The Beastie Boys

The Cavern and the Top 10 Iconic Rock Clubs In History

Last week back in 1957, the most famous rock club in England opened in Liverpool. There was absolutely no rock and roll on the bill that night. The Cavern Club was originally opened to mimic the cellar jazz bars that owner Alan Synter visited in Paris. There was a strict jazz-only policy in place ... More >>

Those Are People Who Died, Died: Musical Passings of 2012

Rocks Off put it off as long as we could, because December has been a pretty rough month. It always is for music. (Hollywood, too.) But it's time to call the roll of people who played or sang their last note in 2012, plus a few who were just as instrumental offstage. Precious few corners of the mus ... More >>

Kinky

Switcharoo: 10 Artists Who Tried Other Genres

Have you ever bought an album of an artist you were familiar with and thought, "wow... that's different?" In fact, many artists try out other genres than the one where they originally became popular as a way for them to grow as artists. But a big question remains: Will the audience grow with them a ... More >>

Braving the Boos: Bob Dylan and 10 More Artists Unafraid to Piss Off Their Fans

Forty-seven years ago this week (wow!), a '60s folk icon by the name of Bob Dylan made his third and final appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, R.I. It was a highly anticipated set -- Dylan was the de facto leader of the American folk-music revival at the time, and his folkie flock ex ... More >>

An Obamacare Playlist You Can Afford

The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act has now been almost two weeks ago. If you keep up with national news, or maybe just don't avoid the Internet machine, well, you have probably observed that people are still noticeably buzzing about the ruling. It does happen to be one o ... More >>

Spike Jonze's Top 9 Music Videos

There's no doubt that Spike Jonze is an enigma of a director and artist. He's worked in all types of mediums: he filmed bullriders at the Astrodome, changed the world of skateboard videography, and visually recreated the brilliance of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are. Plus, he's made us al ... More >>

K. Flay

The Houston Film Critics Society Awards: Best of 2012

Metro's Rapping Puppets Make Sweet Beastie Boys Tribute

When December rolls around, of all the days of the year, I imagine I will remember last Friday pretty well. I have not felt the kind of sadness I felt when Craig called from New Orleans to make sure I knew that Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, had died in a while. (I didn't know.) Losing Levon ... More >>

Jane's Addiction & Other Big 1987 Debut Albums

Tonight Jane's Addiction comes to the Bayou Music Center, touring behind last year's The Great Escape Artist, only their fourth studio album in their nearly 27 years as a band. A few weeks back Rocks Off talked to lead singer and Lollapalooza honcho Perry Farrell about the band's future and what cou ... More >>

The End is Nigh: 2012 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Edition

Mason Lankford said, "There will come a day when we forget the Rapture ever even happened," but Rocks Off is keeping an eye out for signs of our impending Armageddon. We were wrong last time, but we're totally right this time! Once again the time has come to select the most excellent musicians in o ... More >>

Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow

Your Musical Word of the Day: Panache

​Definition: The real definition of the "panache" is a tuft of pretty feathers, especially on a helmet. That's actually the literal translation from the early French word "pennache" from which panache is descended. The definition that most of us use, though, is to indicate just a bit of style ... More >>

Intergalactic: A Playlist For The Space Shuttle's Last Flight Home

NASA/Hair BallsNo more cool pictures like this for a long time :(​If you're an astronaut, you recently might have awoken you from a sound night's rest on the space shuttle to the sounds of U2, Beyonce, Electric Light Orchestra, Aaron Copeland, or even some old Coldplay. On those more unlucky d ... More >>

Out Today: Beasties Bite Back, Stevie Nicks Gets Witchier

​What's the best way to celebrate the elimination of Osama Bin Laden? Listening to the Foo Fighters' latest album Wasting Light for the fourth week straight, of course. Send help, or at least the announcement of a late-summer or early fall tour date. Come on, man, just one hit. This week's n ... More >>

More Like "Hall Of Lame," Am I Right?

​Ladies and gentlemen, your 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is ready to admit a new class: Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Neil Diamond, Darlene Love and Dr. John have all been inducted for 2011, the foundation announced Wednesday. With the exception of Wai ... More >>

Grum's "Through The Night" Is One Rad Buddy-Cop Bromance

Every day Rocks Off trolls the tubes of you in search of videos to share. If you have something that you think deserves to be video of the day, send a link to jef_rouner at yahoo dot com. ​Your daily VJ has been using the phrase "homoerotic undertones" since the fourth grade, and we have the ... More >>

Girl Talk Toilet Paper Mash-Ups Balloons = Party!

