Nickelback

SXSW's 2013 Panels: EDM, Nashville, and Tony Bennett's Headphones

Since 2010 or so, while I am at SXSW in Austin I have started to make the panels during the day a priority for my time at the conference. The trick is waking up by 10 a.m. most days. They are usually filled with industry celebs I can geek out on (like singer-songwriter Paul Williams) and almost al ... More >>

Exploring Songza: Four Offbeat Playlists From the Curated Music Service

We introduced you to Songza -- the service that acts as a "music concierge" -- a few weeks back. Using curated playlists sorted not only by genre and theme, but also by activity, Songza helps you pick the best songs for the occasion. More importantly to me, the playlists are expertly curated, mean ... More >>

9 Ways To Get Astros Fans In The Seats

I admit that I have only seen two Houston Astros baseball games at Minute Maid Park this year. It's not as if their losing and heartbreaking ways are keeping me away though. It's always been an evening option for me, but I rarely take the 'Stros up on the offer of a night of Kiss Cams and stale nach ... More >>

So Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne Are Engaged: How Should You Feel?

So the lead singer of Nickelback and a punk-lite pop-star from the early '00s walk into a bar... Stop me if you have heard this one before. You won't, because you haven't, because no one expected that Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne would ever get married in a million years. Nevermind it's 2012, and ... More >>

30 Seconds With mewithoutYou

I have a hard time adequately describing mewithoutYou's music... imagine if King Missile and early Butthole Surfers collaborated. Even then you'd be missing a lot of the nuances and brilliance. I caught up with drummer Richard Mazzotta to see what I could learn about the amazing percussionist in 30 ... More >>

Pollstar: Woodlands Pavilion Now World's No. 3 Amphitheater

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, site of Sunday night's aromatic 311 show, has long been one of the country's busiest concert venues, usually ranking at or near the top in annual attendance. Now it's officially one of the busiest in the world. In concert trade publication Pollstar's new survey ... More >>

These Are Serious Issues: A First World Problems Playlist

Twenty-seven seconds into the song posted above, Canadian rocker Matthew Good says the phrase "first world problems." It is, as far as most Internet detectives can tell, the first time that phrase was used in a piece of art. Good wasn't setting out to create a punchline that would be beaten to death ... 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 >>

2012 Summer Guide: It's a Scorcher

A summer concert season to melt your face off.

A Showcase Of Cute Things Hating Bad Music

"Through their own words they will be exposed/ They've got a sudden case of the Emperor's New Clothes." -- Sinead O'Conor Surely you've heard the story of how a rich and powerful ruler was duped by a con man who pretended to weave magnificent garments visible only to those who weren't stupid, and ... More >>

Avengers Assemble Soundtrack Butt-Rocks into the Future

Time was in the '90s that every big summer action movie came prepackaged with a great hard-rock soundtrack. As the industry went through growing pains it died off a bit, reducing a soundtrack to maybe one or two free downloads from a middling band close to the project. The heady days of hard-rock d ... More >>

Ten Cruises We'd Rather Take Than the KISS Kruise

​Imagine a vacation where made-up members of your favorite glam rock band wander the decks of a cruise ship. Does that sound like heaven on earth? Well, glam boy, you're in luck as the second annual (yes, they've done one before this) KISS Kruise sets sail this October featuring that cuddly '7 ... More >>

Rocks Off Resolutions: How We Hope to Improve in 2012

It seems like every year around this time, we start with the, "God, I need to lose weight" or "stop smoking" or "exercise more" or "stop murdering babies." It never seems to work and by March, we are back to our old, fat, smokey, lazy, baby murdering ways. It's a shame, really. This year, Rocks Off ... More >>

Five Questionable Musical Tributes To Nelson Mandela

White House Photographic Office, Clinton Administration​As recognized by the United Nations, today is Mandela Day, honoring the birthday of the beloved South African president, humanitarian, and all-around badass Nelson Mandela, who turns 93. Mandela is a living legend, leader, hero and inspir ... More >>

Your Shameful Musical Secrets Collected: #gotcha!

