The Descendents (Band)

The Best of Coachella, Weekend One

Ed. Note: Rocks Off proudly presents to our readers coverage of Coachella's first weekend courtesy of our sister papers LA Weekly and OC Weekly. Karen O's Outfit Karen O's wardrobe on Friday night was bad-ass. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs front woman appeared on the main stage in a technicolor cape draped o ... More >>

Battle of the Black Flags: Which One Is Better?

This past week the Internet was abuzz with the news that two different versions of the 1980s hardcore-punk pioneers Black Flag are reuniting. Since Black Flag is so iconic to almost any punk fan, this is big news indeed. But there's a catch: neither of the two versions is the complete, real version ... More >>

Coachella 2013 Takes It Back to the '90s

Coachella, the Only Music Festival That Matters (or so we're told), announced its 2013 lineup late Thursday night, no holograms or Rolling Stones included. Instead, two beloved '90s UK acts whose popularity in the U.S. is spotty at best, Blur and the Stone Roses, headline the first night of the tw ... More >>

The Great Outdoors

Your 2013 music-festival outlook, Texas edition.

Your 2013 Music Festival Outlook (Texas Edition)

I don't know about you, but I am not totally in love with winter weather. Yes, it affords you the ability to wear beanies and cool fingerless gloves and dress like a hoodlum, but it's the heat that I love the most. That's why I love thinking about music festivals, because that's where we all get t ... More >>

Talking to James Moody, Co-Captain of HMS Fun Fun Fun Fest

In Texas, only a few major music festivals cater to the punk and indie subcultures. Houston's own Free Press Summer Fest, Chaos In Tejas, 35 Denton, maybe the free and freaky day parties of SXSW, and Fun Fun Fun Fest, put on by Transmission Entertainment in Austin. REWIND: Fun Fun Fun Fest Releas ... More >>

7 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Jackie Greene, Sander Van Doorn, Yes Indeed Fest, etc.

All of 31 years old (growl), Jackie Greene's preternatural resemblance to hip '70s roots-rockers like J.J. Cale and Little Feat has already led The New York Times to dub the San Francisco singer-songwriter "the prince of Americana." He has already sang lead with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh's gro ... More >>

Cobra Skulls

Dust Off Your Flannel

Does the looming '90s revival presage a Nirvana-style breakthrough?

Last Night: Pretty Lights at Bayou Music Center

Pretty Lights Bayou Music Center September 23, 2012 See lots more pics from Bayou Music Center Sunday in our slideshow. Having closed out Free Press Summer Fest to help ring in the unofficial start of summer it made it a strange sort of sense that Pretty Lights would return to Houston to help ring ... More >>

Saturday: The American Heist, Venomous Maximus Rawk Dallas' Riot Fest

Riot Fest Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Saturday, September 22 See "The People of Riot Fest 2012" in our sister paper Dallas Observer's slideshow. If you couldn't get enough of Rise Against and The Gaslight Anthem the other night -- and were willing to drive four hours up to Dallas -- the first Tex ... More >>

Venomous Maximus, American Heist Barrel Into Dallas' Riot Fest

This week our sister paper the Dallas Observer and their music blog DC9 At Night talked to Houston's own Venomous Maximus -- namely lead singer Gregg Higgins and guitarist Christian Larson -- for their "My First Show" series. Rewind: Venomous Maximus Head Out Onto the Highway For Summer Tour Roc ... More >>

5 Weird Music Figurines To Spruce Up Your Home or Office

For those looking to bring a bit of personality to their cubicle or to add character to a boring bookshelf there is a whole world of music collectables out there to choose from. From statues to bobbleheads to dolls these figures, no matter what you call them, are yet another revenue stream for the e ... More >>

Last Night: The Descendents At Free Press Summer Fest

See Rocks Off's complete Free Press Summer Fest coverage at this link. See our Summer Fest Saturday slideshows of the bands and the crowds. The Descendents Free Press Summer Fest, Eleanor Tinsley Park June 3, 2012 The Descendents stood out like a sore thumb in comparison to a lot of the other mai ... More >>

Best Of Free Press Summer Fest Day 2: Willie Nelson, Avett Bros., Wallpaper, Etc.

More FPSF 2012 Coverage: • Summer Fest line-up reviews on the Rocks Off blog. • Free Press Summer Fest 2012: The Sexy, Sweaty Crowds • Popsicles and Pizza: The Food of Summer Fest • FPSF: The Bands from Saturday • FPSF: The Bands from Sunday Nathan Smith: The best part of Summer Fest Day ... More >>

How Summer Fest Was Born

Pegstar's Jagi Katial hunted and pecked until he put together a big-time music festival.

