Joe Strummer

Return to Glory: Rick Rubin's 5 Best Comeback Productions

Recently, Black Sabbath confirmed that record magnate and production auteur Rick Rubin would be twiddling the knobs on their new record, set to be released next year. It will be their first with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals since 1978, and a lot of their reputation is riding on this. Not that it will ma ... More >>

The Best Post-Clash Joe Strummer Songs

Today would have been Joe Strummer's 60th birthday, but he passed away in December 2002 of a heart attack, days before Christmas. He left behind a wife and three daughters, plus thousands of years of music and memories. The loss was like a punch to the gut, made even more bitter because he and f ... More >>

Julie Delpy Rocks New York

Always more than an ingenue, she's taking on everything that's wrong with movies - and she's bringing Chris Rock.

The End of the Road: Digital Mourning in 2012

At the Houston Press office, I am usually the first person who finds out when a celebrity or musician dies, usually from a wire or, these days, the fine folks at TMZ. Hell, sometimes even when I am away from my desk I have to be the bearer of bad tidings, like when Adam Yauch passed on a few weeks a ... More >>

Not Average Joe: Six Rock and Roll Joes on the Day "Hey Joe" Turns 45

​Despite the fact that he never really had a major "hit" (Electric Ladyland reached number one as an album but he never had a single go higher than 20 in the US) and was terribly under appreciated while he was still alive, Jimi Hendrix is one of the giants of rock and roll. His songs and his g ... More >>

2011 Rewind: Concert Tickets From An Alternate Universe

This originally ran on June 8, but seeing that the year is coming to an end, we are looking back at some of our favorite blogs we gave to you these past 12 months. One of the best dreams we ever had was of covering a Clash show for Rocks Off. Yeah, dreaming about work isn't something to brag about ... More >>

30 Seconds With Astronautalis

Rocks Off hitched a ride on a space whale in order to hook up with Andy Bothwell, also known as Astronautalis to see what we could learn about our biggest hope for rap in 30 seconds. paperocean​Rocks Off: What is the worst song in the world? Astronautalis: "Love in an Elevator" by Aerosmith. ... 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 >>

Ten Years After: Our Favorite 2001 Albums

​This hlist is kind of funny now, seeing that the dearly departed White Stripes are smack-dab in the middle with White Blood Cells. We swear this final hlist was made Tuesday afternoon, before Wednesday's breakup announcement. Funny how the band has actually been on the tips of our lips for a ... 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 >>

Last Night: Agent Orange At Fitzgerald's

Photos by David Ensminger​Agent Orange Fitzgerald's January 9, 2010 In the 1987 21 Jump Street episode "Mean Streets and Pastel Houses," fresh-faced Johnny Depp goes undercover as a punk to root out vicious gangland teenage thugs lurking in the inner city. He ends up at a rowdy punk concert r ... More >>

Friday Night: Batusis At Mango's

Photos by David EnsmingerCheetah Chrome​Batusis feat. Sylvain Sylvain and Cheetah Chrome Mango's December 10, 2010 "Everything was as it always had been ... the years were a mirage and there had been no years," E.B. White once wrote, describing the collapse of time. This is what Batusis effor ... More >>

Bankrobbers: The Clash Family Tree

​Rocks Off cried the night he heard Joe Strummer died. It was December 2002, and we sat on our family couch and let it all out. That fabled Clash reunion that seemed just months away would never happen. Strummer died of a heart attack at 50, just three days before Christmas, leaving behind a w ... More >>

The Top 10 Rock-Musician Film Scores

​David Fincher's Facebook creation tale The Social Network has been the No. 1 film in America the past two weekends, and no doubt it will continue that streak this weekend, barring an assault by Jackass 3-D which comes out today. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone is already hailing Network as a ... More >>

Last Night: Gaslight Anthem At Warehouse Live

Photos by Jason Wolter​Gaslight Anthem Warehouse Live October 7, 2010 Quite a great deal of press - too much, really - has been given to the similarities between New Jersey's Gaslight Anthem and that other guy from the Garden State - Jon Bon J... er, Bruce Springsteen. Both Springsteen and GA ... More >>

Caucasian Sheriff's Deputies Group Gets Its Payroll Deduction

Caucasian Law Enforcement Association: Joe Strummer knew how you feel​Buried beneath the onslaught of Commissioners Court activity yesterday was a vote that gives legitimacy to a group calling itself the Caucasian Law Enforcement Assocation.Without discussion, commissioners approved a request that ... More >>

