San Marcos

Trial Connected to June 2012 Trae Tha Truth Shooting Underway

A civil trial is underway in Harris County District Court, with county attorneys seeking an injuction that would forbid 16 alleged gang members --including a man who was later arrested and charged for the June 2012 shooting that killed three people and wounded popular Houston rapper Trae Tha Truth - ... More >>

Dereon Kelley: Convicted, Faces 10 Years For Calling In Bomb Threat To Texas State University

A 22-year-old Bryan man has been found guilty of calling in bomb threats to Texas State University last year, around the same time he was suspected of calling in a bomb threat that evacuated Texas A&M. A Houston federal jury took about an hour to convict Dereon Tayronne Kelley after a two-day trial ... More >>

Sad You Aren't at SXSW? Here's What You Could Be Missing...

Awwwww, I know it is a shame you aren't here with us at SXSW in Austin. I can only imagine the aching and longing in your heart for walking aimlessly and standing in long lines for no reason, and sweating through your cardigan to see a band you heard on one of the Twilight soundtracks. You don't w ... More >>

Could You Get All of Your Christmas Shopping Done at Buc-ee's? Probably

If you travel anywhere in Texas, you have no doubt been to a Buc-ee's super gas station, home of clean restrooms, cheap gas, crack-like Beaver Nuggets, cutesy Texas trinkets, hunting gear and, at peak traveling hours during weekends and holidays, groggy and zombie-like humans hungry for beef jerky a ... More >>

The Texas 30: The Third Runners-Up, Albums 60-51

Friday, Rocks Off told you about our "Texas 30" project, compiling a list of the best 30 albums of the past 30 years. Today we're about to show you the first of three bubbling-under appetizer lists we did just to put a little oil on the gears. Here, starting with No. 60, is where it gets interestin ... More >>

Does Dallas-Fort Worth Have the Worst Tippers in the State?

Last week, Eater alerted the great foodie masses to a website called Lousy Tippers that contains a pretty scary database of the nation's worst tippers. "There is a consequence," the site preaches ominously from its header. Call it the ultimate form of societal pressure to make sure you leave a grat ... More >>

Pat Green: "I Don't Feel Like I Needed Rebooting"

Did Pat Green save country music? That is a contentious question no matter on which side of the Red River you're standing, but it's also a little beside the point. Nurtured by the storytelling culture of legendary Central Texas singer-songwriter rooms like New Braunfels' Gruene Hall and San Marcos' ... More >>

50 Rad Things Now on the Sig's Lagoon Walls

Within the past month, the walls of Sig's Lagoon have been transformed into a sprawling pop-culture collage of posters, photos, newspaper clippings, magazine covers, picture discs and cardboard cutouts courtesy of former Sundance Records owner Bobby Barnard. Since the longtime San Marcos music stor ... More >>

Todd Snider

Todd Snider

Sig's Lagoon Keeping Sundance, Beloved San Marcos Store, Alive

A big part of Texas music history went dark this past weekend, when Sundance Records went out of buisness after 35 years. But thanks to the San Marcos record store's strong Houston connection, part of its legacy - in fact, a large part of its inventory - is coming here. Sig's Lagoon, the Midtown re ... More >>

Robert Ellis' Whiskey Wednesdays Returning... In Austin

Rocks Off thought we had written everything about Robert Ellis & the Boys' Whiskey Wednesday shows there was to say. After all, the weekly beer-soaked no-cover night of Texas-heavy vintage honky-tonk covers ended back in April. So we were a little intrigued when someone forwarded us this link earl ... More >>

Roy Head Remembers Gene Kurtz & "Treat Her Right"

credGene Kurtz (left) and Roy Head wrote "Treat Her Right" in 10 minutes on a roll of toilet paper.​"I guarantee you one thing, Gene Kurtz is playing bass in the best band in heaven tonight," says Roy Head. Head co-wrote "Treat Her Right," one of the truly legendary Texas hits, with Kurtz, the ... More >>

Fast Times: Fajitas Puebla Tacos At Taco Cabana

Don't gotta tell me twice. ​Oh, Taco C, how I love thee. Maybe it's because I lived off Taco Cabana tortillas and queso in college; every great night at the square or float down the river in San Marcos ended with a trip to TC. Drunk, sober or hungover, it hits the spot. So when I saw an ad f ... More >>

Members Only

Is Simone on Sunset the best bar in West U...already?

