Joni Mitchell

The Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend: Badass Weekend, Tift Merritt, etc.

Badass Weekend Walters/Houston House of Creeps, February 15 and 16 The first annual Badass Weekend is spread out over two days and three stages at Walters, Houston House of Creeps, and the adjoining Ballistic Skate House, and is sure to give you lonely and wild hearts something to do over Valentine ... More >>

Top 5 Old Songs Ripe for Hipster Updates

After having grown up in a pop-music culture that every day grows more adept at rehashing, re-imagining and (let's be frank) flat-out stealing sounds from those who came before, today's indie bands are no strangers to aping their influences. And unlike post-punk and grunge before them, this class do ... More >>

Moving Day: 5 Albums I Just Can't Quit

Reconsidering a lifetime of musical choices is a funny business. My first musical purchase? The Maxi Single for Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now). First proper album purchase? Amy Grant's 1991 classic, Heart In Motion. Before I lose any degree of credibility, let's move on. For the past m ... More >>

No Fences: Garth Brooks & the Fuzzy Math of 10 Mega-Concerts

Fifteen years ago this week, the greatest country music artist of all time, Garth Brooks, made history by playing a free concert to a massive crowd in New York's Central Park. Now, not just anybody gets to play Central Park, but Brooks had the megawatt stroke in the entertainment biz back then to ma ... More >>

Start the Revolution! 10 Songs About Historical Events

If you ever look at music throughout time, along with a history book -- they kind of complement each other. Some of the greatest songs in rock, R&B and rap have chronicled history both social, major news events, sports, entertainment and political. In my opinion, many times, the song is about what ... More >>

7 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Weird Fest 2012, The Suffers, Etc.

Houston House of Creeps (807 Williams), now near Last Concert Cafe, is hosting Weird Fest 2012 starting at 7 p.m. The lineup, as per the Facebook event page: Driver Friendly (Tour kickoff show in Houston), Fingers Crossed (Houston Assholes), Deep Cuts (Scored every Disney Classic soundtrack), Chemis ... More >>

Big Yellow Taxi: Six Songs About Taxicabs

For poor kids, like myself growing up, a ride in a taxicab is a foreign adventure, particularly in Houston where it's not an especially necessary form of transportation like some other large cities such as New York. For us, it's the closest we could probably ever get to having a chauffeur, other th ... More >>

Missed Opportunities: 10 Musicians Who Turned Down Big Hits

Have you ever had one of those moments where you thought to yourself, "Why did I do that?" or "Why did I turn that down?" Those kinds of moments happen to all of us. It's part of life, unfortunately. This happens all the time in the movie world, but you never seem to hear about it in the music worl ... More >>

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 >>

Houston's thelastplaceyoulook Gets Into The Christmas Spirit With "Do You Hear?"

Photo by Groovehouse​Rocks Off is getting into the Christmas spirit, slowly but surely, and now that it's finally December, all your Facebook posts concerning your holiday plans have become much more tolerable. The music, classic though it may be, has needed an update for quite some time. In ... More >>

Berlin Wall at 50: Five Iconic Moments

Just another brick in the wall​Fifty years ago today, East German construction crews were in the last stages of preparation for building the Berlin Wall. On August 13, they began, instantly giving an incredible propaganda tool to the free world. The Wall has been down for 22 years and will so ... More >>

Canada Day: Top 10 Artists From Way Up Yonder

​Hello? Is this thing on? Rocks Off has a feeling that a lot of folks are nowhere near their computers today. Must be some sort of holiday. It is, actually. Today, not Monday. It's Canada Day, or as it's known in the U.S., "What Is Princess Kate Wearing?" Day. (Also, Friday.) Honestly, Rocks ... More >>

The Ladies Strike Back, Actually

Rocks Off is following our sister Houston Press blogs into the choppy waters of "Comment of the Day," choosing a comment or a handful of comments from the previous day we find especially enlightening, infuriating or just plain hilarious. We're glad our readers have opinions, whatever they are, about ... More >>

Live From The Austin City Limits Festival, Day 2

Brittanie Shey: When you go to a festival lit this, you're always looking for the discovery. The one band that either blows you away or causes you to alter all your expectations. Today it was Dan Black, a performer we caught only because there was nothing else going on. As soon as we get home, we' ... More >>

Bob Dylan Rolls With The Thunder In Shelter From The Storm

Shelter from the Storm: Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Years By Sid Griffin ​Of the many different periods in the career of Bob Dylan, the years 1975-76 were particularly productive on a variety of fronts: the recording of Desire, two Rolling Thunder Revue tours, filming of Renaldo & Clara, and ... More >>

The New Normal

Lesbian family values in The Kids Are All Right.

Flagrant Foul

Just Wright is just wrong.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Maria Taylor's LadyLuck

During his Fourth of July road trip to San Antonio, Lonesome Onry and Mean found himself listening to Maria Taylor's excellent LadyLuck and wondering how he could have been so remiss in not reporting on such a fine record. Producer, singer, writer, arranger, Taylor is a huge multi-threat talent who ... More >>

Idol Beat: Hollywood Week, Part 1

[Note: Because a lot of people are apparently into American Idol, Rocks Off asked contributor Ray Cummings to keep track of this season for us. This is his first report.] "Hollywood Week" marks the point in American Idol's grist-mill rigamorole calendar where the kid gloves come off, when being ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Darrell Scott's Modern Hymns

Steve Earle and Allison Moorer

Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues, with Appaloosa

Shawn Phillips Is Stranger Than Fiction

Meet Navy rescuer and true rock and roll Zelig

Pat Metheny Trio: Day Trip

Cat Power

Jukebox

Joni Mitchell, Shine

CD Review

Last Night: The Sea and Cake, with Meg Baird, at Warehouse Live

Tristan Prettyman

Friday, June 30, at Walter's on Washington, 4215 Washington Avenue, 713-862-2513

Brave New World

A Heights family is targeted in the name of progress

Vagina Music Roundup

A scintillating survey

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Azita and Carina Round

Life on the Fly (Drag City) and The Disconnection (Weapons of Mass Entertainment / Interscope)

Karrin Allyson

February 18 and 19

Alice Peacock

Thursday, February 14

Melissa Adams

Firefly

Stuck Mojo

Declaration of a Headhunter

Playbill

Experimental Folk: Shawn Phillips, Tom Jones

Class of '98

A reluctant retrospective

Herbie's World

What does Herbie Hancock think of his own work? His take may surprise you.

Rotation

Born to Sing

Night & Day

May 7 - 13, 1998

Static

Still Blue

Hold the Tonic

Rotation

Dave's World

Milla in 3-D

Supermodel Milla Jovovich proves she's more than just another pretty face

Ray Stevens Lives!!!

Todd Snider's novelty tunes will tickle your jaded fancy

Rotation