Okkervil River

Last Night: Octopus Project, Bring Back the Guns at Numbers

Give Us a Hand

Weekend Music: Sublime Lives (Sort Of)

SXSW Day 1: Tricks of the Trade

SXSW Last Night: Houston Hijacks the Austin Music Awards

SXSW Ephemera: Random Notes from the Field

SXSW Ephemera, Part Deux: More Random Notes from the Field

Has ACL Festival Jumped the Shark?

Tonight: Donkeys and Listenlisten at Rudyard's

Over the Weekend: South by Southwest in Photos

Not sure if you noticed, but we took a ton of photos over the last few days. Click the links for all kinds of action. SXSW, Day One Photo by Mark C. Austin The Austin Music Awards A chronicle in picture form of some of the SXSW live acts you could have caught on Wednesday, March 18, if only you h ... More >>

South by Southwest in Photos

Not sure if you noticed, but we took a ton of photos over the last few days. Click the links for all kinds of action. South by Southwest Day One Photo by Mark C. Austin The Austin Music Awards A chronicle in picture form of some of the SXSW live acts you could have caught on Wednesday, March 18, ... More >>

2008 in Texas Albums and Local EPs

Not sure if you noticed, but we took a ton of photos over the last few days. Click the links for all kinds of action. South by Southwest Day One Photo by Mark C. Austin The Austin Music Awards A chronicle in picture form of some of the SXSW live acts you could have caught on Wednesday, March 18, ... More >>

The Not-So-New Kids on the Block

Still Hangin' Tough?

The Greatest Texas Rock Album of All Time

Still Hangin' Tough?

The Best of ACL Fest

Still Hangin' Tough?

Welcome to Never Ever Land

Still Hangin' Tough?

Okkervil River: The Stand Ins

Still Hangin' Tough?

Texas Albums

2007's best Texas albums, from Houston, Austin and beyond

Okkervil River

2007's best Texas albums, from Houston, Austin and beyond

Local Motion

2007's best Texas albums, from Houston, Austin and beyond

Dark Star Rising

Jenny Lewis primps for her big push

Okkervil River, with the Decemberists

Friday, April 1, at Mary Jane's Fat Cat, 4216 Washington Avenue, 713-869-5263.

Stream of Consciousness

Drift away on the gentle thrills of Okkervil River

I Walked With a Zombie: A Roky Erickson Primer

Chris GrayOkkervil River's Will Sheff (left) and Roky Erickson at the 2008 Austin Music AwardsRocks Off is starting to get really excited about Roky Erickson's show at the Continental Club Wednesday night. As of around noon Tuesday, about 50 tickets were left, available at Sig's Lagoon. Sig's owner ... More >>

Ghosts of Washington Avenue

Noise goes whistling through the scenester artery's music venue graveyard.

Listen Up

Gunplay aside, listenlisten have made one of 2009's most anachronistic, arresting new albums.

Magnolia City Mixtape: Be Hollywood F.L.O.S.S.'s Pen Pal, Roky Erickson Okkervil River, New Something Fierce 7" and Dave Wrangler Mashup

​ Ever wish you had a pen pal like Hollywood F.L.O.S.S. when you were a kid? He's been sending out a mixtape called Art-or-Fiscal Intelligence to various bloggers around the U.S. You can listen online or download here, and read some of the props he's been getting. Austinites Okkervil River re ... More >>

Roky Erickson

​ Ever wish you had a pen pal like Hollywood F.L.O.S.S. when you were a kid? He's been sending out a mixtape called Art-or-Fiscal Intelligence to various bloggers around the U.S. You can listen online or download here, and read some of the props he's been getting. Austinites Okkervil River re ... More >>

Magnolia City Mixtape: Roky Erickson, Houston Symphony, BandCamp, Solange, The Vatican, Watermarks, Featherface, Lots More

Roky Erickson and Will Sheff of Okkervil River at Toy Joy, Austin TX from Roky Erickson w/ Okkervil River on Vimeo. Roky Erickson plays tomorrow night at the Continental Club for the second time in about six months. The Texas Psychedelic Rock blog posted a video last week of Erickson and Okkervil R ... More >>

Hlavaty On The Hloose At SXSW: Roky Erickson, Okkervil River And The Sweetest Skynyrd Tattoo Of All Time

Photos, except where indicated, by Craig Hlavaty4:49 p.m.: "Roky and Okker is perfection."​ 4:08 p.m.: "Back on Sixth. Sea of green. Full tilt SXSW already. Paste party now." 4:11 p.m.: "Roky Erickson inside Paste tent party in 15." 4:12 p.m. Rocks Off Sr.: "YOU MUST GET A PIC OF ROKY" 4:15 p.m.: ... More >>

SXSW Pictures From Wednesday (You Know We Had To Throw A Fight In There)

Photos by Craig HlavatyRoky Erickson (right) and Okkervil River plowed through the Paste Party with Texas psych nuggets like "Two Headed Dog."​ Sleepy Sun's stoner blooze wafted over Emo's Annex.​

SXSW Aftermath: A Spry Wanda Jackson And Our Friends Mariachi El Bronx

Photos by Craig HlavatyWanda Jackson​ As the first night of SXSW 2010 got underway a pall came over the crowd, at least from those who had been glued to their smart phones by the news of the passing of Big Star lead singer Alex Chilton in New Orleans. The influential power-pop band was due to clos ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: Shearwater Takes Flight At Antone's

​In 2008, when Jonathan Meiburg left Okkervil River to focus exclusively on Shearwater, his bird-named band, and his ornithological career studying birds, you could see that Meiburg's other Okker Will Sheff had big plans in mind. (That they would include Roky Erikson, well... not as apparent.) ... More >>

Austin City Limits Festival Tickets On Sale Tomorrow At 10 A.M.

