Richard Ramirez

The Rocks Off 100: Kimberly McCarver, Missouri City's Meadowlark

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Sometimes a hunch will pay off. Kimber ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: DJ Panchitron, Stirring the Cumbia/Moombahton Melting Pot

One-fourth of the Bombón crew, DJ Panchitron continues to evolve as one of the best DJ/Producer combos in Houston. His ear for combining cumbia, tropical and tribal with rap creates some of the most adventurous, hard-hitting, and downright funnest music in the city. Who? Panchitron is a native o ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: D.R.I's Kurt Brecht, Thrash Zone Supervisor

Who? Kurt Brecht is the iron-lunged front man of D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles), the ridiculously speedy hardcore punk band that got its start bashing out tunes inside his parents' house in Houston back in 1982. After shattering the sound barrier with the 18-minute, 22-song Dirty Rotten EP the same ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Sloan Robley, The Last Houstonian Banshee

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Sloan Robley of Silenced Within is a r ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Jack Saunders, Dealer of Grit & Jangle

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Jack Saunders is one of Houston's most ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Richard Ramirez, Noise God and Black Leather Jesus

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Richard Ramirez is one of Houston's fi ... More >>

Upcoming: Har Mar Superstar, Rodriguez, Andy Bell, The Dwarves, Todd Rundgren, etc.

Ace Hood & Twista: Sun., April 7, 6 p.m., $45-$100. Stereo Live, 6400 Richmond, Houston. Air Supply: Thu., May 9, 8:30 p.m., $158-$218. Dosey Doe, 25911 I-45 N., Spring. All the Dead Pilots: With Fault, A Traitor at Heart., $10. Scout Bar, 18307 Egret Bay Blvd., Houston. Allah-Las: With Infinite ... More >>

Houston's Top 10 Band Names

For years now I have made a personal study of delving into the murky and sometimes macabre monikers our local bands have chosen. Now we shall have them compete for our pleasure. Here are the ten best band names in the city. 10. Holy Fiction Evan Lecker's spiraling, philosophical explanation behin ... 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 >>

Roman Showers Throw Up Their Stomach Contents

Several weeks into June, there's no escaping summer: the sweltering season's here in all its flickering-horizon, bathed-in-sweat glory -- filthy, glaring, suffocating. Which makes this the perfect time for psychopathic burr-stuck noise blurts like Roman Showers' Show Me Your Stomach Contents. The ... More >>

The Damn Quails & 10 Other Bird-Brained Bands

Tonight the Houston Press Concert Series resumes at Pub Fiction with Oklahoma duo the Damn Quails. The Quails' song "Fools Gold," from their 2011 album Down the Hatch, is tearing it up on Texas country and roots-rock radio right now, landing them three Lonestar Music Awards and airplay on BBC roots ... More >>

Balaclavas, Black Leather Jesus

The Five Most Texan Types Of Music

​Happy San Jacinto Day, fellow Texans and people who wish they were; i.e. everyone else. If you don't know why today is special, shame on you. But since us Texans are a friendly sort, allow Rocks Off to fill you in. On April 21, 1836, Texian forces under Gen. Sam Houston (aka "Big Drunk") lau ... More >>

Music's Five Most Notorious Killers, Besides The Band

​On St. Patrick's Day 1985, serial killer Richard Ramirez (right) murdered two women in Los Angeles, beginning a killing spree that would eventually tally over 14 people and leave him with the nickname "The Night Stalker." From a young age, Ramirez was fascinated and inspired by the occult and ... More >>

Buxton, Wild Moccasins Join New West Records

Here at Rocks Off, we try our best to cover all the local music news, both large and small. Where else are you going to read that you can play Slim Thug on Words With Friends? It is reasons such as these that we trudge the war zones of RSS feeds, seeking out crucial tidbits of information. Buxton o ... More >>

Houston's Best Gifts To The Music World

Ed. Note: Rocks Off is still in a holiday frame of mind... actually we meant to post this before Christmas, but they're just as true now. No refunds, no exchanges. ​Here is Craig's Hlist point of view: Houston has given so much to the world, from ZZ Top, Jandek, Beyonce Knowles, and everythin ... More >>

The 7 Most Polarizing Albums In Recent Memory

​This Monday night, MGMT hits the House Of Blues behind new album Congratulations, which has been getting one of the most tepid responses for a new album by a buzz band in recent media memory. The people that jumped on the bandwagon in 2008 after the Brooklyn-based then-duo released Oracular Spect ... More >>

