Nirvana (Band)

David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest: The Soundtrack (With Endnotes)

One of Time magazine's Top 100 English-language novels of the last century, the late David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest is a gargantuan book. Its cutting, comedic views cover a broad swath of American life, but focus on family dysfunction, chemical dependency, depression, entertainment saturation ... More >>

The Best Shows at SXSW This Year

This year Rocks Off and DC-9 at Night, the music blog at our sister paper Dallas Observer, teamed up to bring you only the choicest moments from last week's SXSW madness. John Fogerty: Creedence Clearwater Revival survivor John Fogerty gets overlooked as a riff-happy rocker, with most people concen ... More >>

Last Night: The Cool Club Tour at Jet Lounge

The Cool Club Tour feat. Scotty, League of Extraordinary Gz, Kyle Hubbard, Onehunnidt, Show, Rob Gullatte, K-Rino, etc. Jet Lounge January 27, 2013 Early Monday morning, Scotty, a rather lanky ATLien, rocked within the crowd to finish off his set and the Houston leg of his "The Cool Club" tour, pre ... More >>

Now Houston Baseball Fans Know What It's Like to Hate the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Before I became enamored of rock stars, rock journalists, punk rockers, metal mavens, or DJs, the first idols in my life were Houston Astros players, namely Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and the late Ken Caminiti. So on Wednesday, when the Baseball Hall of Fame failed to induct Biggio or Bagwell, or ... More >>

Saturday Night: Kendrick Lamar at House of Blues

Kendrick Lamar, Jhené Aiko House of Blues December 29, 2012 There have been many monumental moments in House of Blues' rap history. There was Jay-Z's show in 2008 that christened the venue and kickstarted its now four-year run as one of Houston's eminent music halls, while Trae Tha Truth's Street ... More >>

Last Night: Sir Paul McCartney at Minute Maid Park

Sir Paul McCartney Minute Maid Park November 14, 2012 Seeing Paul McCartney live is a lot of things. It's communing with a spirit that touched millions and will touch millions for as long as humanity lurches forward. It's hearing the old schmaltzy bedrock anthems and the proto-everything blasts tha ... More >>

Monte Pittman: Madonna's Texan Guitarist Has Deep Metal Roots

Just a guess, but when Madonna played to tens of thousands of fans at Toyota Center last week, most of them probably didn't know that onstage with her was a member of one of the most severe metal bands of the past 20 years. Rewind: Last Night: Madonna at Toyota Center But it's true. Native Texan ... More >>

Business as Usual at Music Town CDs & Records, Since 1979

When James May unlocks the doors to Music Town each day at noon, his little shop on Stuebner Airline across from Klein High School is mainly filled with CDs, new and used vinyl and an enormous amount of cassettes. When he first opened the shop in 1979, the sign actually said "Music Town Records and ... More >>

Lil Keke's Heart of a Hustla

Last Night: Mission of Burma at Fitzgerald's

Mission of Burma, The Gary, Black Congress Fitzgerald's September 13, 2012 In a day and age when so many of the great groups from yesteryear seem to be reuniting solely for a paycheck, it's refreshing to see a band treat its own reformation as a chance to make up for lost time. After influencing m ... More >>

4 Reasons Why Old Albums Are Now Outselling New Ones

So here's an interesting fact: according to Nielsen Soundscan, older catalog albums have officially overtaken brand-spanking-new albums in sales for the first time since Soundscan has been keeping track. That's only since 1991, but it's probably safe to say that this is the first time such a thing h ... More >>

Potbelly Release Second Album

2010 Houston Press Music Awards winners follow up.

Jody Seabody & the Whirls: Death In an Alt-Rock Band

Losing a band member can't ever be an especially pleasant experience, but the sudden death of one of your musical comrades, someone you've been playing with since high school, is almost unfathomable. But that's what happened to Katy alt-rockers Jody Seabody & the Whirls last fall, when bassist Matt ... More >>

Top 5 Singular Musical Forces

Great bands are a dime a dozen. How often has a great band broken up, only to have the individual efforts of the ex-members lambasted by critics and public alike? Sometimes the chemistry of a band, collectively, makes them great, but sometimes it's "The Talent," a singular musical force. When I sp ... More >>

