The Grateful Dead

The Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend: Black Mountain, the Black Crowes, BRMC, etc.

Black Mountain Rudyard's, April 26 On their way to this weekend's Austin Psych Fest, Canadian drone-pop act Black Mountain are swinging by Houston for a spell at Rudyard's. The band's last release was 2012's soundtrack for the "post-apocalyptic" surfing flick Year Zero, which itself was partially a ... More >>

Goooooooal Tending: Rockets Beat Suns, Make Playoffs on Bizarre Final Play

"What a long strange trip it's been." -- The Grateful Dead It is fitting in a season as crazy as this one that the young Rockets' road to the playoffs would ultimately come down to a game, a play and a call like the ones that occurred Tuesday night at Toyota Center. All season, the Rockets have don ... More >>

Business as Usual at Music Town CDs & Records, Since 1979

When James May unlocks the doors to Music Town each day at noon, his little shop on Stuebner Airline across from Klein High School is mainly filled with CDs, new and used vinyl and an enormous amount of cassettes. When he first opened the shop in 1979, the sign actually said "Music Town Records and ... More >>

Houston's Island of Misfit Bands Briefly Resurfaces

While the hallowed ground of Fitzgerald's has remained steadfast, becoming a seemingly permanent fixture in Houston's indie, punk and metal communities, other clubs have receded into the dustbins of history. Fortunately, the fecund eras of two - the Axiom and the Island - are being celebrated during ... More >>

Upcoming: Converge, Heartless Bastards, Valient Thorr, Matisyahu, Kreayshawn, Etc.

Abandon All Ships: Wed., Oct. 24, 6 p.m., $13/$15. Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, Houston. Antibalas: Wed., Oct. 10, 8 p.m., $15. Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, Houston. Better Than Ezra: Thu., Dec. 20, 8 p.m., $23/$40. House of Blues, 1204 Caroline, Houston. Buxton: Fri., Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m., ... 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 >>

Top 5 Ways EDM Is Now Mainstream

1997 provides us with an interesting cautionary tale about the pursuit of the next big thing and how it doesn't always play out the way we expect. From MTV's Year In Rock: Music fans were restless, record sales were stagant... Then, a new music emerged... one that captivated listeners, created new ... More >>

Janis Joplin And Her "Big Brothers" Come Back Live And Raw

A boon for classic-rock fans in recent years has been an increased activity in vault-mining, as record labels are discovering, polishing up, and releasing a lot of unearthed "new" material from favorite bands in the form of live shows, as well as outtakes, demos, new songs and alternate versions oft ... More >>

Bobby Womack

30 Years Later: 9 Songs For John Belushi

Thirty years ago today, we lost John Belushi, one of the most brilliant comedic actors of his time. He was a member of some of the best seasons of Saturday Night Live in the mid to late '70s, and starred in the classic comedy Animal House. He was one of the Blues Brothers with fellow SNL-cast member ... More >>

Josefus

2011 Rewind: Concert Tickets From An Alternate Universe

This originally ran on June 8, but seeing that the year is coming to an end, we are looking back at some of our favorite blogs we gave to you these past 12 months. One of the best dreams we ever had was of covering a Clash show for Rocks Off. Yeah, dreaming about work isn't something to brag about ... More >>

Father Figures: 100 Famous Musicians' Paternal Professions

If you're a Texan of a certain age, this week you've probably spent some time mourning the death of Jerry Haynes, the children's TV host better known as Mr. Peppermint. Haynes' show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Peppermint Place, ran from the '60s to the '90s and was widely syndicated across the state, incl ... More >>

Song Lyrics (Or Close) In 10 Funny Church Signs

sharenator.comBelieve it or not, these are not song lyrics. We just thought it was funny.​Earlier this month, a church in suburban St. Louis put a surprising (perhaps) endorsement of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" on its outdoor marquee. Our sister music blog up there, A To Z, suggested five poss ... More >>

