Neil Young

Get Lit: Being Young, by Astrid Young

Happy Birthday, Shakey

Classic Rock Corner: Neil Young's Sugar Mountain

Neil Young Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 Forget Chinese Democracy. The real will-he-ever-release-it story of this decade (and the last...and the last...) is Neil Young's Archives Vol. 1, 1963-72. The (so far) massive 10-DVD set will include music, video, photos and interactive med ... More >>

Top Ten Americana Albums of 2008

Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic ... More >>

The Future of Rock and Roll

We've seen it in a crystal ball and the pictures aren't pretty

Lonesome Onry and Mean: A Sweet Piece of Art for Sweetheart

My California compadre Charlie McGovern, who produces records by interesting people like Tony Gilkyson (Goodbye Guitar), Victoria Williams (Sings Some Ol' Songs), and Mike Stinson (Last Fool At the Bar), is also Salinas, California's biggest booster and amateur historian. It's all in a day's work f ... More >>

Rotations

My California compadre Charlie McGovern, who produces records by interesting people like Tony Gilkyson (Goodbye Guitar), Victoria Williams (Sings Some Ol' Songs), and Mike Stinson (Last Fool At the Bar), is also Salinas, California's biggest booster and amateur historian. It's all in a day's work f ... More >>

Sound Check

My California compadre Charlie McGovern, who produces records by interesting people like Tony Gilkyson (Goodbye Guitar), Victoria Williams (Sings Some Ol' Songs), and Mike Stinson (Last Fool At the Bar), is also Salinas, California's biggest booster and amateur historian. It's all in a day's work f ... More >>

Rotation

My California compadre Charlie McGovern, who produces records by interesting people like Tony Gilkyson (Goodbye Guitar), Victoria Williams (Sings Some Ol' Songs), and Mike Stinson (Last Fool At the Bar), is also Salinas, California's biggest booster and amateur historian. It's all in a day's work f ... More >>

"Sweet Caroline," Complete With 10-Minute Guitar Solo

Man, we're sorry we missed the Grammys last night.Check out the bit of news in this Associated Press story, via the Beaumont Enterprise: "Neil Young, honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year for his aid to Hurricane Ike victims on Oak Island in Galveston Bay, performed his hit 'Sweet Caroline.'"T ... More >>

Rotation

Man, we're sorry we missed the Grammys last night.Check out the bit of news in this Associated Press story, via the Beaumont Enterprise: "Neil Young, honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year for his aid to Hurricane Ike victims on Oak Island in Galveston Bay, performed his hit 'Sweet Caroline.'"T ... More >>

This False Note's for You

Man, we're sorry we missed the Grammys last night.Check out the bit of news in this Associated Press story, via the Beaumont Enterprise: "Neil Young, honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year for his aid to Hurricane Ike victims on Oak Island in Galveston Bay, performed his hit 'Sweet Caroline.'"T ... More >>

Rotation

Man, we're sorry we missed the Grammys last night.Check out the bit of news in this Associated Press story, via the Beaumont Enterprise: "Neil Young, honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year for his aid to Hurricane Ike victims on Oak Island in Galveston Bay, performed his hit 'Sweet Caroline.'"T ... More >>

Barnstorming Georgia Trio The Whigs

Complete Control

Blitzen Trapper

Quartet delivers classic Southern rock

The Drones

Gala Mill

Bring in the Trash

Gala Mill

Rebel with a Cause

Dimebag lives on in these new recordings

The Examined Life

After a brush with death, Alejandro Escovedo cleans up, digs deep and resurfaces with a gem

Ultra Man

Champa is the champ of our DJ competition at South Beach

Heart of Gold

Neil Young charts his Greendale via "a little love and affection"

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Greendale (Warner Bros.)

Still Young

Neil Young and Crazy Horse ride into town with Lucinda Williams

Going Viral

The infestation of classic-rock threatens the cultural legacy of an entire generation and must be stopped.

