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The Yeah Yeah Yeahs Album-Cover "Controversy" Bores Me

The release of the "controversial" cover art for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' forthcoming album, Mosquito, has managed to stir up quite a bit of buzz. (Leave me alone. I like puns.) If you've somehow managed to escape the album-cover hype, I'll let you in on a little secret: you're not missing much in ... More >>

Rolling Stones Let Psych Flag Fly On '67's Their Satanic Majesties Request

The Rolling Stones' 1967 album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, turns 45 today. The album's subject matter and oddity make it a strange holiday release, but hey it was the '60s. Best-known for the saccharine "She's a Rainbow" and oft-covered "2000 Man," the album gets lost in the Stones' greater l ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Bill Fool, Punk Lifer, Dad, Good Guy to Know

"Bill Fool was born in Chicago, Illinois and spent his entire youth living near Wrigley Field and really never left that particular area as a kid, ever..." says local luminary and punk lifer Bill Fool in an email. What follows is a short primer on this beloved curmudgeon. Mr. Fool has been a part ... More >>

The Secret History of "You Are So Beautiful"

Six years ago today, on June 6, 2006, the world lost Houston-born musician Billy Preston. The session man, kind soul and all-around secret weapon was in the mix for some of the best and brightest moments of rock's heyday. The man backed up Little Richard and Sam Cooke, and as a child prodigy he play ... More >>

Sticky Fingers: 10 Musicians Who Deserve Their Own Ice Cream

Ice cream is good -- especially in the summer and of course today. With the advent of the deliciously yummy Ben and Jerry's ice cream, among others, ice-cream companies have been naming their flavors after artists for years. Ben and Jerry's especially has been at the forefront of naming their ice ... More >>

Playing for Keeps: Vinyl Essentials

Here's our must-haves if you're kick-starting a record collection.

Cover Story: Cleaning & Caring For Your Vinyl Collection

This week's feature, "Playing for Keeps," takes a look at the resurgence of the vinyl record. When you think about it, vinyl is probably the most enduring musical format in the history of home audio. How many people's record collections were started with hand-me-downs from their parents? But it's n ... More >>

20 Albums To Leave Your Children Plus Five To Grow On...

It started as a simple question: What albums would you leave your unborn children, if you knew you were on borrowed time and may not be around to show them the way. At first I asked for albums for sons, but then it grew broader, not out of needing to pacify the PC-thug in me, but to make sure everyo ... More >>

Staying Sane at Owl Bar

​The best thing about Owl Bar is that it doesn't feel like it belongs. A couple of years ago, when Mugsy's occupied the same space, it would have been a little more at home in its neighborhood. Upper Kirby has since come up in the world, though. Standing on Owl Bar's narrow patio on a Tuesday ... More >>

Lordy Lordy, T. Rex's Electric Warrior Is 40

​A few months back, we had this to say about T. Rex on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of their single "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" reaching the top of the UK charts. This Saturday, parent album, Electric Warrior, turns 40 years old. It bears repeating, not because we are too lazy to com ... More >>

Bobby Keys: iFest Nabs Rolling Stones Sax Maniac

The Rolling StonesBobby Keys takes an Exile on Main Street breather, Nellcote, France, 1971​Born in Lubbock and raised just east in Slaton, Joe Ely's home town, saxophonist Bobby Keys left Lubbock in 1960 looking for kicks. At 14, he was playing with Bob Dylan influence, Bobby Vee, before movi ... More >>

Last Night: Hayes Carll At Warehouse Live

Photos by Jason Wolter​Hayes Carll Warehouse Live December 28, 2010 It was almost New Year's Eve, just not cold as hell for Houston. For the third year in a row, Woodlands native Hayes Carll shambled back from Austin for his post-Christmas show at Warehouse Live, which might explain why the ... More >>

Rap's Top Ten Lyrical Blunders

​Most rap boasts revolve around three things: cash, chicks and anus - as it turns out, rappers love to brag about their ass a lot. But after years of bragging about the same three things, redundancy blurs the line between braggart and ridiculous. Even the best of the best MCs have succumbed to ... More >>

