Punk Rock

Five '90s Musical Fads We Remember Well, But Don't Really Miss

​A little over a decade ago, swing music made a strange comeback. You may remember seeing people all over dressing like '40s hipsters, jumping and jiving in Gap commercials and most every club or bar was offering swing lessons. It started with the release of the film Swingers, which still mi ... More >>

Punk Rock Karaoke Returns Tonight At Notsuoh

www.notsuoh.com​ If you have ever dreamed of being in a punk band, or at least dreamed of embarrassing yourself in front of people you may be trying to sleep with, Notsuoh has you covered tonight, hosting the resurrection of live-band Punk Rock Karaoke. About six years ago, PRK was in full-swing b ... More >>

Houston Musicians Recall Their Own Rock and Roll High School Days

​Tonight Rocks Off is hosting the first annual Texas High School Rock Off, with local bands from area schools fighting for a grand prize of $500 and bragging rights around town. This past week we have profiled the seven bands in the running: The Paperwaits, Useful Information, The Handshake, Livin ... More >>

Get Lit: I Slept with Joey Ramone by Mickey Leigh with Legs McNeil

​Though the title indicates this might be a juicy memoir from a punk-rock groupie, it's actually by the brother of the Ramones singer, who did indeed share a bedroom with the tall boy born Jeffrey Hyman for many years. The crux of the book follows Leigh's (born Mitchell Hyman) extremely up-and-dow ... More >>

A Few of Music's Biggest Tattoo Enthusiasts - Besides Rocks Off, Of Course

Don't act so surprised... As we can fatefully attest, rock and roll and tattoos go hand in hand. The first time Rocks Off saw a grizzled punk rocker walk by at Fitzgerald's back in the '90s with two sleeves full of tattoos and a chest full of nautical-themed art, we mentally pointed at him and said ... More >>

"My Son Is the Lizard King, and I'm an Admiral": Successful Rock-Star Parents

​Late Thursday, word came across the ticker that legendary comedian and TV star Soupy Sales had passed away at age 83. After a stint in the military and on radio, Sales went on to be one of the major pioneers of televised sketch and children's comedy. In 1965, he pulled a stunt where he asked his ... More >>

Five Clips In Memory of L.A. Punk Documentarian Brendan Mullen

Brendan Mullen, documentarian of the early L.A. punk scene, died this past Monday at the age of 60. From the basement of a porno theater to The Decline of Western Civilization, the Scottish-born implant helped chronicle early American West Coast punk both orally and through the written word, ending ... More >>

Aftermath: Blondie, Graceful and Casual at the Arena Theatre

Photos by Daniel Kramer​ Even at today's prices, dreaming is free. That's why an evening with Blondie is such a bargain. Sandwiched between the Donnas (who sounded tight and sassy from the will call line) and Pat Benatar (still "Invincible"), Debbie Harry's crew navigated the Arena's revolving sta ... More >>

No Exit

Blondie casts a wide net indeed on the band's Last.fm station.

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.

Rancid

Houston's Rememberances of Warped Tours Past

For the past 15 years, the Vans Warped Tour has been barreling through city after city across the globe creating punk rockers out of boy scouts and riot grrls out of band geeks. The traveling punk, hardcore and emo road show has been coming to Houston since 1995. The first taste local punks got of f ... More >>

Flannel File: The Descendents

One hot morning in August of 1997, my little brother and I hopped on MARTA (Mom wouldn't let me use the car) and moseyed on down to the Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta for the third-ever Warped Tour. Should the writer of a column about experimental music be ashamed of having gone to the Warped Tour ... More >>

The Vibrators

Jon Ginoli: Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division

Web exclusive!

Eyeballin': NOFX's Backstage Passport

NOFX Backstage Passport DVD www.nofx.orgFew bands in punk rock have lasted as long as the San Francisco-based NOFX. And even far fewer have stayed as relatively tight-knit a crew as Fat Mike and the boys. After 25 years of co-existence, most pop-punk bands of NOFX's ilk and age have already shuffled ... More >>

Houston Punks Legionaire's Disease Band, Gone But Hardly Forgotten

Coffin Corner

Artist of the Week: O Pioneers!!!

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. If we were forced by thr ... More >>

Punk en Español

The heavily Hispanic roots — and present — of Houston's punk scene

Aftermath: Greg Ginn & the Taylor Texas Corrugators and Jambang at Last Concert Cafe

Photos by Craig HlavatyEven while playing dissonant improvised bass in a trio consisting of himself, a shit-hot mandolin player, and a jazz drummer, Greg Ginn still sounds like Greg Ginn. After almost a decade as the captain of hardcore mavericks Black Flag, Ginn embarked on a career as an im ... More >>

Get Lit: On the Road with the Ramones

From their 1974 live debut in New York City to their final 1996 show in L.A., eight bruddas in leather have claimed the surname Ramone. But if there were a ninth member of the punk-rock godfathers, he would of course be Monte Ramone. For 2,263 performances in front of crowds ranging from a hand ... More >>

Totally Fucked Up

Perhaps the best-named band of all time

RIP Ron Asheton

The Stooges, "No Fun" Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, whose MC5-inspired gutter blues effectively laid the foundation for punk rock guitar, was found dead this morning in his Ann Arbor, Michigan, home, the Ann Arbor News reported. Asheton's personal assistant contacted Ann Arbor police after not he ... More >>

Doll Parts: Mydolls

Amid Noise and Smoke, legendary Houston post-punks reunite

Aftermath: The Revival Tour at Walter's on Washington

Cro-Mags (jam)

Get Lit: The Clash by the Clash

Butthole Surfers Pt. 1: Ex-Manager Tom Bunch on BHS' First Houston Show, "Gibby Used to Drop His Pants a Lot," His Punk Rock Video Archives, Explaining the Music Business and More

Against Me! at ACL Fest

DVD Review: Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

Stageside Blogging: Buxton Catches a Train

Peeking Inside the Shadowy Crypt of Houston's Goth Community

The Red Dons

This Portland foursome is packed full of post-punk influences

Mike Ness, with Jesse Dayton

Byron Dean's Matagorda Island Discs

(In which locals sound off on the ten records they would take to Matagorda Island, the nearest major unpopulated sandbar to Houston.)

The Judy's Come Back

Just in time for SXSW, the Pearland New Wavers brush off the mothballs

Last Night: The Slits and Friends at Numbers

Plastic Idols : Singles, Demos & Live: Houston Punk '78-'80

Last Night: NOFX at Warehouse Live

Joe Lally, Edie Sedgwich

Local Punks Something Fierce Try to Act Their Age

We Were the Young Americans

The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists

A new book compiles punk's greatest hits and biggest dicks

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

Joe Strummer transcends punk, and the music lives on

Last Night: The Evens at NoTsuOh

Punkhouse: Anarchist Interiors

Abby Banks explores the houses that punk built

The Lawrence Arms

This band breathes new life into pop-punk’s flaccid, bloated corpse

Joy Division's Expanded Reissues

Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Still, Control Original Motion Picture Sound Track

Get Lit: Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer, by Chris Salewicz

Last Night: Against Me! at the Meridian