Rancid (Band)

Just Be 'Cos': Eight Music Artists Perfectly Suited for Cosplay

Cosplay, short for "costume play," is the art of normal, everyday people going balls-out to depict themselves as their favorite fictional characters from comics, movies, video games and television. It's hugely popular, thanks to ComicCon and our obsession with all things pop-culture. Cosplayers gat ... More >>

SXSW's Class of 2008: Where Are They Now? (w/VIDEO)

My first true SXSW with the Houston Press and Rocks Off was way back in March 2008, when I was given a wristband to explore/maraud Austin looking for trouble and new bands. This was a time when Justice and MSTRKRFT were what would be called EDM now, and Israel's Monotonix was flipping every wig in t ... More >>

Music That Will Officially Be Old In 2013

One of my favorite pastimes is reminding my friends how old we are all getting, partly because I am cruel, and probably because even I am astounded that actor Steve Guttenberg is now three years older than Wilford Brimley was when they filmed Cocoon together in 1985. We can all think of things tha ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Bill Fool, Punk Lifer, Dad, Good Guy to Know

"Bill Fool was born in Chicago, Illinois and spent his entire youth living near Wrigley Field and really never left that particular area as a kid, ever..." says local luminary and punk lifer Bill Fool in an email. What follows is a short primer on this beloved curmudgeon. Mr. Fool has been a part ... More >>

Happy Birthday, Mr. T.! A Foolish Playlist For You To Pity

I have a hard time explaining the 1980s to my daughter. Mostly because she's, you know, two years old. Still, I imagine that even when she reaches an age where she's more willing to endure a conversation that doesn't involve strawberries and Dora the Explorer I won't be able to convey the strangene ... More >>

RIP Adam Yauch: Beastie Boys' MCA Dead At 47

Well, damn. Adam Yauch, the gravel-voiced third of Noo Yawk '80s and '90s rap-rock superstars the Beastie Boys, has died at age 47, Rolling Stone reports. The exact circumstances of his death were unknown at press time, but Yauch had been battling cancer since being diagnosed with a tumor in his sa ... More >>

True Believers and Other Local Releases

#1 Crushes: Our Favorite '90s Rock Vixens

Tonight House of Blues welcomes Garbage back to Houston after a seven-year hiatus. The group, lead by fearsome Scottish redhead Shirley Manson, has been sorely missed from the music scene. They are currently touring behind their upcoming album Not Your Kind of People, which hits stores May 14. Rock ... More >>

Black Market Syndicate: Punk Believers Rejoice With Peasants

Black Market Syndicate are true believers. Besides releasing second album And the Peasants Rejoiced at Fitzgerald's Saturday, the Houston punk quartet is streaming it all weekend on their ReverbNation page. For the people. Produced by Street Dogs' Johnny Rioux, Peasants stands up for the powerless ... More >>

This Grandpa Only Knows Five Bands On This Year's Warped Tour

It's my job to have at least a passing knowledge of what most bands and artists sound like. In my one of seven capacities here at the paper, I am in charge of music listings, those things in the back of the paper that tell you what is happening every week. (While I am on the subject, I need let yo ... More >>

Last Night: Girls At Fitzgerald's

Girls, Young Man, Fanfarlo, Unknown Mortal Orchestra Fitzgerald's March 13, 2012 San Francisco's Girls kept it going strong last night, touring in support of their album Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Another vaunted acted of the Pitchfork set, they held up even better live than their 9.3 album prepared ... More >>

JuiceheaD: The New Breed of Punk

​We never knew how much we needed our daily dose of punk rock until Fungus became a victim of the XM/Sirius merger...in favor for a station that played AC/DC 24/7 if we remember correctly. That was the cue to say goodbye to satellite radio, but it didn't really do anything to fill the oi-shape ... More >>

Grosse Pointe ?: An Incomplete High School Reunion Playlist

This weekend, I am heading back to Pearland for my 10-year high school reunion. It's funny, I say "going back" like I wasn't there on Sunday sitting on my parents' couch watching cable and letting them feed me mashed potatoes and slip me gas money. This trip is different, though, because I will be p ... More >>

Our All-Time Fantasy Vans Warped Tour Lineup

Photos by Marc BrubakerWarped Tour 2010​Since 1996, the Vans Warped Tour has been a staple of punk and youth culture all over the world, uniting kids of all stripes under the violent heat of the sun one day out of the year in cities across the map. The traveling festival is responisble for bre ... More >>

Who's Vroomin' Who: Top 10 Songs With Motorcycle Sounds

​Craig's Hlist has been on a Motley Crue kick for the past few months. We may have just finished reading The Dirt for the fourth time, and we really enjoyed Nikki Sixx's Heroin Diaries book, which tells the story of how he spent 1987 mired in a haze of junk and almost every other drug imaginab ... More >>

Ten Years After: Our Favorite 2001 Albums

​This hlist is kind of funny now, seeing that the dearly departed White Stripes are smack-dab in the middle with White Blood Cells. We swear this final hlist was made Tuesday afternoon, before Wednesday's breakup announcement. Funny how the band has actually been on the tips of our lips for a ... More >>