Friday Night Noise: Dangerous Live Tracks from Richard Ramirez and Dead Machines

Richard Ramirez, "Removal Off...(Live)" ​Now this is the sort of noise that plasters a big dumb 'ol smile on Friday Night Noise's normally dour mug. How can you hate this sort of stuff, this all-over-the-place, sliding-around-in-oil roar where the crud flies here and there with absolutely no s ... More >>

Friday Night Noise: Werewolf Jerusalem's Cruel Kidnapping; Lightning Bolt's Earthly Delights

Werewolf Jerusalem "Cruel Kidnapping, Part I"​Friday Night Noise wonders: is Mom to blame for our present-day fascination with/lust for noise musics? As a boy, Mom used hydrogen peroxide solution to loosen the wax in FNN's oft-clogged ear canals, and anybody who's been through that - sitting at a ... More >>

Friday Night Noise: Houston's Black Leather Jesus vs. L.A.'s Hive Mind

This week, Friday Night Noise begins an ongoing effort to review a track by each and every one of H-town noise gangster Richard Ramirez's solo or group projects. No, really. Does FNN claim to be a Ramirez authority? Not at all; FNN would need an entire lifetime to track down, ingest, and get familia ... More >>

Exterminated

Houston's grindcore provocateurs (and HPMA nemises) Insect Warfare reunite for a brief U.K. tour.

Distant Early Warning: AC/DC, Alice In Chains, Insect Warfare, Jackson Browne, Puscifer, Son Volt, etc.

​12 Stones, Wake The Light, Saturate, Dine Alone: Wed., Sept. 30. Scout Bar Clear Lake. Aaron Neville Quintet's Christmas Show: Fri., Dec. 4. House of Blues. The Accused, Krum Bums, Owl Witch, H.R.A.: Sun., Oct. 11. Walter's on Washington. AC/DC: Sun., Nov. 8. Toyota Center. Baroness, Iron Age, D ... More >>

Friday Night Noise: Satin Hooks and Newagehillbilly

​Satin Hooks "Trinity School Road": Houston's Satin Hooks are a noise-punk band in the same sense that Liar-era Jesus Lizard and Incesticide/Bleach-era Nirvana once were: torture-slurred, aggrevied vocals, gunk-gummed stop-and-start guitars that wanna beat you bloody while sneaking an earworm melo ... More >>

Back to the Dead

Black Leather Jesus's Richard Ramirez resurrects the Dead Audio Music Festival.

Industrial Icon Martin Atkins Knows From Touring

Road Warrior

Through Being Cool

Bayou City Buzz

Houston's SXSW class — and we mean class — of 2009

Radar Eyes: Hangin' With the Homopolice

Hello and welcome back to Radar Eyes. I've been away for the last three weeks... Our Focus = Underground/ Unreleased/ Underexposed/ Misunderstood/ Unappreciated/ Etc., etc. I am Chemical Mange. R.I.P. Sandor Benczedi. Rosa GuerreroWelcome Beau Beasley of Homopolice, Heavy Leather Records, etc ... More >>

Metallica for Soccer Moms

No one else in thrash metal's so-called Original Top 4 (Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Metallica) will ever be as a pleasing to the average pop fan’s palate as James Hetfield and pals. Slayer, is well, Slayer. Need we say more? Songs about blood and the Holocaust don’t really move units. The other ... More >>

Indie Bands Skipping Houston

Black Leather Jesus

Sonic Youth <3s Black Leather Jesus

Bring the Noise

Local act Priest in Shit keeps it avant

1998 Houston Press Music Awards Nominees

Perfect Pitch

John Axelrod has a plan to make classical music hip--and himself hot

Static

Houston Press 1997 Music Awards Preview

A guide to who's who in the Press Music Awards ballot. Plus, the where and when of the Press Music Awards Showcase!

Houston Press 1996 Music Awards

The Insider

Noise, or Art?

DJ Scott Sommers celebrates two decades of (sometimes) inspired clatter

Poor, Proud, But Independent

Houston's indie record entrepreneurs do it for the love of the music. Of course, they don't mind moving a few units, either.

Static

Press Picks

Short and Punky

Sad Pygmy just wants to make more noise