Syd Barrett

Frank Zappa and Other Quicksand Artists

Tonight House of Blues will be graced by Zappa Plays Zappa, led by the late Papa Frank's oldest son Dweezil, who inherited some of his father's guitar skills. Zappa Plays Zappa is the preeminent traveling Zappa tribute show going, and Dweezil's love letter to his father's body of work, which has onl ... More >>

Pink Floyd's 10 Best Pre-Dark Side of the Moon Tracks

In anticipation of the upcoming 40th anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon, originally released in March 1973, we here at Rocks Off would like to remind you all that Pink Floyd existed for some years before that monumental album. While the band experienced some success, they of course never saw anyth ... More >>

Readers Poll: Who Is the Most Overrated Artist in Rock History?

The concept of "overrated" and "underrated" has always confused me. There are groups that are critically lauded, yet got little commercial love, like The Band. And then there are groups that were almost universally reviled by critics, like Journey, who consistently managed to sell out shows, sell mi ... More >>

Southbound Pachyderm: A Mixtape For An Elephant

Elephants are awesome. Science surely has a more in depth way of expressing mankind's fondness for our giant pachyderm friends, but, "Elephants are awesome" does the trick just fine. I postulate that if you don't like elephants then you must be a terrorist. Scratch that -- even terrorists like elep ... More >>

Jerry Shirley: A Slice of the Pie Has His Say

​English lad and budding drummer Jerry Shirley was all of 16 years old in late 1968 when he received the phone call that would change his life forever. On the other line was Steve Marriott, the singer/guitarist for mod group the Small Faces ("Itchycoo Park"). Shirley's musical hero and new a ... More >>

Jandek Set To Kick Out The Funk Jams (Maybe) At The Menil On December 17

Photo By Mark C. AustinJandek at Rudz in April 2009​The Houston-based, heavily-adored, and altogether elusive Jandek will be performing at the Menil on December 17. Jandek's last show in here town, at Rudyard's on April 5, 2009, was by all accounts and visual documents, a straight-up funk thro ... More >>

In The Flesh: 10 Semi-Obscure Facts About Pink Floyd

(Cue heartbeat sound effect) This week we turn our fact-finding spotlight on of the most successful cosmic rock bands of all time, Pink Floyd. The band is going through another period of rediscovery by fans young and old with a new set of remastered reissues, along with last year's extremely popula ... More >>

Top 10 Songs About Other Musicians

When you make music your life, it's only natural that you'd look at the people around you doing the same and find someone who just moistens the muse's panties. What we've tried to put together here is a list of those best efforts. Bear in mind, with one notable exception we've steered clear of fell ... More >>

Concert Pub's Battle Of The Bands Wages War On Autism

​Autism is a developmental disorder that currently affects nine out of every 1,000 American children, a number that has steadily risen since the 1980s. Symptoms usually appear by age three, and often encompass difficulties in communicating within normal developmental and social parameters. La ... More >>

Syd Barrett: The Man, The Madness, The Music

​A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett By Rob Chapman Da Capo Press, 480 pp., $28. Even the casual Pink Floyd fan knows all there is to know about Syd Barrett, right? Manchild cult-figure forms the band, takes too much LSD, fries his brain out, is left to drift away, then spends near ... More >>

20 Musician Biopics Currently In Development Hell

Happy birthday, Janis.​News came down last week that Sacha Baron Cohen will be stepping into the rhinestones and glitter as Queen icon Freddie Mercury. It's been a long time coming for Cohen, the Borat and Bruno star who is slowly becoming his generation's Peter Sellers and has been rumored to ... More >>

Reduxion

Reduxion Returns Next Wednesday With Tax The Wolf

Michelle Tovar/ Tax the Wolf on Facebook​We're baaaaaaack! After a couple of months off - hey, things happen - Reduxion, Rocks Off's monthly series of local bands covering their biggest influences, returns just in time to get you nice and hung over for Thanksgiving dinner. (Kidding... we thin ... More >>

Young Mammals Emerge From Hibernation At Big Star Tonight

​Rocks Off is still getting used to running into (or emailing) local musicians we haven't seen for a while, asking them where they've been and getting the answer "on tour." We're not complaining. That's the case with Young Mammals - after a sharp set at Free Press Summer Fest, the band virtua ... More >>

