Nick Lowe

Not Fade Away Soundtrack Offers Up a Fistful of Blues, Stones

Not Fade Away, Director David Chase's period piece about a burgeoning rock band in the '60s, is still playing on limited screens in New York and Los Angeles, but this week preview copies of the soundtrack hit mailboxes. It is a sprawling double-disc, double-LP collection featuring vintage Rolling St ... More >>

The Texas 30: The Third Runners-Up, Albums 60-51

Friday, Rocks Off told you about our "Texas 30" project, compiling a list of the best 30 albums of the past 30 years. Today we're about to show you the first of three bubbling-under appetizer lists we did just to put a little oil on the gears. Here, starting with No. 60, is where it gets interestin ... More >>

10 Great Hal David Lyrics: "Enough Germs to Catch Pneumonia"

The music world truly lost one of the greats when songwriter Hal David passed away at age 91 following a stroke this past Saturday in Los Angeles. To borrow an old joke, the lyricist wasn't from the old school, he was from the school they tore down to build the old school: The artists who covered hi ... More >>

Last Night: Nick Lowe At The Continental Club

Nick Lowe Continental Club May 7, 2012 Nick Lowe learned a lesson Monday night: Houston rocks, and Houston will shut up and listen. Lowe and his band seemed slightly flummoxed by the Continental Club and a beyond-capacity crowd Monday night as they worked through a set that was as carefully laid o ... More >>

Nick Lowe Tries to Recapture That Old Magic

Artist was once the Jesus of cool

Last Night: Marshall Crenshaw & The Bottle Rockets At The Continental Club

Marshall Crenshaw, The Bottle Rockets Continental Club April 22, 2012 Sunday's Marshall Crenshaw/Bottle Rockets show again raised the question of whether Houston fans of intelligent, literate rock and roll should be disappointed that our city isn't more interested in this kind of music, or whether ... More >>

Spoon

Houston Scores Big-Time In Latest Editon Of Encyclopedia Of Country Music: Part 3

The further one digs into the second edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Music, the deeper one's appreciation of the contributions of Houston's country-music pioneers becomes. Yeah, just check out the black circles under the eyes and drunk-ass grins on Leon Payne's band above. That photo alone sp ... More >>

Upcoming: Avicii, Buxton, Down, The Knux, Nada Surf, Etc.

311, Slightly Stoopid: Sun., July 15. Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive, Spring. .38 Special, Blackberry Smoke, Folk Family Revival: Sat., May 19. Sam Houston Race Park, 7575 N. Sam Houston Parkway W., Houston. "3rd Annual Disco Green Electronic Music Festival": Sat., May 5. ... More >>

Unchained: The Man In Black's Late-Life Comeback

The Resurrection of Johnny Cash: Hurt, Redemption, and American Recordings By Graeme Thomson 254 pp., $19.95, Jawbone Press In 1993, Johnny Cash may have been a country-music icon, but for all intents and purposes, he was also one in need of some serious restoration. Two decades removed from his la ... More >>

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 >>

Buddy Holly Raves On Into 21st Century

​Lonesome Onry and Mean's buddy doesn't like the new tribute to Buddy Holly, Rave On, which features a major-league lineup of artists ranging from Sir Paul McCartney, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Graham Nash to youngsters like Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Black Keys and the unlikely inclusio ... More >>

Best Riffs Only: Krayolas Going For Tex-Mex Rock & Roll Master's

​Krayolas drummer David Saldana is not your average power pop rock and roller. While his resuscitated band continues to draw gobs of press and is grabbing some high profile gigs, Saldana's life is taking him in another direction. "I'm actually getting my Masters in education so I can be a pri ... More >>

Joe "King" Carrasco & the Crowns

Out Today: Other Things Besides Born This Way... Seriously

​This past weekend was magical, what with Rocks Off finally getting to see Foo Fighters play songs from Wasting Light and all. You may remember that we have been wanking over Light since it came out in April, but it's really good. Best rock album of the year? Maybe, unless Jack White or Josh H ... More >>

