Peter Gabriel

Why Vampire Weekend Makes Me Embarrassed to Be a Hipster

Friends, let's get real here. I can't lie to you any longer. By popular opinion, I have been labeled a hipster. This is not a new or recent development. I was being called a hipster in 2008, long before it was cool to call people hipsters. I've even been mistaken for the guy who started the Hipster ... More >>

What Was Your First Favorite Song?

Two of the last shows I have covered for Rocks Off, Elton John and George Strait, had set lists full of classic songs that I have been humming and tapping my toes to since I can remember. With careers with such longevity, both artists have touched generations, with their music getting passed on to t ... More >>

The Five Greatest Daniel Lanois Productions

Late to the party as ever, I recently caught up with the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album, Push the Sky Away, in light of the hype over their SXSW showcase last week. The album is fantastic, of course, but one thing that immediately jumped out at me upon listening to it was the interesting choi ... More >>

5 Bands Studies Show Make You a Bad Person

We've been hearing for years that rock music makes us bad people. We've heard it from our parents, from teachers, from those goody-goody kids at school. AC/DC has probably written at least 100 songs about the subject. But what if I told you that scientists in the Netherlands have proved definitively ... More >>

10 Songs Still Missing From Spotify & What You Can Listen to Instead

As recently mentioned, I'm a pretty big fan of Spotify. Speaking as someone who never got over getting burned by my purchase of Stroke 9's Nasty Little Thoughts I'm a big fan of having the chance to listen to a record all the way through before making a purchase. In their advertising the company i ... More >>

What Was Your Favorite Concert at The Summit?

It must be music-venue day today. Rocks Off would like to thank Jon Harvey of Houston (@oompahead) for alerting us via Twitter to the fact that on this day in 1975, when I was a few weeks away from turning one year old, the sports and entertainment arena then known as the Summit opened in Greenway P ... More >>

The 5 Worst Cover Albums of All Time

I think when they're just starting out, every musician dreams of making a cover album at some point down the road. We all have our favorite songs that we wish we had written and we all fantasize about singing and playing them ourselves. It's why karaoke bars exist. Of course, everyone thinks they w ... More >>

The 10 Best Guest Appearances On Other People's Songs

Have you ever had one of those moments when, you're listening to a song and hear something familiar, like maybe a familiar voice or wonder, "Okay, who is really playing this particular instrument?" Many times a band or an artist will guest star on a recording. Sometimes it's a well-known fact, such ... More >>

Santigold Goes Hard

Dance-pop provocateurSantigold is the polar opposite of the starlets she once co-wrote songs with.

This Week in Food Blogs: Houston's Top 100 Restaurants?

29-95: To quote Peter Gabriel, the "big big big big big big big big big" news this week was the release of Alison Cook's top 100 restaurants in Houston. I can't imagine how monumental of a task it was to compile not only the list, but all of the write-ups that accompany each entry. The full list -- ... More >>

App of the Week: Let iTranslate Voice Do Your Talking for You

App: iTranslate Voice Platform: iPhone Web site: iTranslate Voice Cost: $0.99 Back in the '90s, there was this cool band from Denton called Ten Hands. They were sort of a weird mix of the Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel and Frank Zappa. They had really quirky material and covered a wide range of style ... More >>

Readers Poll: The Most Underrated Rock Albums Of The '90s

For this week's readers poll, I asked our Facebook and Twitter chums their choices for the most underrated and unsung albums of the '90s. We all agree on things like Nevermind, Harvest Moon, Mezzanine, The Soft Bulletin, Odelay and OK Computer, but what about albums that fall through the cracks of ... More >>

Readers Poll: The Best Third Albums Ever

This week in 1980, Van Halen released their third album Women And Children First, which contained the hits "And the Cradle Will Rock...," "Everybody Wants Some!! and fan favorite "Romeo Delight." It's not the best VH album ever, but it was, in fact, their third album. Most VH super-freaks I know an ... More >>

A Rush Limbaugh Playlist: What Else Could Upset Artists Like Peter Gabriel?

There are a lot of people upset with Rush Limbaugh. If you've heard what Limbaugh had to say about Georgetown student Sandra Fluke, then you can guess which parties are upset with him. Even a professional troll faces repercussions for calling a 30 year old college student "a slut". It's not surpr ... More >>

In Prog We Trust: Five Progressive Rock Bands You Hate, But Shouldn't

There are some forms of music that struggle to find critical acclaim while others are loved by critics but universally dismissed by the public. Then, there is another group that, despite a loyal and sometimes massive cult following, are disliked by critics and everyday music fans alike. Meet prog-r ... More >>

Tori, Tool, TLC And The Other Musical Debuts Of 1992

1992 was a pretty heady year for music in general, with the masses gobbling up all the gangsta rap, grunge, and pop-country they could. That year would see the release of not only R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People, Peter Gabriel's Us, Pantera's Vulgar Display Of Power, but also what is arguably The ... More >>

