Paul Simon

Last Night: fun. at Bayou Music Center

fun. Bayou Music Center February 13, 2013 How long has it been since America's young people have had something to be optimistic about besides the music on the radio? The '80s? That must be the guiding principle behind newly crowned Grammy Best New Artist winners fun., who played to a full Bayou M ... More >>

5 Folk Acts Who Wandered Down the Synth Road

Mandolin enthusiasts Mumford and Sons have been on top of the world the past couple of years, dominating rock-driven radio with a folk sound that apparently touches the hearts of hard-rock bros around the world. Given that they have an apparently winning formula, one wouldn't expect them to change i ... More >>

Wait a Minute! Who Is That? Top 10 Videos With Famous Actor Cameos

When you are an actor, you take basically whatever will feed you just as long as you get to perform. Many actors either got their start in music videos or they will appeared in one after they got famous. Oftentimes, they are pretty memorable.

The Eastern Sea

Americana Music Association Nominates Robert Ellis As Emerging Artist Of The Year

Houston's own globe-trekking Robert Ellis received an Emerging Artist of the Year nomination from the Americana Music Association Thursday afternoon. The ceremony was officiated by actor and musician John C. Reilly, and featured performances by Ellis and a few other big names like Lucinda Williams a ... More >>

Support Staff: 10 Of Pop History's Greatest Backing Bands

Being behind the scenes is what most musicians who don't write songs or sing expect of their lives once they start seriously playing. A career backing someone up can be extremely rewarding, particularly if you are part of a transcendent group of musicians that goes from simply backing up an artist i ... More >>

Lord Lordy, Look Who's Forty: The Best Albums Of 1972

Last week I told you about the best debut albums of 1992, making a lot of us feel old in the process. Hell, I was only nine when those came out and I felt feeble making the list. This week we look at the best albums of 1972, now four decades in the hole, but no less fulfilling and influential. Wha ... More >>

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Chafing 101: Rocks Off's 2011 Music Festival Odyssey

Music festivals are now a part of our lives, just like deadlines, angry commenters, lack of sleep, and eye fatigue. And eating at our desk. That sucks. But at least we have food and a desk, right? Rocks Off ventured all over the state -- OK, really mostly Austin -- to cover festivals for the blog. ... More >>

Sting

Paul Simon Turns 70: Our Favorite Cuts By Rhymin' Simon

Paul Simon dressed as a turkey on Saturday Night Live in 1976. Duh. ​Today Paul Simon, acclaimed solo artist and the much shorter half of Simon & Garfunkel, turns 70 years old. The singer, who just released So Beautiful or So What back in April, has been a key link in bringing African and isla ... More >>

1986: Best Musical Year Ever?

​For almost two weeks now, Rocks Off has been obsessed with the year exactly 25 flips of the calendar backward from this one. It started when Steve Earle did one of his "Time Machine" shows, where the singer-songwriter who plays House of Blues Wednesday spotlights a dozen or so of his favorite ... More >>

There Goes Rhymin' Simon: The First Four Books Of Paul

​With Paul Simon's latest CD, So Beautiful or So What, released this spring, the reissue folks at Columbia/Legacy have embarked on a reissue project. Out of the box first this month are his four solo releases after the implosion of Simon and Garfunkel. Coming on the heels of S&G's epic farewe ... More >>

Last Night: Peter Gabriel At Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Photos by Jay Lee​Peter Gabriel Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion June 16, 2011 Rock writers right now - hell, everyone with a musical soul - are living in the most interesting of times. No, it's not because we can pull any album we want down out of the sky at any time of day. It's because we g ... More >>

Lyrical Advice For The Class Of 2011

"Move back in with your parents! Let them worry about you!"​There will be no guitars and Marshall stacks at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion this weekend, just "Pomp and Circumstance." As the Class of 2011 walks across the stage soon to be occupied by Peter Gabriel, Widespread Panic and Ki ... More >>

On The Road Again: Bikinis And Bands At The Hangout Festival

Photos by Craig Hlavaty Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, duh.​See the bands and bikinis of the Hangout Festival in our slideshows. Imagine the Austin City Limits Music Festival or even the rapidly approaching Free Press Summer Fest on pure, white sand just feet away from a (variably) blue ocea ... More >>

Crazy In Alabama: Hangout Festival Preview

jambase.com​This weekend this member of Rocks Off is heading to Gulf Shores, Alabama, for the Hangout Festival on the beach. Well, hopefully, considering the drive may take us through some rough waters due to the flooding in the deep South. Let us pray... Anyhow, this is the second year for H ... More >>

Out Today: Paul Simon Resurgent, Foos Get Loud, Isbell Kills

​It's New Release Tuesday, and this week's is one of the biggest days of the year, with new discs by the Foo Fighters, a reinvigorated Paul Simon and TV On The Radio leading the pack, plus a few other artists returning to the scene after a few years away from the limelight. Next week (April ... More >>

New Music Releases April 5: Leon Russell, Robbie Robertson, The Ravonettes, The Kills, Etc.