Marley's Ghost: Bob Lives In More Than Just Dorm Rooms

The Onion​Thirty years ago today, Bob Marley passed away from cancer at the young age of 36. According to one joke, it took three days to bury him because his coffin kept jammin'. Bada bum. That's not even our favorite. Earlier this year, Dan Turner, press secretary to Mississippi Governor an ... More >>

Hell Is the Harris County Admin Building

Hope, abandoned​An Icelandic saga as written by Franz Kafka. That is the best way we can describe what happens when you attempt to register and transfer title to a car given to you as a gift by your dad who lives out of state. Through what is now four trips to the Harris County Administration ... More >>

Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers

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 >>

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 >>

Robert Earl Keen

Last Night: Blitzen Trapper At House Of Blues

Photos by Jason Wolter​Blitzen Trapper House of Blues October 12, 2010 Because Aftermath only found out former KLOL morning DJ Mark Stevens had died a few hours before Blitzen Trapper went onstage at House of Blues Tuesday night, we couldn't help thinking about that while the Portland six-pie ... More >>

Dave Matthews Band's Seven Best Covers

Craig Hlavaty​Tonight the Dave Matthews Band hits the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion with Austin's Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears as their supporting act. Now into their second decade of massive touring schedules, the DMB is now a cash machine on wheels - a sort of cleaner and less hairy Gr ... More >>

Two Houston Artists Named Finalists In John Lennon Songwriting Contest

myspace.com/alexanderleeLee Alexander​What do Fergie, Natasha Bedingfield, singing pop sisters the Veronicas, former Grateful Dead bassist Bob Weir, ex-MTV 120 Minutes VJ Matt Pinfield and legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier have in common? They're all new fans of Houston Americana singer-so ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Terlingua to the Park

Photos by Brittanie SheyFire at La Kiva​Ed. Note: This is the fourth part in a series of posts on traveling to Big Bend and back. Let me start off by saying that if you are a Big Bend virgin and you have the opportunity to visit the park for the first time with a seasoned veteran, jump on that ch ... More >>

Road Trippin': A West Texas/Big Bend Playlist

​ Right after Christmas, Rocks Off hopped into our car and headed straight for the bowels of West Texas. It's a long drive to Big Bend, mostly through the middle of nowhere, huge swaths of land where even AM radio can't reach. Twelve hours in the car demands a certain kind of playlist that, like a ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "Amy Blakemore: Photographs 1988-2008," "Carlos Runcie-Tanaka: Fragmento," "Detritus," "$timulus," "Toil and Trouble"

Roky Erickson

Dr. Roger Wood's Matagorda Island Discs

Classic Rock Corner: Mudcrutch, Golliwogs, Mynah Birds, Moving Sidewalks and More

Be of Good (Blue) Cheer

Flying Burrito Brothers: Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969

2007 Music Year in Review

Misfits, a Love Story

Punk for uncool kids in Nowheresville

Bluerunners, Two Hoots & a Holler

concert preview

Singing with Giants

Fun and games with Austin's Hickoids

Really Good Sax

Extraordinary Machination

Sure, Fiona Apple is crazy...like a fox!

Russian Radio

A former KTRU staffer takes her show on the rails

Houston's Gone Gaaga for Haaga

A former king of the Texas metal world unites Houston's warring rock tribes and wins a passel of Music Awards

Karachi Rock

Haven't heard of Junoon? They've sold 20 million albums, and they're at the Meridian this week.

Playbill

Downtown's Got Soulphilia

A superbad shindig at Dean's

Amplified

Saks Fifth Dimension

Jamming for Dollars

Widespread Panic makes its bucks the old-fashioned way

Capital Improvement

The Travis Cafe feels like Austin -- if Austin had good food

Dave's World

The Name Game

When Austin's Little Sister found she had too many siblings, she became Sister 7

Highway 10 Revisited

San Antonio's True Infidelslook east for inspiration

Simply Beastie

Heeeeere's Branford!

The Tonight show behind him, Branford Marsalis moves to "de-ghettoize" music