Saturday Night: NOFX At House Of Blues

Photos by Groovehouse​NOFX House of Blues January 22, 2011 See lots of pics of NOFX and friends in our slideshow. NOFX has been the Fisher-Price My First Real Punk Band of the past 25 years, with Green Day sadly coming in a close second with Bad Religion and, yes, Blink-182 bringing up the r ... More >>

Songs For Our Brother's 21st Birthday

Craig HlavatyLemmy (left, duh) and Jake Hlavaty​Today is the 21st birthday of one of Craig's Hlist's biggest musical influences: Not the Pixies' Doolittle, Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine, or even Operation Ivy's Energy LP. It's an actual person, our little brother Jake. The kid came of l ... More >>

The Soft Pack: 30 Seconds With Matty McLoughlin

​We sat down with Matty McLoughlin from The Soft Pack to see what we could learn about him in 30 seconds. Rocks Off: What is the worst song in the world? Matty McLoughlin: An Eagles song. It's divorce rock and is always a buzzkill. RO: What is the best lyric in the world? MM: "Nigga plea ... More >>

Friday: The (Very Wet) Vans Warped Tour At Sam Houston Race Park

Photos by Marc BrubakerTyson Ritter of the All-American Rejects​Vans Warped Tour Sam Houston Race Park July 2, 2010 As they always have, teenagers get a bad rap these days. In our minds, any kid who was willing to brave the dirty side of Hurricane Alex on Friday afternoon to see their favorit ... More >>

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 >>

4 Summer-Movie Soundtracks We Already Hate

​Last week, we told you of some upcoming summer-movie soundtracks that look like they're going to be fantastic. If positivity is your thing, go read that article. This one is going to be all about the upcoming soundtracks that make us wince so hard it feels like someone's chopping our balls with a ... More >>

Back To The Future: The Dirty Rotten Imbeciles That Meet In D.R.I.

metal-archives.comA hometown D.R.I. gig, 1982​Tonight at Wired Live, formerly the Meridian - or still the Meridian, just not for much longer; we don't even know at this point - you can watch part of punk and hardcore history duke it out with some of the new wave. Legendary crossover thrash band an ... More >>

What's In a Name? Punk Rock Spirit Animals This Year's Tiger

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off, we're trying hard to decode Houston's oddest monikers in order to find a little meaning. ​ Music is inherently the search for meaning in the meaningless. It's an attempt to establish rhythm and pattern ... More >>

Listology: The American Heist Soundtracks Their Funerals

​ ​Of all the bands to emerge out of the Houston music puppy mill this year, none has been as steadfastly working class and punk rock as the American Heist. Rocks Off first spied the band opening up for Florida's Fake Problems in May. At the time they were still called Born Anchor, but a Seattle ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: More Reasons Why Best In Texas Is a Flaming Pile of Crap

Trilogy (n.): a set of three works of art that are connected and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works.​If euthanasia is ever legalized, one method might be to have the doctor read Ed Shane's monthly "Letter From the Publisher" in Best In Texas to the patient. Readi ... More >>

Boy, Do We Feel Old: "Hot for Teacher" and Other Back-To-School Songs

Today is the first day of school for almost all the public school districts in the area. Children and teens from Alvin to Alief are trudging into polished halls and sterile classrooms for yet another year of romantic intrigue and bitter class struggle, and impromptu dance routines in the cafeteria, ... More >>

Aftermath: Rancid and Rise Against at Verizon Wireless Theater

Craig HlavatyThere's something about the punk rock of Northern California's Rancid will remain forever and indelibly ingrained in Aftermath's heart. No matter what we seem to find ourselves getting into, all we need to hear is a few spins of ...And Out Come The Wolves to bring us back to our liberty ... More >>

The Distillery: Rancid's Let the Dominoes Fall

What it do, Rancid? What's crackin', formerly crusty-punk rude boys? Been a long time since we last hang, bros. When Dan Zeller lent me Let's Go during senior year of high school, I knew y'all were onto something special: three-billy-goats-gruff sung scrabbling punk anthems and routs with just a hin ... More >>

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 >>

Summer Sounds

Enough shows to keep concertgoers busy all season long

Aftermath: Fake Problems and Born Anchor at Walter's on Washington

Photos by Craig Hlavaty On a Monday night, all you can really look forward to is a decent evening of lackluster television and maybe some leftover barbecue from the weekend's flame-kissed debauchery. But last night at Walter's was the exact anecdote for a "case of da Mondays" in so many ways. In rec ... More >>

Original Punks

They're Nationwide

Local H breaks into the pop mainstream with genuine rock sound

Rotation

Rotation

Rules of the Road

The Latchkey Kids learn that even in rock and roll, it pays to call ahead

Young Punks

Peach-fuzzed trashers Pure Rubbish are Houston's anti-Hanson

Looking for Billy Zoom

X was the West's great punk hope. But now they're finding more fun in their new worlds.

Songs and Sickness

That's what it's about with D Generation, man

Cult of Ferocity

True to punk's roots, Bad Religion keeps the anger alive

On the Beat

The Suspects are unearthing the true roots of ska

His Generation

The Hates' leader may be the last of Houston's original punks

Critic's Choice

The Hard Way

Burning Down the House

Arson at the Goat's Head? The latest hippest club, and more.