The Gourds

The Best Concerts In Houston This Week: DJ Sun, Guns N' Roses, Shinyribs, Quiet Company, etc.

DJ Sun The Flat, April 1 Now that some of the well-deserved publicity surrounding DJ Sun's first-ever full-length release, One Hundred, has subsided a little, his true accomplishment on the disc seems even more impressive. In the span of 70 minutes, he pours his 20-plus-year career as one of Houston ... More >>

Upcoming: Geoff Tate, Jill Scott, Action Bronson, Propain, Two Gallants, Etc.

The 71's: Sat., Sept. 15, 1 p.m., Free. Cactus Music & Video, 2110 Portsmouth St., Houston. Action Bronson: Sat., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., $15/$23. Numbers, 300 Westheimer, Houston. Another Run, The Soapbox Revolution: Sun., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $5/$10. Scout Bar Clear Lake, 18307 Egret Bay Blvd., Houston. ... More >>

Discovery Green's Fall Shows Even Better Than the Spring

Late Monday evening, Discovery Green announced the lineup of its increasingly popular Thursday-evening free concert series, which will resume Sept. 13 with the patchouli-scented Austin group Mingo Fishtrap and Houston rocksteady revivalists the Suffers, who were all over this year's Houston Press Mu ... More >>

50 Rad Things Now on the Sig's Lagoon Walls

Within the past month, the walls of Sig's Lagoon have been transformed into a sprawling pop-culture collage of posters, photos, newspaper clippings, magazine covers, picture discs and cardboard cutouts courtesy of former Sundance Records owner Bobby Barnard. Since the longtime San Marcos music stor ... More >>

Rest Of The Best: Houston's Top 8 Jukeboxes

Along with pickled pig's feet and a steady supply of Slim Jims, a good jukebox is a prime element for any great bar. But, like dinosaurs, jukeboxes are a vanishing breed. Unlike digital jukes, iPods or DJs, jukeboxes require love, care and maintenance, as well as -- among the truly great ones -- som ... More >>

RIP Levon Helm: The Band Drummer And Americana Icon Dies At 71

Levon Helm doing what he loved in Woodstock, N.Y., in 2004Levon Helm, the Arkansas-born icon of Americana music, passed away Thursday afternoon after a long battle with throat cancer, his family said on Helm's Web site. "He has loved nothing more than to play, to fill up the room with music, lay do ... More >>

What Every Musician Needs: Better Shut Up Lines

We all hate the trope "Houston, we have a problem," but we do have a problem in Houston with talkative, inattentive crowds at live shows. Scanning back over reviews from the past two years, at least 20 percent of them mention crowd noise. So what do the musicians think and, more importantly, what ... More >>

Towering Townes

Fifteen years after the death of a legend, there are a few stories left untold.

Grammy Sham: Americana Artist Gets Nominated Through the Web

The subtle front page of Chorney's website.​As if the Grammys didn't have enough credibility issues, NARAS, the organization that controls the process, has left a loophole large enough for a complete unknown to manipulate her way onto the final ballot in the Americana category. The news broke ... More >>

Bayou Country

Mike Stinson has a thing for his adopted hometown.

Garland Jeffreys: NYC Rock Hero Still Wild In The Streets

As vapid as television has become, if you're a fan of great live music you might want to check The Late Show With David Letterman Friday night, when Dave welcomes the incomparable Garland Jeffreys. Unless you're a serious music nerd, you've probably never heard of Jeffreys, although you most surel ... More >>

Upcoming: Buzzfest XXVII, The Gourds, Mastodon, Sting, Etc.

​Brent Nettles, Literary Greats, Poor Pilate: Sat., Sept. 24. Continental Club. Brown Bird, The Devil Makes Three: Fri., Dec. 2. Fitzgerald's. Buxton, By The End Of Tonight, Cosmic Sound: CHANGED Fri., Sept. 30. Mango's. "BuzzFest XXVII" With Bush, Staind, Chevelle, P.O.D., Everlast, 10 Ye ... 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 >>

Ten Country Covers That Top The Pop Originals

​Our copy must still be in the mail, but Rocks Off figures we have heard enough songs from Jamey Johnson's new album The Guitar Song on Sirius/XM's Outlaw Country to know that we like it a whole lot. But none that we've heard so far are our favorite new Johnson song. It's close. No flies on G ... More >>

Died and Gone to Houston

City is ready for another honky-tonk close-up.

