My Morning Jacket

Son Volt's Travel Guide to Five Bizarre Tour Stops

Son Volt is heading down the highway with a new album in tow, Honky Tonk, but instead of lamenting still waters and beatnik poets, Jay Farrar and company have gone strictly Bakersfield, even naming a track after the legendary country-music mecca. Yep, Farrar has gone back to his roots mixing steel ... More >>

The Best Shows In Houston This Week: Rihanna, Suzanna Choffel, Wavves, etc.

Rihanna Toyota Center, April 15 Rihanna has combined her athletic stature, formidable vocals, down-for-whatever attitude and some alarming life choices to become a flashpoint pop star, a lightning rod for controversy that even Lady Gaga would have trouble rivaling these days. Musically, the Barbado ... More >>

Madman Across the Water

Sir Elton John piano-pounded Toyota Center March 28.

Top 20 Things We Need to See at SXSW Next Week

Next week the Rocks Off Action Team goes to Austin for Ess Ex Ess Dubya for another four days of fun, sun, eavesdropping, and live music. And swag, of the free kind, not the kind that Justin Bieber is still trying to make happen. This year at SXSW we're looking forward to many, many things, includ ... More >>

Last Night: Zac Brown Band at Reliant Stadium

Zac Brown Band Reliant Stadium February 28, 2013 I knew I was going to be a fan of the Zac Brown Band back in May 2012, when just hours after the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch succumbed to cancer, the group came onstage at New Orleans' Jazz Fest to the strains of a Beasties song. It was that simple to ... More >>

Flaming Lips And Their Fwends Set To Weird Up Record Store Day

In a few weeks on April 21, Record Store Day is yet again set to obliterate the wallets of record collectors around the country, and the Flaming Lips will have quite a release for fans on that day. What would you think if I said that they have been recording with none other than Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Nic ... More >>

SXSW: Tom Morello, A Vigilant And Emphatic Nightwatchman

Besides Music World Gospel, New West Records is probably the most locally connected sub-major record label, and owner/partial Houstonian George Fontaine has long worn his heart on his sleeve about local music in general and recent New West additions the Wild Moccasins, Robert Ellis, Buxton and Grand ... More >>

Robert Ellis' Whiskey Wednesdays Returning... In Austin

Rocks Off thought we had written everything about Robert Ellis & the Boys' Whiskey Wednesday shows there was to say. After all, the weekly beer-soaked no-cover night of Texas-heavy vintage honky-tonk covers ended back in April. So we were a little intrigued when someone forwarded us this link earl ... More >>

ACL Last Night: Randy Newman & A Steinway Is All We Needed

Jim BrickerNo, he didn't just sing about what he was seeing. ​Check out all of our coverage from ACL 2011, including our hottest crowd shots and our slideshow from Sunday featuring Randy Newman, Arcade Fire and The Walkmen. We still don't know how a 67-year-old turned in our favorite set of t ... More >>

ACL: The Sound (Or Lack Thereof) & The Fury

Photos by Chris GrayYes, that stage is as far away as it looks.​When a bleary Rocks Off arrived at the media area this morning, there was some chatter about Stevie Wonder's supposed sound troubles, and more online, both in our review and the Austin American-Statesman's. (By the way, we've upda ... More >>

Five ACL '11 Bands That Could Headline In 2012

Jim BrickerSmith Westerns at Fitz in February​This Thursday night, Rocks Off leaves for the 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival at Austin's Zilker Park. This year promises to be a hot one, from the killer temperatures, the constant wildfires just miles from the venue, and the mouth of Frida ... More >>

Band of Horses

Centro-Matic

A Dream Austin City Limits Weekend For Houston

Craig HlavatyColdplay at The Woodlands, July 2009​Summer is creeping in, which means the fall concert calendars are filling up fast, and we should know which Austin City Limits Music Festival artists will book side dates in our area sooner rather than later. The standard disclaimer: Rocks Off ... More >>

The Best Albums Of 2011 (So Far)

​The year isn't quite half over, but as of today, "summer" is officially here - even if the calendar needs a few weeks to catch up - and by the time summer is over, so will 2011. Or close enough. So Rocks Off asked our staff to give us their favorite two albums of the year so far, plus one out ... 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 >>

Idol Beat: Last Call For Beardo

Buck up pal, maybe My Morning Jacket needs a backup bassist.​This just in: the American Idol finals will be sans facial hair. Jesus, *two* "Walk this Way" signs? I'd sacrifice David Archuleta to the god of skinny punks just to see a "Steven, Show Me Your Big 10"" placard. Just once. You knew ... More >>

James Taylor

Last Night: Iron & Wine At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jim Bricker​Iron & Wine Fitzgerald's November 21, 2010 When Hill Country transplant Sam Beam, who played a sold-out pre-Thanksgiving show at Fitzgerald's Sunday night, was still signed with Sub Pop, the Seattle label's founder Jonathan Poneman wanted to see the South Carolina native ... More >>

Loud Is the Night

San Antonio's Hacienda blossoms under a Black Key's patronage.

