The Black Keys

MySpaced Out: Fortress Europe

SXSW: Health, The Cribs, The Black Keys, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead

SXSW: Stomping my feet to British Sea Power

XM Nation: Catching Up and Moving On

Spiritualized at ACL Fest

Aftermath: The Black Keys at Meridian

Tonight: The Magpies at the Continental Club

[A review from the Magpies' January Continental show is here.] Chris GrayMy son, a guitar plunker raised on huge doses of Rockpile and Joe Ely, tipped me to the Magpies. He saw them at Hayes Carll's Stingaree Festival about a year ago and pronounced them the hardest-rocking band of the whole ... More >>

Annuals, Jessica Lea Mayfield

[A review from the Magpies' January Continental show is here.] Chris GrayMy son, a guitar plunker raised on huge doses of Rockpile and Joe Ely, tipped me to the Magpies. He saw them at Hayes Carll's Stingaree Festival about a year ago and pronounced them the hardest-rocking band of the whole ... More >>

The Magpies

[A review from the Magpies' January Continental show is here.] Chris GrayMy son, a guitar plunker raised on huge doses of Rockpile and Joe Ely, tipped me to the Magpies. He saw them at Hayes Carll's Stingaree Festival about a year ago and pronounced them the hardest-rocking band of the whole ... More >>

The Black Keys Doggy-Paddle from Akron to Stardom

Rubber City Roots

Who Stole the Roll?

Rubber City Roots

The Black Keys

The Black Keys perform Sunday, December 10, at Numbers, 300 Westheimer, 713-629-3700. Dr. Dog also performs.

Various Artists

Uptight Tonight! The Ultimate '60s Garage Collection

Our top DVD picks for the week of October 4

Uptight Tonight! The Ultimate '60s Garage Collection

Heartless Bastards

Thursday, June 30, at Rudyard's, 2010 Waugh Drive, 713-521-0521.

Various Artists

Bonnaroo 2004

Rust Belt Blues

The Black Keys bounce their Rubber Factory out of Akron, Ohio

Deep in The Throes

Tired of guitar-and-drums blues duos? You haven't heard Two Gallants yet.

Roll Over, Eric Clapton. And Tell Stevie Ray the News.

The blues is back -- rawer and louder (and punker) than ever

Jessica Lea Mayfield, Castanets

The blues is back -- rawer and louder (and punker) than ever

New iPhone? Rocks Off Has an App for That.

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray​ We know a ton of you got iPhones over the holiday break. Well, good news: Rocks Off has spent the last few months developing our own iPhone applications (or "apps," as the urban kids are saying) and we're thrilled to debut them here. All inquiries, critici ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs That Make Us Feel Like a Man, Baby!

Mad Men's Christina Hendricks makes us feel like a man in the best possible way...​He Said's view of manhood wasn't built on sweat and labor the way most guys would probably say. Early on in our musical journey, we always equated music to being sleazy and slithery, or just dancing. It makes sense ... More >>

We've Got Surfer Blood, The xx and Superchunk for Our SXSW Party This Year, Y'all

Village Voice Media, the Houston Press' daddy company, has announced the line-up for this year's SXSW day party at La Zona Rosa, set for March 19 at noon. The show hasn't disappointed since Rocks Off has been aboard, with 2008 bringing the Black Keys, HEALTH and ...Trail Of Dead and last year the C ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: Alex Chilton Haunts A Festival Full Of His Musical Children

Dan OkoThe line for the Black Keys outside the Mohawk Saturday afternoon... we have no idea about the pinata truck, either​ After the mega-shows last SXSW with Metallica and Kanye West, the 2010 version of SXSW launched struck your humble badgeholder as busier than last year, just on a smaller ... More >>

Twilight: Eclipse And Other Promising Summer Soundtracks

​Summer isn't just the time to look forward to astronomically budgeted, noisy, overproduced blockbuster films, it's also the time to look forward to astronomically budgeted, noisy, overproduced blockbuster soundtracks. Is Graeme Revell still dicking around with ProTools? He is? Oh, super! Anyway, ... 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 >>

Matt & Kim, Jonathan Tyler Sign On To Music Awards Showcase

myspace.com/mattandkim​Today Rocks Off is pleased to announce that we have two special guests for this year's Houston Press Music Awards showcase, all day Saturday, August 7, inside and outside along Washington Avenue. After the locals do their thing, we have indie duo Matt & Kim and Texas boo ... More >>

Austin City Limits Festival Releases Preshow, Aftershow Lineups

​This morning C3 Concerts, the folks behind the Austin City Limits Music Festival, announced the schedule for the pre- and after-show gigs surrounding the festival. As with this past March's SXSW, those without official credentials aren't totally being shut out of the fun. Starting Wednesday ... More >>

Kings of Leon, The Black Keys

​This morning C3 Concerts, the folks behind the Austin City Limits Music Festival, announced the schedule for the pre- and after-show gigs surrounding the festival. As with this past March's SXSW, those without official credentials aren't totally being shut out of the fun. Starting Wednesday ... More >>

Last Night: The Black Keys At The Woodlands

Photos by Marc Brubaker​The Black Keys Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 20, 2010 "Howlin' at midnight, winter creepin' in/ Feel like I've gone and lost my best friend" - Lucinda Williams, "Howlin' At Midnight" Did you see the moon Wednesday night? The "Super Harvest Moon" that, acco ... More >>

Live From The Austin City Limits Festival, Day 1

Brittanie SheyThe Ettes​Brittanie Shey: Things seem incredibly crowded, and hotter than Houston, if that's even possible. The dust is already flying. Some of us here braved the bro-crowd at the Black Keys (see jump) but some of us, seeing the mile of bodies wobbling before the stage, decided t ... More >>

Music We're Thankful For This Year

​After the turkey comas subside and Black Friday opens the holiday retail floodgates, this year in music will be all but over. Yes, there's another month until the calendar flips over, but from here until early January, the only "new" music coming out will be the tide of reissues, box sets and ... More >>

Katy Perry? For Album Of The Year? Seriously?

