Joshua Tree

The Five Greatest Daniel Lanois Productions

Late to the party as ever, I recently caught up with the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album, Push the Sky Away, in light of the hype over their SXSW showcase last week. The album is fantastic, of course, but one thing that immediately jumped out at me upon listening to it was the interesting choi ... More >>

Here's Elton John In an Astros Jersey In 1986

Today, Houston Astros pitchers and catchers started returning to Kissimmee, Florida, for spring training in anticipation (and somewhat fright) of the 2013 season and their debut in the American League. Rewind: Rockin' Houston Site Is a Glorious Monument to Local Concerts Past In honor of baseba ... More >>

No, This Is How It's Done

Seven Psychopaths is a great, nasty time at the movies.

Third Day's Mac Powell Makes Hard Country Turn

While they were on tour behind 1987's The Joshua Tree, U2 -- either homesick and looking for fun, bored or legitimately curious to see if the people who showed up that early would recognize them -- booked themselves as their own opening act on the Los Angeles, Indianapolis and Hampton, Va. stops und ... More >>

6 Non-Yank Bands Who Wrote American Anthems

Some of the most definitive "all-American" rock anthems were written by bands who not originally from the United States. Think about it... what are some rock and roll staples that remind you of our beloved country, which gave us the freedom to rock? "The Boys Are Back In Town" "We Are The Champions ... More >>

Years of Refusal: 8 More '80s Icons Who Should Follow Morrissey Into Retirement

Morrissey announced this week that he plans to retire in two years. That's tragic news in some circles, but we think it's a good move. In 2014, he'll turn 55, and the Smiths thing is never happening. How much longer is he supposed to do this? Another ten years 'til he's 65? He's Morrissey, not a Chi ... More >>

Visiting Brits Search For The Soul Of Rock And Roll

Live Fast, Die Young: Misadventures in Rock 'n' Roll America by Chris Price and Joe Harland Trafalgar Square Publishing, 320 pp., $13.95 Friends and former coworkers at the BBC -- where they programmed radio and video music -- Price and Harland's jumping-off point for this music travelogue across ... More >>

Joshua Tree Of Money: 5 Ways For Bono Spend His Facebook Windfall

A few things fell and swooped in from last Friday's giant Facebok IPO announcement. The first being Mark Zuckerberg changing his relationship status from "in a relationship" to "married, but with a prenup the size of that screen Roger Waters is using for The Wall," second being the stock didn't jump ... 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 >>

Readers Poll: The Best Third Albums Ever

This week in 1980, Van Halen released their third album Women And Children First, which contained the hits "And the Cradle Will Rock...," "Everybody Wants Some!! and fan favorite "Romeo Delight." It's not the best VH album ever, but it was, in fact, their third album. Most VH super-freaks I know an ... More >>

Joshua Tree: 7 Musicians Who Have Felt The High Desert's Pull

Twenty-five years ago today, U2 released their paramount record, The Joshua Tree. The record was intended to be a spiritual quest for Bono: A meditative dissection of the "spoiled child" he saw in American culture. Before Bono blessed the area with his humanitarian spirit, however, many other musici ... More >>

From The Sky Down: U2's "Bittersweet Song Of Disunity"

What was the last great U2 album? Now, before you go and get your snotty Henry Rollins quotes lined up, recall that there was a period in the mid- to late 1980s when the Dublin foursome were both the biggest and most critically acclaimed band on the planet before veering off into sonic experimentat ... More >>

Concrete Blonde

Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano On Halloween & The Pressures Of Bloodletting

Photos by Amber Boggs​Concrete Blonde emerged from the crucible of 1980s post-punk L.A., fueled by Jim Mankey's signature guitar riffs and the introspective lyrics and distinctive wail of singer/bassist Johnette Napolitano. Their early history is well known, down to the oft-repeated story of h ... More >>

The X Factor: Boot Camp, Minus Sgt. Hartman

The pace of the audition rounds was so fast, I didn't realize the judges put through 162 people in the first two weeks of The X Factor. When the field arrives in Los Angeles for "boot camp," they are informed that they will be shaved down to a field of 100, which will ultimately be reduced by two-th ... More >>

The Best Fourth Songs On History's Greatest Albums

Sorry, Manowar, maybe next year...​As we come up on the July 4th weekend, Rocks Off considered a myriad of blog ideas to commemorate the holiday. Most patriotic songs, album covers, artists? Sorry, Lee Greenwood, Richard Pryor, and Ted Nugent, but it's all been covered. On this weekend of inde ... More >>

Five Great 2010 Albums Lonesome Onry And Mean Forgot

​Other than it just being a form of lazy journalism, one reason LOM hates making best-of lists is that there are always items that we forgot about, or considered but felt like they just barely didn't make it somehow. Then we wish we had included them. Here are a few more obscure 2010 albums th ... More >>

