The Mars Volta

Drenched in Blog: Nick Cave Digs Lazarus

Wednesday Night SXSW plans: Saul Williams and Lick Lick

Last Night: Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige at Toyota Center

Has ACL Festival Jumped the Shark?

ACL Notebook Dump, Pt. 2: Measuring Time Mars Volta-Style, Led Zeppelin Rumors and More

ACL Notebook Dump, Pt. 5: Playlist for the Drive Home

Texans Score 30 Grammy Nominations

Allison Krauss, Robert Plant and T-Bone Burnett (far right) Texas artists landed 30 nominations in 20 categories when the contenders for the 51st annual Grammy Awards were announced today, including all five nominees for Best Tejano Album and four of the five Best Norteno Album contenders. All of ... More >>

Sunday Sunday Sunday: Zechs Marquise at the Mink

A natural talent for psychedelia must be as common as Y chromosomes in the Rodriguez-Lopez family DNA. That gene pool has produced a trio of rockers - Omar, Marcel and Marfred - that has proved its mastery of the genre in more than one incarnation. The most notable, of course, is Omar, co-masterm ... More >>

Bayou City Buzz

Houston's SXSW class — and we mean class — of 2009

The Mars Volta take Manhattan

Bedlam at Terminal 5

Aged Peppers

Flea and company prove they can keep it together

Battles

The group's genre-defying music

No Sleep for Brooklyn

Indie-rap fireplug El-P returns...bombastically bleak as ever

El-P

I'll Sleep When You're Dead

Phat Promises for 2007

New Year's resolutions of the stars

Don't Fear the Reaper

The annual return of the Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter

Wonder Twin Powers, Activate!

A scientific study of the two-piece indie-rock boom

Farewell to the Twenty Nickel

Looking back on the '05 and dreaming in the '06

Down Is Up

System of a Down is rock's least likely success story

The Mars Volta

Frances the Mute

Stay Young and Stupid

Dear Lord, please stop the Stingification of Beck

On the Down-Low

Shovel away all that Usher, Prince and Lil Jon you've been jamming, and dig this year's buried black-music treasures

On the Down-Low

Shovel away all that Usher, Prince and Lil Jon you've been jamming and dig this year's buried black-music treasures

Music Awards Survey

A rundown of every act on this year's bill

This Charming Hombre

Morrissey's mad love among Mexican-Americans

The Class of '03

Grab your gift certificates and trade in your white elephants -- here's what you really wanted for Christmas

Spoken Like a Champion

Saul Williams -- poetry's only rock star -- aims for the lizard brain

The Mars Volta, with Saul Williams

Saturday, October 4

The Mars Volta

De-Loused in the Comatorium (Gold Standard Labs/Strummer Recordings/ Universal )

Dear Sy~3nc3

De-Loused in the Comatorium (Gold Standard Labs/Strummer Recordings/ Universal )

Maryland Bang

Meet Rye Rye, Baltimore's latest rap sensation.

MP3 of the Day: Giant Battle Monster

If you plan on seeing Houston's Giant Battle Monster live, tonight at the Alvin Bowling Alley is your last chance until Christmastime. The psych-rock band, whose spacey, expansive jams bear a striking resemblance to the Mars Volta, is going on hiatus to record and generally recharge the proverbial b ... More >>

Distant Early Warning: Al Jarreau, Butthole Surfers, The Mars Volta, The Tragically Hip, etc.

​Al Jarreau: Fri., Dec. 11. Arena Theatre. Ben Danaher: Wed., Sept. 30. Dosey Doe Coffee Company. Benjamin Wesley, Prairie Cadets: Sun., Aug. 16. The Mink. Black Crowes, Saving Abel: BEAUMONT., Sun., Oct. 18. Ford Park. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: CHANGED Sun., Aug. 23. House of Blues. Brother Ali, BK- ... More >>

Life on Mars

Grammy-winning prog-punks The Mars Volta mellow out on Octahedron.

Aftermath: The Mars Volta Gets All Violently Cosmic At Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Eric Sauseda​ There are simply no other bands doing what the Mars Volta do today and everyday. Plenty of second-rate bands have taken a look at the Volta's template and taken a foolhardy crack at it, but they have all failed miserably, leaving wakes of hackneyed concept albums and ill-in ... More >>

A Brief Guide To Super Happy Fun Land's SXSW Overflow Fest

www.myspace.com/jodyseabodyandthewhirlsHouston psych-rockers and Overflow artist Jody Seabody & the Whirls​Thursday marks the beginning of Super Happy Fun Land's SXSW Overflow Fest, two weeks of performers stopping by the East End art space/music venue/sock-monkey emporium on their way to and ... More >>

