John Mellencamp

The Best Concerts In Houston This Week

The Helio Sequence Walters, January 15 The Helio Sequence's indie cred was secured when affable hipster tastemaker Fred Armisen (SNL, Portlandia) recently named last year's Negotiations to his Top 10 list, alongside albums by Bob Mould, Guided by Voices and Dirty Projectors. Only the Portland duo's ... More >>

David Grissom

The Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend

Scooter Brown Band Firehouse Saloon, January 4 Few bands on the Texas country circuit -- a scene largely made up of affable college dropouts -- can say that they have a true-blue U.S. Marine up front, but the Scooter Brown Band can. Lead singer-songwriter/Iraq war combat veteran Scott Brown chose ... More >>

John Hiatt & the Combo

Chris Knight, Cody Canada, Jason Boland

So This Is 5 Years of Listening to Sunny 99.1's Christmas?

2008: An Hour in Sunny 99.1's Holiday Hell Every year, Sunny starts playing non-stop, 24/7 Christmas tunes by the end of November. You can pretty much bet that by the time you hop in the car after Thanksgiving dinner that Perry Como will be riding shotgun with you up to the gas station for smokes ... More >>

True Blood: I Think White Wolf Is Gonna Sue Somebody

Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under.He's lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood -- which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. The fifth season of True Blood continues to underwhelm as a whole, ... More >>

Last Night: Lady Antebellum At Reliant Stadium

Lady Antebellum RodeoHouston, Reliant Stadium March 1, 2012 Someone should put Lady Antebellum on TV every week. Let 'em guest-coach an episode of The Voice. Better yet would be a series like The Partridge Family or The Monkees (RIP Davy) that would blend concert footage and "behind the scenes" mom ... More >>

T-Bird & the Breaks

5 Treehugging Tunes By Conservative Country Artists

​Today is the Girl Scouts of America's annual World Thinking Day, which they celebrate each year by dedicating 24 hours of contemplation on the world and the people in it. Now, Rocks Off isn't a Girl Scout, but we keep a close eye on them because we've proven in the past they are in fact our o ... More >>

Looking Back at A Very Special Christmas Track by Track

In the late 1980's, music empresario Jimmy Iovine cobbled together quite a collection of pop and rock artists to record songs for a Christmas album benefitting the Special Olympics. In 1987, A Very Special Christmas was released and rapidly became an instant holiday classic thanks to the star powere ... More >>

Bar Light, Bar Bright: Beer Signs & Songs That Light Them Up

Photos by Jason WolterChris Knight at the Firehouse Saloon, August 3​Rocks Off has a bad habit of what some people refer to as "honky-tonkin'." Single, childless and a lifelong Lone Star drinker, we have no reservations about staying out till all hours, even if sometimes it does make us feel l ... More >>

Last Night: John Mellencamp At Jones Hall

Photos by Marc Brubaker​John Mellencamp Jones Hall April 3, 2011 See pics of a dapper-looking John Mellencamp on stage in our slideshow. Don't call him Cougar. John Mellencamp has been trying to live down that record label-foisted moniker for over 30 years, ditching it entirely in 1990 and ... More >>

John Mellencamp

Guns N' Roses, Rolling Stones, Prince Coming In 2011?

Sind Axl und Slash wieder Freunde geworden?​Rocks Off is in the concert business for all intents and purposes. We scour Pollstar and other Web sites and almost hourly looking for new shows and tours to tell you about around the clock. In the span of writing this introduction we just listed Luc ... More >>

Last Night: Drive-By Truckers At House Of Blues

Photos by Jason Wolter​Drive-By Truckers House of Blues September 23, 2010 To be considered "great," a rock group needs to occasionally (at least) spread itself beyond the confines of songs about chasing girls/ditching school to touch on more universal themes. Some acts come to this realizati ... More >>

Last Night: Kings Of Leon At The Woodlands

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Kings of Leon Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 22, 2010 Sold. It took us long enough, or it took them long enough, but Aftermath has had our last cup of Kings of Leon haterade. We found them tepid at Verizon in 2008 and standoffish at Toyota Center last year ... More >>

Acts We Think - OK, Hope - Are Playing ACL Fest This Year

​By this time Tuesday, we will all know who is playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October. Damn, it seems like we have speculating about the line-up since, well, we got the last of the "Dillo Dirt" out the middle of our toes after last year's muddy and rainy ACL weekend. Tuesday brig ... More >>

