Nathan Smith

Wonders Never Cease

Houston promotes its present-day music scene to the national media.

Molly Flogs Houston

Flogging Molly makes the walls sweat at the House of Blues.

Street Knowledge

The Geto Boys MC is also Rocks Off's brand-new advice columnist.

5 Ways Bands Could Make Compilations Actually Interesting

Recently my colleague Nathan Smith cobbled together the Destiny Child's compilation Beyonce doesn't want you to see and it gave me an idea. Compilations are both the most necessary and aggravating albums in an artist's catalogue. One the one hand, it's always nice to have a good, definitive greatest ... More >>

Top 10 Bands Your Girlfriend Cannot Stand

A shared taste in music can be a critical part of any couple's relationship, from going to a concert on their first date to narrowing down that one special song for their first wedding dance. But what if that's not the case? Just from a bit of casual Googling, it's not difficult to find divorce atto ... More >>

Antiquated Music Things Kids These Days Will Never Have to Deal With

Some weeks back, while doing Christmas shopping for younger relatives, I realized just how different the musical world looks to someone who is, say, just now reaching ten years old. I discovered this when I realized that things like vinyl, cassettes, and even compact discs aren't coveted items to mo ... More >>

Craig's List

Our Hlavaty's Top 10 local albums of 2012.

Brace Yourselves, the End of the World Parties Are Coming

Here in Houston, we shouldn't need an excuse to throw great parties, but I suppose the so-called Mayan Apocalypse is a pretty good reason to get shit-housed and listen to local bands. This Friday almost everyone seems to be throwing an "End of the World" show or mini-fest -- if they aren't putting ... More >>

Rocks Off's 10(ish) Favorite Local Albums of 2012

Continuing with our year-end panorama, Rocks Off asked our contributors a simple question with a not-so-simple answer: What was your favorite local album of 2012? ALEXA CRENSHAW: Whatever I say here, I'm going to want to take back shortly because there's so much good stuff out there, y'all. Althoug ... More >>

15 Notable Houston Concerts of 2012

As we look back over 2012 this week, it is now time to revisit some of this year's memorable shows. It wasn't easy narrowing the list down to 15. Concerts are in chronological order. CHRIS GRAY DAY, The Continental Club So much local talent and so much love. Uh, if I'm maybe a little too biased on ... More >>

Rocks Off's 10 Biggest Musical Disappointments of 2012

Everyone's mother once told them, or should have, that life is not always going to be a puppy mill full of unicorns and rainbows. Remember why all those puppies are there. Sometimes life -- and especially pop music -- doesn't turn out like you were expecting, so now we present Rocks Off's Biggest Mu ... More >>

Rocks Off's 10 Best Musical Discoveries of 2012

The thrill of discovering freshly minted treasure or a previously unheralded favorite is one of the main reasons music writers get into this racket in the first place; every so often it can make wading through the ocean of crap mediocrity that is pop music worthwhile. Rocks Off asked our contributor ... More >>

5 Great Songs by Psy Besides “Gangnam Style”

What Should Madonna Do In Houston This Week? (Besides Show Us Her Ass)

Pop grand dame Madonna is in Houston for two shows this week at Toyota Center that are close to selling out. They are sold out, right? I figured that was why she was here two nights in a row, unless she just loves Houston that much. Rewind: Madonna's Top 5 MDNA World Tour Transgressions Our Natha ... More >>

14 Brand-New Houston Bands You Should Know About

Thursday night in New York City, Houston promoter The Convoy Group and several other companies (including Brooklyn Vegan's Austin bureau) co-sponsored "The Texas Takeover," an evening of all-Lone Star music at Chelsea drinkery Rebel NYC, part of the famous emerging-talent festival CMJ. On the bill w ... More >>

Study: Free Press Summer Fest Brought Houston $14 Million

Texans-Titans: The Best Rapper Tweets

Bon Iver, Hipster Doofus

Last Night: The Gaslight Anthem, Rise Against, And Hot Water Music At Bayou Music Center

Houston punks had two choices last night: Rise Against and the Gaslight Anthem, with Hot Water Music at Bayou Music Center -- still getting used to that name -- or OFF! and Negative Approach at Warehouse Live a few miles east. I ended up catching both somehow, though our Nathan Smith would write w ... More >>

7 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: A Cactus 2-Fer, Weird Party, Allen Oldies Band, Etc.

