Sound Recording Industries

Bruce Kessler's Incredible Houston Concert Photo Archive

Top 5 Reasons Bon Iver Is the Clown Prince of Hipster Doofuses

Who is Bon Iver? The name originally referred to a band, I guess in the same way Nine Inch Nails referred to a "band," but since hitting it big, it's mostly just a nickname for frontman and songwriter Justin Vernon, who, depending on who you ask, may either be Jesus or the antichrist. Consulting my ... More >>

Brent Grulke, SXSW Music Creative Director, Dies of Heart Attack

Brent Grulke, a former Austin Chronicle music writer and editor who rose to the head of SXSW's Music division, died Monday in Austin. The cause of death was a heart attack following oral surgery, wrote Raoul Hernandez, one of Grulke's successor as the paper's Music Editor, on the Chronicle's Web si ... More >>

Two Door Cinema Club

Dave Matthews Band

Unscripted: Top 10 Actor/Musician Collaborations

Johnny Depp and Marilyn Manson have been hanging out a lot lately. The actor joined the antichrist onstage a couple of weeks ago at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards show in L.A., and played guitar on "Sweet Dreams" and "Beautiful People." Depp also collaborated with Manson on a cover of Carly Simon' ... More >>

Vinyl Gets Another Spin

Showing it has more lives than a cockroach, vinyl has been reborn, resulting in some beautiful music. But sometimes production values in records and turntables are lacking.

The Death Of The Greatest-Hits Album: Should We Be Sad?

There was a time when platinum albums didn't exist. An album might sell a million units, but there was no name for that accomplishment. It wasn't until 1976 that they gave that honor a label. The first album to be awarded platinum status? Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) by the Eagles. That ended up ... More >>

Texas MC Snow Tha Product Signs With Atlantic Records

"You mean to tell me that you think I don't know that I ain't black? Or that I don't know that usually Latin girls ain't really been all up in rap? I didn't know that my color or gender could be the preventer of getting on tracks See the last time that I checked they play hip-hop in the hood And ... More >>

5 Intentionally Bad Albums By Geniuses That Really Aren't So Bad

If there's one thing artists hate, it's record labels. Like managers, they were a necessary evil for the music business throughout much of the previous century, at least until piracy and digital uploading became a thing. The way it worked in the olden days, though, was that a record label would giv ... More >>

Billy Gibbons Interviewed: New ZZ Top Album Sounds Like Tequila

With ZZ Top ready to rock RodeoHouston Thursday, Rocks Off began to ponder whatever happened to the band's long awaited new-album. Last summer, guitarist Billy Gibbons told Rocks Off that the band's first collection of new material since 2003's Mescalero would arrive in stores this winter. So far ... More >>

12 Music Business Predictions for 2012

Photo by Robert Bejil​Where were we? Oh yeah, crystal ball and prophesies. You ready for this? OK. What follows is a list of events we expect to befall the music industry in 2012. Yes, these are etched in stone and should be regarded as gospel. Full prophetic titillation ahead.

Invasion of Piracy

Illegal downloading costs the film industry billions of dollars per year. But does the legal strategy designed to recoup this lost bounty amount to extortion?

Arctic Monkeys

SXSW Last Night: (UPDATED) Screeching Weasel's Ben Weasel Hits A Woman At The Scoot Inn

The incident is still just hours old, but the Internet is steaming over Screeching Weasel frontman Ben Weasel hitting a woman and another unidentified person during his band's set at the Scoot Inn on Saturday night. There's no "alleged" to be found in this situation. It was all caught on camera.

Pomplamoose: A Real Revolution?

Readers on our profile of the indie band.

Hustle Town

Hustlers Brass Band brings hometown joie de vivre.

The Devil in DMX

Can the celebrated rapper get out of trouble long enough to top the charts again?

Does "Indie Rock" Mean Anything At All Anymore?