Syrupy Surprises: Random Selections From DJ Screw's Personal Vinyl Collection

If you haven't taken the time to check out the "DJ Screw and the Rise of Houston Hip-Hop" exhibit on display now at UH's MD Anderson Library, do yourself a favor and go. Put on in conjunction with the H.E.R.E. (Houston Enriches Rice Education) Project, UH's African-American Studies department and th ... More >>

Top 10 Most Outrageous Onstage Incidents, Antics & Meltdowns

Everyone has their meltdown moments, no doubt about it. We make mistakes and, most of the time, we try to correct them. We have them because we are all human. Unfortunately, though, when you are in the spotlight, your hurts, tantrums, mistakes and meltdowns are all magnified for all the world to se ... More >>

Last Night: Cloud Nothings At Fitzgerald's

Cloud Nothings, A Classic Education, The Boxing Lesson Fitzgeralds February 23, 2012 It's only February and 2012 is shaping up to be a big year for Cleveland's Cloud Nothings. Their new album Attack on Memory is garnering raves from critics and fans alike, having been the first release of the year ... More >>

Who Is Paul McCartney?!: Rocks Off Tells You

So, it's the day after the Grammys, and you may still be wondering who that "hella old" man with the droopy eyes playing the weird left-handed bass was on the telecast last night. You know, the guy next to the guy from Foo Fighters and that one other ancient-looking man in the tight jeans who looks ... More >>

Noise For The Ages: Top Post-Hardcore Guitarists Through the Years

While it may not often be recognized by "mainstream listening audiences," post-hardcore is not a dead genre. Though its popularity has often waxed and waned throughout the years since its inception in the mid '80s, there are always great upstart bands keeping it alive. As of late, the genre has seen ... More >>

The Roots Of Lionize: From Miles Davis To Led Zeppelin

It's hard to find a band that reps Miles Davis in the same breath as much as they do Led Zeppelin, but Lionize are that band. Recording in Jamaica with Steel Pulse's Sidney Mills, supporting beardos like Kylesa, Clutch, and cKy? Yes, that's Lionize for you. Opening for Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster ... More >>

David Sadof Returns to Radio

Rocks Off can name at least ten local rock stars off the top of our heads who owe their good taste and love of music almost exclusively to the radio work done by David Sadof. Now he is finally returning to the medium in order to bring some light to the darkness of Houston radio as part of NASA's Thi ... More >>

Taking Apart Yesterday's Facebook Music Screed

​Yesterday, about a half-dozen of my Facebook friends forwarded a gloom-and-doom listicle from a site called Buzzfeed entitled "12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music." Now up to over one million hits, the doom-and-gloom piece is subtitled "This is the saddest thing you'll read a ... More >>

Happy Birthday Butch Vig: A Quick Discography

Butch Vig making the donuts.​Today is Butch Vig's 55th birthday. The acclaimed record producer and sometime musician has been at the helm of some of the best grunge and indie records of the past 25 years, and his production style has made him one of the most sought-after sound architects in t ... More >>

Four Artists Who Died Before Playing Houston

theindependent.co.uk​When Amy Winehouse died Saturday, almost everyone noted how the troubled British soul singer had joined the "27 Club," the list of legendary musicians who passed away at that age that also includes Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, ... More >>

Last Night: Foo Fighters At Stubb's

Craig Hlavaty​It doesn't make Rocks Off feel happy to say that he sometimes doesn't get into all the shows that he thinks he is entitled to seeing by some inner decree he has made to himself. Sometimes we have to sit out the cool stuff, but that doesn't mean we can't stand outside the said cool st ... More >>

Hugh Hefner's Fiancee: 11 Things That Are Older Than Her

Crystal Harris: Not older than Iron Eagle​You know what is messed up and completely awesome? Hugh Hefner was 60 years old when his current fiancee, Crystal Harris, was born. Hef was hatched on April 9, 1926, and six decades and 20 days later his soon-to-be bride was born in Lake Havasu, Arizon ... More >>

Top Five Musician/Journalist Feuds

"Like, what is your problem?" Jason Nocito​Hell hath no fury like a spurned musician, but a critic's vengeance doesn't lag far behind. This week in the Houston Press, you can read an interview Noah Bailey at our sister paper the Dallas Observer did with Dr. Dog's Scott McMicken, who says he h ... More >>

