Morrissey (Singer)

The Worst of Coachella, Weekend One

Ed. Note: Can't have a Best of Coachella without a worst, right? Thanks to our (tired) Southern California friends at West Coast Sound and Heard Mentality. The Daft Punk Fake-Out Friday and Saturday, all anyone could talk about was if Daft Punk was going to show up during Phoenix's set. Why? Becaus ... More >>

Last Night: New Order at Coachella

New Order Coachella April 13,2013 While over at the main stage the bulk of the Coachella crowd was enduring Phoenix with the hope that Daft Punk would come out -- they instead got R. Kelly -- a smaller but perhaps more enthusiastic crowd got a first-rate greatest hits set from New Order Saturday n ... More >>

5 Bands Who Pioneered Modern Indie-Rock... Besides the Smiths

Legendary guitarist Johnny Marr is set to release his first ever solo record next month after years of being a sideman for other bands, some rather important. In anticipation, he's had some choice words to say that one would have expected more from his less level-headed ex-Smiths compatriot Morrisse ... More >>

New Year's Resolutions for Houston Music In 2013

Recently Rocks Off asked our writers to make a New Year's resolution for Houston music in 2013. These people wrote back. Alexa Crenshaw: I don't have much more to say than the typical "I should branch out and watch more shows and listen to more music and buy more albums and not be lame and" ... yea ... More >>

Friday Night: Stars at Fitzgerald's

Stars, Diamond Rings, California Wives Fitzgerald's October 12, 2012 When I spoke to the fine folks at Fitzgerald's a couple of weeks ago to commemorate the club's first two successful years under new ownership, I wanted to hear about the highlights. Of the hundreds of acts that have graced both Fi ... More >>

Texans-Titans: The Best Rapper Tweets

UPDATED: Memorable Houston Concerts of 1992

UPDATE (2:03 p.m.): Alice In Chains was advertised but dropped out, and was replaced with Australia's Baby Animals. The year 1992 was an important one for me as far as Houston concerts are concerned: It's the first time I went to a concert within the Houston city limits, the "Outside Broadcast" leg ... More >>

"The Smiths Are Never Going To Reunite Ever": When Are The Smiths Reuniting?

This week, Morrissey's possibly long-suffering publicist told Rolling Stone that "The Smiths are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going to reunite -- ever." The statement, meant to quell old rumors and quotes being dragged out on a slow music news week, was meant with smirks and laugh ... More >>

Comin' Up: Happy 70th Birthday, Paul McCartney

By now you all know that today is Sir Paul McCartney's 70th birthday. Over on chron.com, there is a wire story on the milestone with a curious headline: "Say It Ain't So: Mop Top Paul McCartney Turns 70." Now does this mean that it's a shame he made it seven decades of service, or does it suck that ... More >>

Last Night: Buxton & The Tontons At Discovery Green

Buxton, the Tontons Discovery Green May 24, 2012 I was pretty proud of myself Thursday night: I managed to kill three birds with one stone. I'd never seen local darlings Buxton or the Tontons live before, and I'd never been to a concert at Discovery Green, either. Thanks to UH-Downtown's Thursday C ... More >>

Strait Bonin' Turns Our Beloved Icon Into King Of Porn Country

Of course you all know that today is George Strait's 60th birthday, and the King Of Country just announced that he is coming back to RodeoHouston next spring for a March 17th date with Martina McBride and the Randy Rogers Band. What a great end that will be to a torrid week at SXSW in Austin. This w ... More >>

Rest Of The Best: Houston's Top 8 Jukeboxes

Along with pickled pig's feet and a steady supply of Slim Jims, a good jukebox is a prime element for any great bar. But, like dinosaurs, jukeboxes are a vanishing breed. Unlike digital jukes, iPods or DJs, jukeboxes require love, care and maintenance, as well as -- among the truly great ones -- som ... More >>

You Got Served: The Top 10 Legal Battles In Rock History

Ten years ago last week, one of the most vicious legal battles in rock history took another ugly turn. Ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl found themselves in King County Superior Court over a dispute with Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, over the band's considerable royalti ... More >>

Friday Night: Say Anything At Warehouse Live

Say Anything Warehouse Live April 27, 2012 Friday night, emo/pop punk heroes Say Anything arrived in Houston at Warehouse Live, the latest in a long string of dates this tour for their new album Anarchy, My Dear. It was a special show for the fans as well as the band, as frontman Max Bemis, a resid ... More >>

Are SNL's Divisive Musical Guests Making It Relevant Again??

