Kid Rock

An Election Day Playlist If You're On the Way to Vote

I love Election Day. Sure, early voting is great if you absolutely can't make it to the voting booth the day of, but given the choice I will always vote on Election Day. There may be lines, it may be out of the way, and it may even involve casting a ballot for someone I don't necessarily like, but v ... More >>

Toby Keith, Demi Lovato, Luke Bryan Kick Off RodeoHouston 2013

Moments ago, the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo announced its first four non-George Strait entertainers for the 2013 season: Toby Keith (February 25), teen stars Demi Lovato and Austin Mahone (March 3), Jason Aldean (March 11) and Luke Bryan (March 16). As usual, the rodeo is offering two pocket-si ... More >>

Who Should Play RodeoHouston In 2013?

On October 30, just a few days from now, RodeoHouston will announce its first round of performers for the 2013 edition of the star-studded, yeehawin', nearly three-week event at Reliant Park. The booking the last few years has been getting more adventurous, with the likes of Kid Rock, KISS, Mary J. ... More >>

The Republican Candidate's Guide To Picking Campaign Music

This week Republicans from around the country gather in Florida to celebrate all things conservative and curse Issac for stealing the national spotlight. For me the 2012 Republican National Convention marks the true start of the presidential campaign season, the playoffs to the primaries' regular se ... More >>

5 More Sudden Awful Musical Marriages We'd Like to See

Rewind: So Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne Are Engaged: How Should You Feel? Boy, that Avril Lavigne/Chad Kroeger engagement announcement came out of left field, huh? Who knows which other terrible music makers are secretly seeing one another right now? Why, it could be anyone! Even... Ke$ha and Sc ... More >>

Jason Boland & the Stragglers

Bottoms Up: 5 Beers From 5 Bands To Give You 5 Hangovers

Whether you're at a show with friends or just putting your feet up while listening to some tunes after a long day at work, for many alcohol is just another part of the rock and roll experience. And when hard liquor gets too expensive and wine seems too highfalutin, there is one drink that's always t ... More >>

Last Night: The Gourds at Discovery Green

The Gourds Discovery Green June 14, 2012 I have lost count of how many Gourds shows I have seen over the years. I doubt I have seen any other band live more times than this one. But I never realized how much children loved the Gourds until Thursday at Discovery Green. Man, these kids loved the Gou ... More >>

Why Taking The Piss Out Of Your Most Beloved Musicians Is Healthy

A few days back I wrote a less-than-excited review of Bruce Springsteen's latest album, Wrecking Ball. The Boss' official Twitter account has been retweeting every hyperbolic 140-character superfan review of the new disc. One guy claimed that Wrecking Ball made him sob on the side of the highway for ... More >>

Top 10 Possible Future RodeoHouston Performers

The hardest thing about making a list of possible future RodeoHouston performers is making sure to color inside the lines, which means the things that I want probably wouldn't work. Sure, the Black Keys on opening night and the Rolling Stones doing an-all country set to close out the season would be ... More >>

Rounding It Up

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo brings a stellar 2012 lineup.

One More Hour To Vote In First Rodeo Rockstar Contest

It does not seem possible that the rodeo is almost here, but Rocks Off saw a trail ride on the news this morning, so it must be true. If we were a TV instead of newspaper reporter, we would definitely lobby for the trail-ride assignment. But besides trail rides, cookoffs, mutton-busting, the parade ... More >>

Yelawolf

Before We Cared: 10 Bit Players Who Became Superstars

On this day in 1965, British songstress Petula Clark reached number one on the charts with "Downtown," a pop classic with an unforgettable hook that has become a mainstay of oldies radio, film soundtracks and TV advertisements in the years since. The song even served as a plot point in an episode o ... More >>

Last Night: Zac Brown Band at the Woodlands

Photos by Marco Torres​Aftermath has heard a decent amount of entertaining segues at concerts. Most concert segues are awkward and some are funny, but this one from Zac Brown's last night was the most country shit we've ever heard: "Sometimes you have to fight the chicken when you're a man." ... More >>

Turn It On, Leave It On: MTV's 10 Best Music Series

"Henry Rollins asks Kevin Shields how much he can bench on the next 120 Minutes..."​This week marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of MTV, that loud, hyper-colored behemoth that changed pop culture and the music industry forever, endlessly providing viewers with visual and mental stimul ... More >>

Out Today: New West Strikes Gold On Robert Ellis, Old 97's Discs

​It's a light batch this week as far as new releases go, with the Independence Day holiday cutting into the label's schedules. As it stands now, Rocks Off is holding a jug of coffee in our hands to try to wake up from the food and chill-time coma we embarked on last Friday. We are surely not in th ... More >>