Mods Vs. Rockers: Five Mock Battles

​Fresh off our trip to AmeriVespa 2010, Rocks Off has come to this conclusion: we are neither a Mod nor a Rocker. We're a Mocker. When you drive around a town as large and car-centric as Houston on a small scooter you get a lot of comments from people, mostly in allusion to Quadrophenia, which ... More >>

Music's Top 10 Messed-Up Mouths

​Rocks Off went to the dentist this morning for the first time in... well, a long time. The importance of taking care of your choppers is thus fresh in our minds - especially since we have to go back tomorrow, this time to a "specialist." So... yeah. This would probably be a good time to mention t ... More >>

Jimi Hendrix's Pyromania And 5 Other Great Moments In Instrument Destruction

​ We've all seen the famous footage of Jimi Hendrix humping, burning, and finally smashing his guitar to bits at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. What not many people realize is he initially performed this act of musical instrument immolation some months before, at the suggestion of writer Keith ... More >>

Love and Theft

The decade with no name left behind plenty of memorable music.

The Man Comes Around: Top Ten Big-Deal Musical Deaths of the Decade

​This past decade saw the passing of an innumerable amount of musical icons and pioneering giants. Not only did we lose the second coolest Beatle, but we lost two of the best dancers and performers the world will ever see. Punk rock and metal saw some of their best and brightest lights get snuffed ... 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 >>

Westheimer Block Party Listology: Fiskadoro Chooses Artists They'd Bring Back to Life

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. It's not too late for your band to be up here; just email chris.gray@houstonpress.com by noon Thursday if you want ... More >>

"My Son Is the Lizard King, and I'm an Admiral": Successful Rock-Star Parents

​Late Thursday, word came across the ticker that legendary comedian and TV star Soupy Sales had passed away at age 83. After a stint in the military and on radio, Sales went on to be one of the major pioneers of televised sketch and children's comedy. In 1965, he pulled a stunt where he asked his ... More >>

Not So Fab: Five Songs You Won't Find on The Beatles: Rock Band

​Sorry, Joe Strummer, but "phony Beatlemania" hasn't bitten the dust yet, not with the release of both the remastered Beatles catalogue and The Beatles: Rock Band this week. Rocks Off knows this all to well, having flung down the gauntlet of challenge to all those who would test their video-game c ... More >>

Upstairs, Downstairs: The Most Unoriginal SIN

Every so often, when Rocks Off is lucky enough to spend an evening at home, he'll dig up a pen and paper and start scratching away. So it was Monday night...Joshua Black WilkinsHere Comes Trouble: Th' Legendary Shack Shakers​The longer you're in this business, the more you learn to appreciate the ... More >>

Not Too Late for Half Price Live Nation Tickets

Rocks Off meant to post this as part of "Bayou Beat" Tuesday, but we got so excited about seeing Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten - which is excellent, especially if you like campfires - that, well, we forgot. Luckily, this week's Live Nation "All In" ticket deal requires minimal explanation: b ... More >>

Bayou Beat: Movie Night at the Mink, Scout Bar Beaumont Shut Down, Yeah Yeah Yeahs at ACL? and More

Seems the Mink has found an old movie projector and is planning to put it to good use this evening. After a couple of Charlie Chaplin shorts, the bar will screen the superb 2007 documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, and even provide free popcorn. "A makeout row can be provided on reque ... More >>

Lily Allen: It's Not Me, It's You

Totally Fucked Up

Perhaps the best-named band of all time

The Gourds land a real Haymaker!

Dead to Rights

Turkey Trot

Artists choose the songs that rocked their 2008 worlds

Get Lit: The Clash by the Clash

The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium

DVD Review: Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

J.D. Herman's Matagorda Island Discs

SXSW: Carbon/Silicon, Ting Tings, Santogold, MGMT, The Cribs, White Rabbits, Supersuckers and Robyn

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

Joe Strummer transcends punk, and the music lives on

Drenched In Blog: Somebody Help Bob Goulet

Retro Active: A Nuclear Era, But I Have No Fear

Get Lit: Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer, by Chris Salewicz

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

Coming to Numbers

Unknown Legend

Roots renegade Joe Ely never achieved pop stardom, but that's all right by him...sorta

Scott Faingold Listens to Everything

And comes up with a random smattering of tortured musings

The Low Budgets

Wednesday, May 5

U.K. Subs

Thursday, November 6

Ground Control to Spider One

Your album's dead / Can you hear us, Spider One?

He Ain't Ever Coming Back

Joe Strummer, a titan of the Clash

Butthole Surfers

Saturday, July 13