Even as sketch comedy tastes have changed, and a segment of the population has sadly written it off as an unfunny relic, NBC's Saturday Night Live is still pulling in cutting-edge, marquee musical guests each week, in the process creating national stars or pariahs. Or sometimes both. Case in point ... More >>

If Axl And Slash Can (Maybe) Get Along, There Is Hope For Us All

When it was announced that Guns N' Roses were to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame back in December, a kind of hush went all over the world as everyone pondered whether or not lead singer Axl Rose and former lead guitarist Slash would share a stage, or even a podium together. This was ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 5 Martinis

Photo by Jonathan Cohen​For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston b ... More >>

Baby's Cryin': Rockabye Baby Sends Us Lullaby Renditions of Van Halen

Yep. ​The folks at Rockabye Baby! remake hard rock from the likes of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Tool, and the Smashing Pumpkins into baby-friendly jams with "soothing mellotrons, vibraphones and bells," replacing all the things that made those bands perfect for well, making rock and roll babies. Thi ... More >>

Pop Rocks: No One to Blame for Rebecca Black but Ourselves

Rebecca Black WANTS YOU to keep Twittering about her.​The Internet is a strange place. Its most dominant and pervasive bandwidth hogs are spam and porn, both completely voluntary (people actually open those Nigerian money request e-mails or they wouldn't still be sending them). It drives news ... 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 >>

Top 10 Self-Titled Debut Albums

​It wasn't until we were discussing its release this week that Rocks Off realized we're basically the same age as Led Zeppelin's debut album. Recorded in October 1968 and released the following January, Led Zeppelin is 42 years old. It suffers from some of the same ailments as all of us who r ... More >>

Shakira And Music's Eight Other Hottest Bellybuttons

​Shakira shimmies into town tonight at Toyota Center, and frankly, she's pretty much the only artist Rocks Off regrets having to miss while we're in Austin covering ACL. Say what you will about her caterwauling voice and her corny foreign-ness. There's something so playfully goofy about Shakir ... More >>

Montrose Match

The Vallones somehow fit right in with Houston's funkiest neighborhood.

Fitzgerald's Reopens With A Hint Of Things To Come

Photos by Jim Bricker​For more photos from Thursday's reopening, see our slideshow here. "I want this place to be the nexus of local music. It's going to be the anti-Mangos," Omar Afra told Rocks Off as he points out the changes made to the second floor of Fitzgerald's on Thursday night as it ... More >>

Music's Top 10 Biggest Post-Drug Comebacks

​The list of drug casualties in rock and roll is a long and sad one. All the suicides, car crashes and the stray gang-related murder are outweighed by the amount of people who just can't stop putting junk into their system, or at least moderate it to a point where they aren't lying cold on a h ... More >>

Last Night: The Houston Symphony Does The Music Of Queen

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​The Houston Symphony Jones Hall July 22, 2010 There is perhaps no better way to experience the music of Freddie Mercury and Queen than with a full orchestra. Nothing about the band wasn't large and grandiose in scope, making them one of the bands most ripe for the orch ... More >>

The Internet's Freakiest Fan-Drawn Musical Art

Lady Gaga​Rocks Off scoured the Interwebs for at least an hour Thursday looking for the worst musical fan art we could find. Aside from being mildly sidetracked by pictures of Katy Perry and Britney Spears, we also found plenty of ghastly fan-made visages of their favorite rock and pop stars. ... More >>

