The Cranberries (Band)

Bang Bangz: More Ghostly Wails and Synths On Red City

Bang Bangz remains one of the best things about the Houston music scene. The trio of Mario Rodriguez, Elizabeth Salazar, and Vik Montemayor specializes in an ambient, repetitious, synth-driven kind of indie music that is really quite spellbinding. In particular, Salazar and Rodriguez's vocals cut th ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Alyssa Rubich, Angel of Instability

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. Who? Singer-songwriter Alyssa Rubich made 2 ... More >>

I Tried to Explain CDs to My Three-Year-Old Daughter

I was strapping my daughter into her carseat when she said, "Daddy, I want my favorite book." She was pointing at the floorboards in the back, where a stratified layer of various toys, books and random objects she has demanded to entertain her during car rides and abandoned after 15 minutes contin ... More >>

Music That Will Officially Be Old In 2013

One of my favorite pastimes is reminding my friends how old we are all getting, partly because I am cruel, and probably because even I am astounded that actor Steve Guttenberg is now three years older than Wilford Brimley was when they filmed Cocoon together in 1985. We can all think of things tha ... More >>

The 10 Worst Holiday Cover Songs Ever

It's the thought that counts, right? Because they had the common decency to make original garbage, this list pardons holiday atrocities like New Kids on the Block's "Funky Funky Christmas" and "Last Christmas" by Wham! The ten "artists" on this list couldn't even be bothered to wrap their own turds ... More >>

Saturday Night: Toby Keith at The Woodlands

Toby Keith Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 8, 2012 Toby Keith is America writ small: beholden to corporate interests, often hypocritical, prone to pursuing his baser urges while exhorting others to hold themselves to a higher standard. He is, in many ways, our exemplary artist for these m ... More >>

Why Shouldn't the Zombie Apocalypse Have a Playlist?

Yeah, yeah, we all know it's 2012. Apparently the end of the world is near. The apocalypse is coming. Or better yet, a zombie apocalypse is coming. If you aren't so in touch as to what the hell a zombie even is, it's the living dead, and they are scary as can be. I have my roommate and good friend ... More >>

Enter Shikari: Either You Know You're Oppressed, Or You're Asleep

If there is anything you can say about Enter Shikari, it's that the band is a challenge just by its very nature. There's no genre, no label, no box that they fit comfortably in. Ultimately, they are that obnoxious zigzag Tetris piece that brings the whole game down. Lots of attempts have been made ... More >>

Numbers Game

Of hell spawns, dinner theater and a venue actually old enough to have traditions.

Brain-Eating Bands and Songs for the Walking Dead

ssgmusic.com​Zombies or vampires? It's a classic debate along the line of The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones. We're not sure the Fab Four qualifies as either monster, but with The Glimmer Twins' propensity to remain upright and touring despite advanced age, decay, and a million other complicat ... More >>

ACL: Adele & Mumford & Sons - Not Here, But Here

Photos by Marco TorresTrain a-Comin': The Secret Sisters​3:30 p.m. Still they file in. Watching the crowds trudge along Barton Springs Road, their eyes fixed on the pavement about five yards in front of them (not their phones), always reminds Rocks Off of a pilgrimage. And each festival has i ... More >>

Saturday Night: She Wants Revenge & Nico Vega At Warehouse Live

Photos by Matthew Keever​She Wants Revenge, Nico Vega Warehouse Live June 12, 2011 Aftermath made our way into Warehouse Live Saturday night, expecting to dance our pants off to some She Wants Revenge, whom we had put on the backburner after we overcame and outgrew our angsty, teenage years. ... More >>

Alyssa Rubich: "I Do Not Exaggerate My Instabilities At All"

​Rocks Off almost never gets a bad recording out of the Red Tree Recording Studio, so when producer Harold Reubens sent us his latest project, he had to jump a bar he'd already set pretty high. Little did we know that not only would Alyssa Rubich's C'est La Vie clear the hurdle, she would kee ... More >>

A Few Damned Minutes With The Damned Things

​Rocks Off recently spoke with Joe Trohman, one of the guitarists for brand-new supergroup The Damned Things, which features Anthrax legend Scott Ian, Every Time I Die lead singer Keith Buckley, and drummer Andy Hurley from Trohman's previous band, Fall Out Boy. The Damned Things are a relat ... More >>

Who Was The Best Female Artist Of The '90s?

The album that started the whole thing.​Rocks Off Sr. was straightening up our office a few days ago, something that happens like clockwork every time Middle Eastern governments start toppling like dominos. In one of the piles and piles of al fresco CDs, we ran across two of our favorite album ... More >>

In Dreams: 15 Songs For Mr. Sandman

Rocks Off Sr. is curious why Rocks Off Jr. chose a picture of Christina Hendricks for an article about dreams.​For some reason, Craig's Hlist has been sleeping way too much lately. Blame the booze, fear of the sun, or just plain lack of giving a rat's ass about the daylight. With sleep comes d ... More >>

Toad The Wet Sprocket: Not Bikers' First Choice

'90s alt-rockers Toad the Wet Sprocket, playing House of Blues tomorrow night, may be an established act now, but back on the heels of their second album, 1990's Pale, the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based quartet had to take their lumps just like everyone else who has ever left the practice sp ... More >>

He Said She Said: Breakup Songs to Help You Bawl

We've all been there, in the throes of a breakup so bad you fear you'll end up dying alone or in jail: Crying so hard your eyes are chapped and red, throat sore and aching from sobbing, hair matted from days without a shower and nails chewed to the quick. Your friends are tired of hearing you rehas ... More >>

2007 Music Year in Review

Maggie's New Muse

Smear Campaign

Blur searches for America's kindly embrace -- just so they can shrug it off

Static

Rotation

Digital Bloating

Without question, enhanced CDs offer more but of what?

Promises,Promises

The Cranberries aren't impressed by the hype that's followed them to the top

Simply Beastie

The Lame and the Great

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

Rotation

MC 900 Ft Jesus Brings the Noise

A new label allows Dallas' Mark Griffin to expand his quirky vision