Sorry, Pitchfork & Rolling Stone, Kanye's Fantasy Is Not Perfect

​Out since Monday, Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy finally hit stores to what is seeming to us like mass audience acclaim. It's hitting in the right spots, lyrically and musically, and now, one by one, the critics are weighing in. A week or so ago Rocks Off turned in our own ov ... More >>

Saturday Night: Gram Rabbit At Last Concert Cafe

Photos by Chris Gray​Gram Rabbit Last Concert Cafe August 14, 2010 Here at Aftermath, we're big fans of Houston - love our town - and of the local music scene. Based on what we saw at the recent Houston Press Awards showcases, we've raised some pretty good rock bands in Houston. We wish they ... More >>

Candy Flip

Gram Rabbit's psych-disco twang

Gram Rabbit To Bring Psychedelic Disco To Last Concert Café

​Talk about great news, Lonesome, Onry and Mean's favorite California psychedelic disco glam rockers Gram Rabbit will play Last Concert Café August 14. According the band's management, this will be the anchor date for their Texas swing, but no other Texas dates have yet been announced. The ... More >>

With or Without You: Memoirs of a U2 Adolescence and Young Adulthood

...I may regret this.​So there was a time, not long ago by geological reckoning, that I was a U2 fan. Growing up during the pre-Internet late 70s/early 80s in a town where the only place to buy music was a Camelot Music in the mall limited your options somewhat. Nevertheless, the Edge's loud, ring ... More >>

U2 and Muse Set Lists from Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Monday

Pete Freedman/ DC-9 at NightIndependence Day in Arlington? Nah, just U2's ginormous 360 "Claw" stage.​ It's a little less than 36 hours and counting until U2's 360 Tour stops at Reliant Stadium, and Rocks Off is starting to get excited. Really excited. Bono and the boys were in Arlington at Cowboy ... More >>

Five Great U2 Songs Even the Band Has Probably Forgotten About

Well, now you've seen the set list from Monday's U2 Dallas show, and it's pretty short on both pre-Joshua Tree songs and surprises in general. This will be Rocks Off's eighth U2 show since 1992, and we can't remember ever having seen the band do "The Unforgettable Fire" live, but besides the No Lin ... More >>

ACL 2009 Day One: Kings Of Leon Rage Against The Fame

Photos by Mark C. Austin​Funny thing happened last night. It was the same thing that happened to U2 in 1987 in the wake of The Joshua Tree, and the same thing that killed Kurt Cobain in 1994. Fame has finally overtaken Kings Of Leon, leaving their core boots 'n flannel crowd in the proverbial pop ... More >>

Aftermath: Fake Problems and Born Anchor at Walter's on Washington

Photos by Craig Hlavaty On a Monday night, all you can really look forward to is a decent evening of lackluster television and maybe some leftover barbecue from the weekend's flame-kissed debauchery. But last night at Walter's was the exact anecdote for a "case of da Mondays" in so many ways. In rec ... More >>

Aftermath: The Killers at Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Torey Mundkowsky Next year this decade will be over, and very few new bands have distinguished themselves either at the turnstiles or the cash register. Even one of the main ones that has, the Killers, chose to hit the theater circuit this winter after releasing its th ... More >>

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. in Song

In the Name of Love

Gazing Ahead into 2009, Part 2

[Note: see here for Rocks Off's previous prognostications.]   U2 (March) Best Case Scenario: Armed with the backing of Live Nation, they release their best album in over a decade and Bono shuts his face as they sell out Reliant Stadium in two minutes. Worst Case Scenario: The recession (fi ... More >>

Last Night: Gram Rabbit at Super Happy Fun Land

Best Non-2007 Music of 2007

Get Lit: Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music, by David N. Meyer

Johnette Napolitano

The singer's post-Blonde ambition

Drenched in Blog: Unknown Pleasures

Fuck-off Friday: It’s Too Hot to Work Anyway

Rashard Lewis Won’t Be Singing That Ozzy Tune Anytime Soon

Hope Springs Eternal

A northern suburb tops our third installment of rating greater Houston's taste in music

Murder Inc.

Not many musicians have health insurance, but Murder by Death does

Walk Away, Walk Away

And we will follow as local music figures recall tales of U2

Bono for Pontiff

The only problem: Who could possibly replace him in the arena-rock pantheon?

Heard It Through the Grapevine

Notes toward new and better criticism and marketing of wine and song

Invisible Man

Kenna doesn't care if you see him. He just wants you to hear him.

Desert Rose

Victoria Williams, a native of swampy Louisiana, finds her muse in the dry beauty of Southern California

Alone Together

For songwriters Victoria Williams and Mark Olson, the fast lane ends in Joshua Tree

Rotation

Rotation