Soundgarden

Give Us a Hand

Social Distortion

Ask your local rocker to stop (over-)using his wah-wah pedal

Were These Really the Best Songs of 2008?

The Gutter Twins Maybe Rocks Off spent a lot of 2008 with his head in the archives, but he was paying attention to new stuff too. Occasionally. It's as easy as satellite radio, channel 47's (Ethel/Alt Nation) weekly new-music hour Submission/Transmission. Monday night, S/T happened to be playing ... More >>

Miss Molly and Mattress Mac, Too

The Houston Press has its very own blowout extraordinaire

Turn Up de Heat

The Reverend Horton Heat is only the baddest-ass live band coming your way

SXSW Update: Watch Out for Devo; Peter, Bjorn & John; Justin Townes Earle; Hungry Villagers and More

Devo on the BBC's Top of the Pops 2 With the big bad final band announcement coming next week, all is quiet on the SXSW front. For now. This past week was slow, with the biggest names confirmed being Devo, Cursive, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Justin Townes Earle. Devo will be clos ... More >>

Rotation

Devo on the BBC's Top of the Pops 2 With the big bad final band announcement coming next week, all is quiet on the SXSW front. For now. This past week was slow, with the biggest names confirmed being Devo, Cursive, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Justin Townes Earle. Devo will be clos ... More >>

Static

Devo on the BBC's Top of the Pops 2 With the big bad final band announcement coming next week, all is quiet on the SXSW front. For now. This past week was slow, with the biggest names confirmed being Devo, Cursive, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Justin Townes Earle. Devo will be clos ... More >>

Static

Devo on the BBC's Top of the Pops 2 With the big bad final band announcement coming next week, all is quiet on the SXSW front. For now. This past week was slow, with the biggest names confirmed being Devo, Cursive, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Justin Townes Earle. Devo will be clos ... More >>

Bad Religion

Devo on the BBC's Top of the Pops 2 With the big bad final band announcement coming next week, all is quiet on the SXSW front. For now. This past week was slow, with the biggest names confirmed being Devo, Cursive, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Justin Townes Earle. Devo will be clos ... More >>

Tired and on a Farewell Tour?

Devo on the BBC's Top of the Pops 2 With the big bad final band announcement coming next week, all is quiet on the SXSW front. For now. This past week was slow, with the biggest names confirmed being Devo, Cursive, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Justin Townes Earle. Devo will be clos ... More >>

Locals Only

Devo on the BBC's Top of the Pops 2 With the big bad final band announcement coming next week, all is quiet on the SXSW front. For now. This past week was slow, with the biggest names confirmed being Devo, Cursive, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Justin Townes Earle. Devo will be clos ... More >>

The '90s Continue Unabated At House Of Blues, Homeslice!

Seriously, what's with the House of Blues downtown toying around with all our '90s modern rock nostalgia as of late? In the past eight months or so since the HOB has opened, the folks on Caroline have booked almost every quasi-major alt-rock band of the last decade, that has not died of an overdos ... More >>

Hello, Houston!

Noise breaks down the months of live music ahead

Bye-bye, Grunge

Noise breaks down the months of live music ahead

Honor Bound

A fictional look at the future of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Between the Cracks

Profiling local bands

311, with Unwritten Law and Papa Roach

Friday, September 9, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands, 281-363-3300.

Stay Young and Stupid

Dear Lord, please stop the Stingification of Beck

Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand (Domino)

Rock You like a Hurricane

The Press Music Awards Showcase brings a category-five storm of tunes

the notwist

Neon Golden (Cityslang)

Rotation

New Releases Reviewed

Defending The Buzz: Does 94.5 FM Really Suck That Bad?