​For the past few days on Twitter, Rocks Off has been imploring our followers, our precious 3,250 friends (and counting), to tell us their shameful musical secrets by using the hashtag #shamefulafternoonsecrets or #shamefulmorningsecrets, the latter which could sound like a sordid booty call h ... More >>

Fush Yu Mang: Future Charity Stunts By '90s Has-Beens

Smash Mouth: "Nobody can eat 50 eggs!"​Today, we learned that Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell will eat 24 eggs, in any style he wants, for a $10,000 donation to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. That's a pretty sweet deal, because we like scrambled eggs with cheese and deviled eggs. And om ... More >>

30 Seconds With Laura Pleasants Of Kylesa

​Rocks off sat down with guitarist Laura Pleasants of Southern sludge-metal sensations Kylesa to see what we could learn form her metallic excellency in just 30 seconds. Rocks Off: What is the worst song in the world? Laura Pleasants: Any Nickelback song. I shouldn't need to explain why. ... More >>

The 25 Most Influential Bands Of The '90s

Trent Reznor, you know, before the Oscar and all the weightlifting. ​As a music writer, we are asked constantly to compare the new with the old, to decipher the periphery where modern bands' influences come from to understand where we are going and what we are seeing. We can hear everything Ke ... More >>

Songs To Soundtrack Your Rapture Experience

​This Saturday is the Rapture, that biblical calling home of all the saved and righteous Christians, living and dead, here on dirty, sinful Earth. Luckily, Craig's Hlist has been saved since, like, second grade, so you other guys who aren't are sort of screwed. Besides, when the Rapture rolls ... More >>

Six Things The White Stripes Leave In Their Wake

​In the wake of the White Stripes' official breakup last week, the music world reeled with the loss of one of the defining bands of the past decade. Some applauded the end of a band they saw as too simplistic, buoyed by a sub-par drummer and warbling attention-addict. Different strokes, y'all. ... More >>

Tubby Chubcakes' Lyrics Will Melt Your Brain

Tubby Chubcakes: The great beef hunter strikes again.​Rocks Off was going to write a review of the new Tubby Chubcakes album, Tubby vs. The Musical Brain-Eating Disease, but honestly it's kind of like trying to explain Scientology to a blind water snake. Remember Tubby's video "Destroy Nickel ... More >>

The Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp From Hell

Rocks Off recently got invited to cover something known as Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp, which works a lot like baseball fantasy camp, except none of the participants can field a line-drive grounder. Among the idols rock campers will meet include 3 Doors Down, Mark Farner, the drummer from the Hooters a ... More >>

Music Sales Down 2.5 Percent In 2010

​Nielsen SoundScan released its annual report on music sales Monday, and the results were less than surprising. Physical sales continued to decline, digital sales continued to rise, and crap pop continues to reign supreme both at the cash register and on the airwaves. During the period of Jan ... More >>

The Most Anticipated Albums Of 2011

​NATIONAL White Lies, Ritual: They killed at festivals in 2008 and 2009, but do London's Interpol-styled lads have longevity? Dr. Dre, Detox: It's been on hold or gestating since at least Clinton was in office. Will it continue to be hip-hop's Chinese Democracy? R.E.M., Collapse Into No ... More >>

What Is Classic Rock Today?

​What is classic rock in 2010? 15 years ago, it was was the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, anything Eric Clapton touched and every band your dad played in his car while he was making out with the girls he met before your mom. That's how we know classic rock: Big riffs, big voices, in ... More >>

Adios Houstonist, Hello H-Town Rock

Keep Houston Rich posts this video from Chingo Bling and Fade Dogg's new collaboration, "Let Me Know". The song is featured on Chingo's new mixtape, Stuntin 4 The Summer. As you well know, the HMPAs are coming up in the next few weeks, but you can find out what Texas bands from north of the Sam H ... More >>

Bare Bones

Lo-fi crushers Woven Bones would remake Pink Floyd's The Wall if they could.