Missed Connections: 5 Summer Fest Weekend Team-Ups We'd Like To See

In terms of pure variety, the weekend of June 1-3 may be the most stacked weekend of music Houston will see this year, and that's not just because of Summer Fest. In addition to the wide variety of acts playing Eleanor Tinsley Park there's the regular weekend mass of shows taking place across the ci ... More >>

Summer Fest Round Table: Guilty Pleasures & Geeking Out

Today Rocks Off our writers covering Free Press Summer Fest this weekend, "which artist playing the festival is your guilty pleasure or makes you geek out the most?" We're glad to see we have so many Morris Day fans in our midst. Neph Basedow: My Summer Fest guilty pleasure will be the Flaming Lips ... More >>

Summer Fest Releases Schedule & Stage Times

Time to make some hard choices, folks. Free Press Summer Fest just released the schedule for this year's two-day event June 2 and 3 in Eleanor Tinsley Park.

9 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Alkari, Black Bananas, Chico Trujillo, Etc.

Pot luck show of the weekend: ElecTrick, The Space Villains and Los Area 51 tonight at Rudyard's. Free. It's the big Art Car Weekend, if you haven't heard, and you can get a peek at Saturday's parade at Discovery Green tonight at 6:30 with two solid hours of a murderer's row of local blues greats ... More >>

Doctors Who Rock: 9 Musicians With Their Ph.Ds

Alice Cooper recently received an Honorary Doctorate from The Musician's Institute in Los Angeles. After receiving the award, he said, "One more of these and I can write prescriptions." Now you know that Alice Cooper could one day write you a prescription... to rock. You're welcome. Out of sheer c ... More >>

Summer Fest Ticket Prices Go Up At 10 p.m.; More Talent "Soon-Ish"

Free Press Summer Fest is increasing ticket prices tonight, with a promise to compensate by adding more talent to the two-day music festival on the banks of Buffalo Bayou. According to FPSF's email blast this morning, the price of passes will go up at 10 p.m. tonight, and the festival will announce ... More >>

Top 9 Comments On Summer Fest 2012: Where's The Women?

As most of Houston and the surrounding area knows by now, Free Press Summer Fest announced its 2012 lineup in the wee hours this morning. By now Rocks Off has had a few more hours to reflect on the festival, entering its fourth year at Eleanor Tinsley Park June 2 and 3, and also to take a shower. O ... More >>

Hear Them Roar

Houston's legendary punks the Latch Key Kids release a new EP after years of silence.

Our Top Ten Picks For Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011

Photo By Marc BrubakerBest Coast at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010​This weekend the Rocks Off team will cover their third Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, at the festival's new home Auditorium Shores. Each year this fest seems to get bigger and better, without losing it's grimy luster. Is it the Austin City ... More >>

Zoo Station: A Noah's Ark Of 75 Animal Songs

And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee ... More >>

Still Fun Fun Fun, Festival Is On The Cusp Of Change

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Miss the bands in Austin this weekend? See as many as we could squeeze into our handy slideshow. Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin is on the cusp of change. A renovation to its home base, Waterloo Park, is due within the next year, so come next November the festival more than ... More >>

Fun Fun Fun Fest: A Pocket Guide To Rocks Off's Picks

All photos courtesy funfunfunfest.comCall us crazy, but we think we may not be seeing Craig after this weekend.​Tonight Rocks Off heads to Austin to cover our third festival this year in the capitol city, Fun Fun Fun Fest. This is also our second trip to the festival in Waterloo Park. Think AC ... More >>

Top 10 Pop-Star Bobbleheads We'd Like To See

​The good people over at Aggronautix have done it again. The toy company has been releasing bobbleheads of punk-rock luminaries such as GG Allin and the Descendents' Milo Aukerman for the past year. Rocks Off has been lucky enough to snag a few. Sitting a few feet from us right now are the t ... More >>

Westheimer Block Party News and Notes

​This weekend's Westheimer Block Party is already going through some minor scheduling changes, just less than twenty-hours away from the time Bryan Jackson cracks open his first Modelo on Taft. Facebook and MySpace (yeah, we know) have been awash the past two days with changes to the lineup and se ... More >>

GG Allin Is Back, And He's Bringing Milo From the Descendents With Him

​Just a few months back, Rocks Off became the proud father of his own seven-inch-tall GG Allin bobblehead doll. Aggronautix, a small Internet toy company created a diminutive and bobblin' version of the tattooed New Hampshire-born "Poo Poo Rocker" complete with soiled underpants, blood-splatters, ... More >>

Flannel File: The Descendents

One hot morning in August of 1997, my little brother and I hopped on MARTA (Mom wouldn't let me use the car) and moseyed on down to the Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta for the third-ever Warped Tour. Should the writer of a column about experimental music be ashamed of having gone to the Warped Tour ... More >>

Various Artists

Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly

Pennywisdom

"The kids" benefit from Pennywise's punkish golden rules

Rotation

Looking for Billy Zoom

X was the West's great punk hope. But now they're finding more fun in their new worlds.

Descendents Ascendant