We're not saying Soundgarden is playing ACL, but you never know...​That's right. Now why would Rocks Off make something like that up? Hope you have $180 lying around and don't have any meetings or classes or anything like that tomorrow morning, because they're going to go quick. Better go ahead an ... More >>

Wrong Number

Houston's Miss Leslie dials up more honky-tonk homilies on her new CD.

Love, Shelby

Shelby Lynne smolders on Tears, Lies, and ­Alibis.

The Ten Bleakest Songs In Country Music History

decodedstuff.com​Country music isn't all high-tech rednecks and honky tonk badonkadonks. Country artists have a tendency to, every now and then, sing about some dark, disturbing stuff. Sometimes scary, sometimes violent, and sometimes just weird, here are some country songs that rival the blac ... More >>

Texans Have Down Year In Grammy Nominations

​Texas artists, or artists with Texas roots, scored fewer nominations than usual when the Recording Academy announced its choices for the 53rd annual Grammy Awards Wednesday night. Perpetual nominees Beyonce and George Strait were nominated for residual tracks from I Am... Sasha Fierce and Twa ... More >>

Balaclavas, Moccs, Fat Tony Place In Pazz & Jop Poll

Show of hands, everyone who is surprised this is No. 1.​Music writers all know that once they get their Village Voice Pazz & Jop ballot in their e-mail inbox, that it's time to tally their loves from the last year. It's sort of like the leaves changing or the first freeze of winter coming. You ... More >>

Arcade Fire Headed To Houston May 4 For Pavilion Date

cnn.com​Arcade Fire is finally heading to Houston on May 4 for a date up at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, in the Woodlands. Last Sunday the band played upsetters at the Grammys winning the award for Album Of The Year for their album The Suburbs which was based on frontman Win Butler's childhood ... More >>

"Whacko From Waco" & 10 Other Batsh!t Texas Songs

Texas: You're soaking in it.​Happy Texas Independence Day, everyone. Today The Only State That Matters officially enters its 175th year of pissing off the lesser 49 states and producing the best music anywhere on Earth. One of Texas' biggest honky-tonk heroes is of course Billy Joe Shaver, who ... More >>

Rocks Off's Must-See Music Picks For SXSW '11

​As you may have heard, there's a teeny-tiny little music festival going on in Austin later this week. Some of the early birds on team Rocks Off are either already there or well on their way, as a matter of fact. With more than 2,000 artists playing the official part of SXSW alone, trying to ... More >>

Out Today: Beasties Bite Back, Stevie Nicks Gets Witchier

​What's the best way to celebrate the elimination of Osama Bin Laden? Listening to the Foo Fighters' latest album Wasting Light for the fourth week straight, of course. Send help, or at least the announcement of a late-summer or early fall tour date. Come on, man, just one hit. This week's n ... More >>

Last Night: The Low Anthem At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jim Bricker​The Low Anthem Fitzgerald's May 2, 2011 In another lifetime, and another location, Fitzgerald's could have been a barn. Every time we see a show upstairs, Aftermath halfway expects an owl to swoop out of the rafters and sink its talons into an errant field mouse. Note t ... More >>

Out Today: Tyler, The Creator's Goblin, The Cars Restarted...

​We now live in a world where Adele is a chart-topping artist, placing at number one slot the past few weeks, rubbing shoulders with the Foo Fighters, Katy Perry, Mumford & Sons, and Britney Spears. If Adele's 21 isn't on the top of everyone's best-of 2011 lists, there is no justice in the wor ... More >>

The Best Albums Of 2011 (So Far)

​The year isn't quite half over, but as of today, "summer" is officially here - even if the calendar needs a few weeks to catch up - and by the time summer is over, so will 2011. Or close enough. So Rocks Off asked our staff to give us their favorite two albums of the year so far, plus one out ... More >>

Fun Fun Fun Fest Leaks Lineup Via Navy Signal Flags

How up to date on your nautical signaling are you? Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest leaked a few names for its Nov. 4-6 fall brawl at Auditorium Shores this morning. If you know your flags, you can figure it out all by yourself via the above video. Rocks Off will be a little busy with our own Houston Pr ... More >>

Fun Fun Fun Fest Leaking 2011 Lineup On Turntable.fm

​After leaking artists including Okkervil River, Odd Future, X and - most people believe - Slayer, Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest has officially begun announcing its 2011 lineup via the brand-new file-sharing/social-media hybrid Turntable FM. Fun Fun Fun began streaming songs from this year's arti ... More >>

Roky Erickson

​After leaking artists including Okkervil River, Odd Future, X and - most people believe - Slayer, Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest has officially begun announcing its 2011 lineup via the brand-new file-sharing/social-media hybrid Turntable FM. Fun Fun Fun began streaming songs from this year's arti ... More >>

Our Top Ten Picks For Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011

Photo By Marc BrubakerBest Coast at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010​This weekend the Rocks Off team will cover their third Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, at the festival's new home Auditorium Shores. Each year this fest seems to get bigger and better, without losing it's grimy luster. Is it the Austin City ... More >>