Neil Young

Lights, Camera, Headaches

The quickest way to ruin a music festival? Get actors to show up.

Dave Grohl Releases Trailer for Nerd-Boner Doc Sound City

While the Foo Fighters have been on hiatus, lead singer Dave Grohl has been putting the finishing touches on his cinematic love letter to Sound City Studios in Los Angeles. Today the full trailer for Sound City was released online. You can check out the studio's discography here. The studio's du ... More >>

Today's Top 5 Female Punk Rockers

Last Night: Eddie Vedder at Jones Hall

Eddie Vedder, Glen Hansard Jones Hall November 12, 2012 Aging grungers are the new aging hippies. When the first wave of grunge hit in the late '80s and early '90s, the world was still rife with greybeards and their old ladies just two decades removed from cultural nirvana. Before the other, bigger ... More >>

What Was Your Favorite Concert at The Summit?

It must be music-venue day today. Rocks Off would like to thank Jon Harvey of Houston (@oompahead) for alerting us via Twitter to the fact that on this day in 1975, when I was a few weeks away from turning one year old, the sports and entertainment arena then known as the Summit opened in Greenway P ... More >>

Reader's Poll: The Compact Disc Turns 30

This week the compact disc turned 30 years old, and will no doubt spend it drinking with friends and wondering where the time went and lamenting the fact that they haven't gotten married yet. Few people know that the first commercial CD produced was Billy Joel's 1978 release 52nd Street, an album ... More >>

Explaining Classic Rock Bands to Kids

This past Sunday, The New York Times ran a piece by Paul Greenberg where the author explained how important the Beatles were to music and pop culture to his five-year old son. The child didn't know that the band had albums, but only knew the Fab Four from iTunes playlists. "When the Beatles record ... More >>

Hey, Let's Put David Crosby Moustaches On Everyone

Pared down to just David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash (Neil Young is now touring with Crazy Horse), Wednesday night with these three geriatric strummers whose list of influential cuts starts with 1969's "Marrakesh Express" is a good way to knock a few legends off of your concert bucket lis ... More >>

Gathering of the Juggalos Snags Geto Boys Reunion From Houston's Hands, Bitch

I can't lie that it doesn't smart a bit that the Geto Boyz are reuniting for the Gathering of the Juggalos a few hundred miles away in the middle of an Illinois field instead in Houston, but that's the breaks. When the 2012 lineup for the Insane Clown Posse's annual festival was announced this week, ... More >>

10 Things Musicians Have Been Buried With

Everyone dies eventually, even rock stars, and when they go it's not uncommon for them to take beloved personal items with them, or to have such things placed there by grieving friends and family. That is of course unless they're cremated and have their ashes snorted or smoked. For those who went th ... More >>

Verizon Wireless Theater Now Known As Bayou Music Center

Verizon Wireless Theater will no longer be known under that name, because owner Live Nation's sponsorship deal with the communication provider has expired. The venue, which holds about 3,000 people within downtown entertainment complex Bayou Place, will now be known as Bayou Music Center. Rocks Off ... More >>

My Morning Jacket

Canada Day: Top 10 Artists From Way Up Yonder

​Hello? Is this thing on? Rocks Off has a feeling that a lot of folks are nowhere near their computers today. Must be some sort of holiday. It is, actually. Today, not Monday. It's Canada Day, or as it's known in the U.S., "What Is Princess Kate Wearing?" Day. (Also, Friday.) Honestly, Rocks ... More >>

The 25 Most Influential Music Videos Of All Time

​It's hard to fathom a time before music videos, and it's even sadder to remember when channels like MTV and VH1 were wall-to-wall music videos. In between there was a golden age, when with every clip that you watched could spark a revolution in you, or at least change your fashion sense. It's ... 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: Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See, Black Lips Get Cosmic, Joe Ely Satisfied At Last

​This week of new releases brings a Mark Ronson-produced Black Lips album, the country debut of psychobilly idol Nick 13, an inventive career-spanning set from Randy Travis, and another Arctic Monkeys album, continuing their interesting progression from Brit garage brats into muscular rockers ... More >>

14 Things You Didn't Know About Rick Springfield

2. Rick Springfield is a stone cold sex fiend... ​In recent years, many musicians have put down their instruments (at least temporarily) and picked up the computer keyboard to produce some pretty revelatory memoirs. And in one case, perhaps too revelatory - Billy Joel recently pulled the plug ... More >>

Five Essential Boogie-Rock Albums

​Boogie-rock has probably been derided by critics more times than people have torched a doob while listening to BTO. Intellectual types tend to write it off as guys with feathered bangs, mustaches and shirts open to their navel playing songs about cars, girls and partying (and partying in cars ... More >>

Last Night: Lucero At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jim Bricker​Lucero Fitzgerald's February 23, 2011 See more amber-colored images in our slideshow. About 12:30 a.m. this morning - we know because we wrote it down - Lucero front man Ben Nichols had a question. "Is there any more whiskey left backstage?" That he had to ask at all ... 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 >>

"Come On Buick, Light My Fire."