Glee: We're Gonna Keep On Rockin' Forever...Forever

​The theme this week was the loss of the glee club's voice -- both literally (Rachel has laryngitis) and figuratively (Puck gets a haircut, followed by a corresponding loss of mojo). Will asks everyone to solo in front of the whole group with a song that represents where they are in in their l ... More >>

Glee: We're Gonna Keep On Rockin' Forever...Forever

​The theme this week was the loss of the glee club's voice -- both literally (Rachel has laryngitis) and figuratively (Puck gets a haircut, followed by a corresponding loss of mojo). Will asks everyone to solo in front of the whole group with a song that represents where they are in in their l ... More >>

New, Hidden Americana Gems From Philly, Nashville And The Ozarks

Desoto Rust​ Too many records, too many records, too many records. Sometimes Lonesome, Onry and Mean just has to take a deep breath, swallow hard and admit we can never give a fair listen to all the stuff that shows up in the mailbox. And since we seldom do actual album reviews in print anymore, w ... More >>

Aftermath: A Quiet Night At The Rodeo With Lady Antebellum, John Mellencamp (Sort Of) And Larry The Cable Guy

Photos by Jason Wolter​ On Monday night, Lady Antebellum performed to a crowd of a little more than 65,000. Having been in a band, the idea of playing in front of so many people is both exciting and nerve-racking, but by RodeoHouston standards it's about middle of the road, and felt like less. It ... More >>

Aftermath: Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmopolitician/​Sunday night's Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan gig out at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion was an exhibition for an artist in his comfortable twilight, another on the cusp of a new revolution and the last one stoically fighting the violent ... More >>

Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp

Single-Album Sets We'd Like to See, Part 1: Bob Dylan, George Strait, The Pogues and More

Initiated by indie-rockers like Sonic Youth, Slint and Built to Spill at mid-2000s festivals - UK/U.S. hopover All Tomorrow's Parties and its various tie-ins being the most prominent - playing a beloved LP front to back in concert is now the hottest thing going on the classic-rock circuit. Within th ... More >>

Distant Early Warning: Asher Roth, Dax Riggs, Franz Ferdinand, Peter Frampton and More

Ace Enders, Person L, The Gay Blades, The Dangerous Summer: Wed., July 15. The Java Jazz. Asher Roth, Kid Cudi: Fri., July 31. House of Blues. "The Battle Of Sam: Battle Of The Bands": Sat., June 6. The Showgrounds @ Sam Houston Race Park. Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp: Sun., Aug. 2. Cy ... More >>

Is The Woodlands Getting a Minor-League Baseball Team?

Well, not that Rocks Off knows of - although, really, what are you people waiting for up there? - but according to our colleagues at 29-95.com, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson will throw a few high and outside at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion August 2, with tickets going on sale v ... More >>

Retro Active: The Five Worst '80s Christmas Songs

OK, sure, the truly worst '80s Christmas songs are doubtlessly "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" and Band Aid's (above) "Do They Know It's Christmas?" But everyone knows this. However, there were many other holiday songs released during the '80s that nearly reached such heights of crapulence ... More >>

Analyzing Bocephus's "McCain-Palin Tradition"

Elephant Walk

Who Stole the Roll?

Do We Have to Play the National Anthem Before Every Single Sporting Event?

Drenched In Blog: Um… Hallelujah?

Miranda Lambert

Drenched in Blog: Hall of Fame Nominations a Big Cleveland Steamer

Protest Songs for George W.

That's my Bush!

Cred Sheet

Stuff you need to know to avoid musical ostracism

He's a Maniac

The Nightfly puts his white-boy dance moves to the supreme test at Lizzard's Pub

Messing with Texas

Rockers bash Bush, with varying results

The Art of Getting Broken

Mary Cutrufello wanted to be a rock star. For a moment she was.

The Book of James

Colorful characters fill James McMurtry's Tex-rock sound

Rotation

Static

Burying the Brakeman

Sample Melody

African Electric

Rotation

Go Her Own Way

Me'Shell Ndegeocello can't find a niche -- not that she really wants one

Blowed Up Real Good

Hootie gets big while keeping its eyes on the small stuff

Nice Guy, Nice Songs

From 4-H to Miss Molly, Hadden Sayers keeps aiming for the next plateau

The Soul of Storyville