The Stooges (Band)

Not Quite Ready to Die: In Defense of Iggy and the Stooges

Iggy and the Stooges, headliners of this year's Free Press Summer Fest, recently released their first new record under their current moniker since 1973. Titled Ready to Die, it's also the group's first record with guitarist James Williamson since then, following the death of guitarist Ron Asheton a ... More >>

Raw Power

Iggy & the Stooges headline the fifth Free Press Summer Fest.

Exploring Songza: Four Offbeat Playlists From the Curated Music Service

We introduced you to Songza -- the service that acts as a "music concierge" -- a few weeks back. Using curated playlists sorted not only by genre and theme, but also by activity, Songza helps you pick the best songs for the occasion. More importantly to me, the playlists are expertly curated, mean ... More >>

Last Night: The Adolescents & Youth Brigade at Fitzgerald's

The Adolescents, Youth Brigade, The American Heist Fitzgerald's December 30, 2012 To end 2012 on a note of anti-apocalypse, in which the forces of vitality outmaneuver destruction and oblivion, Willow Villarreal of Hatetank Productions -- who has survived through the thick and thin of a fickle Hous ... 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 >>

UPDATED: ACL Last Night: Iggy & the Stooges at Zilker Park

UPDATED (11:40 a.m.) to correct "instrument" with "instrumental" Iggy & the Stooges Bud Light Stage Austin City Limits Music Festival, Zilker Park October 14, 2012 Rewind: SLIDESHOWS: The Girls of Austin City Limits Chili Peppers, Stooges, Die Antwoord: ACL 2012 Sunday The Fans: ACL 2012 Sunday ... More >>

10 More Things I'll Be Doing at ACL Festival This Weekend

That's right folks, it's ACL Music Festival time again in Texas, and Rocks Off will be flying to Austin on the private Rocks Off jet this weekend to cover the fest from Friday until the last notes of "Give It Away" at the end of the Red Hot Chili Peppers set on Sunday night. That's my way of telli ... More >>

Dust Off Your Flannel

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

Blondie: The Best New Wave Band of All Time

Last Night: The Cult & Against Me! at House of Blues

The Cult, Against Me!, The Icarus Line House of Blues June 19, 2012 Before I begin this review, I must let you all know that someone took a dump on the floor of House of Blues' balcony Tuesday night. That's not really pertinent to the action onstage itself (Failed vision quest? Babysitter canceled? ... More >>

Pink Slipped: The 7 Best Artists To Be Dropped From Their Label

Once upon a time, record labels were the most important thing to an artist who chose to work within the music industry. They could make or break anyone and even world renowned artists knelt at the feet of their masters. Getting dropped from a label was, at one time, a death sentence. Even today man ... More >>

Top 5 Mullet-Rock Bands You Might Not Expect

Last Sunday, HBO aired the Season 3 finale of Eastbound & Down, the series about down-on-his-luck minor-league relief pitcher and morally bankrupt human being Kenny Powers. Besides a certain unvarnished wisdom ("death is for pussies") and a peculiar way with the ladies, Powers has one of the most sp ... More >>

Ed Crawford & Co. Rekindle Their fIREHOSE

It seemed like someone's idea of a joke at Harlow's in Sacramento in late December 2011 when this announcement was made: fIREHOSE would be playing the club next April. Whaaat? fIREHOSE? The hugely influential power trio of the '80s and '90s that alternative, indie and grunge fans could all agree up ... More >>

Readers Poll: The Best Third Albums Ever

This week in 1980, Van Halen released their third album Women And Children First, which contained the hits "And the Cradle Will Rock...," "Everybody Wants Some!! and fan favorite "Romeo Delight." It's not the best VH album ever, but it was, in fact, their third album. Most VH super-freaks I know an ... More >>

The Warning: The 10 Heaviest Albums Before Black Sabbath

Forty-two years ago today, on Friday the 13th, the gates of hell opened up and belched forth Black Sabbath. Upon its release, the Birmingham band's eponymous debut album instantly became the heaviest, scariest, most evil record of all time, and it still ranks right up there. Calling this record "in ... More >>

Female Demand: Outside the Universe is Really, REALLY Outside

Being loud is an art. Strike that, being artfully loud is an art, being regular loud only requires some amperage. The key seems to be finding a way to harness the sound of collision, to ride on top of the train as it crashed. Few artists have really been able to do it. Iggy and the Stooges pulled it ... More >>

Show Me Your GIFs: Great Classic Rock 'N Roll GIFs Galore

It seems to me that musical history is made up of fragments of indelible images, good and bad, that inform each person's experience. Then there are the swatches of tunes that grab you by the heart strings or the throat, making you a fan for life. But it's those moving pictures that you first remembe ... More >>