​Last week brought new releases from Britney Spears, Radiohead, and a few Pearl Jam re-issues hitting store shelves amid reports that the industry was finally starting to see some improvement. Spears' Femme Fatale is currently projected to enter the top spot of the Billboard 200 chart with sal ... More >>

Candy Golde Set To Kick In Some Faces At SXSW Debut

​If there is a must-not-miss show for Lonesome Onry and Mean at Austin's annual springtime musical clusterfuck next week, it's Candy Golde at Club Deville, 11 p.m. Friday night. A scary-good Chicago lineup of grizzled veterans - Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, Wilco's John Stiratt, and gui ... More >>

Bob Schneider's Five Favorite Albums Of All Time

Jeff Swensen/ Bob Schneider on Facebook​It's been said that if you have lived in Texas for at least a decade and you haven't at least been in the vicinity of a Bob Schneider show, you are probably lying. Our introduction to Schneider was kind of heartbreaking, but that's another story for anot ... More >>

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble

10 Uncool Artists Primed For Hipster Rediscovery

Tumblr"Aw, dammit, I grabbed Dad's iPod by mistake. Paul Simon... is that one guy, or two Beatles?" ​Remember emo kids? Only a few short years ago, the nation's venues of the nation were filled with kids in all black, wearing ultra-skinny jeans, eyeliner, white belts, and identical chopped-mea ... More >>

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

11 Musical New Year's Resolutions For 2011

​Craig's Hlist stopped making New Year's Eve resolutions the older and more stubborn we got. We normally don't quit or change things forever unless we are forced to do so. ('Sup, ladies?) This makes it hard for us to keep any New Year's Eve resolutions. If anything, it's easier to change organ ... More >>

Top 10 Hottest Jewish Musicians

​The Festival of Lights is upon us, as the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah officially kicks off at sundown tonight. Some of music's leading bigwigs will likely be sparking up the menorah, among them Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Diamond David Lee Roth, Perry Farrell an ... More >>

sIngs' Brett Taylor: One Musician, Two Songs, Same Name... He Makes The Call

​ Saturday night at Mango's, sIngs debuts its new EP, Hells, to what is sure to be a full house. Also on the bill are the reawakened Sharks & Sailors, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Young Mammals and B L A C K I E. Casiotone was to play a gig at The Husk next to Khon's, but when that venue ... More >>

Matt the Electrician

On Its 40th Birthday, the Top 10 Sesame Street Musical Guests

Sing the blues, Kermit... or greens. We know how you feel. Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Elmo and Grover have something to celebrate. Sesame Street, their fictional New York borough, and the television show probably responsible for everything you knew as a kid, turns 40 today. Created ... More >>

Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest

Eyeballin': Paul Simon - Live from Philadelphia

The early '80s were an interesting time in the career of Paul Simon. The past glories of hits with Simon & Garfunkel - along with his sizable solo charting - were behind. And he had yet to reinvent himself as a world music maven with 1986's fine Graceland. His 1980 album One-Trick Pony had yielded ... More >>

Rosa's Photo Corner: "B" and Born Liars in Kodachrome

Kodak Elite Chrome color slide film a/k/a Kodachrome was spotlighted on today's Engines of Our Ingenuity, and in fact, has been immortalized by Paul Simon in song. The modern professional version of this legendary film is the Kodak Ektachrome brand. Here I am teetering on a ladder, shooting&nbs ... More >>

The Whole Wide World: Ladysmith Black Mambazo's Live! DVD

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Live! (Heads Up) http://www.mambazo.com Though international audiences did not discover this South African vocal group until it appeared on Paul Simon's landmark 1986 album Graceland, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been active since the early '60s, when founder Joseph S ... More >>

Afropop Arrives

Motherland music hit a fever pitch with U.S. bands this year

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Darrell Scott's Modern Hymns

Brett Dennen

Indie Rock Rediscovers the Motherland

Kinky Afro

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

The Girl Next Door, Ford at Fox, Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season, The Wire: The Complete Fourth Season

Get Lit: Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music, by Phil Ramone

Sam Yahel Trio

Truth and Beauty

porterdavis

Q&A with Daniel Barrett

Rhymin' Simon

People Try to Put Us Down...

Almost Famous talks about its g-g-generation -- of misguided rock and roll fans

Grand Pops

Bob Dylan and Paul Simon tour together

Rotation

Hip to Be Square

Quality, not fashion, drives the legacy of Simon and Garfunkel

Rotation

The Horn of Africa

Trumpeter Hugh Masekela hears the beat of the music in the world