The Flaming Lips

Top 20 Things We Need to See at SXSW Next Week

Next week the Rocks Off Action Team goes to Austin for Ess Ex Ess Dubya for another four days of fun, sun, eavesdropping, and live music. And swag, of the free kind, not the kind that Justin Bieber is still trying to make happen. This year at SXSW we're looking forward to many, many things, includ ... 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 >>

10 Odd Musical Gift Ideas for the Last Christmas on Earth

Back in the day, Christmas shopping for music lovers couldn't have been simpler: just head on down to the record store, pick up the latest hot release or a rare collector's item, wrap it up with a Warehouse Music gift certificate and you were golden. Now that the music business has evolved into a ... More >>

Reader's Poll: The Compact Disc Turns 30

This week the compact disc turned 30 years old, and will no doubt spend it drinking with friends and wondering where the time went and lamenting the fact that they haven't gotten married yet. Few people know that the first commercial CD produced was Billy Joel's 1978 release 52nd Street, an album ... More >>

UME's Lauren Larson: "Summer Fest Will Always Be Special To Us"

Not until I conversed with UME frontwoman Lauren Larson did I realize that 2009's Summer Fest was the band's first real festival, and afterwards they would find themselves on even bigger stages than the one at Eleanor Tinsley Park. The Austin-based band plays this year's fest at 6 p.m. on Sunday eve ... More >>

Erykah Badu's Adventure Time: "We Just Freak It"

Songstress Erykah Badu first brought her own brand of spirituality, sensuality, and street smarts into the R&B/hip hop charts over a decade ago with her debut album Baduizm. Her sound, managing to speak to both the worlds of hip-hop and soul, as then predicted has proven to be something of long-term ... 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.

How Bizarre: How the Hell Are These Songs All 15 Years Old?

"Simple. Fifteen years have gone by." Nineteen ninety-seven may have been one of the most magical years in trash-pop history. You had the Spice Girls, Hanson, Shania Twain, Puff Daddy, Toni Braxton and Aqua burning up the radio as old-timers like David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and Elton John made retu ... More >>

Summer Fest Adds Pretty Lights, Erykah Badu, 3 Dozen Locals

After raising ticket prices Monday night, Free Press Summer Fest announced more headliners Thursday morning. What are you getting for that extra dough? How about Pretty Lights, Erykah Badu, Fitz & the Tantrums, Phantogram, R3hab, David Garza? Respectively, that's one Colorado EDM space cadet, one ... More >>

Vinyl Gets Another Spin

Showing it has more lives than a cockroach, vinyl has been reborn, resulting in some beautiful music. But sometimes production values in records and turntables are lacking.

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 >>

'90s Soundtrack Battle: Angus & Batman Forever Duke It Out

​The movies couldn't be any more different. One is about an obese, kindly high school guy with a heart of gold. The other is about an crime-fighting millionaire orphan inside a cartoonish world full of super-villains, cringe-worthy puns, and Jim Carrey at his muggiest. Obvious Angus is a bette ... More >>

Four Local Bands to Keep an Eye On in 2012

At the tail end of 2011 these bands seemed to be popping up on bills more and more frequently. And it looks like they have no intentions of slowing down. Now, some of y'all grumps out there might just see them as competition, but not me, I look forward to seeing the audiences for these up and coming ... More >>

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs Rush...Again

Photo by Jeff Balke​A couple years ago, I was sitting on the back porch at the Continental Club talking music with a fairly well known music writer who seemed to believe that anything with a big hook or the slightest inkling of musicianship beyond the garage band aesthetic was utter garbage. I ... More >>

Huh-Huh-Huh: 20 Bands Beavis and Butt-Head Turned Us Onto

​Next Monday, Beavis and Butt-Head returns to MTV with original episodes for the first time in 14 years. The final episode of the show's original run aired on November 28, 1997, and marked the closing of a chapter of our lives. Not only were they instrumental in forming our vocabulary - fartkn ... More >>

Ponderosa Gives House Of Blues A Mouthful

Photos by Jason Wolter​Rocks Off is usually ambivalent, at best, about restaurant shows. One of the few times we're not interested in live music at all is when we're eating, and we imagine we're hardly the only person who feels that way. Strolling violinists and mariachi groups especially get ... More >>

