Spin Magazine

Saturday Night: ZZ Top at Constellation Field

ZZ Top Constellation Field October 20, 2012 ZZ Top has been writing and performing music for nearly 45 years. Now, granted, there are a handful of other artists that have been around that long too, but most of them have a lot of baggage, the stuff of VH1 documentaries and that Oprah loves to talk a ... 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 >>

One Year After Woman Gets Masters In The Beatles, We Hunt Down Most Bizarre College Music Courses

A year ago today, Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy of Ontario became the first person in the world to earn a master's degree in The Beatles. I'm not quite sure what she's doing now, but I do know she could probably kick anyone's ass in Beatles trivia. This little anniversary of her graduation got me think ... More >>

The Seven Most Memorable Rap Beatdowns

Wreckx-n-Effect went New Jack Swing on A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip in 1993.​When pop stars and Hollywood types need to settle a score, they take it to the courtroom. Hip-hop, however, operates by a different code: If you act up, you will get smacked up. Rocks Off was reminded of this when a m ... More >>

Dancing With The Stars: Ready... Aim... Fire!

getreligion.orgElvis' shot-up TV wound up in a museum. Steven Cowan's probably won't.​As someone who is both left-handed and left-footed, and has carried a bizarre taffeta-related phobia with us since childhood, Rocks Off generally goes out of our way to avoid Dancing With the Stars at all cos ... More >>

Billy Corgan: Still A Smashing Pumpkin, But No Shrinking Violet

Kristin Burns​A couple of weeks back, Rocks Off spoke with the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan for our print edition about the state of the music world, who excites him now and the indie-rock "shell game." The initial interview was only scheduled for 15 minutes but we ended up chatting for a h ... More >>

Pregame at the Houston Press Music Awards Ceremony

Photos by Kendra BerglundA Dream Asleep​The winner's envelopes are here and the room is starting to fill up as bands gather to find out who are the winners of this year's Houston Press Music Awards. Our staff has been milling around and have reported back to us these nuggest. How was your sho ... More >>

Dream of Life Offers An Intimate Look At The Newly Widowed Patti Smith

​Dream of Life, the 2008 documentary about Patti Smith, opens with Smith's own narration of the many loved ones she's outlived over the years. Among those names are her husband, MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith; her brother Todd; and controversial photographer and close friend Robert Mapplethorpe. ... More >>

Music Cities

Texas has its own brand of March Madness

Be Happy or Die

Inside Super Happy Fun Land, Houston's most eclectic musical venue (and more).

He Said She Said: Songs Guaranteed to Offend the Opposite Sex

Chicks, man. Can't live with them, can't play music that objectifies them while in the car on the first date. What's up with that? You play one song with the queen mother c-word in it and she leaves the car before we get our complimentary paper crowns. We compiled a list of songs guaranteed to offe ... More >>

Living and Dying with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor Over Sundance

How I turned some newspaper stories into a book which became a movie that caused those two guys to kiss

Dwarves

Rebuilding Fiona

Thankfully, Ms. Apple has decided to remain with us

Charlie In Charge

Sexton has gone from child roots rocker to Spin cover boy to Dylanesque bard

Pattern Recognition

Can defunct German bands become the sheezy in '05? Ja, they Can. We explore these and other of this year's trends.

Original Style

The Roots makes rap come alive live

Too high. Period.

Curt Kirkwood, now living in Austin, is still a Meat Puppet. His brother Cris is a missing-in-action junkie.

Motley Fools

Plugged In

Ecstatic Static

Guided By Voices' low-fi revelations