Radiohead

David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest: The Soundtrack (With Endnotes)

One of Time magazine's Top 100 English-language novels of the last century, the late David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest is a gargantuan book. Its cutting, comedic views cover a broad swath of American life, but focus on family dysfunction, chemical dependency, depression, entertainment saturation ... More >>

Why Has the Strokes' Comeback Tanked?

The great hope of rock and roll critics at the start of the 21st century, the Strokes, released their newest record Comedown Machine last month. It was met with the sort of lukewarm reviews that the band has been receiving for years now; about the greatest compliment anyone can give it is that "it's ... More >>

Frank Zappa and Other Quicksand Artists

Tonight House of Blues will be graced by Zappa Plays Zappa, led by the late Papa Frank's oldest son Dweezil, who inherited some of his father's guitar skills. Zappa Plays Zappa is the preeminent traveling Zappa tribute show going, and Dweezil's love letter to his father's body of work, which has onl ... More >>

15 Notable Houston Concerts of 2012

As we look back over 2012 this week, it is now time to revisit some of this year's memorable shows. It wasn't easy narrowing the list down to 15. Concerts are in chronological order. CHRIS GRAY DAY, The Continental Club So much local talent and so much love. Uh, if I'm maybe a little too biased on ... More >>

The Top 5 Artists Written Off By "Serious Music Listeners"

One of the weirdest things to happen in music in 2012 was the revelation that Ke$ha might be, gasp, a talented singer with ambitions beyond brushing her teeth with Jack Daniels. I'm pretty sure when she debuted in 2009, none of us "serious music listeners" appreciated anything about her. I mean, she ... More >>

Fan Direction: 5 Great Music-Video Contest Winners

One of the latest trends I've observed in music is that almost everyone is outsourcing their videos these days, even top artists. It's much easier and cheaper to hold a fan contest, asking your fans to create videos for you, than it is to go out and shoot the video yourself on your (or your record l ... More >>

2013 Free Press Summer Fest Presale Begins

Get ready Houston, the 2013 Free Press Summer Fest blind presale begins today -- like now -- on the FPSF website for the fifth edition of the festival. Of course no bands have been announced yet, which makes it a blind sale, and could mean you are unwittingly buying tickets to see Beck or Radiohead, ... More >>

Top 5 Bands Influenced by Public Image Ltd.

Public Image Ltd will be performing in the Greater Houston area on Friday, tomorrow, and as previously mentioned here, their choice of Scout Bar out in Clear Lake is a little unexpected. Rewind: Talking Politics, and Almost No Music, With Punk Legend John Lydon For those who haven't heard of PiL, ... More >>

Was My Brunch on the Titanic or in Downtown Houston? Hint: There Were Bottomless Mimosas

Tucked into the restored Foley Building, the second oldest in the Historic District of downtown, is a gem of a restaurant: Hearsay Gastro Lounge. Fresh off the plane from five days of some of the worst food around (thank you, Walt Disney), I met some friends for brunch there last Sunday. It was my ... More >>

Friday Night: Dave Matthews Band At The Woodlands

Dave Matthews Band Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion May 18, 2012 On the way to Friday's Dave Matthews Band show, the question was raised as to the difference between what Radiohead is doing now -- the improvised jams that were birthed this past year -- and what the DMB does on a nightly basis. The o ... More >>

Saturday Night: The Manichean At Walter's

​The Manichean, The Clouds are Ghosts, Bang Bangz, Glass the Sky Walter's March 24, 2012 Houston's The Manichean kept it going strong Saturday night, following a well-received show the night before in Beaumont. A locally acclaimed act, they held up with much live energy. The album posted on thei ... More >>

White Rabbits Have Some Very Strange Ideas About Spring Break Songs

White Rabbits aren't your run-of-the-mill hipsters. The New York Times recently likened the New York band's third album, Milk Famous, to "Radiohead's technique of surrounding a sustained vocal melody with jagged pointillism... some songs barely bother to flesh out their chords. They're all rhythm an ... More >>

The Handshake: Local Rockers Greet Us With Obscenity

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're trying hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. HPMA-winning group the Handshake's music sounds like it's being pulled out of an old radio one note at a time by an angst-ridden teenager with a ... More >>

We Tell You Who Will Win Grammys So You Don't Have To Watch Them

SPOILER ALERT​The best thing about the annual Grammy nominations and awards shows is the clamor of anger that rises up when the mere mention of the event even comes up. Immediately people begin calling it a travesty, trotting out all the people who have been snubbed -- Jethro Tull beats Metall ... More >>

And Here's Glass The Sky, Indie-Rock Group/Clarinet Enthusiasts

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 sheaserrano@gmail.com. ​This is Glass The Sky. T ... More >>

One Year After Woman Gets Masters In The Beatles, We Hunt Down Most Bizarre College Music Courses

A year ago today, Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy of Ontario became the first person in the world to earn a master's degree in The Beatles. I'm not quite sure what she's doing now, but I do know she could probably kick anyone's ass in Beatles trivia. This little anniversary of her graduation got me think ... More >>

Van Halen, the New Walter's and Radiohead: Things We're Looking Forward to in 2012

