Metallica

The Five Greatest South Park Musician Cameos

Last week I looked at some of the worst musical guests on The Simpsons, a show almost as well-known for the appearance of musicians as Saturday Night Live, though with a hit -or-miss success rate since they can't just have the musicians come on and perform their songs. Rewind: The Five Worst Music ... More >>

Viva La Dome! Check Out These Old Concert Tickets

The close of RodeoHouston's season gives us all a respite from having to look at the adjacent Astrodome while we eat our third turkey leg and wait for our turn on the ferris wheel. Truth be told, some of us can just stare at the Dome for hours without a problem, myself included. Rewind: Digging ... More >>

What the $#!& Is Metallica Wearing?!

Back in the '80s, Metallica was the shit of all shits. We all know this. If you were alive then and you were into metal, I'm sure you have some pictures with you wearing a) a Metallica T-shirt; or b) the exact clothes Metallica would wear. But things changed. I'll leave out all the details, because ... More >>

Return to Glory: Rick Rubin's 5 Best Comeback Productions

Recently, Black Sabbath confirmed that record magnate and production auteur Rick Rubin would be twiddling the knobs on their new record, set to be released next year. It will be their first with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals since 1978, and a lot of their reputation is riding on this. Not that it will ma ... More >>

Z Rock 106.9 FM Returns In Web Form

A few months back, Heath Bilbrey made waves in Houston by resurrecting the KLOL brand and format with an online radio station. This week Rocks Off has learned that he has also brought back Z Rock 106.9 KKZR from the radio cemetery with the same treatment. "We plan to follow the same formula we are ... More >>

10 Heavy Metal Double Albums That Make Us Want to Buy a Turntable

This week, one of our most highly anticipated albums of the summer was released: Baroness' Yellow & Green. We were already looking forward to hearing whatever came next from the Georgia rockers after the success of their epic Blue Record in 2009, but we got especially excited when we found out that ... More >>

7 Music Videos of Ice and Snow to Cool Off With

It's hot. I mean, it's very hot. It's hot like we offended God. Maybe it was the gay-marriage thing, maybe some kids made fun of a bald priest and instead of sending bears to mete out smiting he sent the sun. One of those is in the Bible, but I can't really think very hard right now because there's ... More >>

Be Pure and Tell the Truth: Our 5 Favorite Musical Buddhists

Today His Holiness the Dalai Lama turns 77. Although he didn't officially become the temporal head of Tibet until he was 15, he's made the most of 62 years in the position. He's won a Nobel Peace Prize, advocated for his country and countrymen, and amassed more than 4 million Twitter followers. He' ... More >>

Six-String Pawn Stars: Top 10 Famous Stolen Guitars

Tom Petty got a real kick in the balls late last week when he discovered that his vintage blond 1967 12-string Rickenbacker and his Gibson SGTV Junior had been stolen from a California soundstage where the Heartbreakers had been rehearsing for an upcoming tour. Three other vintage guitars owned by b ... More >>

Machine Head

Drum Kit From Hell: With Bill Ward Out, 5 Replacement Drummers For Black Sabbath

Drummer Bill Ward, furthest right, has left the band.​Black Sabbath's big reunion plans seem to be cursed. First, guitarist and the only consistent member of the band Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma. Then they had to drop out of playing Coachella due to Iommi's diagnosis. The latest spe ... More >>

Travelin' Band: What Do The Features Listen To On The Road?

So The Twilight Saga has exactly two things that keep the films from being absolute torture. The first is Ashley Greene in all her pixie-hotness, and the second is that there really are some excellent bands that end up on the soundtracks. Case in point, the Features were featured recently in Break ... More >>

Questions and Comments We Have for Fellow Gym Goers

It's January, and the gyms are full of folks making good on their resolutions to get fit, get tight and get perfect for a spouse, a bathing suit or that nude modeling gig at the community college. Good for you, you are better than a percentage of people in Houston who only sweat from May until Octob ... More >>

With a Rebel Yell: 10 Rockers Gone Country

Photo by Matthew KeeverAaron Lewis at the Verizon Wireless Theater in 2010.​When Staind singer Aaron Lewis rolls into Verizon Wireless Theater tomorrow night, odds are he'll leave his mudshuvel back at the hotel. As modern rock radio turns to the next generation of angst, the former Fred Durs ... More >>

The 10 Greatest Rock Bassists of All Time

Me (right), God help me, and Billy Sheehan circa 1990.​Last week, Neph Basedow wrote her list of the 11 greatest female rock bass players and she took a little heat for it, including some from me. But, she also got a lot right. At the very least, she highlighted the most under-appreciated musi ... More >>

Top 5 Guns N' Roses Riots

More literal than metaphorical.​"The World's Most Dangerous Band." That was the tag applied to Guns N' Roses in their late '80s heyday, and though the smacked-out bad boys of Appetite for Destruction have largely mellowed into comfortable, safe middle age, Axl's crew can still lay a claim as ... More >>

Ask Me Anything: What Would You Ask Your Favorite Artist?

