The Clash (Band)

Midnight Oil Reopens the Blue Sky Mines On Essential Oils

In the U.S., Midnight Oil are probably best known for their single "Beds are Burning." The video helped define late-'80s MTV by showing the group (most notably tall, gangly, bald singer Peter Garrett) dancing amid native tribespeople in the desert, while the lyric forcefully argued that their ancest ... More >>

Spaghetti Supper in a Beer Hall: Lunch at the Saint Arnold Brewery

"You know what this reminds me of?" my friend asked me over lunch at the Saint Arnold Brewery earlier this week. "A really nice spaghetti supper. Except not at a church." I saw what he meant: The long, wooden picnic tables that line Saint Arnold's beer hall have a visual effect similar to the cafet ... More >>

The Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend: JD McPherson, Drew Ireland Benefit, etc.

JD McPherson Continental Club, March 1 Tickets are already getting scarce for one JD McPherson, who is rapidly rising out of obscurity via Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. McPherson came by his bopping R&B/rockabilly sound honestly, by studying vintage labels such as Vee-Jay and Specialty, and then working ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Felipe Galvan Of Los Skarnales

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Los Skarnales frontman Felipe Galvan is q ... More >>

10 Songs That Will Pack Your Wedding Reception's Dance Floor

#MadeInAmerica: Pearl Jam & Jay-Z Rock Together to Close Out

As day two of the Made In America festival came to the end, much of the crowd decided to leave early. That was just fine for the thousands of Pearl Jam faithful, who had plenty of room to witness the 20-year-old Seattle band rock out after being personally chosen by Jay-Z to close the festivities. ... More >>

Saturday Night: Cafe Tacuba at House of Blues

Cafe Tacuba House of Blues August 18, 2012 Imagine for just a second that Fishbone, the raucous L.A. band that threw all sorts of music into a blender with minor success in the late '80s and early '90s, grew to an award-winning, arena-size act that could draw tens or even hundreds of thousands of p ... More >>

Explaining Classic Rock Bands to Kids

This past Sunday, The New York Times ran a piece by Paul Greenberg where the author explained how important the Beatles were to music and pop culture to his five-year old son. The child didn't know that the band had albums, but only knew the Fab Four from iTunes playlists. "When the Beatles record ... More >>

Rock Me... Gently: How the Singer-Songwriters of the Mellow '70s Ruled

Hearts of Darkness: James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Cat Stevens, and the Unlikely Rise of the Singer-Songwriter By Dave Thompson www.backbeatbooks.com, 336 pp., $27.99 Whether you love their deep introspective, often angst-filled lyrics and laid-back strumming or despise them as weak-ass, spoiled, gr ... More >>

iFest: Top 5 Argentine-American Musicians

The Houston International Festival enters its second weekend tomorrow, with featured musical acts WAR, Joe Louis Walker, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Texas Tornados, Del Castillo, Steel Pulse and lots more. Although iFest's performers come from all over the world, all around the main stages will be the sig ... More >>

Bartender Chat: Greg Dean of Khon's Wine Darts Coffee Art

Earlier this week while walking back to my car after having lunch at Red Pier, I looked across the street and spied the sign for Khon's Wine Darts Coffee Art. Oh, so that's where it is. The first time I had ever heard the name was about a year ago during a KUHF spot that said "Support also comes f ... More >>

Readers Poll: The Best Third Albums Ever

This week in 1980, Van Halen released their third album Women And Children First, which contained the hits "And the Cradle Will Rock...," "Everybody Wants Some!! and fan favorite "Romeo Delight." It's not the best VH album ever, but it was, in fact, their third album. Most VH super-freaks I know an ... More >>

Top 5 Old Musicians Actually Using Twitter

Like youth itself, Twitter is wasted on the young. But not everyone over 35 has completely tuned it out -- after a recent upgrade to a smartphone, even I'm using it now after years of Twitterphobia. (Hit me up at @ThePhantomTX.) Since I've been on, I've learned that most musicians have handed off t ... More >>