Listening Room: Neil Young's Fork In the Road

Neil Young Fork In the Road www.neilyoung.comYa gotta love Ol' Shakey. Even moreso than fellow cantankerous classic rocker Bob Dylan, he goes where his muse leads him, everyone else be damned. Acoustic rock? Heavy rock? Country? Blues? Rockabilly? Unintelligible vocoders and synthesizers? He's done ... More >>

Slide Show: Albums That Went Darker

​ For most rock acts, the traditional way to deal with success is to rework their lyrics, image and sound to become palatable to a larger audience. Usually this means brightening the subject matter, cleaning up the bad words, softening the sharp edges on those power chords and getting haircuts tha ... More >>

Bonus MP3 of the Day: Whiskey Boat & the Supersuckers Do Neil Young's "Powderfinger"

​"Powderfinger" has always been one of Rocks Off's favorite Neil Young songs, up there with "Cowgirl In the Sand" and "Rockin' In the Free World." You know things are headed for trouble from the first line - "Look out mama, there's a white boat comin' up the river" - as a young man who just turned ... More >>

ACL 2009 Day Three: Spin the Black Circle

Photos by Mark C. Austin​It only took one song in to Pearl Jam's Sunday night closing set at the Austin City Limits music festival for it to dawn on Rocks Off that for way too long this band has been forsaken by back-handed hipster discount and radio-influenced apathy. No band from the grunge- ... More >>

"We're Ashamed The President Is From Texas" And Other Acts Of Career Suicide

Seven years ago this week, the Dixie Chicks had the No. 1 country single in the U.S. with Bruce Robison's lump-raising "Travelin' Soldier." Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the Bush Administration was putting the finishing touches on its Iraqi invasion strategy, which prompted Chicks lead singer Nat ... More >>

Neil Young Said To Be Playing Jones Hall June 4 With Folk Legend Bert Jansch

UPDATE (12:32 p.m.): Now Rolling Stone is reporting Houston has been added to the tour, so it MUST be true. UPDATE 2 (3:17 p.m.): Confirmed via press release from Young's label, Reprise Records. It's definitely happening. Ticket on-sale date still TBD. ​USA Today's "LifeLine Live" blog reported M ... More >>

Lady Gaga Sells Out In 6 Minutes; July 26 Show Added; Don't Forget Jack Johnson

​Just in time to rob you of your hard-earned tax refunds, the summer concert season is finally here. Yes, you will be forgoing oil changes, dye jobs and tuition payments for the next few months to afford everything coming through Houston. Thank God for that too, because we were starting to wonder ... More >>

Acts We Think - OK, Hope - Are Playing ACL Fest This Year

​By this time Tuesday, we will all know who is playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October. Damn, it seems like we have speculating about the line-up since, well, we got the last of the "Dillo Dirt" out the middle of our toes after last year's muddy and rainy ACL weekend. Tuesday brig ... More >>

Be A Total Badass And Win Neil Young Tickets

Rocks Off has a few bits of exciting news we'd like to share with you just in time for the weekend. First of all, if you hurry over to our Facebook page, you might be able to grab a pair of Steel Panther tickets for the L.A. hair-metal satirists' House of Blues show tonight. Like we told you yester ... More >>

Musicians Do More In Bed Than Just... Sleep

​Today is the anniversary of one of the most unusual events in a most unusual decade. On May 26, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their "Bed-In for Peace" at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel. It was the second of such boudoir-bound protests (or, if you prefer, media stunts); the couple folded ... More >>

Win Two Neil Young Tickets At 4 p.m. Today

Ed. Note: Please check out Rocks Off's Facebook page at 4 p.m. SHARP today to find out how to win the two Neil Young tickets we're giving away. Remember, you must "like" us to win (hint hint). But for now, enjoy "Classic Rock Bob" Ruggeiro's review of the latest addition to the sagging Shakey booksh ... More >>

A Few Bits Of Texas-Related Neil Young Trivia

"Comes a Time," live at Farm Aid 1986 at Manor Downs racetrack near Austin Both Rocks Off Sr. and Jr. are pretty pumped for tomorrow night's Neil Young show at Jones Hall, and have the over/under on the number of guitars he uses at eight. We combed the Internet for a little bit this morning and cam ... More >>

Neil Young, Old Man, Loudly Looks Back At His Life

Photos by Jay Lee​ Even Neil Young, whose lyrics are generally among the most unironic in rock and roll, has to grasp the irony of singing "Old Man" from the other side of the mirror. But as he's gone from "twenty-four and there's so much more" to "look at how the time goes past," the 64-year-old' ... More >>

