Misfits (Band)

Your 2013 Houston Record Store Day Rundown

Your financial situation be damned, Record Store Day 2013 is coming this Saturday, April 20, to drain your wallet of life and those little green pieces of paper. This Saturday your dance card should be full with all the major indie record stores in Houston and the surrounding areas offering up giv ... More >>

Exploring Sweet Spot Audio And Records In Webster

A few weeks back, our own Marc Brubaker detailed ten of the best record stores in the Houston area. This past weekend I finally visited another one to add to your list of must-visit shops in Houston, and it is worthy of the drive if you live inside the Inner Loop. Sweet Spot Audio and Records is l ... More >>

Saturday Night: Southern Culture on the Skids at the Continental Club

Southern Culture on the Skids Continental Club March 30, 2013 There was a time when there was no more electrifying experience to be had than taking in a Southern Culture on the Skids show. Anything could happen, from flying chicken bones to booty-shakin' the night away, and it usually did. Happily ... More >>

Exploring Songza: Four Offbeat Playlists From the Curated Music Service

We introduced you to Songza -- the service that acts as a "music concierge" -- a few weeks back. Using curated playlists sorted not only by genre and theme, but also by activity, Songza helps you pick the best songs for the occasion. More importantly to me, the playlists are expertly curated, mean ... More >>

Top 5 Reasons Not to Be a Concert Promoter

Have you ever dreamed of promoting your own shows? I'll bet you've even sat around at times plotting out your own bills, dreaming of how awesome it would be to see an all-star line-up of, let's say, Poison, Ratt, Tesla, WASP, White Lion, and Cinderella. And while that sounds absolutely horrific, I'm ... More >>

Songza: Can a "Musical Concierge" Match Your Mood?

"Working? Relaxing? At the gym? Songza plays you the right music at the right time." Or so it thinks. I do a lot of weird stuff, Songza. As I write this, I am still nursing a swift kick in the feels after a brutally frustrating Sunday-evening Texans loss to the New England Patriots. Where is the ... More >>

5 Guitarists Who Got Started on Christmas Presents

Odds are those of you reading this are music fans, and if not, congratulations on having been driven here by reading everything else online! It's also possible that you're musicians yourselves, and since any instrument besides your voice, hand claps, and armpit farts is generally a major purchase, I ... More >>

Remembering The Island: Where R.E.M. Played, but XTC Wouldn't

Despite the dust of time that usually befalls venues and lore from punk's rambunctious past, The Island has remained a steady icon of Houston's underground movement that swept to the surface as classic arena rock and cosmic country choked the FM airwaves. Rewind: Houston's Island of Misfit Bands B ... More >>

Your Halloween Playlist: Don't Play That, Play This

Recently Rocks Off told you how to put together a solid party playlist. We're coming up on the time of year when people start throwing Halloween parties, so now it's time to get a little more specific. Don't be content to throw on the old 30 Spookiest Halloween Hits album and walk away, because gue ... More >>

An Obamacare Playlist You Can Afford

The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act has now been almost two weeks ago. If you keep up with national news, or maybe just don't avoid the Internet machine, well, you have probably observed that people are still noticeably buzzing about the ruling. It does happen to be one o ... More >>

The 10 Most Rocking Songs In Children's Entertainment

Here's the thing about children's entertainment, it's designed to appeal not only to the lowest common denominator, but the toughest audience known to man. Don't believe me? Try playing your favorite song to a toddler, even something that is an acknowledged classic like the Pretenders' "I'll Stand ... More >>

Dear Bands: You Don't Have to Pay For People to See Your Facebook Posts

If you have musicians on your friends list on Facebook, then it's likely you've seen the above image or a variant thereof. Basically, bands are claiming that Facebook is only allowing their posts to be seen by some of the people who have liked their page, and is trying to scam musicians into paying ... More >>

Fun Fun Fun Fest: The Dust-Covered Aftermath Featuring The Damned, Spoon, Tinariwen, And Slayer

Photo By Marc BrubakerLots of pictures from Fun Fun Fun Fest 6, including band shots and crowd shots. The dry air and dust at Auditorium Shores made the market for bandanas very lucrative, and a fashion staple was reborn. ​This year Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest moved away from Waterloo Park, the ... More >>

Fun Fun Fun Fest: Danzig Cuts His Closing Set Short And Tries To Incite A Riot (VIDEO)

Photos By Marc BrubakerDanzig last night at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin. ​Last night's Danzig Legacy set at the opening night of Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 was marred by the short (LOL, right) set that Glenn Danzig turned in. The ex-Misfits and Samhain goth-rocker was scheduled to perform hits sets ... More >>

