Kate Bush

The 25 Best Music Videos of 2012 Nos. 20-16

The countdown continues! Yesterday we saw shadows eating Daniel O'Sullivan, kids stomping the yard to a Band of Skulls tune, gothic perfection from the Grave Babies, and two wonderful local entries by Kerry Beyer and Jennifer Grassman. Now it's time to look at some titans of the music industry, as w ... More >>

Paul McCartney's Wonderful, Bizarre McCartney II

Sounds of Twilight: The 5 Best Songs From the Twilight Soundtracks

Like most writers who aren't named Stephenie Meyer, I find the Twilight novels an abhorrent abomination and a great offense to the written word. I assume the movies are the same to serious filmmakers. But Twilight presents me with a unique problem. Having one foot in the world of writing and literat ... More >>

Upcoming: Band of Horses, Devin the Dude, Keane, Shadows Fall, Etc.

The Abyss, PuraPharm, The Scars Heal In Time, Obscured by Echoes: Sat., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $5/$8. Notsuoh, 314 Main, Houston. Amplified Heat: Fri., Oct. 19, 9 p.m., $10. Continental Club, 3700 Main, Houston. Band of Horses: Wed., Oct. 24, 8 p.m., $25.00-$30.00. House of Blues, 1204 Caroline, Houston ... More >>

7 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Jackie Greene, Sander Van Doorn, Yes Indeed Fest, etc.

All of 31 years old (growl), Jackie Greene's preternatural resemblance to hip '70s roots-rockers like J.J. Cale and Little Feat has already led The New York Times to dub the San Francisco singer-songwriter "the prince of Americana." He has already sang lead with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh's gro ... More >>

Florence + The Machine

The 10 Best Guest Appearances On Other People's Songs

Have you ever had one of those moments when, you're listening to a song and hear something familiar, like maybe a familiar voice or wonder, "Okay, who is really playing this particular instrument?" Many times a band or an artist will guest star on a recording. Sometimes it's a well-known fact, such ... More >>

Ashes of the Wake: A Playlist for Baghdad

On this day in 762 A.D., caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad in what is modern-day Iraq. The area was and remains one of the commercial and intellectual centers of the Arab world, though it's obviously had a few problems since the U.S. invaded in 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. No ... More >>

Wait a Minute! Who Is That? Top 10 Videos With Famous Actor Cameos

When you are an actor, you take basically whatever will feed you just as long as you get to perform. Many actors either got their start in music videos or they will appeared in one after they got famous. Oftentimes, they are pretty memorable.

Last Night: Santigold at House Of Blues

Santigold, Charli XCX House of Blues June 7, 2012 Watching Santigold onstage, you'd have almost no idea that the 35-year-old former punk singer had a hand in developing the careers of some of the biggest pop starlets in the last decade. That is until you break down that her costume changes, the way ... More >>

Top 7 Promotional Music Gimmicks -- Both Used & Unused

One of the most interesting things in the music business is how managers and record companies promote and market their artists. Sometimes they do a great job, and other times they fail. When they do fail, their like that hickey you got three weeks ago -- still there. But, like a hickey, people even ... More >>

Florence + the Machine

Niki & The Dove Chase "The Fox" In New Video

Niki & the Dove is a new Swedish band on Sub Pop that is clearly into, as Mok once said, mind-altering experiences. Their music has the air of Bjork, the poetry of Kate Bush, and a touch of avant-garde theatre performance. The last is appropriate as Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf have backgroun ... More >>

Gothic Council Praises Lyrics, Bowie's Penis

Really there are two kinds of music fans. Those who are there for the music as a whole and those who are there to hear the words. Make no mistake, we're not saying that one side is better than the other, but we are definitely in the latter category. Being a melodramatic lot, most goths are. So we t ... More >>