Last Night: Weezer At Free Press Summer Fest

Ed. Note: Much more on Summer Fest to come throughout the day. Jim Bricker​Weezer Free Press Summer Fest Eleanor Tinsley Park June 5, 2011 For almost two hours on Sunday night, Weezer led a sea of thousands through some of the saddest and happiest times of their lives an their 18-song set of ... More >>

Top 10 Musician Tweets About Bin Laden's Death

​Last night, this member of Rocks Off was sitting at a pizza parlor off Ella when he found out that our military killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. It was a monumental moment in time, as we sat back and looked at the past decade and half of our lives, since we learned his name in 1998 with th ... More >>

The Ultimate Musical Space Shuttle Crew

​The first man to ever leave the Earth and venture into space was a Russian cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin, who, if he hadn't died at the young age of 34 in a plane crash he would be 77 years old today. Garagrin was launched into space on April 12, 1961, and orbited once around the planet in 108 ... More >>

Weezer, Ween, Sharon Jones, Bun B Head Summer Fest Lineup

"I'm gonna pull out some shit on stage that will make the Flaming Lips cry and possibly retire in awe." - Hayes Carll, via @hprocksoff GroovehouseYeasayer at House of Blues, April 2010​Weezer, Ween, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Yeasayer and Houston rappers Z-Ro and Bun B head up the lineup ... More >>

The Irrepressibles Stage A Mirror Mirror Spectacle

​Last year, Rocks Off was completely caught off guard by the sheer, unholy awesomness of The Irrepressibles. Director Roy Raz set their then-unreleased song "In This Shirt" to one of the most amazing and innovative music videos ever in a short film he called The Lady is Dead. The video, in add ... More >>

"Come On Buick, Light My Fire."

Not official Nike footwear.​Like most of Western society, I'd figured I was pretty much numb to the use of popular songs in commercials. I don't know how far back the practice dates, exactly, but I remember the anecdote from No One Here Gets Out Alive about Jim Morrison shooting down the sugge ... More >>

ACL Day 3 Recap: Flaming Lips, The National, And We're Out!

Photos by Marco Torres​If there was one band this member of Aftermath was most looking forward to seeing at ACL this weekend, it was the Flaming Lips. But explaining why requires a bit of a backstory. From 1980 to 2003 (the first 23 years of our life) we lived in Oklahoma City. In the early-' ... More >>

Three Songs, No Flash: Mark C. Austin's Life In The Pit

All photos by Mark C. AustinGwen Stefani of No Doubt in The Woodlands, May 2009​This evening, local rock photographer Mark C. Austin unveils his first exhibit of his work since he began shooting bands almost five years ago. Austin's work has appeared in print and online for the Houston Press a ... More >>

What If The KTRU And Fitzgerald's Sales Were Reversed?

​Rocks Off is quite keen on alternate realities, the kind where The Joker is actually a superhero or Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four. That kind of thing. This summer has seen two of Houston's seemingly most-stable institutions thrown into complete chaos. First, Sara Fitzgerald turned ove ... More >>

Flaming Lips Close Summerfest With Love And Lasers

Marco Torres​ Houston, you don't get a spectacle like this but maybe once a year. Last October we had U2 with the Claw inside Reliant Stadium, putting on a show that literally had the building shaking with spirit and goodwill. Sunday night at Eleanor Tinsley Park, the Flaming Lips closed the secon ... More >>

Fat Tony, Uh Huh Her, Slim & Bun Beat The Summerfest Heat

Eggs/ breakfastontour.comFat Tony popped up during the Eastern Sea's set as well.​For years, Aftermath has listened to young people complain about Houston's (supposed) lack of a music scene. He has even been guilty of believing it at times - hey, we were all young once. But over the weekend, Summe ... More >>

Can Anyone Out-Twee Owl City?

​Owl City (really just a guy named Adam Young) is a bit of a conundrum. He's perfectly fine to listen to, as long as you pretend that his music is specifically intended for very young children, like the Wiggles or Raffi. Then you pay attention to the meticulous production and catchy hooks instead ... More >>

Wowee Zowee! Summerfest and Pegstar Do It Again!

