Ramon Medina

Last Night: New Year's Eve Cataclysm at Fitzgerald's

Free Press Houston New Year's Eve Cataclysm Feat. Buxton, Infinite Apaches, Robert Ellis, Ben Godfrey Fitzgerald's December 31, 2012 Devil, your name be "Michelada." Who else could I blame for a New Year's Eve that seems to exist only as flashes and sounds and 11 pages of barely legible notes? Let' ... More >>

Local Musicians Come Together For Charalambides' Tom Carter

Rewind: Charalambides Guitarist Tom Carter On the Mend Some local musicians are rallying to help out one of their own this weekend, and it appears that some good, weird tunes will be a happy side effect for the rest of us. Tom Carter, guitarist for long-running H-town expatriate avant-gardists Cha ... More >>

Featherface: Best Houston Music Video Ever

The last time I looked into Featherface it was because I wanted to find out why the hell you would call a band Featherface. The answer was it came to them in a dream, but it also turned me onto a delightful local indie-rock band that I've kept a light eye on. Last week I had the chance to take a pe ... More >>

Charalambides Guitarist Tom Carter On the Mend

Tom Carter, guitarist for Charalambides, the influential and prolific ex-Houston avant-garde/psychedelic duo, is out of intensive care and recovering at a rehabilitation hospital in Ahrenshoop, Germany after awakening from a medically induced coma last week. Carter's bandmate and ex-wife, Christina ... More >>

Friday Night: Linus Pauling Quartet at Fitzgerald's

Linus Pauling Quartet, Modfag, From Beyond, Hearts of Animals Fitzgerald's June 22, 2012 Local long-running psych-rockers Linus Pauling Quartet have got a new album for us to inhale, and on Friday night, the city took its first rip. The performance was the first of three pre-release shows across th ... More >>

Linus Pauling Quartet Plans Summer Campaign Of Stoner D&D Metal

Five years sounds like a long time unless you're one of Texas' most nefarious stoner-rock merchants. In that case, sometimes one song can feel like five years. Really, it's hard to believe that much time has gone by since Houston (mostly) five-piece Linus Pauling Quartet's last new album, 2007's Al ... More >>

First Look at the Band Lineup for Chris Gray Day January 14

Chris Gray Day will be held in Houston, Texas on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at The Continental Club complex, at 3701 Main, affectionately known to locals that live near and haunt the grounds as "The Island". Today Rocks Off gets to announce the first round of bands playing that day's festivities, be ... More >>

All The Gothic Council Wants for Christmas is Its Two Front Fangs... And Monster High Dolls

​"Yo," hollered Ramon Medina at us from his El Camino as we were quietly walking down the street listening to Iggy Pop's Preliminaries. "Is there such a thing as a goth Christmas tree?" Then he laughed and sped away. The answer is yes, Medina, there is a goth Christmas. Every October we put u ... More >>

A Houston Press Benefit for Chris Gray

Photo by Ramon MedinaChris Gray, on the right, with musician Benjamin Wesley.​In order to help with his hospital bills, the Houston Press will be hosting a benefit for Music Editor Chris Gray, who suffered an apparent heart attack last Friday. As of today, things were looking up for Chris. He ... More >>

Houston Press to Host Benefit in Support of Music Editor Chris Gray

Photo by Ramon MedinaChris Gray, on the right, with musician Benjamin Wesley.​In order to help with his hospital bills, the Houston Press will be hosting a benefit for Music Editor Chris Gray, who suffered an apparent heart attack last Friday. As of today, things were looking up for Chris. He ... More >>

UPDATED: Music Editor Chris Gray is Holding His Own

Photo by Ramon MedinaChris Gray, on the right, with musician Benjamin Wesley.​UPDATE:On Monday afternoon, Chris Gray's dad said his son has his eyes open, is responsive to sounds and has moved around. It is still too early to determine what all has happened to him, however, because doctors sti ... More >>

UPDATED: Music Editor Chris Gray Is Holding His Own

Photo by Ramon MedinaChris Gray, on the right, with musician Benjamin Wesley.​UPDATE: On Monday afternoon, Chris Gray's dad said his son has his eyes open, is responsive to sounds and has moved around. It is still too early to determine what all has happened to him, however, because doctors st ... More >>

Avoid Cheap Fog Machines: Building A Better Stage Show

Erica O'BrienProvision​If Rocks Off could talk to ourselves from six years ago, the advice we would give that young aspiring rock star would be to not bother with any gigs for the first year playing with the band, and instead have everyone save up as much money as possible to fund a truly magn ... More >>

Tax The Wolf Agrees: Velvet Underground > The Strokes

Michelle Tovar/ Tax the Wolf on Facebook​For the night before Thanksgiving, there is a lot going on in Houston tomorrow. But with all due respect to Robert Ellis & the Boys at Fitzgerald's and the LAX/Young Girls show at Groundhall - not to mention, on an entirely different scale, both Bruno M ... More >>

KTRU News Roils, Saddens Local Music Community

UPDATED (5:35 p.m.) to include comments from Rice's B.J. Almond and a new Facebook count. The fate of KTRU's annual outdoor free concert in the spring is one of many things that has yet to be decided.​News of the University of Houston's impending purchase of Rice University student radio stat ... More >>

Showcase Showdown

Great moments in HPMA history

2010 Musical Resolutions

In which we advise our favorite people in the Houston scene on their goals for the coming year.

Inquiring Minds: Is Houston the New Austin?

But more importantly, do we want it to be? And, God help us, what if it already is? When Rocks Off polled a cross-section of Houston music insiders for his "dead-tree" column this week - thanks for the term, Jeremy at Space City Rock - he was forced to omit one question from the final version for sp ... More >>

Artist of the Week: Buxton

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. Every once in a while, aft ... More >>

The Born Liars Set Sail

Eat Your Vegetables: Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music

Consisting of nothing more than one hour of two overlaid tracks of guitar feedback, Metal Machine Music ranks near the top of music history's shit list in terms of total amount of critical bile received. Houston's own Ramon Medina summed up the album's status succinctly on the NonAlignment Pact ... More >>

Tom Petty Day, Part 3: Off to the Show!

Fried Rice: Brian's Johnson causes some drama

Holiday Road: Linus Pauling Quartet Hits Terrastock

Ramon Medina'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.)

SXSW Last Night: Coconut Coolouts, Black Angels, Young Mammals, Tontons, Studemont Project

Goodbye, Proletariat

The Montrose clubhouse is closing. What now?

Q&A: Linus Pauling Quartet

The Light Brigade

Linus Pauling Quartet: Crunchy on the outside, cheesy in the middle

Band Suicide

Why so many Houston music groups self-destruct right on the brink of having it made

A Crying Shame

RIP, Cactus Music and Video

Walk Away, Walk Away

And we will follow as local music figures recall tales of U2

Houston's Gone Gaaga for Haaga

A former king of the Texas metal world unites Houston's warring rock tribes and wins a passel of Music Awards

Downtown H-town Throwdown

Tearing it up at the Music Awards Showcase

Christmas in July

Six dozen of Houston's finest bands for a mere $7

Acid Test

Enter the warped world of the Linus Pauling Quartet at your peril

Grimm and Bare It

A reclusive (and bitchy) local musician debuts on stage at the Texas Psych Fest

Letters

Soundcheck

Pop Moment