthcoming album, Mosquito, has managed to stir up quite a bit of buzz. (Leave me alone. I like puns.) If you've somehow managed to escape the album-cover hype, I'll let you in on a little secret: you're not missing much in ... More >>

Gorilla Monsoon: A Birthday Playlist For A Wrestling Legend

Growing up as I did in the '80s, professional wrestling was more than entertainment, it was religion. The Hulkster, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage and Andre were all unapologetically over-the-top, one-dimensional; comic characters that did glorious battle for dubious reasons. It was a great time to watch ... More >>

Last Night: Jane's Addiction At Bayou Music Center

Jane's Addiction Bayou Music Center May 9, 2012 Perry Farrell is a twisted freak. Of course that's intended as a compliment. Farrell has become one of rock's most successful misfits of the past 25 years, combining an astute business sense with a sincere interest in the any number of alternative su ... More >>

Jane's Addiction & Other Big 1987 Debut Albums

Tonight Jane's Addiction comes to the Bayou Music Center, touring behind last year's The Great Escape Artist, only their fourth studio album in their nearly 27 years as a band. A few weeks back Rocks Off talked to lead singer and Lollapalooza honcho Perry Farrell about the band's future and what cou ... More >>

Perry Farrell Is Doing Just Fine

Jane's Addiction and Lollapalooza mastermind on Bin Laden and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

They're Ba-a-ack!: The Six Best Coachella Reunion Performances

Over the weekend, we experienced one of the most exciting musical events of the year: The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. One of the main features of the festival is the reunion aspect. For most of Coachella's lifespan, it has featured at least one classic band back together for the first ti ... More >>

Verizon Wireless Theater Now Known As Bayou Music Center

Verizon Wireless Theater will no longer be known under that name, because owner Live Nation's sponsorship deal with the communication provider has expired. The venue, which holds about 3,000 people within downtown entertainment complex Bayou Place, will now be known as Bayou Music Center. Rocks Off ... More >>

Buzzfest XXVIII Coming April 21: Korn, Blue October, MuteMath, Cage The Elephant & More

"Which button do I push to make R's go backwards?" ​Yes, we are now on the twenty-eighth Buzzfest in Houston history, with the all-day show on April 21 boasting a lineup that includes Korn, The Dirty Heads, Blue October, Evans Blue, Evanescence and Cage The Elephant, plus undercards Foxy Shaza ... More >>

Tumblrin' Dice: Clipart Covers Hurt Your Eyeballs

"Dazed and Confused" indeed...​Today I discovered Clipart Covers, a Tumblr site dedicated to remaking classic album covers with just clipart and comic sans, turning them into nightmarish, though amusing, affairs. Random urban-looking folks and what looks like a Wii avatar make up the cover of ... More >>

Christmas Crunch Time: Five (Kind Of) Shopping (And Thieving) Related Songs

​So, did you get all your Christmas shopping done? Oh, uhh...you haven't started? You're not alone. Tons of us procrastinate and leave it all until the last possible weekend (or if you're really ballsy, Christmas Eve) and then we're super screwed, forced to brave Memorial City, Katy Mills or e ... More >>

Say My Name: Bands Named After Actual, Real People

Punk Rock Elite​This Friday would have been Z.Z. Hill's 76th birthday, but the popular Texas bluesman passed away in 1984 from a heart attack. Most people only know who the late soul crooner is through his connection to ZZ Top. The moniker of that little ol' band from where we are sitting righ ... More >>

The Five Best Shows Bob Schneider Has Ever Seen

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

Video: Jane's Addiction Announces Bin Laden's Death At Buzzfest

Last night during their Buzzfest 26-closing set at at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, classic alt-rockers Jane's Addiction had the distinct honor of announcing to the nearly sold-out crowd at the shed that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by American special forces.

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 >>

Backmasking Bieber, Black Keys, Kanye, Etc.: What Do You Hear?

​"It's my sweet Satan ... Oh I will sing because I live with Satan." "Turn me on, dead man." "Turned out nice again." "Eat donkey crap." Every since the beginning of rock and roll, listeners and disgruntled parents alike have been searching for hidden meanings in music. Was Paul dead, w ... More >>

What Constitutes a Killer Show? Six Personal Case Studies

​ Rocks Off is going to suck it up and go on the record as saying we had a great time at the Lady Gaga drag karaoke event last Sunday at Guava Lamp. Perhaps it was just the impaired judgment induced by the holiday cheer we'd imbibed at the Christmas party before, but the show was thoroughly enjoya ... More >>

Are "Folsom Prison Blues" and Jane's Addiction's "Summertime Rolls" Appropriate Lullabys for Children?