Our Top Ten Picks For Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011

Photo By Marc BrubakerBest Coast at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010​This weekend the Rocks Off team will cover their third Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, at the festival's new home Auditorium Shores. Each year this fest seems to get bigger and better, without losing it's grimy luster. Is it the Austin City ... More >>

Brain-Eating Bands and Songs for the Walking Dead

ssgmusic.com​Zombies or vampires? It's a classic debate along the line of The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones. We're not sure the Fab Four qualifies as either monster, but with The Glimmer Twins' propensity to remain upright and touring despite advanced age, decay, and a million other complicat ... More >>

Gimme Some Truth: What Happens When Rabid Fans & Bands Meet

​We have all been there. You may have had a few drinks, you are at your favorite band's show, and you come to find yourself in the vicinity of one of your heroes. Word vomit. Torrential word vomit. But you mean well. "I really think youse guys is great and your albums really means a lots to ... More >>

10 Things We're Probably Doing At ACL This Year

villagevoice.comBjork at ACL '07, when part of her staging caught fire.​This is the Rocks Off team's (well, Craig Hlavaty and Chris Gray) fifth year covering the Austin City Limits Music Festival. The first year this smart guy wore black jeans and a black shirt to try to look cool, which made ... More >>

No Love, No Hope: Converge's Jane Doe Turns 10

​This next week is full of big musical anniversaries. Saturday marks 20 years since the release of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" single, Genesis' ABACABturns 30, and System Of a Down's Toxicityand Bob Dylan's "Love and Theft" all hit the decade mark. And one of the most significant cultu ... More >>

Fun Fun Fun Fest Leaking 2011 Lineup On Turntable.fm

​After leaking artists including Okkervil River, Odd Future, X and - most people believe - Slayer, Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest has officially begun announcing its 2011 lineup via the brand-new file-sharing/social-media hybrid Turntable FM. Fun Fun Fun began streaming songs from this year's arti ... More >>

Our Ten Favorite Glenn Danzig Pictures

Marc Brubaker​Today is Glenn Danzig's 56th birthday, and the former Misfits and Samhain frontman is as evil and cantankerous as ever as he stalks this cursed Earth, darkly reaping the senior discounts of the innocent. For a year now he has been able to buy black jeans and black shirts from Ros ... More >>

Beyond "Thriller": Top 10 Zombie Music Videos

​One of Rocks Off's choice ambient/shoegaze artists, Grouper, has just released visuals for her song "Alien Observer" and it's full of (almost) everything that we hold dear: Blood, zombies buried beneath foliage, and girl-on-girl action. Oh, and Liz Harris' haunting voice. It's beautiful; whi ... More >>

Slideshow: Gary Allan At RodeoHouston

Photos by Groovehouse​Rocks Off has the worst luck with Gary Allan. It's starting to give us a complex. It's ironic, because out of all the artists who get semi-regular play on country stations we hardly ever listen to like KILT and 93Q, Allan lines up the most with the kind of country we act ... More >>

Last Night: No Age At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Marc Brubaker​No Age Fitzgerald's January 12, 2010 For more pics from last night's show, including lots of crowd shots, check out our No Age slideshow. We are only a little less than two weeks into 2011, and Aftermath may have seen the first best show of the year, with 50 weeks lef ... More >>

Maple Leaf Pub's New Creamsicle

Day Of The Dead: Music In Memoriam 2009-10

itscactus.com​Rocks Off doesn't mean to be morbid, but today is the Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday and festival honoring those who have gone before. So instead of waiting until the end of the year, the more traditional time for such things, we wanted to compile a list of the notable name ... More >>

Saturday Night: Danzig At Warehouse Live

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​Danzig Warehouse Live October 30, 2010 For some reason over the past few years, Glenn Danzig keeps reminding us of Randy "The Ram" from The Wrestler. He's this hulking, aging entertainer who may be slowing down and have a strained relationship with his family and fans, ... More >>

Pocket Rockers: Ten Musicians 5'5" And Under

Photo illustration by Monica Fuentes; click image to enlargeThe Tall Guys, l-r: Ric Ocasek (The Cars), John Mayer, Joey Ramone​Saturday night, closet cat lover and reigning Dark Lord Glenn Danzig will be in town for a headlining gig over at Warehouse Live. The diminutive, but no less awesome, ... More >>

Five Ways We Have Screwed Over Other Bands

​In order to not implicate Rocks Off's more moral brethren and sistren here, I'm gonna drop the royal we, m'kay? The evil machinations mentioned hereafter are the work of one man with one F, and are not endorsed by the Houston Press. Ed. Note: We are real paragons of virtue over here, but we' ... More >>