​Our colleague Shea Serrano has been doing brisk business with his Rap Round Table blogs, corralling local hip-hoppers into talking about events in their scene and in the world at large. No topics are off limits, and everyone is willing to talk. So Rocks Off decided it was time for Houston's ... More >>

Nine Rappers About To Be Eaten By Their Own Beards

musiconplay.net​In today's crowded music industry, it's becoming increasingly difficult for artists to stand out from the pack, but sometimes a facial package of ample weight and gargantuan growth will do the trick. Look out, these hip-hoppers are one hair strand away from disappearing into th ... More >>

Fine Dining By The Sea(Brook)

Chocolate-peanut butter icebox pie.​"Don't get too caught up in it; it's just grape juice," laughed Mark McWilliams, seated to my right. Those are words you don't expect to hear from someone who runs a successful winery for a living, but it set the tone for a refreshing evening. Anyone expecti ... More >>

Wolf Like Me

Chris Manak's metamorphosis into label boss, benefactor and video-mixing party DJ Peanut Butter Wolf.

Tonight: Houston Filmmaker Raymond Gale's Electric Purgatory at Domy Books

Electric Purgatory screened almost two years ago at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, but Rocks Off still hasn't seen Houston director Raymond Gayle's film about the plight of the black rocker. We're gonna miss the next screening too - tonight at Domy Books - due to Thanksgiving travel, but we are ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Scott Miller Leaves Label, Licks Stamps

How bad has the music business gotten? We seem to be living in an age when record labels are sinking like the Titanic, when fewer and fewer artists can get a label deal, when the gate to radio is harder to get through than St. Peters Gate. On the Americana scene, labels like Bloodshot and a few othe ... More >>

Distant Early Warning: Al Green, Arctic Monkeys, Living Colour, Meat Puppets, Melvins and More

Al Green: Fri., Sept. 11. Arena Theatre. Arctic Monkeys: Sat., Oct. 3. House of Blues. The Beauvilles, Flowers To Hide, The Live Lights: Sat., July 25. Meridian. The Black Crowes, Truth & Salvage Co: Wed., Oct. 14. House of Blues. "Broke Lizard: Live": Thu., Oct. 15. House of Blues. Cold, Tapro ... More >>

Crash Into Me: Predicting the Economy's Impact on the Music Biz

GWAR more important than you might expect.

Butthole Surfers Part 3: Tom Bunch on Signing With Capitol, the Media's Problem with the Name, Babysitting the Buttholes, Gibby vs. Paul and the End of the Affair

Butthole Surfers Pt. 2: Ex-Manager Tom Bunch on Managing the Band (Officially and Otherwise), the "Ranch" in Dripping Springs, the Rough Trade Bankruptcy, pioughd and Steering BHS to the Majors

Just How Texan are Hayes Carll and Miranda Lambert?

When Little Sisters Attack: Solange Sounds Off

Alicia Keys and Jordin Sparks

Now Hiring. No Age Requirement.

Black Beats, Brown Sounds

Banda horns and hip-hop tracks blend in the music of L.A. duo Akwid

Hip-hop, Tejas

Latinos take on rap music and make it their own

Best New Magazine

Rap Illustrated

Get Some

On the Green Records

Fiddle Femme Fatale

Catherine Burnside wants to drag the violin into the DJ/dance scene and conquer the world, too

Seven Come Eleven

After crapping out with Arista, Patrice Pike hits the creative jackpot with the Blackbox Rebellion

Love, Americana-Style

Buddy and Julie Miller's rings don't burn their fingers

The Real Diva

Nancy Wilson returns from jazz-pop limbo

Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

Merge and Matador reach ten years of indie success

The Sound of Money

Texas Music 1998: The Year That Wasn't

Catching Up with Gil

A new series of reissues reaffirms the genius of rap's granddaddy

Riding the Rap

A new book chronicles the bloody rise and fall of Death Row Records

Under(ground) Achievers

Can Nashville's creative underbelly save country from Music Row?

Wasted Days, Wasted Lives (Part I)

Record producer Huey Meaux was a legend in the music business. Now he's an accused pedophile on the run.

Border Songs

Eyeballing McCarty

Austin's Kathy McCarty fleshes out the naked emotion of Daniel Johnston's songs

Juicy Stuff

Ames gets sued; the Juice -- Brutal and O.J.-- take to vinyl