​ Despite our collective knowledge of many arcane forms of music here at Rocks Off, we have noticed that we are remarkably deficient when it comes to lullabies. This deficiency which has been compounded by our complete and utter refusal to succumb to the twisted evil that is most children's music ... More >>

ACL 2009 Day Three: Pearl Jam With Special Guests Ben Harper and Perry Farrell

Photos by Mark C. Austin​Pearl Jam closed out this year's ACL with aplomb, the audience stretching nearly the entire length of Zilker Park to see Eddie Vedder and the seminal band while nostalgically recalling large portions of the 1990s as songs like "Daughter" and "Evenflow" washed over the ... More >>

ACL 2009 Day Three: Spin the Black Circle

Photos by Mark C. Austin​It only took one song in to Pearl Jam's Sunday night closing set at the Austin City Limits music festival for it to dawn on Rocks Off that for way too long this band has been forsaken by back-handed hipster discount and radio-influenced apathy. No band from the grunge- ... More >>

Kommunity FK

Defending The Buzz: Does 94.5 FM Really Suck That Bad?

What with Creed reuniting, BuzzFest coming up in a couple of weeks and, hell, maybe even the swine-flu scare - As in: What's worse than coming down with swine flu? A Houston radio that only tunes in 94.5 FM - Rocks Off sure has been thinking a lot about The Buzz lately. Probably too much. I mean, it ... More >>

Austin City Limits Goes Grunge; Tickets On Sale Today

Just in time for tickets to go on sale - as in now - leaks have conveniently begun to spring in C3 Entertainment's carefully under wraps lineup for this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival, scheduled for October 2-4 in Zilker Park. (Don't worry, Longhorn fans: Unlike last year, that's UT's ... More >>

Aftermath: SXSW

Jane's Addiction: Will They Or Won't They? Houston DJs Will

Sounds like Jane's Addiction is more or less a lock to play tonight's Playboy/C3 Presents super-exclusive late-night party at an old supermarket at 1107 N. IH-35 this evening starting around 11. It's pretty much the most popular rumor making the rounds at SXSW at this point - Rocks Off has heard it ... More >>

RIP Gary Kurfirst

Stop Making Sense Music-business legend Gary Kurfirst passed away from undisclosed causes while on vacation in Nassau, the Bahamas, January 13. A venue owner, talent manager, film producer and label founder, Kurfirst opened New York City's Village Theater, later known as the Fillmore East, in 1967 ... More >>

Butthole Surfers Part 3: Tom Bunch on Signing With Capitol, the Media's Problem with the Name, Babysitting the Buttholes, Gibby vs. Paul and the End of the Affair

Butthole Surfers Pt. 2: Ex-Manager Tom Bunch on Managing the Band (Officially and Otherwise), the "Ranch" in Dripping Springs, the Rough Trade Bankruptcy, pioughd and Steering BHS to the Majors

Warlocks: Heavy Deavy Skull Lover

Clipd Beaks

Give Us a Hand

Weird Wide Web: International Strange Music Day, Oddmusic, Starving Weirdos, Strange Glue and many more

Ten sites dedicated to offbeat, off-kilter and downright strange music

Retro Active: 1987, Here We Come

Honor Bound

A fictional look at the future of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Encore Performance

Don't fret. Guitar Hero II kills the opening act

Musica Fresca

The Musica Fresca tour stops Friday, September 22, at Planeta Bar Rio, 6400 Richmond, 832-251-9600.

The Black Album

A new film examines the darker side of rock

Do the Hustle

Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle breaks all the rules

The Music, with Morningwood

Friday, March 18, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717.

Don't Choke

Fishbone skanks into town

Moddening Crowds

DJ Mod Scott brings '60s pop to Helios

Fannypack

Saturday, July 12

DJ Peretz

Friday, January 11

Reunion Rigor Mortis

Radio Shy

Off the Wagon

Rotation

A Uniquely Pervis Perspective

Lollapalooza, Year Four: The bloom is back

Been Caught Stealing