The Best LP Side Ones Ever

Spurred on by the realization that both David Bowie's commercial breakthrough Let's Dance and Queen's News of the World had solid, sturdy side ones on their vinyl releases, I then began the hunt for other great vinyl slabs with amazing side ones. Of course, the idea is that this could only include ... More >>

Happy Birthday Joe Ely: The Lubbock Flash Turns 65

Courtesy LC Media​I was living in Holland in 1977 when my younger brother, who had attended Wayland Baptist University on a track scholarship until booze and girls were discovered in his dorm room, came for a visit. While living in Plainview, his stomping grounds had been the gin joints of Lub ... More >>

Eyeballin' - The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live in Texas '78

In the multi-fractured musical landscape of time, even "the world's greatest rock and roll band" found themselves in a precarious position in 1978. Joe Strummer and the Clash had declared "No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones in 1977," and subgenres like punk, funk, disco, new wave, reggae, and eve ... More >>

Still Thirsty And Still Miserable: Black Flag's Damaged Turns 30 Years Old

Photo By Edward CulverCheck out this great Q&A with Damaged photographer Edward Culver​Every modern punker has a story relating to Black Flag's Damaged, which turns 30 years old today. Some hate it, some love it, some blame it for the everything good or bad that happened in their lives since t ... More >>

The 10 Most Real Artists of All Time; The Anti-Milli Vanillis

Milli Vanilli​On this day in 1990, the manager for recent Grammy winners for Best New Group Milli Vanilli held a press conference to tell everyone his act was a fraud. They did not do any of the singing on their best-selling record and they lip synced their shows. It was a startling revelation ... More >>

The Prince of Skull Orchard

Artistic polymath Jon Langford is still a Leeds art-school punk at heart.

30 Seconds With Astronautalis

Rocks Off hitched a ride on a space whale in order to hook up with Andy Bothwell, also known as Astronautalis to see what we could learn about our biggest hope for rap in 30 seconds. paperocean​Rocks Off: What is the worst song in the world? Astronautalis: "Love in an Elevator" by Aerosmith. ... More >>

Some Girls: When Rock Met Disco And Disco Met Rock

Rent money is for posers anyway. ​Tonight for one night only at the Houston Marq*E Stadium 23, Rolling Stones fans can finally catch The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas, a 1978 concert from the band's Fort Worth stop. The tour came on the heels of the May 1978 release of the band's So ... More >>

10 Things You May Not Know About G N' R's Use Your Illusion Albums

For the past few weeks, the music world has been firmly entrenched in Nirvana nostalgia. Hell, even Rocks Off took a crack at it, looking up all the expensive memorabilia on eBay related to the band. But in September 1991, another album hit the store shelves that had a lot of impact too, for better ... More >>

Your Weekly Heat Wave Music Blog: Hotter Than Hell Edition

Ed. Note: Remember that "songs about Hell" blog we mentioned a couple of days ago? It's still hot, and here it is. maximumwage.wordpress.comThe Southwest Freeway and Loop 610, 4 p.m.​There's an old saying in Botswana: "Shitfire is it hot!" Wait, maybe that was Bandera. Anyway, whatever hemisp ... More >>

Riot Riot Upstart: Songs For The UK Riots

photoshoplooter.tumblr.com/​A few days ago, in the midst of the worst of the rioting going on around London, which has now dominated the headlines for the better part of a week, someone on Twitter remarked "If Americans rioted every time the cops shot somebody we'd have no time for cocaine and ... More >>

Top 6 Ways To Piss Off A Musician At A Gig

Brian Jackson/Bloodshot RecordsDoes this look like someone YOU'D want to antagonize?​Rocks Off first stumbled onto Scott H. Biram about 10 years ago at the Parlor, Austin's recently closed, extremely cramped "punk rock pizza" joint on North Loop, where patrons scarfed their pies while murals o ... More >>