Photo by Mark C. AustinRadiohead returns and we're stoked. Do people say "stoked" anymore?​There was a lot to be thankful for in 2011 in the world of music, but, in some ways, it was also a pretty tough year. We lost some great people and almost lost one of our own. It's a crazy, topsy turvy w ... More >>

Material World: Music to Rock Your Cyber Monday with Video

In the late '70s, there was a movie spoof on Friday the 13th called Saturday the 14th. It was about as dumb as you imagine it would be. Well, insert punchline here because Black Friday is over, but we are still smack dab in the middle of Cyber Monday, where instead of being stampeded by rampaging sh ... More >>

Tryptophanatics: Thanksgiving Lullabies For Your Post-Meal Snooze

You've finished your Thanksgiving feast and endured a few hours of awkward conversation with the extended family you never see and now it's finally time for a holiday hibernation. You deserve it, it's the third most important part of Thanksgiving, after overeating and overdrinking. No one really k ... More >>

Tianna Hall: Jazz Singer Unafraid Of Soundgarden, Radiohead

​It's hard to describe how difficult it is to be a good jazz singer. Jazz is such a nuanced, sometimes overwhelming experience, that vocalizing it is, at times, akin to juggling bulldozers. And crap, man, bulldozers are heavy. Which is why when singer Tianna Hall's music got dropped in our l ... More >>

The 25 Most Influential Bands Of The '90s

Trent Reznor, you know, before the Oscar and all the weightlifting. ​As a music writer, we are asked constantly to compare the new with the old, to decipher the periphery where modern bands' influences come from to understand where we are going and what we are seeing. We can hear everything Ke ... More >>

Save Ferris: Pop-Culture Origins Of 16 Famous Band Names

Groovehouse​This one's for the pop-culture junkies. For those who, like us, are tickled by all forms of pop media, whether it be literature, film or music... this list encompasses them all. A surprisingly high quantity of bands have named themselves after books, songs, and films; some are obvi ... More >>

Ukuleles: Suddenly The Hippest Instrument Going

​Trends in music can be as prevalent - and subsequently fleeting - as they are in fashion. Though the eagerness to join trendy-indie bandwagons can be puzzling, music's most recent instrumental trend, the ukulele, grabbed our attention, especially after SXSW. Among the dozens of SXSW-related ... More >>

Match These Bands With Their Awful Original Names

​Provided they didn't take the easy way out and name themselves after a song (Rolling Stones), their hometown (Boston) or each other (Hall & Oates), almost every band that went on to sell millions of records, get tons of radio play and sell out arenas has had some form of the following convers ... More >>

The 31 Best Music Documentaries Of All Time

​Hands down, above all of these following music documentaries, Craig's Hlist's two favorite of all-time are The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2: The Metal Years, and The Beatles Anthology. We can watch both on repeat for days and not complain. That will probably all change once we see ... More >>

Top Six Artist Vs. Record Label Feuds

​Pink Floyd has finally settled its lengthy dispute with their longtime record label EMI. The band, which signed to the label over 40 years ago, first took EMI to court last spring in an effort to clarify their existing contract. Floyd sought to prevent EMI from "unbundling" their albums by se ... More >>

Reduxion Returns Next Wednesday With Tax The Wolf

Michelle Tovar/ Tax the Wolf on Facebook​We're baaaaaaack! After a couple of months off - hey, things happen - Reduxion, Rocks Off's monthly series of local bands covering their biggest influences, returns just in time to get you nice and hung over for Thanksgiving dinner. (Kidding... we thin ... More >>

Ten Country Covers That Top The Pop Originals

​Our copy must still be in the mail, but Rocks Off figures we have heard enough songs from Jamey Johnson's new album The Guitar Song on Sirius/XM's Outlaw Country to know that we like it a whole lot. But none that we've heard so far are our favorite new Johnson song. It's close. No flies on G ... More >>

Girl Talk: "Me Wanting To Interact With The Music I Really Like"

Bridget Maniaci​ A few days before Girl Talk's Summerfest show this Saturday, Rocks Off took some time to chat with the mash-up maestro - who refuses to call himself a DJ - about his biomedical engineering degree, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2008's Feed the Animals and Super Happy Fun Land. ... More >>

The Horrors

Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest

Fried Rice: In the Hot Seat with Phillip from Sharks and Sailors

“Uncle Charlie’s Art Show”

A well-known local poster artist puts 18 years’ worth of concerts on sale

Tino Ortega's Matagorda Island Discs

Has ACL Festival Jumped the Shark?

Local Motion at Sound Exchange

Local Motion at Cactus Music

Local Motion

Café Tacuba

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

So Divided

Thom Yorke

The Eraser

Primary Season

Check out some of the new candidates for this year's Houston Press Music Awards

Slanted Enchantment

A jazz quartet tribute to Pavement is, inexplicably, a roaring success

The Doves, with Longwave

This Meridian show has been canceled because of the threat of Hurricane Rita

Medley Fool

DJ Jester mixes and mashes up Willie Nelson, Ice-T, the Carpenters and LL Cool J

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Combat Rock

In this corner, weighing in at one ton of pomp, the pride of Iceland: Sigur Rós! And in this corner, the moose-wrestling Montreal maulers: Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Best Concert Poster Artist

Jermaine Rogers

Party of Helicopters

Friday, January 4

Coldplay

Parachutes
(Parlophone)