Top 5 Daniel Lanois Productions

​This past Saturday in Los Angeles, legendary producer Daniel Lanois, known for his trademark echo-heavy sound and work with the likes of U2 and Bob Dylan, was involved in a near-fatal motorcycle accident. Lanois was slated to soon begin work on Brandon Flowers of the Killers' solo debut and the u ... More >>

Rocks Off Is Bleeding, Torn And Frayed

​Exile on Main Street is not Rocks Off's favorite Rolling Stones album. Never has been. That honor rests with Let It Bleed, and not for "Gimme Shelter" (OK, that's a lie), "Midnight Rambler" or "You Can't Always Get What You Want." No, for us it's always been the songs sandwiched around "Rambler": ... More >>

Exile In Pearland: A Young Rocks Off Gets "Happy"

The first time Rocks Off the Younger truly heard "Happy," we were loading a case of Dannon yogurt into the display case at the Kroger in Pearland we worked at from 1999 until he first left home. It would have been September 2002, and we had just signed the papers that would mark our entry into the ... More >>

Eyeballin: Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! - the Rolling Stones In All Their Late-'60s Satanic Majesty

In late 1969, the Rolling Stones were at a musical crossroads. They were two years away from the deep blues of Sticky Fingers and its follow-up, the majestically scuzzy Exile On Main Street. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were still very much tinkering with their new bluesier direction that would t ... More >>

The Dong Show

Here at Rocks Off, we do a lot of research for our wildly popular and intellectually enlightening album cover slideshows. As part of that research, we've found many of those albums to be highly concentrated on the male goinrular area. So at long last, and just in time for the weekend, we've compiled ... More >>

Five Direct Beatles Connections to Texas

Four postcards included in the limited edition of The Beatles: Rock Band​ Looks like Beatlemania 2.0 is in full swing. Rocks Off may have mentioned how excited we are to play The Beatles: Rock Band at Coffee Groundz tonight, with prizes, drink specials and much laughter as we try to gnash our way ... More >>

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Album of the Week: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit www.jasonisbell.com Jason Isbell just turned 30 this past February, so calling him an old soul might be soft-pedaling things a bit. You just can't be callow and pen a line like "She left me alone with these pills, and the last ... More >>

Aftermath: The Magpies and Sideshow Tramps at the Continental Club

Photos by Chris Gray It didn't look good at the beginning. A few minutes after 9 p.m. Wednesday, the posted start time for visiting Cleveland roots-rockers the Magpies, the "count" at the Continental Club front door was all of 16 paying customers, and the band was nowhere in sight. Two chicken t ... More >>

The Year in Albums

Classic Rock Corner: The Greatest Band Logos of All Time, Part 2

An early example of rock art... We're back to reveal the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the cappo di tutti cappi of classic-rock band logos evah! And when we say "greatest," we look for a combination of things including memorability, longevity, graphic design, influence and appearances. ... More >>

Music to Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil

The Greatest Texas Rock Album of All Time

Like a Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of a Tribute Band, by Steven Kurutz

Local Motion

Retro Active: 1987, Here We Come

DISConnect: Turntables

Turns out vinyl wasn't dead after all

DISConnect

Sales of CDs are falling faster than you can say iPod

Hope Springs Eternal

A northern suburb tops our third installment of rating greater Houston's taste in music

Fly Like an Eagle

Jesse Hughes proves too sexy for his band, too sexy for his band

Americana Pie

Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot

Americana Pie

Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot

Nicolai Dunger

Tranquil Isolation (Overcoat Recordings)

Gilding the Lily

Studio tricks ruin what could have been for the Dandy Warhols

Achtung! Stuka!

Tim Murrah unleashes another blitzkrieg on Houston nightlife

Greg Wood

Ash Wednesday (Stag)

Rum Punk

Though Alejandro Escovedo has kicked the booze, he still churns out symphonic hardcore

Rotation

Rotation

Rotation

Pollyanna for the '90s

Live Shots

Press Picks