Mumford & Sons

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 >>

The Rocks Off 100: Billy Dorsey, Grammy-Winning MARATHON Runner

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? It is apt that songwriter and producer ... More >>

Killing the Music: The Mumfordization of Top 40 Radio

Twenty-eight. That is the amount of times in one day that I heard the songs play. Between my daily morning routine, my various commutes throughout the city, and a quick visit to CVS, "Home" came on eight times, "Ho Hey" seven, "Little Talks" also seven, and "I Will Wait" six. Phillip Phillips and c ... More >>

Madman Across the Water

Sir Elton John piano-pounded Toyota Center March 28.

ACL 2013 Predictions & Rumors: Is This Jimmy Buffett's Year?

2013 marks the first year that the Austin City Limits Music Festival -- Texas' other large outdoor music festival, never to be confused with Houston's own Free Press Summer Fest -- expands to two consecutive weekends with identical lineups. At this point the lineup for the festival, scheduled for Oc ... More >>

Mumford & Sons Strum Into Woodlands Pavilion June 12

This afternoon Live Nation announced that Mumford & Sons, the UK acoustic-rock quartet that has already, um, borrowed more than one page from U2's playbook -- the anthemic songs, Old Testament imagery, missionary zeal and sometimes overwhelming earnestness -- will make its Houston-area debut somewhe ... More >>

Sad You Aren't at SXSW? Here's What You Could Be Missing...

Awwwww, I know it is a shame you aren't here with us at SXSW in Austin. I can only imagine the aching and longing in your heart for walking aimlessly and standing in long lines for no reason, and sweating through your cardigan to see a band you heard on one of the Twilight soundtracks. You don't w ... More >>

Best Shows In Houston This Weekend: Rebelution, Graveyard, Every Time I Die, Walker Lukens, Etc.

Rebelution With J Boog, Hot Rain House Of Blues, Friday, 8 p.m., February 22 For a clue on just how much Rebelution must love ganja, beyond even the exquisitely explicit "So High" on its 2012 release Peace of Mind, consider that the Santa Barbara reggae-pop crew also issued acoustic and dub version ... More >>

Dear Grammys, I'm Breaking Up With You

Dear Stupid Grammys, I have a bone to pick with you. I sat through Taylor Swift's uninspired opening act while she half-sung/half-yodeled at a guy on a spinning bullseye. It was complete with an insulting and transparent Alice in Wonderland costume ripoff (which I'm not getting, by the way... is s ... More >>

30 Seconds With IAmDynamite

Chris Martin and Chris Phillips as IAmDynamite is one of the great modern duo-bands that manages to make two guys sound like an army, easily putting them up there with acts like Chromeo and our own Morgue City. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Supermegafantastic f or the infectious rock an ... More >>

5 Folk Acts Who Wandered Down the Synth Road

Mandolin enthusiasts Mumford and Sons have been on top of the world the past couple of years, dominating rock-driven radio with a folk sound that apparently touches the hearts of hard-rock bros around the world. Given that they have an apparently winning formula, one wouldn't expect them to change i ... More >>

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 >>

Crappy Ringtone Tumblr Makes Indie-Someone's Music More Crappy

For the past two months, New York City-based composer/songwriter David Nyman has been turning back the clock and making MIDI versions of popular and current indie-rock and hip-hop jams. His Tumblr page, where he unloads his Soundcloud clips of these tiny wonders, is getting very popular, and was s ... More >>

10 Surprising Things About This Year's Grammy Nominations

This year music has been dominated by viral pop like "Call Me Maybe" and "Gangnam Style," songs that initially became "hits" from outside the music business' traditional delivery system, usually YouTube. Thursday, the Grammys recognized that by nominating "Maybe," by 17-year-old Justin Bieber proteg ... More >>

ACL 2013: What's Next For Texas' Other Big Music Festival?

As we close the books on ACL's 2012 festivities, full of mud -- but not too much mud, Iggy Pop's elastic skin, Neil Young's reverb, and light shows aplenty, we look forward to the 2013 edition of the Austin megafest. Rewind: ACL Festival Expanding to 2 Weekends in 2013 Rocks Off's Complete ACL 2 ... More >>

ACL 2012: Sunday's 10 Best & Funniest Moments at Zilker

The rains came early on Sunday morning, but by the time the ACL opened up for business before noon, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, making for an extremely warm and muddy day. The biggest acts of the day -- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iggy & the Stooges, Crystal Castles, and the Avett Brothers -- he ... More >>

Trampled by Turtles

5 Bands to Avoid & 5 Bands to See at This Year's ACL

If you are lucky enough to be going to ACL this weekend, you have no doubt been sitting in front of your concert schedule plotting your movements for this coming weekend. Alternately if you are missing out on ACL, a lot of the bands playing have been through Houston lately, or will be in town this ... More >>

The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: Big Business, Garbage, The Shins, etc.