Lord Lordy, Look Who's Forty: The Best Albums Of 1972

Last week I told you about the best debut albums of 1992, making a lot of us feel old in the process. Hell, I was only nine when those came out and I felt feeble making the list. This week we look at the best albums of 1972, now four decades in the hole, but no less fulfilling and influential. Wha ... More >>

The 10 Most Real Artists of All Time; The Anti-Milli Vanillis

Milli Vanilli​On this day in 1990, the manager for recent Grammy winners for Best New Group Milli Vanilli held a press conference to tell everyone his act was a fraud. They did not do any of the singing on their best-selling record and they lip synced their shows. It was a startling revelation ... More >>

Gimme Some Truth: What Happens When Rabid Fans & Bands Meet

​We have all been there. You may have had a few drinks, you are at your favorite band's show, and you come to find yourself in the vicinity of one of your heroes. Word vomit. Torrential word vomit. But you mean well. "I really think youse guys is great and your albums really means a lots to ... More >>

G N' R, The Cure & Chili Peppers Could Be Hall Of Famers Next Year

Oh, this will be a fun induction ceremony...​This morning, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland announced the list of nominees for its Class of 2012: The Small Faces & The Faces, Freddie King, The Cure, Guns 'N Roses, Heart, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Spinners, War, Joan Jett and the Bl ... More >>

Succinct Stooges Bio Looks Beyond Iggy Pop

​The Stooges: Head On By Brett Callwood Wayne State University Press, 176 pp., $19.95. While there have been a number of books written about the Stooges and Iggy Pop, this slim but substantive volume is the first to really give the non-Iggy members their due both biographically and musically. ... More >>

Las Puertas: 10 Things You May Not Know About The Doors

"Hey Robby, don't try to look too not-stoned in our press still. Thanks, buddy."​On this day in 1965, The Doors began recording demos together, laying down some songs set to Jim Morrison's freaky poems. Nearly 50 years later, the band is an exalted classic-rock group, firmly implanted in that ... More >>

Nothing's Shocking: Thank You, Iggy Pop

singinglamb.caA young Iggy Pop has his way with a microphone stand c. 1968​Cyberspace was all abuzz on Monday, thanks to Lady Gaga's "shocking" VMA performance of "You and I" dressed as a young Ralph Macchio, or at least that's what it looked like from here. It was creative and bold, and defin ... More >>

25 Essential Eponymous Albums

​Eponymous: (of a literary work, film, etc) named after its central character or creator: The Stooges' eponymous debut album. On this day in 1983, a young woman from Michigan who had recently given up on a career as a hard-rock singer released her first album of electronic dance-pop, an album ... More >>

The Wrong Ones Are Just Right On Deceiver

​The end of the world has been on people's minds lately, what with the Mayans apparently penciling in the apocalypse next year and the Rapture rain-checked for October of this 'un. That preoccupation with the end of the world is why we skipped straight to 'Doomsday Transmission" on the Wrongs ... More >>

Detroit Leanin': Who Is The Best Motor City Artist Ever?

detroitrockcity.altervista.org​Some places breed music. Due to sheer size, any big city will produce its fair share of talented musicians, and some - Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago - seem to have music in the water supply. But none, arguably, more than Detroit: John Lee Hooker, the Motown dias ... More >>

The Black Lips' Favorite Garage Albums & Bands

Zach Wolfe​In the Black Lips' recent video for "Go Out and Get It," the Atlanta garage boys are seen on a cruise ship and on some tropical beach surrounded by vacationing bikini-clad hipster gals, all messy hair and sunglasses, sipping drinks like some endless Sunday Funday. The band will be ... More >>

Happy Birthday Iggy Pop: His Top 10 Solo Cuts

Paul McAlpine/Wikipedia ​Today Iggy Pop turns 64, and the current and former James Newell Osterberg, Jr. is still making people a fraction of his age look and sound like croaking senior citizens. Blessed with a tolerance of life that probably rivals only that of Lemmy and Keith Richards, the ... More >>

Last Night: Alejandro Escovedo At House Of Blues

Photos by Jason Wolter​Alejandro Escovedo House of Blues Bronze Peacock Room March 3, 2011 This never would have happened in Austin. In our fair state capital, Alejandro Escovedo is worshiped like a god, and more people would show up to watch him wash his car than came out to House of Blues' ... More >>

Top 10 Self-Titled Debut Albums

​It wasn't until we were discussing its release this week that Rocks Off realized we're basically the same age as Led Zeppelin's debut album. Recorded in October 1968 and released the following January, Led Zeppelin is 42 years old. It suffers from some of the same ailments as all of us who r ... More >>