Marc Brubaker​ Aftermath didn't think it was possible to up the ante any more at this year's Summerfest until Girl Talk took the stage Saturday night. In our estimation, it was the biggest and baddest Summerfest party to date. We might even venture to say that achieved the biggest and baddest summ ... More >>

Dave Wrangler Is Under The Influence... Before Our Washington Shore Party

Album art by Wyatt LittleRocks Off mentioned this right after Houston's main man on the mash-ups, Dave Wrangler, agreed to DJ tonight's Washington Shore party (8 p.m., rain or shine) at the Washington Avenue Drinkery, but it's worth repeating. Wrangler's got a new 18-track collection of mix-n-match ... More >>

Before It Was the Tower Theater, It Was Clubland, and Rocks Off's Friend Worked There

joe_stephens_3'​Monday's news that the Hollywood Video located in the old Tower Theater will soon shut down has put Rocks Off on one of our periodic nostalgia kicks, and this one actually comes with a personal connection. Before the Tower was one of Houston's main mid-size music venues in the firs ... More >>

Before It Was the Tower Theater, It Was Clubland, and Our Friend Worked There

joe_stephens_3'​Monday's news that the Hollywood Video located in the old Tower Theater will soon shut down has put our sister blog Rocks Off on one of our periodic nostalgia kicks, and this one actually comes with a personal connection. Before the Tower was one of Houston's main mid-size music v ... More >>

Bayou Beat: Movie Night at the Mink, Scout Bar Beaumont Shut Down, Yeah Yeah Yeahs at ACL? and More

Seems the Mink has found an old movie projector and is planning to put it to good use this evening. After a couple of Charlie Chaplin shorts, the bar will screen the superb 2007 documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, and even provide free popcorn. "A makeout row can be provided on reque ... More >>

Weekend Video Roundup: Beastie Boys and Aerosmith

No, the Beastie Boys didn't play Houston over the weekend, and they won't be in the forseeable future either. No sooner had C3 Entertainment announced that the Boys would take the 8:15-9:30 p.m. spot on the Austin City Limits Music Festival's AMD stage Friday, October 2 - see the full schedule here ... More >>

Turning The Screw: Jay'Ton, Bushwick, Nas, Akon, Dre, Diddy, DJ Hero, Grandmaster Flash, The Kanye, T.I., Three 6 Mafia, Bubba Sparxxx, and more

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "We Here," Jay'Ton feat. Trae and Yung Quis Wire To Wire: Nas is not a fan of Canada. Akon, who ... More >>

Austin City Limits Goes Grunge; Tickets On Sale Today

Just in time for tickets to go on sale - as in now - leaks have conveniently begun to spring in C3 Entertainment's carefully under wraps lineup for this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival, scheduled for October 2-4 in Zilker Park. (Don't worry, Longhorn fans: Unlike last year, that's UT's ... More >>

Retro Active: Remembering the Speed Trials Album

So, just in time for its 20th anniversary, the Beastie Boys' landmark Paul's Boutique album is gonna be reissued in a deluxe, remastered edition. As we all know, the album is masterpiece of sampling technique, unencumbered by the prospect of litigation and emboldened by a true sense of sonic adven ... More >>

Things That Make Us Feel Old: The Year 1989

"Hey Ladies" As another year begins, record labels start unleashing commemorative editions of classic albums to take advantage of anniversaries of release dates and more importantly, yo' money. We already got wind of the impending Pearl Jam reissues a few weeks back. Now we get word that the Beasti ... More >>

Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill and the Roots of Alt-Rap

Beastie Boys, "So What'cha Want" Today is one of those cosmological coincidences so uncanny it may be no coincidence at all: the Beastie Boys' Mike D and Cypress Hill's Sen Dog were both born this day in 1965. (Scorpios represent!) In the late '80s and early '90s, from opposite sides of the U.S., ... More >>

Turning the Screw: D. Rose, Rap City, Beastie Boys, Marilyn Manson, Paris, Lil Kim, Ice Cube and More

“Uncle Charlie’s Art Show”

A well-known local poster artist puts 18 years’ worth of concerts on sale

Beards of a Feather: Rick Rubin to helm ZZ Top session

Northern State, with American Princes

Molotov

Galactic

Drenched in Blog: Hall of Fame Nominations a Big Cleveland Steamer

Miho Hatori

Mix it up with a friend of the Gorillaz and Beastie Boys

Whitey on the Mike

The all-time greatest white-boy rhymes

Rotation

Handsome Boy Modeling School, Molotov and Rufus Wainwright

Beastie Boys

To the 5 Boroughs (Capitol)

You Ain't Punk 2004

Saturday, April 10

Messing with Texas

Rockers bash Bush, with varying results

Snapping Rappers

The right pals send a photographer down the right path

Money Mark

Change Is Coming (Emperor Norton Records)

Playbill

Soul Brains (né Bad Brains)

Rotation

Simply Beastie

The Lame and the Great

Lists you've been waiting all year for, in no particular order

Crit Picks

Rotation