Who Are You? Songs Commonly Attributed To The Wrong Artists

​Last week, after the tragic, alcohol-fueled passing of Jackass hero Ryan Dunn, Rocks Off at Taco Cabana wearing a promotional shirt for The Hangover II that we stole borrowed from the office here at the Press. As we were loading our hands with condiment containers, a guy came up to us and sai ... More >>

Sgt. Pepper & Three Other Bum Albums By Rock Icons

​It was 40 (four) years ago today - in the UK, and tomorrow in the U.S. - that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play, history stopped, the Summer of Love began, and critics freaked the fuck out. When the Beatles released their LSD-soaked counterpunch to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds in June 1967, K ... More >>

R.I.P Joey Ramone: Top 10 Ramones Songs...

Besides "I Wanna Be Sedated" And "Blitzkrieg Bop" Dawkeye via Wikipedia​It was ten years ago today that the world lost their first Ramone, when Joey Ramone succumbed to lymphoma in New York City at the age of 49, one month shy of turning 50. The iconic punk frontman would lead the Ramones in ... More >>

20 Takes Of "Louie Louie," Motorhead To The Fat Boys

​Today is the 48th anniversary of Portland, Ore., garage-rock group the Kingsmen recording their version of Richard Berry's "Louie Louie." The Kingsmen's version would end up being the most enduring and controversial take of the song, unleashing the U.S. government on the group and the song fo ... More >>

The 10 Best Rock Samples In Hip-Hop

​Rocks Off just finished reading Ian Christe's 2007 Van Halen biography, Everybody Wants Some, which chronicles the band's history from the Van Halen boys' entry into the U.S., the upbringing of David Lee Roth, and devastating, fatal 1985 crash into Mount Sammy Hagar. Sad stuff if you're a Rot ... 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 >>

Top Eight Freedom Songs For MLK Day

​Rocks Off sincerely prays that those of you with today off are at least peripherally aware of why you have today off. For our annual MLK Day reflection this year, we thought we'd leave the songs about Dr. King to Bono, and instead share a few of our favorite songs that set his dream to music ... More >>

Last Night: Agent Orange At Fitzgerald's

Photos by David Ensminger​Agent Orange Fitzgerald's January 9, 2010 In the 1987 21 Jump Street episode "Mean Streets and Pastel Houses," fresh-faced Johnny Depp goes undercover as a punk to root out vicious gangland teenage thugs lurking in the inner city. He ends up at a rowdy punk concert r ... More >>

Rocks Off's Favorite Non-2010 Music Of 2010

Editor's Pick: It was probably Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne, same as last year. So how about Nirvana's In Utero, which I dragged out of mothballs when we did our article about Nevermind's anniversary in September. In Utero fried my hair all over again, and then got me thinking about the band's cover of ... More >>

Rocks Off's Favorite Songs Of 2010

​Editor's Picks: Jamey Johnson, "Lonely at the Top": Ouch. Merle Haggard, "I've Seen It": Double ouch. Patty Griffin, "Move On Up": Help me, Jesus. Please.

Friday Night: Batusis At Mango's

Photos by David EnsmingerCheetah Chrome​Batusis feat. Sylvain Sylvain and Cheetah Chrome Mango's December 10, 2010 "Everything was as it always had been ... the years were a mirage and there had been no years," E.B. White once wrote, describing the collapse of time. This is what Batusis effor ... More >>

Top 10 Double Albums That Should Have Stayed Single

​Not all double albums should have been double albums, just as some albums had to be double albums in order for their point to be made. Each case is different with each band or artist. The Who's Tommy and Quadrophenia had to be double albums to tell their stories of teenage wastelands and po ... More >>

A Fire, Karaoke Or Ex-Brothel: Where Were We In Drag?