MGMT Phones It In, Leaves It Off The Hook

Photos by Groovehouse​ Here are a few things we learned Monday night at MGMT's show at House of Blues. First off, they are not a "live" band in the grand musical sense of the word. While new album Congratulations is a catchy, odd, fucked-up little sophomore outing, it's not at all meant for live c ... More >>

The Man Comes Around: Top Ten Big-Deal Musical Deaths of the Decade

​This past decade saw the passing of an innumerable amount of musical icons and pioneering giants. Not only did we lose the second coolest Beatle, but we lost two of the best dancers and performers the world will ever see. Punk rock and metal saw some of their best and brightest lights get snuffed ... More >>

Digital Leather

Life on Mars

Grammy-winning prog-punks The Mars Volta mellow out on Octahedron.

The World's Most Unfortunately Dressed Bank Robber

The FBI has put out the alert for a new bank robber, one who knocked off a Memorial Drive Wachovia and a west-side Bank of America last week.This is not just any bank robber, though. This dude has style. A very outdated, ridiculous style.Photo courtesy FBI​The FBI is calling him the "Sweatin' to t ... More >>

Pink Floyd, Dr. Dre, Velvet Underground and Other Artists We're Glad Discovered Drugs

It was 45 years ago this past Friday... that Bob Dylan met the Beatles for the first time and, more importantly for Rocks Off's purposes, introduced them to marijuana. While this meeting of musical titans would never lead to any actual musical collaboration or "Monsters of Hippie Rock" series of co ... More >>

Spain Colored Orange

Gilbert Alfaro and Eric Jackson sound off.

(Another) Local Album of the Week: Spain Colored Orange's Sneaky Like a Villain

Spain Colored Orange Sneaky Like a Villain www.myspace.com/spaincolouredorange Thanks to differences with Spain Colored Orange's former label Lucid Records, the songs on the local psych-pop quintet's brand-new disc Sneaky Like a Villain are already old hat to the band members. For the rest of u ... More >>

Jandek

Lost Tuneage: Moby Grape

Who Dat? Collectively, Moby Grape probably was one of the most talented bands to come out of San Francisco area during the golden age of hippiedom. Formed in 1966 by drummer Skip Spence and manager Matthew Katz (both of whom had just been fired from Jefferson Airplane), the lineup includ ... More >>

Eyeballin': A Technicolor Dream

This documentary, originally broadcast on BBC television, traces the coalition of the "underground" movement in swinging '60s London. Beginning with a groundbreaking 1965 gathering/reading of the Beat poets at the Royal Albert Hall and following with the opening of the Indica bookstore and galler ... More >>

RIP, Father of LSD

Reverberations: Bipolaroid’s E(i)ther Or

David Gilmour

Rocker hosts Remember That Night — Live at the Royal Albert Hall

Ten Years After — the 1997 Houston Press Music Awards

Where are the bands and nominees today?

South By Southwest 2007

Stax, Scratch and a host of locals highlight my festival

South By Lomax: Part One

Don't Fear the Reaper

The annual return of the Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter

RIP, Syd. And RIP, 'Cid.

A psychedelic pioneer and the drug that helped do him in are both sorely missed

True Blue Confessions

Let's join Madonna for a friendly round of Celebrity Breach of Confidentiality

Gris Gris

For the Season

Robyn Hitchcock

Spooked

Playbill

Playbill

Greg Ashley

Medicine Fuck Dream (Birdman)

Guided By Voices

Friday, January 16

Greg Ashley

Friday, November 21

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Our picks of the week

The Vines

Saturday, July 27

EchoBrain

Aspera

Saturday, November 17

The Old and the Restless

Longtime thought-rocker Robyn Hitchcock cuts new record

Lucky Horseshoe

Are a praised CD and a slot at SXSW enough to make this band happy? Of course not.

Highway 10 Revisited

San Antonio's True Infidelslook east for inspiration

Ray Stevens Lives!!!

Todd Snider's novelty tunes will tickle your jaded fancy

Pink Pigs and Scarred Psyches

One man's triumphant journey through Pink Floyd obsession