Going Platinum: Artists We'd Pay $10,000 To See - And When

​It started one night on the patio of Big Star Bar in the Heights; over Lone Star and cigarettes, a handful of Houston music wags debated the shows they would pay top dollar to see from lartists, iving or dead. We argued the aspects of an At the Drive-In reformation, seeing Sam Cooke in 1963, ... More >>

La Roux Puts House Of Blues Under Its Electro-Pop Thumb

Photos by Jason Wolter​ The past year has been a year of renewal for pop music when it comes to new roles for women. In these previous 12 months, the archetype of what a female pop singer is supposed to look and sound like has been completely gutted and reconstituted, leaving room for the more inv ... More >>

11 Songs Sean Hannity Won't Be Listening To Today

​Today Americans celebrate Memorial Day, honoring the military servicemen and women that have passed while serving our country. The holiday is definitely not as flashy or as popular as Independence Day in July, seeing that there are no Memorial Day fireworks or picnics. It's not stuck in November ... More >>

Concert Etiquette For Dummies: Don't Be A Douche

Brittanie SheyBlack Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Walter's on Washington, April 2​ The following scenario has happened to Rocks Off three times in the past two months: There we are, waiting patiently in line to get into a crowded general-admission concert. When we finally get in, we make our way ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: A Girl's Guide To Rocking With Jessica Hopper, Anni Rossi And The Magic Kids

Photos by Brittanie SheyJessica Hopper (left) signs The Girl's Guide to Rocking at Austin's DOMY location.​ One of the bands Aftermath most wanted to see, Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Shit!, who'd been talked up relentlessly on one of our favorite literary blogs were no-shows at the Six Stages over Texas B ... More >>

Aftermath: Off Night for Girls Is Neither, for Openers or Audience

Photos by Brittanie SheyBennett Foster of openers The Magic KidsGirls first came to Aftermath's attention this fall when we watched the raunchy cut of their video for the song "Lust for Life." No, not that "Lust for Life," and the video is extremely NSFW unless you work at a place where one dude use ... More >>

2009 Concert Rewind, April: Springsteen, Jandek, Morrissey, The Faint, iFest, Cake... and Nickelback

Harley C. Pitts​ Kevin and Dustin Welch, McGonigel's Mucky Duck, April 2: "Dustin (son of Kevin) Welch stunned the sparse crowd at the Duck last night from the first note of "One False Move," the brilliant opener to his new album, Whisky Priest. While the graying crowd had mostly come to hear the ... More >>

George Jones

Rocks Off's YouTube Video Explosion 2009: U2, Steve Earle, 10th Grade Cutie and Everything In Between

This year Rocks Off added a few Flip cameras to our devastatingly amazing blogatory weapons. We have been taking as many live videos at shows as we possibly can, and what better way to show our thanks to the Flip this Thanksgiving weekend than by showcasing its powers? From Ghostland Observatory, s ... More >>

The Cult

George Strait Week, Part 1: Sad, Angry George

Note: All this week, Rocks Off is previewing George Strait's first Houston show in several years by looking at different aspects of King Cowboy's catalog. A few months back, when Morrissey played Jones Hall, we were asking ourselves if there was an artist out there - a Texas artist, namely - who tr ... More >>

Tonight: Morrissey Listening Party at Jet Lounge

Morrissey's back in record stores tomorrow with Years of Refusal, his first album since 2006's Ringleader of the Tormentors and possibly his hardest-rocking album to date. (Its release on primo Americana label Lost Highway only adds to the weirdness factor.) The thick-ass bass and snarling guit ... More >>

Andy Rourke

Election Eve With Fred

The Blog of Lists: 25 Vegan Musicians

Sitting Down with La Porte's Buxton

The Bards of Baytown

Scattered Pages' urban art-country music is as pretty as its hometown is ugly

He's the DJ, He's the DJ...

Playbill

Mail Call

Starsailor

Love Is Here (Capitol)

Rotation

Puke Sick

Thoughts of Sonic Youth, kid's shows and animal testing with sick body and warped mind