​ Since the Summerfest 2010 announcement in February, Houston has been abuzz about the festival's line-up, heading up the Flaming Lips and Girl Talk. Word came down last night that another name has been added to the list of headliners. Let's just say that you summer babes may have to cut your hair ... More >>

Your Guide To The Annual March Music Invasion Of Texas

​March can be a harrowing, exhausting time to be a music fan in Texas. Or it can be the most exhilarating time of all.Everyone knows about the monster that is SXSW. It can be far too easy to be overwhelmed by options, last-minute hype and logistical nightmares. Luckily, this week's feature provide ... More >>

It's True: Flaming Lips Headlining Summerfest In First Houston Show In 8 Years

In case you hadn't already heard (like on our Twitter feed), the Flaming Lips are this year's headliner for Free Press Summerfest, the Oklahoma psych-rockers' first Houston appearance since their joint tour with Beck stopped at Jones Hall back in 2002. The Free Press' Omar Afra and Pegstar's Jagi K ... More >>

Rocks Off's 2010 Predictions: The Fate of Owl City, Chingo Bling vs. Chamillionaire, the Next Twilight Soundtrack and Madchester In Katy

www.flickr.com/photos/dherholz/​ Adam Young of Owl City will mystify the scientific community, yet surprise no one in the music community, when he is hacked in half in a freak sawmill accident, and it's discovered he is filled with gummi bears. The Arcade Fire/Flaming Lips feud is resolved when ... More >>

He Said She Said: Our Christmas Musical Wishlists

​She Said's music listening habits have become so lazy thanks to the Internet. She can barely bring herself to pay for a full CD any more when there's so much awesome music for free online. She can't even remember the last time she bought a full CD in the concrete, plastic wrap and all. That said, ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs That Remind Us of Our Exes, Part 2

​ Oh lord. This could get ugly. Sorry, mom. When it comes to - ahem - unresolved issues in a relationship, almost nothing is better to help us commiserate, haterate and self-medicate than music. She Said sometimes likes to image what the soundtrack of her life would look like. The songs below woul ... More >>

Never Mind Twilight, Here Are the Best Werewolf and Vampire Music Videos

​ Werewolves and vampires have been at each others' throats long before Twilight: New Moon (opening tomorrow) had them making pouty duck-faces at one another. Thankfully, the tradition of the vampire and the werewolf in the art of the music video is a much richer one than the antics of the crybaby ... More >>

Ghosts of Washington Avenue

Noise goes whistling through the scenester artery's music venue graveyard.

Aftermath: The McKenzies, the Howlies and Springfield Riots at the Mink

Photos by Chris GrayThe McKenzies To Aftermath, the Mink's Backroom has always seemed more like a house than a music venue - especially inside, with the dark floors, corner bars and abundant, comfortable seating, it's like one of those cozy but spacious multi-resident dwellings where we all went to ... More >>

(Another) Local Album of the Week: Spain Colored Orange's Sneaky Like a Villain

Spain Colored Orange Sneaky Like a Villain www.myspace.com/spaincolouredorange Thanks to differences with Spain Colored Orange's former label Lucid Records, the songs on the local psych-pop quintet's brand-new disc Sneaky Like a Villain are already old hat to the band members. For the rest of u ... More >>

The Best of ACL Fest

Dark Meat with Quiet Hooves

Dizzy Pilot: Shit Out the Bones

Prodigal Players

Confessions of a Classic Rock Whore, or One Man’s Journey

Downloading Music

Linking you to the best in legitimate, artist-approved exclusives

Band of Horses

Saturday, June 24, at Walter's on Washington, 4215 Washington Avenue, 713-862-2513

The Flaming Lips

At War with the Mystics

Bayou City Music Mindbender, Part II

Another chance to test your knowledge of local lore

dios (malos), with Swords and Go Spread Your Wings

Saturday, November 12, at Walter's on Washington, 4215 Washington Avenue, 713-864-2727.

Letters

Like a Prayer

FrenetiCore's latest production sings praise without being preachy