Age of Endarkenment

Ray Wylie Hubbard's new album gets low-down with hookers, tornadoes and religion.

2009 Concert Rewind, January: Scott Weiland Is Still a Jackass, and More

[Ed. Note: For the next two weeks, Rocks Off will be looking back at the many, many, many shows we reviewed this year. Trust us, we've long since lost count. We'll start with this past January, as ever a slow month on the live-music front, but things picked up soon enough... trust us. Enjoy.] Chris ... More >>

We've Been Had: The Enduring Wisdom of Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne

Anodyne: Noun. Anything that relieves distress or pain. (dictionary.com)​When Son Volt goes onstage tonight at the Continental Club (we've heard around 11 p.m.), there's an outside chance the band might pull out Doug Sahm's "Give Back the Key to My Heart" - we are in Texas, after all. Otherwise do ... More >>

Ghosts of Washington Avenue

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

The Living Bubba

Upstairs, Downstairs: Drive-By Truckers, "The Living Bubba" and the Steep Price of Radioactive Ice Water

​After many, many years, Rocks Off is beginning to realize that it's possible to have a worthwhile musical experience nowhere near a stage. Ironically, the band responsible is Drive-By Truckers, whom we've seen live more often than probably any other save Wilco, Rev. Horton Heat and a handful of o ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: Houston and "Brazoria"

The final installment of our Five States of Texas project brings it all back home, to the new state of Brazoria, encompassing all of Southeast Texas from the Brazos Valley to Sabine Pass. ​Patron Saint: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. A master of rock and roll, country, Cajun/Creole, blues and jazz, n ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: "New Texas"

In the third in our continuing series on the music of the five states of Texas, we examine the fictional state of New Texas, comprising Austin and the Hill Country. See Part 1 here and Part 2 here. New Texas Capital: Austin Patron Saint: Willie Nelson ​Lesser Icons: Roky Erickson/Thirteenth Floor ... More >>

State of Shock

How Michael Jackson (sort of) introduced me to the Rolling Stones.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Texas Music Will Solve Everything! Thanks, Ed!

Photo by aznviolaguyOkay, Ed, if you insist. We've been lax in our examinations of Ed Shane's monthly Flack Fest, Best in Texas, lately. Let's rectify that. In the January issue, publisher Shane led off with this sterling bit of advice as the national and world economies fell apart. "Be careful. ... More >>

Bam, It's Kam!

Houston's genre-hopping indie darling eyes SXSW

Can't Get It Out of My Head: "New Madrid"

Wilco, "New Madrid," live at the Fox Theater, Boulder, Colorado, May 1995 Rocks Off is never really not on an Uncle Tupelo kick, but it sure came flooding back after he heard "New Madrid" on Fred Imus' Saturday-morning Trailer Park Bash satellite-radio show last weekend. Even among such fut ... More >>

The Return of Chart Check: Beyonce Runs "Rings" Around the Competition

[Note: Chart Check is back, now spotlighting Texans on this week's various Billboard lists.] The Billboard 200 (albums) 4. Beyonce, I Am... Sasha Fierce 8. Jaime Foxx, Intuition Hot 100 (singles) 2. Beyonce, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" 19. Beyonce, "If I Were a Boy" Digital Songs 5. Beyonce, ... More >>

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. in Song

In the Name of Love

Texas Music on Sirius/XM's Outlaw Country

If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On

Local Motion

Doug Supernaw

Former country superstar. Now starring in a courtroom near you.

Fadin' Renegade

Doug Supernaw's long, sad spiral

Playbill

Playbill

Relying on Reliant

IFest makes the jump from downtown to South Main

Bash-ing the Bigwigs

Come Super Bowl week, you can still party downtown, even if you're not very important

Reckless Kelly

Saturday, July 12

Dancers and Daredevils

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Mountain Mohawks

Ex-punkers of Starlings, TN space out with dulcimers and other American originals

Racket

In his first 24 years of life, Brad Turcotte has already become a music-business veteran

Remembering Doug Sahm

The Texas Tornado is gone, but not forgotten

North and South

Tranquil Canada flavors San Antonian Doug Sahm's rustic music

Hot Country Punksters

Texas Music 1998: The Year That Wasn't