The First Ten Videos MTV Ever Aired

​Closing out this week of celebration, and a little mourning, on the occasion of MTV's 30th anniversary , we reached back into the YouTube vaults to present to you the first 10 videos Music Television ever aired. On August 1, 1981, The Buggles' awfully prophetic "Video Killed the Radio Star" b ... More >>

It's Pi Day, Pi Day, Gotta Get Down on Pi Day

​In keeping with Rocks Off's latest obsession, compiling soundtracks for oddball holidays, we were tickled pink as a chorus girl's nipple to learn that this Friday is Pi Approximation Day. The holiday was first in 1988 by a physicist named Larry Shaw, who made everyone march in a circle then ... More >>

Last Night: Peter Gabriel At Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Photos by Jay Lee​Peter Gabriel Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion June 16, 2011 Rock writers right now - hell, everyone with a musical soul - are living in the most interesting of times. No, it's not because we can pull any album we want down out of the sky at any time of day. It's because we g ... More >>

The Ultimate Musical Space Shuttle Crew

​The first man to ever leave the Earth and venture into space was a Russian cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin, who, if he hadn't died at the young age of 34 in a plane crash he would be 77 years old today. Garagrin was launched into space on April 12, 1961, and orbited once around the planet in 108 ... More >>

Julieta Venegas

Pop Rocks: The Time Is Now For A Friends Movie

​It's been a dark six years since we said goodbye to Central Perk and the Rembrandts dropped off the face of the earth. Now, in Year 6 AF, dawn looks like it's finally breaking; we could be getting a Friends movie. Now, I don't want to get anyone's hopes up. Will a film catching up with Monic ... More >>

Imogen Heap

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 >>

Aftermath: Emilie Autumn and the Bloody Crumpets at Meridian - Welcome to the Clockwork Orange Dollhouse

Photos by Groovehouse / Click here for a slideshow​Two small signs on the filigree-ensconced keyboard stand read "BEWARE" and "WHORES." Whether an admonition or a threat remained alluring ambiguous through the Victoriandustrial set presented by Emilie Autumn and her Bloody Crumpets. Like the joy ... More >>

A Quick and Easy Guide to Distinguishing Maxwell from Samwell from Rockwell

[Ed. Note: Maxwell's pianist and bandleader, Missouri City native Robert Glasper, plays the official afterparty with his trio at Meridian, 1503 Chartres.] Maxwell is headlining Tuesday's R&B feature at the Toyota Center with support from Common and newcomer Chrisette Michele. But Rocks Off ... More >>

"Kill Yourself" or "Don't Give Up"? Five Possible Theme Songs for the 2009 Houston Texans

[Ed. note: Due to an editing mistake, this should have been up Friday afternoon. Apologies... we sure hope it didn't jinx the Texans or anything.] ​You may have missed it - what with there being almost no media coverage whatsoever - but football season started this week. Our own Texans are looking ... More >>

Retro Active: The Five Best '80s Christmas Songs

Christmas seems to activate a latent part of all musicians' brains that inspires them to spread their holiday cheer all over a perfectly good season. (The scientific term for this part of the brain is called "My Accountant.") Musicians in the '80s were certainly not exempt from this need to whi ... More >>

Tonight: Android Lust at Meridian

Ra Ra Riot, Walter Meego

Prince

3121

Drugged and Disorderly

The Hold Steady keeps it cinematic

The Coattails Are Hers

Yule Fuel

A discussion of non-Christmas Christmas music

Kate Bush

Aerial

Clang!

Rookie director fires up a ton of bricks in Love & Basketball

Rotation

Rotation

Lilith Fair-ness

Sarah McLachlan had a brainchild, and it was a girl

Static

Rotation

Sound Check

Rock and Roll Royalty

Gina Haley carries the name of a rock founder, but she'd rather make it on her own

Milla in 3-D

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

Famous Amos

Bad girl Tori becomes more than a Kate Bush manque

Woman Childs

Lady Sings the Pinks

Self-created disco-diva Pinque: If this is camp, it's camp with a guilelessly straight face