Pull up a chair, start a tab and order a round of shots, because this is Rocks Off's weekly roundup of the goings-on in the Houston bar scene. Ups and downs, openings and closings, we will cover it all. Hit us up with any hot tips at craig.hlavaty@houstonpress.com. Photos by Craig Hlavaty​Op ... More >>

Rhett Miller Talks Old 97's, Bob Dylan, Trains And More

Piper Ferguson​The band probably doesn't remember this, but one of the first interviews Rocks Off ever conducted as a quote-unquote professional journalist was talking to the Old 97's in their tour van behind Austin's Liberty Lunch as opener Don Walser(!) yodeled in the background. That was ar ... More >>

Talking Black Flag With The Burden's Ryan Taylor For Redux-ion

Rayhaan TraboulayBlack Flag makes a perfect soundtrack for stealing cigarettes and spray paint, says The Burden's Ryan Taylor (far right).​Next Thursday is Rocks Off's maiden voyage of Redux-ion, a night we created for local bands to pay homage to some of their biggest influences. Along with Y ... More >>

FAIL: Prince, Johnny Rotten, Too Short, Auto-Tune

Photos by John Seaborn Gray​Internet Not As "Over" As Prince Had Hoped: Remember last week when Prince said the Internet was "over," and that was why he's now giving copies of his new CD away for free whenever you buy a copy of that thriving and relevant medium, a British newspaper? Well, ent ... More >>

MTV Struggles to Remain Relevant By Naming A Twitter Jockey

​This week MTV announced an online campaign looking for the network's first-ever TJ, or Twitter Jockey. Unlike the video jockeys of the cable station's past, these folks would instead live-tweet from MTV events for a year, earning a salary, and live in New York City. In addition to Twitter, th ... More >>

The 7 Most Polarizing Albums In Recent Memory

​This Monday night, MGMT hits the House Of Blues behind new album Congratulations, which has been getting one of the most tepid responses for a new album by a buzz band in recent media memory. The people that jumped on the bandwagon in 2008 after the Brooklyn-based then-duo released Oracular Spect ... More >>

FAIL: Britain's Got Talent, Denver Juggalos, Face-Impaling Drummer

​English People Apparently Now Ridiculously Easy to Shock: Hard to believe that the once cutting-edge people of England, historically far less prudish than Puritan-descended America, were shocked and appalled by some of the same shit that Britney Spears did years ago, yet here we are. While pe ... More >>

The Gulf Coast At iFest: Joe Ely's Rattlesnake Rock, Soulful Latinology, Voodoo Brass And Creole Zydeco

Over the next two weeks, Rocks Off will be previewing acts performing at this year's Houston International Festival Saturday and Sunday and April 24-25 broken down by genre (loosely, anyway) and with a guest pick from a true insider: iFest Director of Performing Arts Rick Mitchell. We're doubling up ... More >>

Punk Rock Karaoke Returns Tonight At Notsuoh

www.notsuoh.com​ If you have ever dreamed of being in a punk band, or at least dreamed of embarrassing yourself in front of people you may be trying to sleep with, Notsuoh has you covered tonight, hosting the resurrection of live-band Punk Rock Karaoke. About six years ago, PRK was in full-swing b ... More >>

Hard-Rockin' Backslash Wins Our First High School Rock Off

Photos by Groovehouse / Click here for a slideshow​Houston's Backslash, none of whom were alive when Appetite for Destruction came out, won the first annual Texas High School Rock Off Friday night at House of Blues, taking home $500, a spiffy new trophy and the chance to open for a national ... More >>

Boy, Do We Feel Old: "Hot for Teacher" and Other Back-To-School Songs

Today is the first day of school for almost all the public school districts in the area. Children and teens from Alvin to Alief are trudging into polished halls and sterile classrooms for yet another year of romantic intrigue and bitter class struggle, and impromptu dance routines in the cafeteria, ... More >>

HPMA: We Have Some Winners: Fat Tony, Cactus Music, Swishahouse, Nick Cooper, Kristine Mills

Chris Gray​ Born Liars injected some scuzzy rawk n' roll to the festivities after we were dressed for not repping the zydeco scene. It's really amazing how fast yet how together the Borns really are live. Equal parts MC5 and The Clash.Here come some more awards, kids....Best Underground Hip-Hop- F ... More >>

Joe Ely

One of the original kings of alt-country is experiencing a renaissance