Regina Spektor

Different Tongues: 10 Foreign Language Songs That Rule the World

A couple of caveats to this list: first, it actually includes more than ten songs. Since one is sung primarily in English and another isn't technically a "foreign" language, they're considered halfsies, making up one whole. Also, no songs sung in Spanish are on this list. I'm not saying Spanish is ... More >>

Artist Suggestions For A New Saturday Morning Tribute CD

On of the few CDs I still listen to in this amazing digital age is Saturday Morning: Cartoon's Greatest Hits. The album, which is still not available on iTunes, was a tribute to all the best cartoon theme songs of the '60s and '70s. Things like Scooby Doo and Sigmund and the Sea Monster, but with ba ... More >>

#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 >>

Ezra Pound: Songs To Celebrate Leaving The Loony Bin

Ezra Pound remains one of America's most genius and most controversial writers. His poetry has gone on to inspire countless artists, and as a literary editor and critic he was responsible for shaping the styles of T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Robert Frost, and Ernest Hemingway. He was by most accounts ... More >>

Ben Folds Five Returns: An Essential Playlist

Photo By GroovehouseBen Folds solo in 2010 at the House Of Blues​The eight-year run of '90s indie act the Ben Folds Five was fruitful in many ways. We got the most catchy song about a Christmas abortion ever in 1997's "Brick", three excellent studio albums full of snarky, romantically-challeng ... More >>

The Six Degrees of Joshua Bell

Never play Six Degrees with Joshua Bell. He's got us all beat. Not only has he performed with just about every contemporary classical artist there is out there, he's also recorded with pop musicians such as Sting and Regina Spektor. Even if we go back a couple of centuries, Bell's got a direct lin ... More >>

Five ACL Acts We're Totally Not Making Up

Aloha, Susan... Stevie Wonder Coldplay Arcade Fire Kanye Kanye Kanye blah blah blah yada yada yada. Rocks Off could write about this year's ACL headliners until we're blue in the face - and we probably will this weekend - but what's the point? The real fun of the festival is on the back roads of ... 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 >>

Out Today: Other Things Besides Born This Way... Seriously

​This past weekend was magical, what with Rocks Off finally getting to see Foo Fighters play songs from Wasting Light and all. You may remember that we have been wanking over Light since it came out in April, but it's really good. Best rock album of the year? Maybe, unless Jack White or Josh H ... More >>

“Shot in the Dark: Houston Press Concert Photo Exhibition”

Alyssa Rubich: "I Do Not Exaggerate My Instabilities At All"

​Rocks Off almost never gets a bad recording out of the Red Tree Recording Studio, so when producer Harold Reubens sent us his latest project, he had to jump a bar he'd already set pretty high. Little did we know that not only would Alyssa Rubich's C'est La Vie clear the hurdle, she would kee ... More >>

Shot In The Dark: The Ones Who Got Away (So Far)

UPDATE (3:23 p.m.): Promotional video by Monica Fuentes added after the jump. Jay LeeLittle Joe Washington at the Continental Club's 10th anniversary, July 2010​Slowly but surely, Rocks Off has been getting ready for our "Shot In the Dark" photo exhibition at Warehouse Live's Studio next Thur ... More >>

Idol Beat: Mona Lisas And Mad Haleys

​Hans Gruber: You are most troublesome, for a security guard. John McClane: Eeeh! Sorry Hans, wrong guess. Would you like to go for Double Jeopardy where the scores can really change? It's double jeopardy of a sort for the remaining 11 Idol hopefuls, because thanks to the judges' save of Cas ... More >>

Idol Beat: Viva Nash Vegas

​I was randomly scrolling back through past Idol Beats last night, doing my best to ignore mentally unbalanced dental hygienist Christine McCaffrey's butchering of "I Hope You Dance," when I realized something. The American Idol beat for Rocks Off is basically the Defense Against the Dark Arts ... More >>

Top 10 Hottest Jewish Musicians

​The Festival of Lights is upon us, as the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah officially kicks off at sundown tonight. Some of music's leading bigwigs will likely be sparking up the menorah, among them Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Diamond David Lee Roth, Perry Farrell an ... More >>

Top 10 Recent TV-Show Soundtracks

​A few choice adjectives come to mind when musing on bawdy Eastbound & Down character Kenny Powers. "Inspiring" is not one of them. However, as Rocks Off watched this week's season finale of the side-splitting HBO series, we were pleasantly surprised as we heard indie troubadour Kurt Vile's a ... More >>