What with Creed reuniting, BuzzFest coming up in a couple of weeks and, hell, maybe even the swine-flu scare - As in: What's worse than coming down with swine flu? A Houston radio that only tunes in 94.5 FM - Rocks Off sure has been thinking a lot about The Buzz lately. Probably too much. I mean, it ... More >>

ACL 2009 Day Three: Spin the Black Circle

Photos by Mark C. Austin​It only took one song in to Pearl Jam's Sunday night closing set at the Austin City Limits music festival for it to dawn on Rocks Off that for way too long this band has been forsaken by back-handed hipster discount and radio-influenced apathy. No band from the grunge- ... More >>

Not to Stoke the SXSW '10 Rumor Mill at All, But Might Pavement and Soundgarden Show Up?

Well here it goes, the year's first official blog entry about South by Southwest 2010. Yes, we know that it doesn't start until March 17, but the hype machines have already been running since the fall and rumors have been getting stoked since before Austin City Limits in October. So let's get this ... More >>

Distant Early Warning: Ben Folds, Caribou, Lupe Fiasco, Randy Travis, Steve Martin, Etc.

​Authority Zero, Voodoo Glow Skulls: Fri., April 9. Wired Live. "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Live": Fri., April 16. House of Blues. "Bamboozle Road Show" With Hanson, Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, Boys Like Girls, All Time Low: Fri., May 28. Verizon Wireless Theater. Ben Folds: Sat ... More >>

Austin City Limits Festival Tickets On Sale Tomorrow At 10 A.M.

We're not saying Soundgarden is playing ACL, but you never know...​That's right. Now why would Rocks Off make something like that up? Hope you have $180 lying around and don't have any meetings or classes or anything like that tomorrow morning, because they're going to go quick. Better go ahead an ... More >>

Acts We Think - OK, Hope - Are Playing ACL Fest This Year

​By this time Tuesday, we will all know who is playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October. Damn, it seems like we have speculating about the line-up since, well, we got the last of the "Dillo Dirt" out the middle of our toes after last year's muddy and rainy ACL weekend. Tuesday brig ... More >>

2010 ACL Line-Up Goes Live And (Early) By Surprise

The line-up for the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival went live at the fest's website at midnight this morning while the rest of the world was snoozing. Luckily we are up and stirring to bring it to you. No Pavement and no Soundgarden, but we do have the Strokes down. More commentary coming in ... More >>

Top Eight Weirdest Saturday Night Live Musical Moments

​This past Saturday was Steve Martin's birthday and, if you're old enough, you may remember back to a time when the snow-capped comedian/actor/musician was more than just a comedy archaeologist, exhuming the corpses of classic comic franchises and defiling the shit out of them. No, he actually ... More >>

Early Man

​This past Saturday was Steve Martin's birthday and, if you're old enough, you may remember back to a time when the snow-capped comedian/actor/musician was more than just a comedy archaeologist, exhuming the corpses of classic comic franchises and defiling the shit out of them. No, he actually ... More >>

Ten Rock-Star Crushes We Still Haven't Outgrown

​Artists like Elvis Presley, Madonna, and Mick Jagger undoubtedly helped define the consumate rock star crush. But there have been a handful of worthy others along the way - armed with that certain je ne se quoi - who haven't left our radar. Years later, turns out we're still smitten with thi ... More >>

Guns N' Roses, Rolling Stones, Prince Coming In 2011?

Sind Axl und Slash wieder Freunde geworden?​Rocks Off is in the concert business for all intents and purposes. We scour Pollstar and other Web sites and almost hourly looking for new shows and tours to tell you about around the clock. In the span of writing this introduction we just listed Luc ... More >>

The Worst Album Covers Of 2010

Not a bad album cover. Not even close.​These are some of the worst album covers to grace store shelves your hard drive this year. Only a few of you seem to be buying albums anymore unless you still buy vinyl, in which case you are a saint and a scholar. You know what is a good album cover? K ... More >>

1991: Best Music Year Ever?

