Oslo

Visitor's Guide: 7 Things We Don't Want You to See When You Come to Houston

Last week, many were surprised -- some even perplexed -- to see our beloved city on the annual New York Times list of places to visit in 2013. Houston was number seven on a list of 46 that included Rio, Amsterdam, Singapore, Hawaii's Big Island, Oslo, Bangkok and Paris. Yes, we were on a "must visit ... More >>

SXSW Releases First Batch of 2013 Performers

Here go hell come, SXSW has just released the first batch of names for the 2013 festival. I know, only a week after Fun Fun Fun Fest and a month since ACL. Did you see the FPSF blog from earlier today? Yeah, time is moving too fast. The big names on the list so far include the Zombies, Alt-J, Akro ... More >>

Horror Business: The Top 5 Most Evil Rock Stars

Halloween and rock and roll go together like peanut butter and jelly. Something about darkened rooms filled with outlandish costumes and screaming girls, we guess. Some of the rock's most ghoulish stars are also its most fun, as Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson will no doubt prove once again at Reliant ... More >>

Nightmares Come True In Mothlite's "Seeing In the Dark"

Daniel O'Sullivan is a ridiculously talented, multiinstrumentalist that records under so many different monikers he's damn near impossible to keep up with. You might save yourself some time by just assuming any new depressing song sung in an English accent is by him. His latest work in video form ... More >>

Oslo, August 31st

An addict revisits the people he has hurt and his own demons.

This Just In: SXSW Announces First Round Of 2012 Showcasing Bands, Including Fat Tony and Something Fierce

Photo By Marco TorresFat Tony at a day show at SXSW '11​Sweet lord, it's not even Thanksgiving yet and South By Southwest is making us excited for March in Austin already. Today the industry festival announced a few bands coming to the capitol city next year, and a few Houston names and Rocks ... More >>

David Sha: The Politics Behind Not Wearing Any Drawers

​Songs end up in our inbox all of the time. All of the time. Sometimes they go there to flourish, to (eventually) be posted here with praise and e-high-fives. Sometimes they go there to die, a Bad Music Graveyard, if you will. Rarely, though, are they the sole reason why someone or some band i ... More >>

Graphic: When Festival Booking Goes Too Far

Garland RobinetteYes, this is the real Jazz Fest 2011 poster, and that's really Jimmy Buffett.​Every spring, New Orleans puts on something called the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. But as Jazz Fest has grown more and more popular, the headlining acts have had less and less to do with ja ... More >>

SXSW 2011 Still Untainted By Houston Artists

listenlisten: Not playing SXSW 2011... yet.​Rocks Off just got the latest list of names for next year's SXSW conference and festival in Austin, and just like the last time, the conference remains unsullied by any performers from Houston's filthy, rotten, disgusting, in-need-of-quarantine music ... More >>

Last Night: Blonde Redhead At Warehouse Live

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Blonde Redhead Warehouse Live November 29, 2010 The trio of lead vocalist Kazu Makino and twin brothers Amedeo and Simone Pace sonically sailed their way into Houston last night to open up their vast palette of musical and visual colors for a packed-out crowd. Many in ... More >>

Houston Slammed By European Travel Blog: We're Boooorrring

But...but...there's the Kemah Boardwalk!!​Among world cities, in which category does Houston rank second only to Brussels, the capital of the European Union? Tedium, at least according to the European Union-funded wiki blog OpenTravel. According to "Chili," an English-language challenged scr ... More >>

A Royal ABBA Salute And Other Scandinavian Musical Delights

Photos by Brittanie SheyThe Royal Band outside Stockholm Palace​Välkommen from Scandinavia! More specifically, Gothenburg, Sweden, the country's "second city" and home to some of Rocks Off's favorite bands from recent years, including El Perro Del Mar, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives and The Knif ... More >>

Five Onstage Meltdowns Funnier Than Courtney Love In D.C.

Universal Music Group​As far as Rocks Off knows, everything is hunky-dory for Hole's show at House of Blues this evening. Courtney Love and friends are scheduled to play from 9:45 to 11:15, which Rocks Off is interpreting as they could go on anywhere from 9:45 to 11:15. As Hole's rambling, sl ... More >>

Summer Tours We'd Like To See: Bring Back Texxas Jam!

Reminder: Tickets for Lady Gaga's Toyota Center show next year go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m.​ Summer concert season doesn't last as long as hurricane season, and leaves somewhat less damage in its aftermath, but at least it gives us something to look forward to during those long, hot months. This ... More >>

Bartender Chat: Mike Sims of Rudyard's

​For the last ten years, Mike Sims has been working at Rudyard's British Pub (2010 Waugh Dr.). But he hasn't always been the bartender. He started out helping a friend bar-back, and then he moved to working the door. Eight years ago, he started working as a bartender.

Sailing Away With Songs Of The Caribbean

​A couple of years ago She Said was in Oslo, Norway, where she saw an exhibit by artist Tacita Dean chronicling the mysterious voyage of Donald Crowhurst. Dean found and photographed the Teignmouth Electron, the boat Crowhurst apparently abandoned, and collected newspaper articles from the circum ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: Pirate Love's Proto-Punk, Codiene Velvet Club's Swinging Harmonies Carry The Night At Rusty Spurs

Photos by Adam P. Newton​Aftermath is quite the fan of tromping across the whole of downtown Austin, moving from one day party to the next. The point of those events is to provide people with an unending stream of options so as to gain a fairly decent glimpse of what's happening in current mus ... More >>

Last Night: Negativland at Rice University

MySpaced Out: A MySpace Mixtape

MySpaced Out

Our social-network scout sizes up some all-female Scandinavian bands

Drenched In Blog: Attention Denim Demons and Princes of The Rodeo

Last Night: Valient Thorr and ASG at the Meridian

Our top DVD picks for the week of March 1

Party Boy

Matt Sonzala puts on Houston rap parties all over the world

Free At Last

A harrowing journey leads to America, and then to someplace better

Book Learnin'

Another year of textbook follies

Tales of Rail

Metro's incoming chairman loves to tell stories. Can Houstonians cotton to his next one?

Upcoming Concerts

Port Vale -- Norma Zenteno and Raised By Wolves -- Trish Murphy

Rotation

Django Reinhardt -- Gluecifer

The Love Barge