It's hard to single out just one of the Cactus Music in-stores Rocks Off is sponsoring Saturday, so we'll go with... both! At 1 p.m., mystical Houston singer-songwriter Tyagaraja previews his new solo acoustic EP As Is, before his Warehouse Live Green Room show Saturday night with DJ Sun and Resolut ... More >>

Iron Maiden Gets Superfan Treatment In New Coffee-Table Book

Rewind: 10 Iron Maiden T-Shirts Sure to Prove Your Metal Cred Maiden Nation is counting the hours before Saturday night's gig up north at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, but any self-respecting Iron Maiden fan should have been cuddled stoically studying Neil Daniels' new tome Iron Maiden: The ... More >>

Friday Night: "Last Summer on Earth" Tour at The Woodlands

"Last Summer on Earth" Tour Feat. Barenaked Ladies, Blues Traveler, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Cracker Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion July 20, 2012 As Nathan Smith said a few hours ago, his partial '90s nostalgia show at House of Blues Friday was more than a sight harder than the throwback bill ... More >>

Last Night: Anthrax, Motorhead & Slayer at Mayhem Fest

See more metal and Mayhem from Wednesday in our slideshow. Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion July 11, 2012 This year's main-stage bill is probably as close to a genuine, bona fide legacy that Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival will ever come up with, ever. Be ... More >>

Free Press Summer Fest: Top 10 WTF Moments Of 2012

See Rocks Off's complete Free Press Summer Fest coverage at this link. See our Summer Fest Saturday slideshows of the bands and the crowds. Cory Garcia: Walking past the Super Happy Fun Land stage Saturday I heard the singer for one of the bands yell out "Let's all get raped!" Since I don't know w ... More >>

Best Of Free Press Summer Fest Day 2: Willie Nelson, Avett Bros., Wallpaper, Etc.

More FPSF 2012 Coverage: • Summer Fest line-up reviews on the Rocks Off blog. • Free Press Summer Fest 2012: The Sexy, Sweaty Crowds • Popsicles and Pizza: The Food of Summer Fest • FPSF: The Bands from Saturday • FPSF: The Bands from Sunday Nathan Smith: The best part of Summer Fest Day ... More >>

Best Of Free Press Summer Fest Day 1: Quintron, Big Freedia, Morris Day, Etc.

See Rocks Off's complete Free Press Summer Fest coverage. Be sure to also check out our slideshows: the sexy, sweaty Summer Fest crowds and the bands of Summer Fest 2012. Cory Garcia: Stage 7 isn't the most glamorous. Most of your set will be spent playing to the handful of people who came out to y ... More >>

Summer Fest Round Table: What About Next Year?

Assuming we all survive this weekend, and then the supposed Mayan apocalypse, Free Press Summer Fest will return to Eleanor Tinsley Park in June 2013. Pegstar's Jagi Katial and Jason Petzold told the Houston Press this week that they'll start booking next year's acts in about a month, so Rocks Off p ... More >>

Summer Fest Round Table: Guilty Pleasures & Geeking Out

Today Rocks Off our writers covering Free Press Summer Fest this weekend, "which artist playing the festival is your guilty pleasure or makes you geek out the most?" We're glad to see we have so many Morris Day fans in our midst. Neph Basedow: My Summer Fest guilty pleasure will be the Flaming Lips ... More >>

Summer Fest Round Table: 9 Locals To Watch This Weekend

Rocks Off polled our writers to see which local or regional artist they most wanted to see at Free Press Summer Fest this weekend. Alexa Crenshaw: Robert Ellis recently rebooted his mid-week honky-tonk events, fittingly dubbed Whiskey Wednesday with Robert Ellis. The problem now, though, is that th ... More >>

9 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Alkari, Black Bananas, Chico Trujillo, Etc.