SXSW As It Happens: Surfer Blood Makes Waves at the Village Voice Media Party

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt​A series of texts from Brandon K. Hernsberger starting at 12:41 p.m.: I'm in line at Village Voice. Shit is CRAZY long. Most people here to see The xx. 5 in 5 out. Surfer Blood up next. Dudes are effing HUGE. I see people eating inside and I'm jealous. Next door ... More >>

Tool's Awe-Inspiring Stinkfist Belts Toyota Center

GroovehouseNo Tool photo approval = singer Maynard James Keenan, the last time he was in Houston.​"For the next two hours, nothing else matters," said Tool's Maynard James Keenan as his band launched into "Jambi" right after stirring the pot of the crowd with "Third Eye" from 1996's Aenima to ... More >>

Last Night: Silversun Pickups And Against Me! At Warehouse Live

Photos by Faith SilvaAgainst Me!​Silversun Pickups, Against Me! Warehouse Live July 20, 2010 Against Me! opening up for Silversun Pickups would be like the Replacements opening up for My Bloody Valentine in 1991. Except that Against Me! isn't on the wane of their career and Silversun has way ... More >>

Like A Movie, HPMA Showcase Afternoon Over Far Too Quickly

Jim BrickerHell City Kings: Not afraid to get salty.​This was the first year and no doubt the first of many for the Houston Press Music Awards Showcase to converge on Washington Avenue like a sweet-sounding pestilence made up of drums, mikes, a few steel guitars and a tanker truck full of musi ... More >>

Reduxion Returns Next Wednesday With Tax The Wolf

Michelle Tovar/ Tax the Wolf on Facebook​We're baaaaaaack! After a couple of months off - hey, things happen - Reduxion, Rocks Off's monthly series of local bands covering their biggest influences, returns just in time to get you nice and hung over for Thanksgiving dinner. (Kidding... we thin ... More >>

Reduxion

Michelle Tovar/ Tax the Wolf on Facebook​We're baaaaaaack! After a couple of months off - hey, things happen - Reduxion, Rocks Off's monthly series of local bands covering their biggest influences, returns just in time to get you nice and hung over for Thanksgiving dinner. (Kidding... we thin ... More >>

The Dead Revolt: Howling, Lizard-Free Indie Rock

​Rocks Off loves four things: The Dead: Zombies rock tits, there are no two ways about it. Revolts: As long as they are not aimed at the Rocks Off contingent, a revolt is just about the most interesting that can happen on any given day. People who collect ceramic cows. Genuine indie r ... More >>

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

​Rocks Off loves four things: The Dead: Zombies rock tits, there are no two ways about it. Revolts: As long as they are not aimed at the Rocks Off contingent, a revolt is just about the most interesting that can happen on any given day. People who collect ceramic cows. Genuine indie r ... More >>

Prog-Rock Bassist Enters Stupid Criminal Hall Of Fame

GroovehouseCoheed's Claudio Sanchez: Now auditioning bassists.​Sometimes when Rocks Off interviews this musician or that one, we'll ask them what they do to kill time on the road. Some of them read, others take in the local sights if they have time, obviously a lot of them listen to music. The ... More >>

Purple, Possessed & Pervy: Rock's Top 10 Houses

harleyslist.blogspot.comJohn Lennon and Yoko Ono in a happy pose in front of their home (and future site of Lennon's assassination).​Celebrity homes will always be a source of fascination, offering a glimpse at the intimate, private side of those who live their lives in the public eye. And it' ... More >>

Zechs Marquise

harleyslist.blogspot.comJohn Lennon and Yoko Ono in a happy pose in front of their home (and future site of Lennon's assassination).​Celebrity homes will always be a source of fascination, offering a glimpse at the intimate, private side of those who live their lives in the public eye. And it' ... More >>

This Station Is Now Operational: At The Drive-In Is Reuniting. Finally.

​With the beginning of a Twitter account and an official website, heavily influential El Paso-based rock act At The Drive-In has announced their reformation today. What the future will hold for the group, which splintered into the Mars Volta and Sparta after their 2001 split, is anyone's guess ... More >>

Nine Bands From the '90s Underground That Should Consider Reuniting

Photo via officialrefused.com​Everyone was all abuzz about the reunion announcements of Refused and At the Drive-In this week. I was less abuzz. I never much cared for Refused (nor International Noise Conspiracy) and I was one of those people that liked ATDI "before" (and I certainly had no ne ... More >>

Noise For The Ages: Top Post-Hardcore Guitarists Through the Years

The album that basically made the genre.​While it may not often be recognized by "mainstream listening audiences," post-hardcore is not a dead genre. Though its popularity has often waxed and waned throughout the years since its inception in the mid '80s, there are always great upstart bands k ... More >>