​Don't get Craig's Hlist wrong, we think that Katy Perry is extremely attractive. In fact, if we think about her long enough, it makes us want to cry and punch a wall. She's a buxom, bubbly, raven-haired pop star who dresses like she's expensive grandma candy. We even interviewed her last ye ... More >>

The Galleria Is Hardly A Winter Wonderland

confarta.com​Rocks Off, like the rest of you, hasn't finished all of our holiday shopping. Every Christmas, we tell ourselves that we'll begin earlier next year, but it never quite pans out the way we want it to. Ain't that feeling all too familiar? While we braved the crowds at the Galleria ... More >>

Music's Top Five Hottest Trends For 2011

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray​Every year-end Rocks Off prognosticates the likeliest trends in music for the upcoming year. So far, we've got a 100 percent success rate, although since the FBI made us take down all of our previous predictions, we have no way to prove it. So you'll j ... More >>

Rocks Off's Favorite Albums Of 2010

​Editor's Picks: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Mojo: Big surprise, I know. But not only did "I Should Have Known It" vault into my Top 5 Heartbreakers songs the first time I heard it - and make me a bigger Led Zeppelin fan in the process - but others like "Candy" and "Good Enough" also held ... More >>

Two Timing: The 11 Best Rock Duos

Todd Cole​Wednesday night, noisy indie duo No Age (above) pulls into Fitzgerald's. The two-piece of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer Dean Allen Spunt, starting making waves in 2007 with their debut Weirdo Rippers. 2008's Nouns brought them even more acclaim, and along the way they gained fo ... More >>

Six Things The White Stripes Leave In Their Wake

​In the wake of the White Stripes' official breakup last week, the music world reeled with the loss of one of the defining bands of the past decade. Some applauded the end of a band they saw as too simplistic, buoyed by a sub-par drummer and warbling attention-addict. Different strokes, y'all. ... More >>

Punching a Wall

Jessica Lea Mayfield goes from a bluegrass childhood to buzzworthy "goth-blues drama queen."

On The Road Again: Bikinis And Bands At The Hangout Festival

Photos by Craig Hlavaty Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, duh.​See the bands and bikinis of the Hangout Festival in our slideshows. Imagine the Austin City Limits Music Festival or even the rapidly approaching Free Press Summer Fest on pure, white sand just feet away from a (variably) blue ocea ... More >>

Black Pistol Fire: The Austin Blues Duo's Favorite Bands

Black Pistol Fire whipping it on live​This week we talked to Black Pistol Fire, who headline tonight at Warehouse Live in the studio with Animal Farmacy. The Austin duo and proud transplants from Toronto are loud, aggressive and bluesy. Though they get comparisons to the Black Keys, they don't ... More >>

Five ACL '11 Bands That Could Headline In 2012

Jim BrickerSmith Westerns at Fitz in February​This Thursday night, Rocks Off leaves for the 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival at Austin's Zilker Park. This year promises to be a hot one, from the killer temperatures, the constant wildfires just miles from the venue, and the mouth of Frida ... More >>

From Hayes Carll To Cults: Rocks Off's Top 50 Albums Of The Year

​It's that time of year again when we add our two cents to the cyber-orgy that are year-end best-of lists. Music blog Paste and British mag Q threw down with their top 50 earlier this week, so why not Rocks Off? These things just keep starting earlier and earlier each year, like the holiday sh ... More >>

Black Keys Not Licensing New Record to Streaming Services

​There's been a furor brewing among people who love streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio over bands like Coldplay denying licensing to those services for new releases. Older albums are available, but bands have essentially delayed the release to streaming services. That was all well ... More >>

Black Keys Driving Their El Camino To Houston On April 24

Photos By Craig HlavatyThe Black Keys ​The Black Keys, who are currently riding a wave of adulation in the wake of this month's brand new release El Camino, are set to hit Houston on April 24. This Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion date will be the group's second at the venue, the first being an ... More >>

Commercial Break

103.7 is winning fans with its "adult alternative" format.

Low Down: Do Bands Need Bass Players Any More?

Photo by Jeff BalkeSlappin' da bass, mon.​Growing up in the '80s, there was a concern on the part of drummers that they would be replaced by drum machines. No one thought that every drummer in every band would be swapped out with a box, but spots in all sorts of projects normally reserved for ... More >>

Chris Gray Day: Auction Items and a Special Deal from Live Nation

​With the Chris Gray benefit just a few days away, news is flying fast and furious. We told you yesterday about the addition of Hayes Carll to the artist line up and gave you a rundown of every artist on the bill. Today, we have news from Live Nation. The folks at the ticket giant are offerin ... More >>

The Top 10 Laziest Music Videos Ever

​We're obsessed with music videos lately, and have spent almost the whole of the weekend seeking new and brilliant ones in order to feature in our weekly column. We're just so impressed with the capabilities open to modern artists at all strata of stardom, and how brilliant a piece of work can ... More >>

Via The Great Eatlon, The Handshake Arrives

Each Wednesday (or Thursday, if the guy that was supposed to be interviewed disappears like a gypsy), Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awf ... More >>