Top 10 Rock Tell-All Autobiographies

​Craig's Hlist just cracked into his copy of Life, by Keith Richards. It's the first time that the Rolling Stones guitarist and god among men has taken time to document his rock and roll journey for anyone. Sure there have been Stones oral histories from the band, but this is Richards' chance ... More >>

FAIL: Kings Of Leon, Pigeons, Bush

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray​Kings of Leon Respond Poorly to Mother Nature's Criticism: Last weekend, bro-rock champions Kings of Leon were three songs into a set when a pigeon in the rafters of St. Louis' Verizon Wireless Amphitheater made its opinion known by taking a dump direct ... More >>

Happy Anniversary, Appetite For Destruction

​July 21, 1987 began as a day like any other. The Reagan Administration told The New York Times that any discussion of presidential pardons in the Iran-Contra affair were "inappropriate at this time." Iran announced it would ignore the cease-fire with Iraq unanimously approved by the United Na ... More >>

Saturday Night: Weird Al Yankovic At Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Jason Wolter​Weird Al Yankovic Verizon Wireless Theater July 17, 2010 Aftermath is probably not going to write very many, and you're probably going to read even fewer, concert reviews that begin by delineating the finer points of parody and satire. But this is Weird Al Yankovic we'r ... More >>

2009 Concert Rewind, June: Roky Erickson, David Byrne, Heartless Bastards, Santigold, Clapton & Winwood, the Jenny Lewis Shushing and '90s Alt-Rock Back from the Dead

Daniel Kramer​ New York Dolls, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, House of Blues, June 4: "What we got last night at the House of Blues was an hour-long set of sporadic and confounding re-workings of their bedrock material, and a whole helluva lot of middle-of-the-road bar rock from two dimming ... More >>

Bronzing the Garbage: Good Reviews of This Decade's Worst Albums

​You've no doubt surmised this from previous articles, but poking around Metacritic is one of Rocks Off's favorite ways to kill time. Recently, we had a look at their list of all-time lowest scores, and were surprised. We like to call music critics assholes, but we use the term "asshole" in a pret ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: Deer Tick's Front Man Goes for That Chased-by-Alligators Sound

Providence, R.I., band Deer Tick may hail from "Up North" but their sound is purely steeped in grungey folk and rockabilly yelp. They, in fact, hear this description so much that the band has started to rebel against it by in fact upping the dosage on their new More Fuel For The Fire EP, which just ... More >>

The Top Rock-Star Death Conspiracies: Elvis, Michael, Kurt, Tupac and More

It seems that the stranger and weirder our world gets by the day, humanity struggles to find reasons behind all this calamity and tragedy. We try our best to find conclusions to why bad things happen, and when we can't fully fathom that the awful truth is just that, instead try to blame the influen ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs That Remind Us of Our Grandfathers, Part 2

He Said Grandpa Songs He Said was lucky to have spent twenty-five years on Earth with his Grandpa Hlavaty, who passed away in the summer of 2008 of a brain hemorrhage. The man was arguably one of the biggest musical influences in He Said's life. The intrepid and stealthy Grandpa Gonzalez is kicking ... More >>

Houston Remembers Green Day, Back In the Day

Photos by Rachelle Mendez and Matthew Juarez​Saturday night, one of the most polarizing bands of the past 20 years rolls into town. Since its 1994 mainstream breakthrough, Dookie, Green Day has been dividing fans and critics alike. Some damned the trio for leaving their punk-rock roots behind at 9 ... More >>

Know Your Enemy

Green Day follows their Bush-bashing smash American Idiot with the even more epic 21st Century Breakdown.

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 >>

Juneteenth Revisited

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Rotation

Afterlife Follies

Happily Hereafter isn't quite heaven -- but it's certainly not hell

Letters

Now They're Cooking

The Resurrection of Sam Taylor

After years of laying low, a Houston music guru has come back for more

Rotation

The Song Remains the Same

The Smithereens don't have a hot new angle, only solid old sounds

Alternative Notion Lollapalooza doesn't say much about its generation, but the music's fine

y Brad Tyer

Jazz Reconsidered

Mucking It Up

Ballot, ballot on the wall, who's the folkiest of all?