I Put A Spell On You: The Vixens And Visuals Of Voodoo Fest

Photos by Mark C. AustinMGMT: "Ruh Roh! Better play something off the first album!"​Village Voice Media dispatched Houston photographer Mark C. Austin to New Orleans this past weekend for the Voodoo Music Experience, the Crescent City's annual three-day Halloween engorgement of live music and ... More >>

Local Music Photographer Wins Deer Tick's Tour Bus

Photos courtesy of Mark C. Austin​Mark C. Austin just keeps on living the dream. Last month he opened "Three Songs, No Flash," his first-ever exhibition of his bountiful collection of concert photography - many shot for these very "pages" - now on permanent display in Warehouse Live's Green Ro ... More >>

ACL Day 3 Recap: Eagles, Norah Jones, Wayne Coyne's Diet

Ed. Note: Updated at 1:42 p.m. to include information on Don Henley's medical condition we received from Eagles manager Irving Azoff. Photos by Marco Torres​It's just a few hours after the Eagles left the stage at this year's Austin City Limits Festival, closing out the weekend. Rocks Off mad ... More >>

Rocks Off Explains Austin City Limits' "Survival Guide"

Mark C. AustinOne day Austin City Limits will live down last year's "Dillo Dirt" debacle. That day is not today.​This year marks the fourth year that Craig's Hlist will be covering the Austin City Limits Music Festival for the Houston Press and Rocks Off. Each year we get more acclimated to th ... More >>

Black Keys-Approved, Hacienda Debuts Here In November

West Vita/ myspace.com/haciendaspace​Hacienda, the rapidly ascending San Antonio rock band that recently released its second album, Big Red and Barbacoa, to rave reviews across the spectrum, will play its first-ever Houston-area show at Under the Volcano Thursday, November 4. The band spent m ... More >>

Rdio.com Helps Us Get Over Lala

​Rocks Off is no longer a grieving widower, bemoaning the loss of his faithful Lala.com with the shades drawn and a glass of wine, constantly clicking a dead link while listening to Leonard Cohen on CD like a caveman. A few days after Lala died, we got a message from a friend that he had the ... More >>

5 Songs That Are No Day At The Beach

This past weekend, Craig's Hlist spent a good solid two days at the beach playing in the surf down off Mustang Island just south of Corpus Christi. It was one of those mental-health weekends that if we hadn't have taken, we would have ended up throwing beer bottles against the wall at an old folks' ... More >>

SXSW: Dios And The Black Angels Warm Up A Frigid Saturday Night

Photos by Craig HlavatyDios​ Saturday night was a frigid one for the last full night of SXSW, and Aftermath's musical choices seemed to fall directly in line with the torrid temperament of the weather gods. The night before we found ourselves dabbing sweat of our brows, and exactly 24 hours later ... More >>

Rocks Off Is Going to Become a Kings of Leon Fan Today If It Kills Us

​Rocks Off has always been a little puzzled we're not more of a Kings of Leon fan. It definitely puts us in the minority when it comes to our social circle, because everyone from cranky music critics and their musician sons to, well, pretty much every female friend or acquaintance we've got is in ... More >>

Summer Stock

Five Hour Energy

The 2009 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase in 300 minutes or less.

HPMA Aftermath: Ozeal & the Eulypians, Nosaprise, Benjamin Wesley, Tha Fucking Transmissions, Kristine Mills, Peekaboo Theory, Versecity and Spain Colored Orange

Chris Gray​Five hours is not a long time. It is if you're driving from Houston to Texarkana or Uvalde, maybe. But when hopscotching all over downtown trying to take in as much of the Houston Press Music Awards showcase as you can until your feet and your ears cry uncle, those 300 minutes go by in ... More >>

Aftermath: Dave Matthews Band at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Photos by Craig HlavatyIt has to be hard keeping a musical thing fresh after almost two decades of road-dogging it, playing shows in excess of three hours at each venue for months at a time, all the while nursing the loss of a founding member and brother-in-arms. But somehow, the Dave Matthews Band ... More >>

Playing Favorites

SXSW Day One: Absinthe to Auerbach

Photos by Craig HlavatyIt's official: This author loves absinthe. Or whatever it was that they were serving at the Music Gym off 6th Street that they were calling absinthe. Who the hell cares? It was free and it opened our SXSW 2009 with a strange and weird sensation in the facial area. Plus, it m ... More >>

Tonight: Benjamin Wesley CD Release at Walter's on Washington

Benjamin Wesley Geschichte EP www.myspace.com/benjaminwesleywinder3 The driving force behind disbanded, fuzzed-out four-string symphony Basses Loaded and low-end minder for rap-rock rude boys Tha Fucking Transmissions, Benjamin Wesley is one of the most gifted, eclectically-minded musical ca ... More >>

Spring Cleaning

R&B Queen Erykah Badu's Egyptian Mystique

Ankh-ology

Gazing Ahead into 2009, Part 2

[Note: see here for Rocks Off's previous prognostications.]   U2 (March) Best Case Scenario: Armed with the backing of Live Nation, they release their best album in over a decade and Bono shuts his face as they sell out Reliant Stadium in two minutes. Worst Case Scenario: The recession (fi ... More >>

Five Spot: Rock's Top Flavor Savers

High Gas Prices Still Hurting Touring Bands

Notes toward a post-cheap-gas touring economy

SXSW Ephemera, Part Deux: More Random Notes from the Field

SXSW: Carbon/Silicon, Ting Tings, Santogold, MGMT, The Cribs, White Rabbits, Supersuckers and Robyn

SXSW: Lou Reed. Live. For One Song. Lou Freakin’ Reed.

Yo La Tengo in Hoboken

A Hanukkah pilgrimage

The Lookout

Joseph Gordon-Levitt awes again in this character-driven theft thriller

Down-Home Delights

Ten of the best from Nashville and elsewhere

Reach for the Stars

Astra Heights returns from L.A. with a major-label deal in hand

Crowe Flies Home

Elizabethtown is a mess -- not that its director should care

Rockin' Renewal

The imminent launch of new venue Warehouse Live makes it official: Downtown is now Houston's live music hot spot