Top 10 Dancing Mascots In Rock & Hip-Hop

blastfurnacetv.wordpress.com​Today, Mark "Bez" Berry from the Happy Mondays turns 46, which is a feat unto itself, considering the amount of drugs that his band did in their heyday. Bez was the band's dancer until their breakup in 1993, when he joined Black Grape with Shaun Ryder. Today he is ... More >>

Idol Beat: Told You So

​Admittedly, I didn't think she'd go this quickly, but I always knew Pia was toast. I said as much last week when discussing the stranglehold pre-adolescent female voters have on the show. Why else have only three females made the top five the last three seasons? Was Lee DeWyze really better t ... More >>

Graphic: When Festival Booking Goes Too Far

Garland RobinetteYes, this is the real Jazz Fest 2011 poster, and that's really Jimmy Buffett.​Every spring, New Orleans puts on something called the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. But as Jazz Fest has grown more and more popular, the headlining acts have had less and less to do with ja ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Ten Musicians I Want to Have Sex With Less Than Lady Gaga

​I understand Lady Gaga's declaration of celibacy last month was something of a big deal, if only because most of us have a hard time believing everyone in the music business isn't vigorously fellating each other on those off days when they're not sacrificing puppies to Clear Channel or auto-tunin ... More >>

Rocks Off's Concert Guide To The Rodeo: Alan Jackson

As a service to our readers, we'd like to present Rocks Off's Concert Guide to the Rodeo. Presented each weekday over the course of the next month, we hope it helps you make sound musical choices by telling you who's singing about putting a boot in your ass and who's singing about "boot scootin'." ... More >>

Most Downloaded "Hope For Haiti" Texan? Although She Killed, Not Beyonce

Between fighting crime, reducing global warming, mending our socks and, you know, everything else Rocks Off does when we're away from the office, we caught a good bit of Friday evening's "Hope for Haiti" telethon. We didn't have much choice, because the George Clooney-organized, celebrity-packed fu ... More >>

New iPhone? Rocks Off Has an App for That.

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray​ We know a ton of you got iPhones over the holiday break. Well, good news: Rocks Off has spent the last few months developing our own iPhone applications (or "apps," as the urban kids are saying) and we're thrilled to debut them here. All inquiries, critici ... More >>

Summer Sounds

Enough shows to keep concertgoers busy all season long

Hello, Houston!

Noise breaks down the months of live music ahead

The Big Show

WrestleMania XXV brings out 72,000 fans and Mickey Rourke.

Recent Super Bowl Halftime Highlights and Lowlights

Backfield in Motion

Aftermath Extra: The Best Concerts of the Year, Part 4

Tom Waits, Jones Hall, June 22: "Us Rain Dogs fans had to make do with a spastic "Cemetery Polka" that was a fair representation of Waits' cross-pollination of beatnik jazz and guttural blues; whether or not he's your cup of bourbon, the man does have a unique sound." Peter Murphy, Meridian, Jul ... More >>

Saturday: Dash Rip Rock at the Continental Club

A sort of swampy Supersuckers, New Orleans trio Dash Rip Rock - whose last album Hee Haw Hell was the rather ambitious cowpunk retelling of Dante's Inferno - have returned to more earthly concerns on the new Country Grilfriend (Abitian). That means, according to the liner notes, "songs [that] will b ... More >>

Aftermath: King's X at Meridian

2008 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase

A preview of the 60 bands and five DJs that are taking over downtown this weekend

Drenched In Blog: Trailer Leaked for the New Dylan Biopic

Houston Chopper

Meet Roman Blum, the next TV biker star

Never Opening Near You

Music biopics Hollywood won't make

Bling Twango

Big & Rich delivers country music without prejudice

Play "Free Bird"!

Using the Bob-O-Meter to rate cover songs

Americana Pie

Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot

Americana Pie

Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot

Call Him Al

An epic story turns human -- and fallible -- in Oliver Stone's Alexander

¡Viva H-town!

Latinos come to the fore in this year's music awards

Playbill

Ronald Reagan's Army

In your heart, you know the Yuppie Prick$ are right

Pats and Cats Bring It Back

The biggest of them all returns to Houston

Motor City Mellow Men

Slum Village plays catch-up to the White Stripes and Eminem

Tow Down

By Prescription Only (D.I.M.E.)

Coldplay

Parachutes
(Parlophone)

Insane Clown Posse

Bizaar and Bizzar (Island)

Porn to Sell

Product placement comes to adult videos...hey, watch where you put that thing!

Dready Metal

Unlike their North American counterparts, Jamaican rappers are incorporating heavy metal into their material, with some amazing results