Rocks Off Close To 2,000 Twitter Followers... And A New Tattoo

Allow us to step out of the usage of the royal "we" that we use at Rocks Off for a blog that will have a lasting impact for the rest of our lives. Not Rocks Off at large, but one member who made a promise on the Internet that he can never take back. Well, he probably could, but then he would look li ... More >>

The Top 5 Musical Eco-Fails

uscgd8 via Flick​The bad news about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is that BP's magic undersea dome didn't work, and the slick is now the size of Connecticut. And unless the latest half-assed stopgap measure (a "junk shot" of debris fired down the well in an attempt to plug it) works, it could be ... More >>

THE VELVET MELVIN'S GRAPEFRUIT DELIGHT

Stirred and Shaken: The Velvet Melvin's Grapefruit Delight

Photo by Troy Fields​If, for the sake of unholy adventure, you want to check out the Diamond Club — once called the Pink Pussycat, it's the only "cabaret" in the Greenway area — I recommend warming up across the street at the Velvet Melvin Pub (3303 Richmond, 713-522-6798). Here, t ... More >>

Federal Reserve

This downtown bar is modest in everything but its whiskey selection.

2009 Concert Rewind, April: Springsteen, Jandek, Morrissey, The Faint, iFest, Cake... and Nickelback

Harley C. Pitts​ Kevin and Dustin Welch, McGonigel's Mucky Duck, April 2: "Dustin (son of Kevin) Welch stunned the sparse crowd at the Duck last night from the first note of "One False Move," the brilliant opener to his new album, Whisky Priest. While the graying crowd had mostly come to hear the ... More >>

Next Time You're Bored at a Party, Amuse Yourself With Some "Musical Profiling"

​ Recently, Rocks Off found ourselves skulking around the edges of a birthday party wondering what the hell we were doing there. The week had brutally kicked our ass, and the only place we really wanted to be at that juncture was sitting on our couch watching the Syfy channel with a very strong dr ... More >>

Aftermath: Kings of Leon, and Their "Fans," Trying Our Patience at Toyota Center

Photos by Groovehouse/ Click here for a slideshow​ Aftermath has seen almost every single step on the road to fame Kings of Leon have taken since their debut album Youth and Young Manhood in 2003. We heard a track off that album in mid-2003, "California Waiting," on a radio show while living in Sa ... More >>

Stuck In a Moment You (Still) Can't Get Out Of: Remembering 9/11 In Music

Just as none of us will ever forget where we were the morning of September 11, 2001, Rocks Off will never forget what he was listening to most of the day of the terrorist attacks. Sadly, he admits it was System of A Down's Toxicity, which had come out just the week before. For us the album conveyed ... More >>

Our Favorite ZZ Top Covers: QOTSA, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, Tina Turner and... Rapeman?

[Note: Now with added Ministry.] Counting down to Friday's ZZ Top/Aerosmith show in The Woodlands is starting to feel like the week Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers played there last year: a steady build of anticipation and antsiness, until Friday we're flat-out squirming to get out of the office. ... More >>

Aftermath: Yanni at Toyota Center

Craig Hlavaty Words like pageantry, wonderment, and spectacle aren't used very much in the Aftermath lexicon. It's hard to divvy out those special labels when we are covering bleeding dudes in bondage gear half-raping each other on stage, the weekly parade of washed-up alt-rock groups making another ... More >>

Aftermath: Cake at Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Craig HlavatyCake has never sounded like anyone else, and no one that came after has ever come close to sounding like the Sacramento band either. It's not like Nirvana or Green Day, with 1,000 copycat bands immediately coming out of the proverbial woodwork to shove out their own shingle. E ... More >>

Damn the Torpedoes, Live Nation is Full Steam Ahead

Start saving those nickels and dimes, kids, because the biggest tour of 2009 (so far) is headed for Houston. At a press conference in House of Blues' Foundation Room this morning, Live Nation President Bob Roux and Toyota Center General Manager Doug Hall announced Elton John and Billy Joel will br ... More >>

Balls...Hair Balls: Bond's Five Best Henchmen

Artist of the Week: Without a Face

Who Stole the Roll?

The Kids are Alright: Seventh Grader Reviews the New 3 Doors Down

Song Title Scrabble

Mixed-up monikers

Houston Chopper

Meet Roman Blum, the next TV biker star

Smells Like Indie Spirit

Music that made the world safe for the word ³alternative² again

Smells Like Indie Spirit

Music that made the world safe for the word "alternative" again

Belly of the Beat

Clopping heels have got nothing on gyrating hips