Rocks Off Sr.'s choice for 1991's best album.​1991 was one of the biggest years in modern music. It was when metal went pop, radio country ruled, grunge went mainstream, and rap began its climb to chart dominance, even if it was spearheaded by a white candy rapper from Dallas. There were man ... More >>

Black Queen Speaks Checkmates Other Funk-Rockers

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essential gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're working to find some meaning in the monikers. ​Black Queen Speaks' own description of itself is better than any other we could possibly come up: They sound like Jane's Addiction and Soundgar ... More >>

Solo Albums: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

​Tomorrow night, former Audioslave lead singer and (thankfully) current Soundgarden member Chris Cornell will be at House of Blues for a long-sold-out acoustic show. Recent set lists have included a number of Temple of the Dog songs, some solo work, the usual 'Garden and 'Slave tracks, plus a ... More >>

Saturday Night: Chris Cornell At The House Of Blues

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Chris Cornell Warehouse Live April 2, 2011 Check out our slideshow of Chris Cornell performing solo at House of Blues. We can only assume that this current cross-country solo acoustic jaunt by Chris Cornell is a warm-up for a full assault by his recently reunited Soun ... More >>

Dirty Shirts

The '90s' sweatiest band, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, cleans out the vaults and gets back on the road.

Lyrical Advice For The Class Of 2011

"Move back in with your parents! Let them worry about you!"​There will be no guitars and Marshall stacks at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion this weekend, just "Pomp and Circumstance." As the Class of 2011 walks across the stage soon to be occupied by Peter Gabriel, Widespread Panic and Ki ... More >>

Prog-Rock Bassist Enters Stupid Criminal Hall Of Fame

GroovehouseCoheed's Claudio Sanchez: Now auditioning bassists.​Sometimes when Rocks Off interviews this musician or that one, we'll ask them what they do to kill time on the road. Some of them read, others take in the local sights if they have time, obviously a lot of them listen to music. The ... More >>

Tianna Hall: Jazz Singer Unafraid Of Soundgarden, Radiohead

​It's hard to describe how difficult it is to be a good jazz singer. Jazz is such a nuanced, sometimes overwhelming experience, that vocalizing it is, at times, akin to juggling bulldozers. And crap, man, bulldozers are heavy. Which is why when singer Tianna Hall's music got dropped in our l ... More >>

Chris Cornell's Best Non-Soundgarden Cuts

​Today is Chris Cornell's birthday, and the Soundgarden lead singer only seems to be getting younger, even at 47 years old. Seriously, last two times we have seen him, his voice keeps regressing back to the early Soundgarden days and he seems to be getting more spry. He lives in France with hi ... More >>

How To Survive An Outdoor Concert Disaster: Ten Semi-Helpful Tips

​The summer festival season is winding down, but even as that stops, the fall festival season begins. The weather will be getting nicer, and it will actually be pleasant to be outside, so we're looking forward to it, especially with Austin City Limits, our own BestFest and Fun Fun Fun Fest all ... More >>

10 Things We're Probably Doing At ACL This Year

villagevoice.comBjork at ACL '07, when part of her staging caught fire.​This is the Rocks Off team's (well, Craig Hlavaty and Chris Gray) fifth year covering the Austin City Limits Music Festival. The first year this smart guy wore black jeans and a black shirt to try to look cool, which made ... More >>

G N' R, The Cure & Chili Peppers Could Be Hall Of Famers Next Year

Oh, this will be a fun induction ceremony...​This morning, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland announced the list of nominees for its Class of 2012: The Small Faces & The Faces, Freddie King, The Cure, Guns 'N Roses, Heart, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Spinners, War, Joan Jett and the Bl ... More >>

Last Night: Mastodon At Fitzgerald's

Photo by Marco TorresMastodon gets the devil horns.​Mastodon, Black Tusk, Venomous Maximus Fitzgerald's October 27, 2011 Mastodon on the stage upstairs at Fitzgerald's is like a bull in a china closet, an anaconda in a cage full of mice, or at least John Travolta in a room full of handsome me ... More >>

Ask A Rapper: These are the Best Non-Houston Samplings of Houston Rap

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com.̴ ... More >>

R&Grunge: Four Grunge Covers We'd Like To See (& One Actual One)

​The '80s and '90s will never die as long as young artists continue to keep their influencers alive in song. When news broke earlier this week that D'Angelo of all people have decided to cover Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", it marked one of the few times that R&B, a genre which now sadly revo ... More >>