Neil Young, Fans Will Never Walk Alone

Photos by Jay Lee​ Neil Young is about to embark on one of the most grizzled and stoic phases of his career, and Houston got its first taste of it on Friday night at Jones Hall. He was loud, he was poignant and every word and note he wrung from his cast of guitars and various plinkers dripped ... More >>

Dave Matthews Band's Seven Best Covers

Craig Hlavaty​Tonight the Dave Matthews Band hits the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion with Austin's Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears as their supporting act. Now into their second decade of massive touring schedules, the DMB is now a cash machine on wheels - a sort of cleaner and less hairy Gr ... More >>

Blitzen Trapper

Craig Hlavaty​Tonight the Dave Matthews Band hits the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion with Austin's Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears as their supporting act. Now into their second decade of massive touring schedules, the DMB is now a cash machine on wheels - a sort of cleaner and less hairy Gr ... More >>

Neil's Nephews: Indie-Rock's Brightest Young Acolytes

​Neil Young has spawned many children in the indie/folk-rock community, many of whom have directly constructed their style based on the Canadian humanitarian's more acoustic oeurve rather than the ragged-glory feedback cues that goosed grunge gods like Pearl Jam a generation ago. In the tradi ... More >>

Top Five Songs About Horses

​Rocks Off's regular readers presumably know by now that we love few things more than offbeat anniversaries, and recently we came across one of the oddest yet. Thirty-two years ago Monday, on Feb. 28, 1979, the "actor" who played the original Mr. Ed in the 1960s TV show passed away. Yes, we're ... More >>

Alabama Illegal Immigration Law: Texas Tea Partiers Can Only Look On In Awe

That truck is no doubt filled with dehydrated, oxygen-starved illegals​Sure, Rick Perry can swagger about a meaningless "sanctuary bill" to keep the brown hordes out of Texas, but if you want real action on illegal immigration, the place to go is Alabama. That state's governor, faced with the ... More >>

Who Are You? Songs Commonly Attributed To The Wrong Artists

​Last week, after the tragic, alcohol-fueled passing of Jackass hero Ryan Dunn, Rocks Off at Taco Cabana wearing a promotional shirt for The Hangover II that we stole borrowed from the office here at the Press. As we were loading our hands with condiment containers, a guy came up to us and sai ... More >>

The Sour Notes Are Not Going To Save The World, It Seems

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. Photos via thesournotes.comR ... More >>

The Best Episodes Of MTV's Unplugged

​MTV Unplugged was like health food for your soul during its heyday on the music channel, which was full of junk food. When artists stuck to the template and went untethered to electronic instruments and really dug into their music with new eyes it was amazing. Debuting in 1989 with Squeeze ... More >>

Spice Up Your Labor Day With Five Songs About Sugar & Herbs

Rocks Off is grateful to Eating Our Words for sharing this blog with us; it was written by EOW contributor Ginny Braud. What smells so good in here? photo: elsaelsa.comEdison Lighthouse​While pondering the "Top 5 Songs about Food"...I figured, why not be a little more specific? I mean, I'm su ... More >>

Misty Mountain Blog: Led Zeppelin IV Turns Forty

​Today one of the greatest rock albums of all-time, Led Zeppelin IV, turns 40 years old, and it's still a vital, nasty, stanky, and heavy LP. Released on November 8, 1971, it cemented the Zeppelin legacy with cuts like, well, the whole damned thing. It's all good, and no doubt you can hear at ... More >>

Thanksgiving Lullabies

​You've finished your Thanksgiving feast and endured a few hours of awkward conversation with the extended family you never see and now it's finally time for a holiday hibernation. You deserve it, it's the third most important part of Thanksgiving, after overeating and overdrinking. No one r ... More >>

Together Always: Country Duets for Valentine's Day

​Maybe it's because I'm a Libra, but I believe that everything in life should be as harmonious as possible-love, especially. Duets might be the ultimate musical testament to such a theory. I'm not talking about the resonance that's created when a woman is vacuuming while her man watches televi ... More >>