"What do you love about music?" ​Part of the job here at Rocks Off - this daily Make-A-Wish kid circus - is talking to musicians and people in the musical know. One of the most fun parts of the job is booking an interview with an artist coming to town and cramming for a few days into the nook ... More >>

RIP Cliff Burton: Remembering Heaven's Favorite Bassist 25 Years Later

Cliff 'Em All​Rocks Off just acquired a four-string electric bass guitar, in the hopes that we can find some time to learn to actually use it. Our younger brother had let it collect dust in his room at home while he did big-kid stuff like start a business and get a girlfriend. After spending h ... More >>

The 25 Most Influential Bands Of The '90s

Trent Reznor, you know, before the Oscar and all the weightlifting. ​As a music writer, we are asked constantly to compare the new with the old, to decipher the periphery where modern bands' influences come from to understand where we are going and what we are seeing. We can hear everything Ke ... More >>

"Satisfaction": The Mother Of All Rock & Roll Riffs?

​Today is the 46th anniversary of Keith Richards rolling over in his sleep in a Florida hotel, humming the main riff of "Satisfaction" into a bedside tape recorder and going back to slumber, or nodding off. The Rolling Stones would record the song months later and make it their calling card, t ... More >>

10 Albums We're Not Supposed To Like But Do

​In everyone's record collection there are junk-food albums, the ones that you feel bad for consuming but coat your ears with happy, because you have been conditioned by everyone else to either hate them or disown them. But when push comes to shove on that media player or stereo, the junk-food ... More >>

10 Albums That Grew On Us Over Time

The King of Limbs has now been out less than a week, and Radiohead's latest effort has people torn, even fervent fans who think that Thom Yorke and his crew can do no wrong. Craig's Hlist listened to the half-hour album at least three times last Friday, just hours after it was released, and came f ... More >>

1991: Best Music Year Ever?

Rocks Off Sr.'s choice for 1991's best album.​1991 was one of the biggest years in modern music. It was when metal went pop, radio country ruled, grunge went mainstream, and rap began its climb to chart dominance, even if it was spearheaded by a white candy rapper from Dallas. There were man ... More >>

The 31 Best Music Documentaries Of All Time

​Hands down, above all of these following music documentaries, Craig's Hlist's two favorite of all-time are The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2: The Metal Years, and The Beatles Anthology. We can watch both on repeat for days and not complain. That will probably all change once we see ... More >>

The Sword, Venomous Maximus, Black Congress, Omotai

Top 10 Pop Songs With Children's Choruses

​On the way home from ACL this past Sunday night, Craig's Hlist had his Rdio account humming over the speakers playing one of his playlists (phlayhlist?), but not the sad-bastard mix we rocks whenever we are at work alone. It was the life-spanning one we have been making since we got on the mu ... More >>

Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax

When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Metal Edition

​Dave Chapelle teaches us that the art of "keeping it real" may sometimes go awry. According to urbandictionary.com, this occurs when "in the act of keeping it real, the outcome is unexpected and usually has a negative effect on the individual who decided to keep it real." Rock stars are not i ... More >>

A Weird Pop Heaven Via Bay City's "Happy Radio"

​Along Rocks Off's various Texas travels, we almost never listen to an iPod or compact discs anymore. Anything we could pop in wouldn't match the rhythm of the road; the Stooges or Metallica don't really jive with Highways 59, 71 or 77. In today's world of satellite radios, streaming tunes on your ... More >>

G.I. Blues: A Soldiers' Playlist

​Today is the anniversary of one of the truly momentous occasions in popular music: On March 23, 1958, Elvis Presley reported for induction into the U.S. Army, thus opening up a thousand alternate timelines for musical historians to formulate "What if he hadn't?" scenarios. For the next few years, ... 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 >>

He Said She Said: Hot, Sweaty, Angry Workout Songs

​When it comes to exercise, men and women don't have many different reasons for doing it. Mainly, both genders want to look better naked if perchance they find themselves without clothes on around a stranger they want to sleep with. Life expectancy, general health, and mental well-being are all se ... More >>

White Rhino

Moments the Grammy Awards Would Rather Forget

Soy Bombed

Craiged In Blog: My Year in Concerts

Metallica, Toyota Center, November 20: When Death Magnetic came out in September during Hurricane Ike, initially I dismissed it as I was knee-deep still in the new Black Keys and Beck albums and fence rubble. But somewhere along the line I picked this up again and destroyed my car stereo speakers. ... More >>

The Best Videos of 2008, Part 2

5. Killer Mike feat. Ice Cube, "Pressure" 4. Weezer, "Pork and Beans" 3. Justice, "Stress" (above) 2. Hayes Carll, "She Left Me for Jesus" And the best video of 2008 is... 

Metalocalypse: Baroness and the Southern Metal Renaissance

Baroness, "Wanderlust," 2007 In the same way that Houston rarely inspires photos of snow flurries, people tend not to associate heavy metal with the South. But, if you look hard enough, you'll find a rich history of hard music with roots planted firmly in Southern soil. In the '80s and early '9 ... More >>

November 2008 in Photos

Over the past few weeks, we've seen the National, Usher, Baby Bash, Metallica, Madonna and Willie Nelson, not to mention voting, posing, drawing, partying, bikinis and face paint. And now you can see it all in one place. Yep, it's that time of the month.   -- Keith Plocek

Honor Bound

A fictional look at the future of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Radical Chick

You can't tell Natalie Maines to Shut Up & Sing

Fahrenheit 2004

Remembering the movies that heated up cinemas this year

Playbill

Letters

Appetite for Reconstruction

After hitting the top and then bottoming out, the Hunger refuses to go gently to the graveyard of bands

System of a Down

Steal This Album (Sony)

Temper, Temper

Rotation

Rotation

Crit Picks