Top 6 Ways To Piss Off A Musician At A Gig

Brian Jackson/Bloodshot RecordsDoes this look like someone YOU'D want to antagonize?​Rocks Off first stumbled onto Scott H. Biram about 10 years ago at the Parlor, Austin's recently closed, extremely cramped "punk rock pizza" joint on North Loop, where patrons scarfed their pies while murals o ... More >>

Eirin Hicks: Misdemeanor Charges Filed In Death of Texas State Woman Who Fell to Death

TABCEirin Hicks: Dead from a fall out a window​The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and Texas State University police announced a handful of charges stemming from the death of Eirin Ann Hicks, a student who fell to her death from an elevated first-story dorm room last month. The charges ar ... More >>

Little Smoke

Texas post-rockers This Will Destroy You take a dark turn

Broken System

A lawsuit alleges that 12,000 kids trapped in foster care with little chance of getting out are being exposed to abuse and neglect, shuttled around the state and denied health services.

Eirin Ann Hicks: Texas State Student Killed by One-Story Jump

Texas StateEirin Ann Hicks: Killed by first-floor jump​If you're a parent who wonders why you worry about your kid, fresh evidence today that you need to: A Texas State student has died by jumping out of a first-floor window. Eirin Ann Hicks, 24 and from Temple, was taken off life support ye ... More >>

Piranha

An indie legend's Texas-filmed first feature

Houston Locals Musicians Film Video With Dallas Native, Head to Austin for Release

• Fat Tony, Tom Nguyen from The Ton Tons and Kyle Vento from Simple Success teamed up with director Tedric Huff to play the backing band for Dallas artist Angela Carter in the new video for her song "Love Anymore." It looks like they had tons of fun. • Roky Erickson spent about 30 minutes las ... More >>

Mex on the Beach

The wild tropical seafood restaurant Yelapa Playa Mexicana was named for a beach on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

Nothing's Wrong

Scott H. Biram cuts back on the craziness...just not in his music.

Road Trippin': A West Texas/Big Bend Playlist

​ Right after Christmas, Rocks Off hopped into our car and headed straight for the bowels of West Texas. It's a long drive to Big Bend, mostly through the middle of nowhere, huge swaths of land where even AM radio can't reach. Twelve hours in the car demands a certain kind of playlist that, like a ... More >>

Texas Blind Salamander Blues

Photo by Robb Walsh​The Texas blind salamander lives in a dark cave in San Marcos and doesn't see very well, hence the blues-guitarist moniker. It's also an endangered species. Blind Salamander Pale Ale from Rahr Brewery in Fort Worth is the first of a new series called "Rare Breed" beers. Eac ... More >>

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Armadillo World Headquarters

The Goode family's shrine to all things Texas could use a shootout or two.

Terrible News For Lovers Of Texas History, Or Just Biography In General

Anyone who considers themselves a Texan -- one that likes to read, at any rate -- should be federally mandated to read the three volumes in which Robert Caro traces the life of Lyndon Johnson.The first book, Path to Power, is a fascinating primer on the Hill Country, on Sam Rayburn, on farm life in ... More >>

Slideshow: Snakes on an Album

One of the songs slithering around Rocks Off's head lately is "Snake Farm," the title track to grizzled Hill Country troubador Ray Wylie Hubbard's 2006 album, where the singer and a comely employee of the ramshackle reptile house between San Marcos and New Braunfels get it on amongst the other&n ... More >>

Bob Log III, Scott H. Biram, Possessed by Paul James

Weekend Music: Skyrocket!’s in Flight

This Will Destroy You, Unwed Sailor

Ambient and/or progressive fans will find plenty to like with these two instrumental groups

Last Night: The Houston Press Music Awards Showcase

Screw October

Justin Furstenfeld orders us to hate him. We obey.

A Wunderkind Looks at 40

Todd Snider is still talking the blues after all these years

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Scar Wars

Austin's Vallejo performs at Whiskey Blues

Kung Fu Fighting

Catfish shares his arsenal

Small Wonder

The Hyde Park Miniature Museum has been dredged out of mothballs, but will it find a permanent home before time runs out?

Racket

In his first 24 years of life, Brad Turcotte has already become a music-business veteran

A River Ran Through It

A historic Hill Country road brought Texans to the Blanco. Then came John O'Quinn.

Wandering Son

Carlton Pride, son of Charley, opted not to take any country roads

Street-Fighting Man

Roy Head used to love to mix it up. Now the blue-eyed soul man fights to keep his career alive.

Full Contact Paddling

Safari tests brains, strength, endurance and the willpower to persevere when you're puking out of your boat. And pissing in it.

A Practical Angel

Well-Raised and Confused

Mood rockers Blue October struggle after life's answers

Hardball

How softball coach Holly Nuber won the state championship -- and lost her job

Family Style

Breedlove fishes in the Vaughan gene pool for a little added talent

Tight, Shiny and Abrasive