Eight Songs That Make Us Want To Go Back To School

​Last week, when Rocks Off was editing our former intern Matthew Keever's article about the worst back-to-school soundtracks when Jerry Lee Lewis' "High School Confidential" popped into our head out of the blue. Not really out of the blue, we guess, but the next thing we knew we were thinking, ... More >>

Bros Before Hos: Tales From The Wedding-Band Front Lines

Courtesy Allen Hill EntertainmentAllen Hill (left) would rather not play "Take a Letter, Maria" at weddings, but he will.​ Sting once stated in an interview about The Police's trademark song "Every Breath You Take" that he was bewildered by the tune's popularity at weddings. It is, after all, a so ... More >>

Aftermath: Taylor Hicks' Supper-Club Soul Patrol at Warehouse Live

Craig Hlavaty​Monday night's Taylor Hicks show left Aftermath with way more questions than answers, mostly of the existential variety rather than the musical. Our minds were blown, and not in the same "Oh man, I finally got to listen to Zaireeka the other night" kind of way that the Soul Patrol ma ... More >>

Aftermath: Mike Stinson at Under the Volcano

Photos by Chris Gray​ At his first proper gig since relocating to Houston last month, suit-clad Mike Stinson raised the bar for honky-tonk around here a little. Maybe a lot. Joined by guitarist Lance Smith and Winfield Cheek on keyboards, steel and mandolin, Stinson sang his way through a jukebox ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Jesse Winchester and Ian Hunter Prove 70 Is the New 30

Those of us who read Tom Friedman's July 28 New York Times column about 59 being the new 30 like it was a lost edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls should be cheered by the musical efforts of two 70-year-olds who just keep on keepin' on. So far this year, both Jesse Winchester and Ian Hunter have issued ... More >>

Five Ways to Improve 107.5 the Eagle

Paging the Purple One... the Eagle Needs You!For Houston music commentators, picking on the sorry state of the city's commercial airwaves is even more fun than sportswriters must have making fun of the Astros. But on the rare occasion a new format does come along - even if it's hardly "new" - it sti ... More >>

Aftermath: The Krayolas at Cactus Music

Photos by Chris Gray The coolest band in Houston this weekend couldn't find a club or venue to play. Not at night, anyway - San Antonio's the Krayolas did manage to play Dan Electro's during Saturday afternoon's live broadcast of KPFT's Joe's Roadhouse, and Cactus Music an hour or two thereafter. If ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: How Much Does Nick Lowe Rule?

I first heard Nick Lowe - and Stiff Records mates Dave Edmunds, Wreckless Eric, Ian Dury and Elvis Costello - when I lived in Europe in 1977. That Live Stiffs album not only saw me through a stint in northern Europe, it stayed with me for seven more years as I criss-crossed Asia with a Sony Walkman ... More >>

Seth Walker: Leap of Faith

Freddie Krc

Noise's Handy Holiday Local-Music Gift Guide

Black October, Set to Music

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Only a Week Until Robert Plant/Allison Krauss

Local Motion

Lomax’s Weekend Round-Up

A Little Too Ironic

Bill Kirchen

Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods

The High Score

We Showed Up to Leave

Overlooked in '05

Ten great discs that were underserved by the media but are more than worthy

David Holt

Perpetual Motion (Blue Corn)

Sleepy Labeef

Friday, April 2

The Proclaimers

Born Innocent (Persevere Records)

The Gift Of Music

2001’s top ten picks

Pure Spunk

Del Rio-bred Radney Foster is a cowpunk both on stage and off

Fill 'Er Up

Ten-gallon hats and ten-gallon gas tanks come to mind when BR5-49 plays

What's So Funny 'Bout Burt Bacharach?

Local Music Reviewed

Ashbury Keys

Rotation

Rotation

Sound Check

Rotation

Rotation

Keeping His Cool

Nick the Knife's regained his edge, and the world's a better place for it

Elvis and Other Attractions