Winter Wallace

Winter Wallace's Gorgeous New Album Was No Holiday

myspace.com/winterwallace​Rocks Off has known Houston singer-songwriter Winter Wallace since at least 2000. We know plenty about her, and she knows plenty of embarrassing things about us. We know that she is scared of the Loch Ness Monster, which isn't so weird. What's worse is that she knows ... More >>

Ben Folds

Aftermath: Camera Obscura Charms A Surprisingly Well-Mannered Audience

Photos by Marc Brubaker​ Aftermath is always interested in how the residents of Houston represent our fair city when a touring act with any sort of notoriety comes through town. Houstonians don't always have the best reputation as concert-goers, whether it's because we talk too much during any giv ... More >>

Live with Me

The best Houston concerts of 2009: U2, George Strait, Kid Cudi, Jandek, Peaches and even T-Pain.

The AP's Year-End Album List Proves What We Already Knew: Rock Critics Are Assholes

​Rocks Off has previously lamented the dearth of critically popular acts that truly rock many times. We just can't get over the fact that adding distortion to your guitar is a virtual guarantee you won't get scads of rock critics jizzing all over you with steamy loads of orgasmic praise (unless yo ... More >>

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

2009 was definitely a year, we'll say that much.

Aftermath: Regina Spektor Wins a New Fan at Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Jody Perry​"This bed is on fire with passionate love..." Aftermath has always loved James' "Laid." It's one of our absolute favorite '90s songs, and there couldn't be a better one to preface Regina Spektor's impending appearance at Verizon. The crowd is young, mixed (but mostly white), w ... More >>

Regina Spektor

Bayou Beat: More Live Nation Ticket Deals, I.J. Gosey at Discovery Green, Bob Fuldauer Leaves Meridian, Tony Campise In Serious Condition

farm1.static.flickr.com/I.J. Gosey​ We have a winner in our Live Nation "Club Passport" photo contest - we think - but are still awaiting a judge's ruling. Stay tuned. Live Nation has expanded its "No Service Fee" promotion once again, to include pretty much every show coming to House of Blues ... More >>

Fall In

Distant Early Warning: 311, AFI, HEALTH, Kanye West (Boo!), Regina Spektor, Rob Zombie, etc.

​311, State Radio: Sun., Dec. 6. Verizon Wireless Theater. AFI: Sat., Nov. 21. Verizon Wireless Theater. An Albatross, Dark Meat: Sat., Nov. 7. Mango's. Armin Van Buuren: Fri., Oct. 16. Planeta Bar-Rio. Art Brut: Sun., Oct. 25. Walter's on Washington. Breathe Carolina, Cash Cash, Kill Paradise, F ... More >>

He Said She Said: Breakup Songs to Help You Bawl, Part 2

Ever since men and women set eyes upon each other at the beginning of time, there have been break-ups, and painful dissolutions of romantic escapades have made the best art in the world. Hell, somewhere in the world there is a probably a cave painting of a pretty young Neanderthal girl with devil h ... More >>

Maryland Bang

Meet Rye Rye, Baltimore's latest rap sensation.

Things to Do This Weekend If You're (Almost) Broke: "Thriller" at Midnight at Numbers, Free Tickets and More

What's the best thing about going to see live music? Frickin' air conditioning, because even the dingiest dive will be pumping out some sort cooled air to calm down all you crybabies who forgot sometime after Ms. Pelz's tenth-grade IPC class that we live in a humid-as-shit subtropical climate ne ... More >>

Idol Beat: The Top Nine Results

Photos by Michael Becker/ Fox No joy in Megan's world Wednesday night.Karma's a bitch, ain't it? Megan Joy admits that she doesn't care what Simon Cowell thinks of her performances, and then, when the judges have to decide whether or not to save her from elimination, Simon throws that comment ... More >>

Last Night: Regina Spektor at Warehouse Live

Being There

The Sixth Annual Austin City Limits Festival feels like home...almost

LCD Soundsystem, Reverend Horton Heat, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Muse, Wilco and Ghostland Observatory: Chris Gray Closes the Notebook on ACL

ACL Fest: Where the Streets Have No Name

Regina Spektor

Begin to Hope

Regina Spektor, with Keane

Friday, June 17, at Verizon Wireless Theater, 520 Texas, 713-230-1600.

Hot Shows

Summertime concerts that will leave you sweating