Galveston Deep Thinker Disses Fitzgerald's

Every day Rocks Off trolls the tubes of you in search of videos to share. If you have something that you think deserves to be video of the day, send a link to jef_rouner at yahoo dot com. PaulS via Flickr​Houston is twitterpated over the shift in management over at Fitzgerald's. Will Omar Afr ... More >>

Ten Songs You Never Want To Get Caught Singing Out Loud

The absolute worst version of "You Are So Beautiful" you've ever heard. Trust us.​Some songs are catchy as hell, yet if you're one of those people who sometimes unconsciously sings out loud to yourself in public, there are some you'll want to avoid. Here are a few tunes which, when sung aloud, ... More >>

Skate & Rock No. 3

Punk Rock Karaoke Returns Tonight At Notsuoh

www.notsuoh.com​ If you have ever dreamed of being in a punk band, or at least dreamed of embarrassing yourself in front of people you may be trying to sleep with, Notsuoh has you covered tonight, hosting the resurrection of live-band Punk Rock Karaoke. About six years ago, PRK was in full-swing b ... More >>

Buyer Beware: Bands With Different Lead Singers Are Almost Never Up to the Original Standards

A few Saturdays ago, Rocks Off was in the grocery store a few blocks from our house, slumming around Oak Forest wearing sandals and an old Misfits T-shirt when a group of junior-high punk rockers approached and applauded us for our good taste. We got to talking about the band, and they remarked tha ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs That Remind Us of Our Exes

​One thing that struck He Said while we were making this list was the lack of metal and/or punk rock associated with the women in our past. It's kind of odd that someone so dirty and haggard never dated anyone with a Crass patch on her denim jacket or Misfits tramp stamp. By looking at us, you wou ... More >>

Aftermath: Conspiracies, Prog-Metal, Gypsy-Folk, Hardcore and Remembering a Fallen Friend Sunday at Westheimer Block Party

Craig HlavatyRoom 101​ Day 2 of the Westheimer Block Party started with slightly cooler temperatures and an hour-long caffeine-fueled session speaking with the 9/11 conspiracy booth in the parking lot at Numbers. Did you know that there were three shooters at Columbine, and bombs planted inside th ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs from the Year We Were Born That We Still Listen To, Part 2

​When He Said began researching the music that came out the year we were born, 1983, we were taken aback by how much of this music has warped, shaped and informed our life. Pretty much all of the albums and bands that were prevalent that year are still on our turntables and playlists. Why just thi ... More >>

Tonight: Evanescence's Testosterone-Driven Counterpart, Bella Morte, at Rocbar

Alanna Wiggins​ Naika Whisperwish and HaVoK continue to bring the sweet, sweet pain to H-Town with tonight's Goth-tacular appearance by Bella Morte. Once more of a straight death-rock band with shades of metal, Bella Morte has steadily grown into testosterone-driven counterpart to Evanescence, and ... More >>

Aftermath: Fun Fun Fun Fest In Austin Day 2 - Metallagher, Street Dogs, Lucero, Crystal Castles, Gorilla Biscuits, Danzig

Photos by Marc Brubaker/ Click here for a slideshowNice to see you too, Metallagher.​ Day two of Fun Fun Fun Fest began with a slow and steady rain shower that turned into an all-day headliner. As we walked the ground and felt the rain soak into our clothes we started getting ACL flashbacks. Befor ... More >>

A Few of Music's Biggest Tattoo Enthusiasts - Besides Rocks Off, Of Course

Don't act so surprised... As we can fatefully attest, rock and roll and tattoos go hand in hand. The first time Rocks Off saw a grizzled punk rocker walk by at Fitzgerald's back in the '90s with two sleeves full of tattoos and a chest full of nautical-themed art, we mentally pointed at him and said ... More >>

Win A Transformers 2 DVD, And Get Ready For More Bad Movies From `80s Cartoons

If you're a child of the '80s, you should probably come to terms with the fact that every beloved televison memory of yours is eventually going to be dragged screaming into the present day and bastardized for younger audiences. We've already seen two Transformers movies and a G.I. Joe adaptation, an ... 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 >>

Aftermath: We Were Wolves and Satin Hooks, Born to Be Wild at the Mink

Photos by Chris Gray​ It's been false-starting for a couple of years, but that grunge revival may be right around the corner - if it ever went anywhere in the first place. Beaumont's We Were Wolves plugged into the Mudhoney machine at the Mink Tuesday night, crafting sludgy sheets of guitar noise ... More >>

Summer Stock

Joe Goode Performance Group

Puppeteer Basil Twist worked with the avant-garde troupe’s namesake and choreographer to create Wonderboy

Misfits, a Love Story

Punk for uncool kids in Nowheresville

Groove United

She's the Boss

Houston-bred Sara Hickman has never been keen on constraints

A Uniquely Pervis Perspective