Jeff Buckley

If This Is It

Poor Pilate's keyboard man David Lascoe doesn't hide his love of Huey Lewis.

30 Seconds With John Mills-McCoin

There is no one in Houston like John Mills-McCoin. The Rock 'N' Roll Circus that is scheduled to raise the bar on Houston shows this weekend was birthed from the depth of his brain's wackiness. We waded into to see what we could learn about him in 30 seconds. Rocks Off: What is worst song in the w ... More >>

WHIP YOUR HAIR: Best Singles By The Children Of Rock & Rap Royalty

​Today is Julian Lennon's 48th birthday, born April 8, 1963, just as his father John was beginning the meteoric rise to godhead status with the Beatles. He wouldn't see his dad too terribly much as Beatlemania took over the world, something that both men struggled with as the years went on. ... More >>

Lack Of Social Safety Net Tying Many Musicians To Day Jobs

"I fantasize sometimes that my musical career would hit gold and help us escape these grim realities, but it's not something I really expect to happen." ​There are few issues in the current political climate more fraught with contention than whether or not the U.S. government will take a more ... More >>

20 Musician Biopics Currently In Development Hell

Happy birthday, Janis.​News came down last week that Sacha Baron Cohen will be stepping into the rhinestones and glitter as Queen icon Freddie Mercury. It's been a long time coming for Cohen, the Borat and Bruno star who is slowly becoming his generation's Peter Sellers and has been rumored to ... More >>

Taylor Swift's Top Nine Future Feuds

​Still the No. 1 album in the country, Taylor Swift's Speak Now is awash in lyrics bashing her former flames, friends, lovers and Kanye West. The pop-country singer knows how to turn a bitter phrase, and we can only hope that she keeps getting better and better at it. She's not yet 21, but S ... More >>

Eclipse

Brooding folk for the Twilight crowd.

5 Rock Deaths That Shook Us Down

​It was sometime this past Saturday night that we first heard that Ronnie James Dio was dead. It was after midnight and we had just bellied up to the Mink's front bar when we checked our Twitter feed and saw that Dio had passed on. Our body froze every metal bone in our body ached for a few minute ... More >>

Houston Leading "Ford Fiesta Movement" Bonnaroo Contest

myspace.com/blackqueenspeaksBlack Queen Speaks​ For what seems like months now, Rocks Off has been seeing emails and posts about Team Houston, Ford Fiesta, Backseat Jukeboxes, and the battle of the bands this Saturday at Warehouse Live. To clear up any confusion, Rocks Off recently asked local pho ... More >>

Aftermath: Patti Smith, Not Quite As Mythic As Her Music, At U of H

Eric Hester/ photos courtesy of Voices Breaking Boundaries​Have you ever gone to see an artist, but then wished you hadn't? Not because of a bad performance, but just because the real-life person didn't fit so neatly into the tiny box you'd made for them in your brain? That's how Aftermath felt ab ... More >>

Playbill: Muse

Idol Beat: Big Mike the Guy To Beat?

Last night's American Idol, in which the top eight guys performed, felt a lot like the girls' episode from Tuesday in the way it clearly defined who should stay and who should go, with one singer standing above the rest as the one to beat. Just as Crystal Bowersox is the best and most interesting ... More >>

American Idol: Big Mike the Guy To Beat?

Last night's American Idol, in which the top eight guys performed, felt a lot like the girls' episode from Tuesday in the way it clearly defined who should stay and who should go, with one singer standing above the rest as the one to beat. Just as Crystal Bowersox is the best and most interesting ... More >>

The Great Green Room In the Sky: The Grim Reaper's 2009 Musical Roll Call

​Thankfully, 2009 was a sorry year for the Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter. Aside from the not terribly unexpected (but still weird) demise of the King of Pop, few bona fide legends went on to the Great Green Room Beyond the Sky. The Rock Death Meter rates rock deaths on a ten-point scale in three c ... More >>

No Turkeys Allowed

Our annual holiday shopping guide to recent local releases

The Way He Sees It

To Raphael Saadiq, music is music and Yeasayer is all right with him.

He Said, She Said: Gone Too Soon

A rash of recent musical deaths (Michael Jackson and DJ AM among others) have led us here at Rocks Off to do some speculating of our own: Which musicians do we feel were taken from us too soon? Obvious answers like the Famous Js (John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin) or the dual ... More >>

2008 in Texas Albums and Local EPs

Radiohead and In Rainbows

The band's most blogged-about barn in America

Prodigal Players

Lost in Rotation

Rounding Up Recordings by HPMA Nominees

Do Da Dip

Sir Lancelot Waves Goodbye, and His Private Parts

HouStoned Rocks Mixtape

Turn Out the Lights, the Party's Over

Cactus Music & Video shutters with a melancholy beer bash

The All-American Rejects

Saturday, March 25, Reliant Arena, 8400 Kirby, 713-629-3700

A Crying Shame

RIP, Cactus Music and Video

Stairway to Heaven

Gauging 2005's rock deaths with the Greil Marcus Death Meter

Dreamfest 2

Saturday, May 28, at Walter's and Mary Jane's Fat Cat, 4215 and 4216 Washington Avenue, and at the Rhythm Room, 1815 Washington Avenue

Karachi Rock

Haven't heard of Junoon? They've sold 20 million albums, and they're at the Meridian this week.

M. Ward, with Norfolk and Western

Sunday, April 3, at Mary Jane's Fat Cat, 4216 Washington Avenue, 713-869-5263

Letters

New Angels in Rock Heaven

Scoring the grim reaper's 2004 harvest

Letters

Die, Jeff Buckley, Die!

It's time to put a bullet through the head of this zombie

Hedberg and the Angry Lynch

The PC and the un-PC make nice at the Verizon

Rock and Roll Dream Team

Forget the office-football draft, dude. Here's a far cooler way to waste your time and your employer's money.

Damien Rice

Saturday, November 29

Peter Case

Friday, September 26

Alphabet Soup

The Colour Clear knows exactly where it should be filed in the record store. But what about in real life?

The Velvet Viking

Norwegian phenom Sondre Lerche brings his precocious sunny-day pop straight outta the fjords

Brady Brock

Thursday, December 26

Nicolai Dunger

Soul Rush (Lakeshore)

Pale

High Up and Away (Pale)

Coldplay

Parachutes
(Parlophone)

Bye-bye, Grunge

Rotation

From Zero to Hero

Rotation

Growed-up Stuff