Big Business Warehouse Live (Studio), Monday Since 2003, the twosome of drummer-yelper Coady Willis and bassist-howler Jared Warren (give or take a guitarist) has been making a perfect sludgy mess as Big Business. They ended up joining Melvins Buzz Osbourne and Dale Crover along the way, both live ... More >>

Willie Nelson-Led Second Railroad Revival Tour to Stop In Old Town Spring

Last year the newborn Railroad Revival Tour made waves with Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Mumford & Sons on a six-show jaunt from California to Louisiana with a stop way out west in Marfa. The tour even spawned a concert film, Big Easy Express, that premiered at th ... More >>

Closing Time: Some Unhappy With 103.7 FM's Christian Change

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, 103.7 KHJK left the Houston airwaves, leaving "Houston's Adult Alternative" without a substitute. Christian alternative format Air 1 Radio has taken its place. The changeover as a result of Cumulus Media's prepackaged bankruptcy buyout that included KHJK and sports-talk station K ... More >>

Christian Radio Group Buys 103.7 FM

Update to story originally posted on May 25, 2012: Sounds like the switch became official at 5 p.m. today, and our friends on social media are pissed. Apparently the indie format went out with Semisonic's "Closing Time" and R.E.M.'s "It's The End Of The World As We Know It." Well played. KHJK 103.7 ... More >>

Last Night: Robert Ellis at the Mucky Duck

Robert Ellis McGonigel's Mucky Duck July 5, 2012 Robert Ellis has a variety of tools. With his clear and nasal voice, he can communicate powerful emotions in just a few words. He is easily a session-caliber guitar player. But his simple language and sometimes skeletal song structures should not be ... More >>

Second Lovers

National Punch A Hipster Day: Are You A Music Hipster?

Today, June 1, has been declared National Punch a Hipster Day. First off, who the hell comes up with these random-ass holidays? As someone who gets called a hipster at times, I don't think I am. Maybe I'm a music hipster, in a sense. Most would say repeating this quote -- "I was listening to [bla ... More >>

We Tell You Who Will Win Grammys So You Don't Have To Watch Them

SPOILER ALERT​The best thing about the annual Grammy nominations and awards shows is the clamor of anger that rises up when the mere mention of the event even comes up. Immediately people begin calling it a travesty, trotting out all the people who have been snubbed -- Jethro Tull beats Metall ... More >>

Commercial Break

103.7 is winning fans with its "adult alternative" format.

Spinning the Black Circle

Is the music industry stabilizing?

The Funky Chicken: Good Stuff in the Mailbox

Yeah, it's like that.​Once again our mailbox has filled to overflowing with CDs (and zip files). The desk looks like a Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown of jewel cases, and the entire room is littered with (largely unread) piles of hype-and-tout. And while much of what comes over the transom ... More >>

Buxton: "Not Everyone Is Going To Love You"

Photos by Marc BrubakerBuxton at Rudz in August​Lonesome Onry and Mean has been spinning local sensation Buxton's upcoming release Nothing Here Seems Strange for almost two weeks now. And we're sorry, but we still don't get it. Maybe we are old and jaded and out of it, but to us it sounds l ... More >>

OFF!

ACL: Adele & Mumford & Sons - Not Here, But Here

Photos by Marco TorresTrain a-Comin': The Secret Sisters​3:30 p.m. Still they file in. Watching the crowds trudge along Barton Springs Road, their eyes fixed on the pavement about five yards in front of them (not their phones), always reminds Rocks Off of a pilgrimage. And each festival has i ... More >>

10 Songs That Helped Make Nick 13's Country Debut

​Tiger Army's Nick 13 delivered his self-titled solo debut this year, and the lead singer of one of the past decade's biggest psychobilly bands has made one of the most enjoyable traditional country records of 2011 not called Photographs. Yes, this 10-song set from the man you first met on t ... More >>

2 Become 1: Musical Match-Ups We'd Like To See

​Kanye "Hitler" West and Jay-Z released their (overused music writer word alert) epic Watch the Throne album this week, to mostly great reviews. This fall the first fruits from the recently announced Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration should be on the store shelves, which still sorta weirds us o ... More >>

Happy Birthday Brian Wilson: His Modern Indie-Rock Offspring

Brian Wilson in watery repose​Today, ace pop-music architect and Beach Boys talisman Brian Wilson turns 69. In his nearly 50-year (!) wake of music he has helped give rise to generations of shameless copycats and other reverent rockers who find inspiration in his musical style. Obviously, th ... More >>

Your Favorite Bands: How To Correctly Pronounce Their Names

​Back in December 1998, when Eminem was just hitting MTV and rap radio, we remember people pronouncing his name as "Eee-mine-im," and not the candy-inflected way it actually was. We even made the mistake during our first viewing of "My Name Is" late at night on the video channel and calling a ... More >>

Zoo Station: A Noah's Ark Of 75 Animal Songs

And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee ... More >>

Out Today: Tyler, The Creator's Goblin, The Cars Restarted...