Not official Nike footwear.​Like most of Western society, I'd figured I was pretty much numb to the use of popular songs in commercials. I don't know how far back the practice dates, exactly, but I remember the anecdote from No One Here Gets Out Alive about Jim Morrison shooting down the sugge ... More >>

The Best Concert Movies Of All Time

​A quick note before CHL starts this hlist. We define a concert movie as a flick that documents one or more shows on a tour. More narrative-oriented rock flicks like D.A. Pennebaker's Bob Dylan mash note Don't Look Back, Charles Peterson's grunge chronicle Hype!, and of course the lighthearted ... More >>

Taylor Swift's Top Nine Future Feuds

​Still the No. 1 album in the country, Taylor Swift's Speak Now is awash in lyrics bashing her former flames, friends, lovers and Kanye West. The pop-country singer knows how to turn a bitter phrase, and we can only hope that she keeps getting better and better at it. She's not yet 21, but S ... More >>

The Top 10 Rock-Musician Film Scores

​David Fincher's Facebook creation tale The Social Network has been the No. 1 film in America the past two weekends, and no doubt it will continue that streak this weekend, barring an assault by Jackass 3-D which comes out today. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone is already hailing Network as a ... More >>

Two Cow Garage

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 >>

Possible Sponsors For 6 Summer Tours

​Sunday night, resurgent '90s nu-metaleers Korn stop by Verizon Wireless Theater as headliners of the annual Jagermeister Music Tour. Wonder if they've still got the gorilla suit. It seems like more and more artists are following the model of bands like U2, whose recently scratched 360 Tour was "p ... More >>

"Rap Song Or Murder Ballad" Revealed

​ Rocks Off is really enjoying these little quizzes we've concocted, because it gives us a chance to revisit some of our favorite rap tunes and bask in the comforting knowledge that, whatever their time, place and circumstance of origin, songs about killing are pretty much all the same. We only wi ... More >>

Aftermath: Booker T's Rock-Solid Soul And Farm-Fresh "Onions" At Wired Live

Photos by Brittanie SheyThat's right, Booker T also plays guitar.​ Booker T has had a hand (well, two hands) in crafting so many pop, soul and R&B staples that the hardest part of his pre-concert routine must be making out his set list. Where do you put "Green Onions"? How many of the dozens o ... More >>

Aftermath: David Gray Is For Lovers; Phosphorescent Needs More Stage Time

Photos by Jason Wolter​David Gray is an artist, but not one to be puzzled over. The British singer-songwriter trades in sophisticated pop songs that express simple emotions, as unambiguous as many of their titles: "Be Mine," "Now and Always," "The One I Love," "You're the World to Me," "This Year' ... More >>

Aftermath: Feels Like the First Time With Widespread Panic and the Allman Brothers at the Woodlands

Photos by Kim Douglass​ There are few experiences in life that act as true rites of passage: Learning to ride a bicycle or drive a car, or that first kiss with that special post-pubescent someone. Then there's virginity, both the kind that gets lost in between the sheets and the kind that takes pl ... More >>

Crosby, Stills & Nash

Heartless Bastards: The Mountain

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 >>

Artist of the Week: Small Sounds

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 introducingliston@gmail.com. It seems contradictory, ... More >>

Aftermath Extra: The Best Concerts of the Year, Part 6

Silver Jews, Walter's on Washington, September 18: "[Silver Jews frontman David] Berman strode around the stage with confidence; you wouldn't know he's still getting used to playing live. At times, he looked so loose that he might slump to the floor had he not been leaning on the mic stand." (Troy ... More >>

Lost Tuneage: Manassas

"It Doesn't Matter" Who Dat? The most talented member of CSN-without-the-Y, Stephen Stills was riding high on a solo career with tracks like "Love the One You're With," "Black Queen" and "Change Partners." During sessions for his third solo record, Stills recorded with an ad-hoc studio group of cr ... More >>

Aftermath: The Walkmen, Little Ones and Young Mammals at Walter's on Washington

How to Draw a Bunny

This artist documentary isn’t only for art lovers

“Perspectives 161: Tim Lee”

Tim Lee steals celebrities’ identities on film

MySpaced Out: A MySpace Mixtape

The Stag's Head Pub's Coffee Shooter

Last Night: Midlake at Numbers

Drenched In Blog: Bob Dylan, Robert Earl Keen, Billy Joe Shaver, Wilco and My Morning Jacket Round Out the Weekend

Rock and Roll and Rather Exhilarating

The best band in the universe does its Brecht thing with hooks

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, with Drop Trio

Thursday, December 1, at the Engine Room, 1515 Pease, 713-654-7846.

The Retribution Gospel Choir

Wednesday, September 14, at the Proletariat, 903 Richmond, 713-523-1199.

Decent Folk

Summer Hymns' summer hymns define the purdy South

Royal Slash

Slash charms over a new den of snakes

Still Blue