Lauren Booth

Star Trek Heads into Darkness and Familiar Territory

Throwing canon to the wind in the follow-up to the 2009 reboot.

Eight Houston Musicians Who Deserve More Love

Bassist, organist, composer, member of the infamous Homopolice, one of the Rocks Off 100, self-avowed electronic music geek, flanger aficianado, and suave Poison Girl drink slinger, Beau Beasley has been broadly immersed in the Houston music scene all his adult life. Not long ago over a cold one at ... More >>

Spring Breakers: Girls Gone Godard

A thrilling corruption of the Disney princess set.

Raw Power

Iggy & the Stooges headline the fifth Free Press Summer Fest.

If Houston Restaurants Were Bands: Oxheart As an Oi! Punk Band, Plus More

In a recent story meeting, I mentioned The Pass & Provisions to my fellow staff writers here at the Press. Assistant music editor and all-around pop culture buff Craig Hlavaty quickly threw out there: "That sounds like a screamo band." "In fact," he continued, "a lot of these new restaurants have n ... More >>

Christ, It's Another "Red Dawn"

North Korea (and audiences) go home unhappy.

Why Is Cee Lo Green's "Blitzkrieg Bop" Cover Not a National Emergency?

The United States has a lot on its plate these days. Things like the looming presidential election, whatever the hell is going on in the Middle East at the time of this writing, and just a general feeling of panic, paranoia and resigned fear. Rewind: Say No to Cee Lo: 5 Musicians Who Should Get Sit ... More >>

"In The Air Tonight": 5 Things About What Has Somehow Become Sport's Biggest Get-Psyched Song

We had 790's Big Show on yesterday as we were coming in to the office, and the subject turned to pre-game get-psyched songs, a discussion triggered by the lameness of Clay Walker's Texans' anthem "It's Football Time In Texas." Co-host Lance Zierlein began tossing out possible replacements, which se ... More >>

Facebook Weirdness

WWF's Top 7 Classic "Foreign Heel" Theme Songs

The WWF may have been the most patriotic American institution during the '80s and '90s; it turned Hulk Hogan into one of the biggest symbols of patriotism in recent memory. But there's a fine line between patriotism and nationalism, which the WWF straddled for years. By using jingoist superstars ... More >>

A July 4 Playlist That Goes Boom!

July 4 is truly America's national holiday, because it combines two of the country's grandest traditions: Taking the day off work and blowing shit up. Because freedom isn't free, fireworks and other explosives are embedded in America's formative myths and our national character. Also, they're pretty ... More >>

Doug Stanhope's Big Stink Comedy Tour

Top 5 Ways EDM Is Now Mainstream

1997 provides us with an interesting cautionary tale about the pursuit of the next big thing and how it doesn't always play out the way we expect. From MTV's Year In Rock: Music fans were restless, record sales were stagant... Then, a new music emerged... one that captivated listeners, created new ... More >>

Enter Shikari

Last Night: The Black Keys & Arctic Monkeys at the Woodlands

The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion April 24, 2012 It's hard to find an honest-to-Jesus, meat-and-potatoes (and possibly bourbon-soaked) rock show in 2012. Enter the Black Keys and the Arctic Monkeys last night at that lil' ol' shed in The Woodlands, who delivered nearly ... More >>

Boy Bands Are Back In Fashion, But Did They Ever Go Away?

One Direction, the newest UK pop import to make it to colonial shores, announced a full-scale summer tour Tuesday, including a Houston date on June 24 up at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Pretty big venue for a group that is just now breaking in America, and the Brit-Irish boy band just sold ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Friday 3/16/2012

If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the chaos, Village Voice Media's roving music editors have selected t ... More >>

For President's Day: The Best Movie Portrayals of 15 Presidents

Portraying presidents on screen is always tricky. Crass imitation makes the thing look like a comedy skit, but completely ignoring the mannerisms and voice that people know doesn't work either. There have been some laughingly inept acting jobs when it comes to the 44 people who have been the countr ... More >>

Saturday Night: Battle Of The Bands At Minute Maid Park

MLB Urban Invitational Battle of the Bands Minute Maid Park February 18, 2012 When I read the words "Battle of the Bands," I am immediately transported to the summer of 1997, when I trained to become a drum major at Texas Southern University. My band director at Jesse Jones Senior High, Mr. Ronald ... More >>

Five Tweets That Might Get You Busted by the TSA

Most everyone gets that you can't shout "fire" in a movie theater or crack jokes about bombs on an airplane. This sort of thing will get you in a mess of trouble. But, apparently, jokes made on Twitter can also get you in trouble, particularly if you are a foreigner using slang we don't get in 'Meri ... More >>

You Bettah Work: 10 Rock/Pop Musicians Who Could Take Up Modeling

Lucky for Lana Del Rey -- whose awkward-at-best Saturday Night Live performance last weekend left indie critics second-guessing her skill -- she has a backup career on which to fall, if needed. Last week, days before becoming a poor bundle of nerves on SNL, the up-and-(maybe)-coming songstress signe ... More >>

Pop Rocks: You're Not Fooling Anyone, Downton Abbey

A quick survey of my friends' status updates on Facebook Sunday night confirmed what I'd suspected for weeks: 200% of them were watching something called Downton Abbey. Season 2 just debuted on Masterpiece Classic on PBS, you see, and people responded with an enthusiasm usually reserved for when s ... More >>

Pop Rocks: I'm On To You, Downton Abbey

A quick survey of my friends' status updates on Facebook Sunday night confirmed what I'd suspected for weeks: 200 percent of them were watching something called Downton Abbey. Season 2 just debuted on Masterpiece Classic on PBS you see, and people responded with an enthusiasm usually reserved for ... More >>

Animal House

Oh, don't be such a cynic. Matt Damon needs your love in We Bought a Zoo.