​We now live in a world where Adele is a chart-topping artist, placing at number one slot the past few weeks, rubbing shoulders with the Foo Fighters, Katy Perry, Mumford & Sons, and Britney Spears. If Adele's 21 isn't on the top of everyone's best-of 2011 lists, there is no justice in the wor ... More >>

ACL 2011 Rumors: Ten Bands Who Could Make The Cut

Marco TorresWill ACL close with classic rock again, like with the Eagles last year? Neil Young?​The Austin City Limits Music Festival's big 2011 lineup announcement is imminent, scheduled for May 17, and Rocks Off will surely be on top of the news after it hits. Last year we sat on the compute ... More >>

Avett Brothers Postponed To May 20

The Avett Brothers on Facebook​Bluegrass stars The Avett Brothers' show scheduled for Thursday at Verizon Wireless Theater has been rescheduled to Friday, May 20, due to the birth of banjoist/singer Scott Avett's first second child. The group, which performed on this year's Grammys alongside ... More >>

New Music Releases April 5: Leon Russell, Robbie Robertson, The Ravonettes, The Kills, Etc.

​Last week brought new releases from Britney Spears, Radiohead, and a few Pearl Jam re-issues hitting store shelves amid reports that the industry was finally starting to see some improvement. Spears' Femme Fatale is currently projected to enter the top spot of the Billboard 200 chart with sal ... More >>

The Woodlands, Arcade Fire Win Album Of The Year Grammy

city-data.com​ Congratulations to The Woodlands, that emotionally icy burb up I-45, for helping Arcade Fire when this year's Album Of The Year Grammy at Sunday night's awards show for their sprawling The Suburbs LP. The band, led by former Woodlands residents Win and William Butler, won over a hi ... More >>

Adios "Age Of Aquarius": A Zodiac Realignment Playlist

​If Twitter is good for one thing, it's the immediate and rapid dispersal of breaking news. If Twitter is good for two things, it's that, plus the immediate and rapid dispersal of whatever trumped-up rumor, lie, or fakery that manages to draw the ire of the millions of poor saps reading along ... More >>

Plus-Size Songs For Those Post-Holiday Pounds

​One of the reasons Lonesome Onry and Mean's local waterhole is our local waterhole is its excellent, eclectic, even exotic jukebox. There's truly something for everyone. For the novices and/or narrow-minded, there are easy defaults like Willie Nelson & Family's Live, the Stones' Exile on Mai ... More >>

Five Great 2010 Albums Lonesome Onry And Mean Forgot

​Other than it just being a form of lazy journalism, one reason LOM hates making best-of lists is that there are always items that we forgot about, or considered but felt like they just barely didn't make it somehow. Then we wish we had included them. Here are a few more obscure 2010 albums th ... More >>

Top 10 Worst Top 10 Lists Of 2010

​Now that's a headline, ladies and germs. It has the added benefit of being succinct as well. That's exactly what we're summing up here, the worst Top 10 lists our peers have written this year. Let's get started, as we've got a lot of ground to cover. 10. This One Not really, this is just t ... More >>

The Happen-Ins

R&B-tinged rockers shun Austin's "dorky" alt-country scene.

Lonesome Onry And Mean's Top 11 Obscure 2010 Albums

​As per previous years, Lonesome Onry and Mean isn't going to bother with running down all this year's major-label releases. Ranking the relative merits of Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood and Adam Lambert is the Houston Chronicle's job, we suppose. Seeing major players like Robert Plant, Bruce Sp ... More >>

Fails Of The Week: Justin Bieber, Tom Petty, Jenna Jameson, The Killers, Voxtrot

If you're reading this, you're either on the Internet, or else you've mastered multi-dimensional thought-projection processes that would make Michio Kaku cry like a little girl. We'll assume the former, and just in case you don't already know, the Internet has decided that the word "failure" is too ... More >>

A New Peggy Sue To Make Buddy Holly Proud

​Only weeks after being blown away by British power folkies Mumford and Sons, Lonesome, Onry and Mean got another pleasant shock from Yep Roc Records' latest artist, Peggy Sue. Their new album Fossils and Other Phantoms has been in continuous rotation for a week now and we aren't tiring of it yet. ... More >>