Pot luck show of the weekend: ElecTrick, The Space Villains and Los Area 51 tonight at Rudyard's. Free. It's the big Art Car Weekend, if you haven't heard, and you can get a peek at Saturday's parade at Discovery Green tonight at 6:30 with two solid hours of a murderer's row of local blues greats ... More >>

Mudbug Music: The Perfect Soundtrack for Your Next Crawfish Boil

Fat Pat's "Tops Drop" on the way to buy the crawfish in Kemah and UGK's "Wood Wheel" for the drive back. These are just two of the songs that Rocks Off's Nathan Smith recommends to start your day-long crawfish boiling festivities. If you think that zydeco music and only zydeco music is the right ac ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Montrose Redevelopment

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit ... More >>

Saturday: Chris Gray Day at the Continental Club

Photo by Marco TorresChris with the officers that saved his life.​Click here for a slideshow of the bands and here for a slideshow of the crowd. "I didn't know Chris was a celebrity." Chris Gray's mother told a rapt audience from the stage on Saturday afternoon that she was "overwhelmed" by ... More >>

Van Halen, the New Walter's and Radiohead: Things We're Looking Forward to in 2012

Photo by Mark C. AustinRadiohead returns and we're stoked. Do people say "stoked" anymore?​There was a lot to be thankful for in 2011 in the world of music, but, in some ways, it was also a pretty tough year. We lost some great people and almost lost one of our own. It's a crazy, topsy turvy w ... More >>

5 Bands Lou Reed Should Have Called Instead of Metallica

As mentioned in Nathan Smith's "Bummer, Dude: The 10 Big Musical Disappointments of 2011", Lulu, the not-at-all-anticipated-by-me aural abortion resulting from the un-Godly union of The Progenitor of All Things Cool, Three Insufferable Man-Children & Kirk Hammett, SUCKED. This was crushing for me on ... More >>

Stellar Stella

This spectacular restaurant is already a Heights institution.

Stella Sola: Behind the Review

Photos by Troy FieldsCheese those meatballs!​What happens when the chef de cuisine at a chef-driven restaurant -- the man who, in Stella Sola's case, runs the kitchen on a day-to-day basis -- tenders his resignation after you've already written your review? You rewrite it. Mostly. Especially ... More >>

The Return Of The Aeros' Hrkac Circus (Yes, Dammit, It Rhymes)

​The most shocking moment of the 2008-09 Houston Aeros season involved none of the team's playoff wins, or its battle to stave off elimination in the AHL Western Conference Finals after falling behind three games to none to the Manitoba Moose in the best-of-seven series. Anyone who watched the te ... More >>

Aeros' Wade Dubielewicz Is A Travellin' Man

Photo courtesy Jason Villanueva/Houston Aeros​Houston Aeros goalie Wade Dubielewicz has been all over the place recently. He's been traveling with the Aeros as they criss-cross the country. He's been to Minnesota and California with the parent club Minnesota Wild. Saturday night he backed-up the ... More >>

Aeros Fight Fatigue To Gain In The Standings

​The Houston Aeros were playing their fourth game in six nights -- their third game in four nights -- and they were a tired team. For some teams, that's a bad thing.But the Aeros aren't most teams. Kevin Constantine-coached teams play better when they're tired. And last night, a tired Aeros tea ... More >>

Aeros Start To Get Back On Track A Bit

​When last we heard from the Houston Aeros, they were a beat-up, short-handed squad struggling to score goals, win games, and send a complete roster of skaters onto the ice.Things change in a week.The Aeros spent the Thanksgiving holiday flitting about between Canada and New York, and despite the ... More >>

Aeros Try To Deal With Roster Shortages

Photo courtesy Jason Villanueva/Houston Aeros​On Sunday, the Houston Aeros went to the dogs, somewhat literally, as the Toyota Center was opened up to allow people to bring their dogs to the game. And while the dogs might have had a good time, it's questionable if the fans did as the Aeros lost ... More >>

The Aeros' Roster Isn't Written In Stone

​Because the Houston Aeros prefer having easy access to the Toyota Center ice, they use the locker room that, during Rocket games, is used by the Power Dancers cheer squad. So the locker room tends to be a bit cramped under normal circumstances. This past weekend, with about eight more players t ... More >>

It's Hockey Season? Apparently So, And Here's Your Preview

​As hard as it might be to believe, hockey season starts tonight. And for the Houston Aeros, this season starts in the same place that last season's ended. In Winnipeg, Manitoba.The 2009-10 Aeros are going to be a rather different looking team than what you saw on the ice last year. Krys Kolan ... More >>

Trenchtown in the 'Trose

Talking ska with Ryan Scroggins

Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans

Trenchtown Texas