Saturday Night: The Adolescents At Walter's On Washington

Photos by David Ensminger​The Adolescents Walter's on Washington January 1, 2010 In a revealing scene during the seminal punk documentary Another State of Mind, Minor Threat plays a show to a swelling and heaving early 1980s crowd in Baltimore. The P.A. system was yanked away by worried sound ... More >>

Sleigh Bells: Not Just For Christmas Anymore

​Christmastime: A time for family, for giving, and much to the displeasure of many, a time for incessantly grating holiday music. Christmas spirit frozen in cheesy songs monopolizes radio stations and relentlessly stalks our every step. A key component of much holiday music is often the percu ... More >>

Dax Riggs Says Goodnight To The World, Hello To Houston

myspace.com/daxriggs​Tonight Dax Riggs debuts his brand-new LP, Say Goodnight to the World, for Houston ears at Walter's On Washington. The record is his first full-length release since 2007's We Sing of Only Blood or Love and more than worthy follow-up, tempering Love's death rattles with sof ... More >>

Bare Bones

Lo-fi crushers Woven Bones would remake Pink Floyd's The Wall if they could.

The Energy

Aftermath: Reborn Punk Rock Karaoke Is Promising, Perhaps At Another Venue

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​ Friday night's live-band Punk Rock Karaoke renaissance at Notsuoh on Main didn't draw a ridiculously large crowd, but it did show incredible promise. The night had been on hiatus for the better part of a decade but has made a return to the Houston stage just in time for wh ... More >>

Punk Rock Karaoke Returns Tonight At Notsuoh

www.notsuoh.com​ If you have ever dreamed of being in a punk band, or at least dreamed of embarrassing yourself in front of people you may be trying to sleep with, Notsuoh has you covered tonight, hosting the resurrection of live-band Punk Rock Karaoke. About six years ago, PRK was in full-swing b ... More >>

Spermy Night In Georgia: Sexed-Up Songs To Set The Mood For Blowfly

Let's get one thing perfectly clear: Blowfly is the original dirty rapper. Before anyone in 2 Live Crew was old enough to set foot into a peepshow stall or buy a pack of cigarettes, Clarence "Blowfly" Reid was spewing forth raucous raps like "Spermy Night In Georgia" and "What a Difference a Lay Mak ... More >>

He Said She Said: 10 Artists Who Never Got Their Due

In the course of music history, some bands get that extra push by pop culture and become uber-iconic, while others, though just as deserving, go largely unnoticed except by those who choose to dig even deeper. For every Elvis Presley, there is a seedier Carl Perkins off to the side. David Bowie get ... More >>

I Wanna Be Your Dog: Michael Vick's Entrance Music

Keith Allison​The mystery of whether or not Michael Vick would be picked up by an NFL team was solved pretty handily last week, when the Philadelphia Eagles signed him as a backup for Donovan McNabb. The Eagles were able to look past Vick's history of...questionable behavior because they need a re ... More >>

Aftermath: Davila 666, Puerto Rican Garage Punk Badasses

Craig Hlavaty ​ It's been a good while since Aftermath could be seen dancing in front of a band, let alone anywhere in public. Sure, there have been the stray moments at Boondocks where he shook his ass for the last thirty seconds of a Stones song, but that was pretty much it. Last night at Mango ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: Pop Princess Katy Perry

Mike Ruiz​They say man can't exist on indie-rock and metal alone, or something like that. Rocks Off firmly agrees, so when we hear good mainstream pop we ride that horse for all it's worth. That's why a little over a year ago, when Katy Perry hit with her single "Ur So Gay," we were enamored with ... More >>

He Said She Said: A Stripper Soundtrack

Rocks Off has a naked lady fetish. It's shameful to admit. We really like seeing naked chicks. It's been something we have dealt with since we were four years old and started sneaking into the women's dressing room when our Mom would go clothes shopping. It's not so cute today, what with the beard ... More >>

Remembering 1969, Part 1: Altamont, Rosemary's Baby, Santana at Woodstock and More

1968 might have been - at least politically - one of the most turbulent years of the '60s. Students rioted left - specifically, the Left Bank in Paris - and right against the war in Vietnam, while back home racial tensions escalated, especially after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The po ... More >>

The Homopolice

Houston's latest noise/punk band isn't big on explaining itself

Mixtape Masters

Caps and Jones keep the party Moving

Rotation

Rotation

Too Damn Happy

Redd Kross should know that grins don't sell in rock and roll. Plus: The truly agonizing Life of whatever.