Aftermath: Our Favorite Shows of 2011

Photo By Craig HlavatyRex's War Face: The crowd's at June's Free Press Summer Fest were feral and friendly. ​This week we asked our pool of Rocks Off writers what their favorite shows of 2011 were, the ones that brought joy to their hearts to attend and helped them make magic with a keyboard h ... More >>

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs Rush...Again

Photo by Jeff Balke​A couple years ago, I was sitting on the back porch at the Continental Club talking music with a fairly well known music writer who seemed to believe that anything with a big hook or the slightest inkling of musicianship beyond the garage band aesthetic was utter garbage. I ... 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 >>

Peter Gabriel & the New Blood Orchestra

The 25 Most Influential Music Videos Of All Time

​It's hard to fathom a time before music videos, and it's even sadder to remember when channels like MTV and VH1 were wall-to-wall music videos. In between there was a golden age, when with every clip that you watched could spark a revolution in you, or at least change your fashion sense. It's ... 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 >>

Peter Gabriel Coming To Houston June 16

​It's been eight years since former Genesis front man and mainstream avant-garde pop artist Peter Gabriel has performed in Houston, and on June 16 he will remedy that with what is sure to be a sold-out affair at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Last Saturday on his official Web site, Gabr ... More >>

Guns N' Roses, Rolling Stones, Prince Coming In 2011?

Sind Axl und Slash wieder Freunde geworden?​Rocks Off is in the concert business for all intents and purposes. We scour Pollstar and other Web sites and almost hourly looking for new shows and tours to tell you about around the clock. In the span of writing this introduction we just listed Luc ... More >>

106.9 FM Gets In The Zone, Misses The Point?

​Another Houston radio station has changed formats, or "flipped," although early reaction from some listeners is that the change is so slight it's hardly a change at all. Cox Communications has rechristened its property at 106.9 FM from "The Point" to "The Zone." It's not a sports station, al ... More >>

The Top 10 Rock-Musician Film Scores

​David Fincher's Facebook creation tale The Social Network has been the No. 1 film in America the past two weekends, and no doubt it will continue that streak this weekend, barring an assault by Jackass 3-D which comes out today. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone is already hailing Network as a ... More >>

Dave Matthews Band's Seven Best Covers

Craig Hlavaty​Tonight the Dave Matthews Band hits the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion with Austin's Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears as their supporting act. Now into their second decade of massive touring schedules, the DMB is now a cash machine on wheels - a sort of cleaner and less hairy Gr ... More >>

Keane

Top 5 Daniel Lanois Productions

​This past Saturday in Los Angeles, legendary producer Daniel Lanois, known for his trademark echo-heavy sound and work with the likes of U2 and Bob Dylan, was involved in a near-fatal motorcycle accident. Lanois was slated to soon begin work on Brandon Flowers of the Killers' solo debut and the u ... More >>

Yeasayer

He Said She Said: Our Christmas Musical Wishlists, Part 2 - LPs Nobody Can Buy

​When He Said was four years old, all he wanted for Christmas was big brown tape recorder that Play Skool put out so he could record his own imaginary radio shows and crazed ramblings about He-Man. Santa Claus brought it that year, and He Said wore that thing out over the next few months. For Chri ... More >>

Live From ACL: Buckets of Rain, and a Bright Spot or Two

Photos by Chris GrayThis photo was NOT taken Saturday. Trust us.​ The streak is over. In eight years, Austin City Limits has seen plenty of days of unbearable heat, but hardly any rain. The most significant time was during Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' headlining 2006 set, but even that was m ... More >>

"Kill Yourself" or "Don't Give Up"? Five Possible Theme Songs for the 2009 Houston Texans

[Ed. note: Due to an editing mistake, this should have been up Friday afternoon. Apologies... we sure hope it didn't jinx the Texans or anything.] ​You may have missed it - what with there being almost no media coverage whatsoever - but football season started this week. Our own Texans are looking ... More >>

Blind Boys of Alabama

He Said She Said: Songs for Getting It On

[Ed. Note: While we were off watching Night Ranger videos or something - which should tell you all you need to know about our own sex life at the moment - Rocks Off No. 2, Craig Hlavaty, and Web Editor Katharine Shilcutt started going back and forth about how men and women want to hear very differen ... More >>

The Year in Albums

Le Damnation de Faust

Going to hell? See who else is already there

Studemont Project, Million Year Dance, Peekaboo Theory, the Tontons

David Rice

A songsmith picks up the pieces and returns to Houston in triumph

Give Us a Hand

Confessions of a Classic Rock Whore, or One Man’s Journey

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

Screw October

Justin Furstenfeld orders us to hate him. We obey.

Image of the Week

Cactus Music & Video

Anarchy in da USA

Looking for the true spirit of the Ramones? Try going to an underground hip-hop show.

Erasure

Other People's Songs (Mute)

Gather Around for Storytime

Tracy Chapman

Sparking Interest

David Rice finally throws the switch on greenelectric

Post-Christmas Clearance

John Frusciante and Hildegard von Bingen never went to Festus, Missouri

Woman Childs