The Jayhawks

Fit for a Queen

Part Indian, part English and part Gulf Coast, this isn't your typical Houston pub fare.

Say My Name: Bands Named After Actual, Real People

Punk Rock Elite​This Friday would have been Z.Z. Hill's 76th birthday, but the popular Texas bluesman passed away in 1984 from a heart attack. Most people only know who the late soul crooner is through his connection to ZZ Top. The moniker of that little ol' band from where we are sitting righ ... More >>

9 People Who Could Play The King In New Elvis Biopic

tonkoorevaar.be​Tuesday, Paste reported that director John Scheinfeld will be adapting Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business, the memoir of Elvis Presley confidante Sonny West, who was one of the King's bodyguards for 16 years. West was a member of the "Memphis Mafia," Elvis' merry band of bone ... More >>

Lord of the Hipsters

Whatever mashup-pioneering DJ Diplo decides to spin, it's a guaranteed party.

Arctic Monkeys

Members Only

Is Simone on Sunset the best bar in West U...already?

Forrest Gump & Other "Generation-Defining" Soundtracks

​The Forrest Gump soundtrack debuted on June 28, 1994, a week ahead of the film itself, which would go on to smash box-office records, win numerous awards and become one of the most beloved movies of the past 20 years. It is still endlessly quotable, emotional, and entertaining, and the soundt ... More >>

Out Today: Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See, Black Lips Get Cosmic, Joe Ely Satisfied At Last

​This week of new releases brings a Mark Ronson-produced Black Lips album, the country debut of psychobilly idol Nick 13, an inventive career-spanning set from Randy Travis, and another Arctic Monkeys album, continuing their interesting progression from Brit garage brats into muscular rockers ... More >>

Top 10 Musician WTF Hobbies

Zazzle.com​Musicians are weird. Well, the good ones, at least. It's a little-known, beloved factoid. While artists' news, drama, and private lives are sometimes aired to the point of over-saturation, it becomes more interesting when we learn relatively kept insight into their rockers' offstage ... More >>

Music's Top 10 Most Fashionable Women Right Now

GroovehouseThe Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O at the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival​Fashion, like songwriting and other artistic outlets, is a form of self-expression. It adds to one's aura; it speaks on her behalf. Yet fashion sometimes gets overlooked in music, and undeservedly so. Follow ... More >>

Out Today: Paul Simon Resurgent, Foos Get Loud, Isbell Kills

​It's New Release Tuesday, and this week's is one of the biggest days of the year, with new discs by the Foo Fighters, a reinvigorated Paul Simon and TV On The Radio leading the pack, plus a few other artists returning to the scene after a few years away from the limelight. Next week (April ... More >>

Garden Fresh: The Cucumber

​Sick of the Royal Wedding? Not me. Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton don't seem to give a damn themselves, which spares us the fairytale nightmare that doomed his mother. Furthermore, Prince Charles is the new Godfather of organic agriculture, so he gets auto-props from this ... More >>

Pop Rocks: The Black Hole of Infotainment

Jesus christ...​I wonder sometimes if we're approaching the singularity in entertainment reporting. A "singularity," as we all know, is the point in which gravitational forces cause matter to have an infinite density and zero volume. If we define "density" as "number of stories and/or article ... More >>

SXSW Last Night: Queens Of The Stone Age At La Zona Rosa

Craig Hlavaty​Rolling Stone magazine surely knows how to throw a showcase, bringing forth Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis, Mini Mansions, and Black Angels to open for a reinvigorated Queens Of The Stone Age on Wednesday night. Every band on the bill coalesced with each other beautifully and succinctl ... More >>

Top 10 Musician Movie Cameos

Rocks Off has no idea why Mick Jagger might prefer Performance to Ned Kelly.​Over recent years, Rocks Off has been repeatedly surprised by the quality performances of musicians in films. Naturally, there are some duds in the mix; even Mick Jagger himself, who starred in 1970's Ned Kelly, disow ... More >>

We Hold Britney Spears Against Us For Four Minutes

Bellamy Bros. may hold new single against her a good deal longer... Jive Records​Britney Spears' new single, "Hold It Against Me," leaked yesterday and was officially released earlier today. As of this moment, it's blowing up the charts at iTunes and radio. The song sounds as if she walked ou ... 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 >>

Prince William's Bachelor Party: A Snoopadelic Recap

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn GrayClick image to enlarge (trust us on this one)​When Rocks Off saw a press release with the subject line, "SNOOP DOGG RELEASES BRAND NEW SONG FOR PRINCE WILLIAM'S BACHELOR PARTY," we assumed perhaps April Fool's had arrived early. Last week, you see, whe ... More >>

Top 10 Hottest Jewish Musicians

​The Festival of Lights is upon us, as the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah officially kicks off at sundown tonight. Some of music's leading bigwigs will likely be sparking up the menorah, among them Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Diamond David Lee Roth, Perry Farrell an ... More >>

The Vibrators

Corinne Bailey Rae

Leatherface

Faster Than a Speeding Internet

Superheroes in the YouTube age.

Playbill: Muse

The Explosives