The Velvet Underground

Drenched in Blog: Juno Hits No. 1

The Meat Purveyors

Pain By Numbers (Bloodshot)

Get Lit: The Pitchfork 500

Pain By Numbers (Bloodshot)

Tonight: Gentleman Auction House at Rudyard's

Lauren Winchester Within about 20 seconds of "A Banner Year," the opener of Gentleman Auction House's new Christmas In Love EP, the St. Louis indie-pop hydra has managed to recall Belle & Sebastian, Arcade Fire and another dozen or so boy-girl bands that are equally earnest and invigorating. I ... More >>

Static

Lauren Winchester Within about 20 seconds of "A Banner Year," the opener of Gentleman Auction House's new Christmas In Love EP, the St. Louis indie-pop hydra has managed to recall Belle & Sebastian, Arcade Fire and another dozen or so boy-girl bands that are equally earnest and invigorating. I ... More >>

Clubland

Lauren Winchester Within about 20 seconds of "A Banner Year," the opener of Gentleman Auction House's new Christmas In Love EP, the St. Louis indie-pop hydra has managed to recall Belle & Sebastian, Arcade Fire and another dozen or so boy-girl bands that are equally earnest and invigorating. I ... More >>

Tonight: Crystal Stilts at Rudyard's

Crystal Stilts hails from Brooklyn, N.Y., and specializes in the sort of shoegaze-indebted garage rock that's so dangerously laid back it's just short of comatose. I've never caught 'em live, but my guess is that their shows are rapturous, daze-inducing events - religious drone-pop experiences, ... More >>

Tonight: Women at Rudyard's

Women Women www.flemisheye.com Allegedly recorded on boomboxes, gathering in garage pop, tape loops, lo-fi folk and chiming math-rock, the eponymous debut from Calgary quartet Women is an unpredictable and untotalizable mess. Casual listeners drawn in by minor blog hit "Black Rice" will find ... More >>

SXSW: Echo & the Bunnymen at Stubb's

Photos by Chris GrayBy Friday afternoon, SXSW fatigue has taken hold. You're walking a little slower, less inclined to whip out the notebook to jot down every little observation - Rocks Off has seen many journos just typing notes into their BlackBerries, a trend that both intrigues and dismays him - ... More >>

Indian Jewelry: Free Gold

Photos by Chris GrayBy Friday afternoon, SXSW fatigue has taken hold. You're walking a little slower, less inclined to whip out the notebook to jot down every little observation - Rocks Off has seen many journos just typing notes into their BlackBerries, a trend that both intrigues and dismays him - ... More >>

Warlocks: Heavy Deavy Skull Lover

Photos by Chris GrayBy Friday afternoon, SXSW fatigue has taken hold. You're walking a little slower, less inclined to whip out the notebook to jot down every little observation - Rocks Off has seen many journos just typing notes into their BlackBerries, a trend that both intrigues and dismays him - ... More >>

Various Artists: Juno: Music from the Motion Picture

Photos by Chris GrayBy Friday afternoon, SXSW fatigue has taken hold. You're walking a little slower, less inclined to whip out the notebook to jot down every little observation - Rocks Off has seen many journos just typing notes into their BlackBerries, a trend that both intrigues and dismays him - ... More >>

Local Motion

Photos by Chris GrayBy Friday afternoon, SXSW fatigue has taken hold. You're walking a little slower, less inclined to whip out the notebook to jot down every little observation - Rocks Off has seen many journos just typing notes into their BlackBerries, a trend that both intrigues and dismays him - ... More >>

Vinyl Heads

They're turning to needles, looking for purity

Local Motion

They're turning to needles, looking for purity

Local Motion

They're turning to needles, looking for purity

For What It's Worth

Anniversaries

Dodos

concert preview

Local Motion

concert preview

Local Motion

concert preview

A Witch of a Show

concert preview

"Black Light/White Noise: Sound and Light in Contemporary Art."

Black or not, the artists showing at the CAMH are a talented group

Number of the Beeyotch

The Iron Maidens encourage you to bring your daughter to the slaughter

The Gourds, with the Sidehill Gougers

Thursday, August 4, at Heritage Place Amphitheatre, 500 Collins Street in Conroe, 936-525-4782. Free.

Oasis

Don't Believe the Truth

The Concretes

The Concretes (Astralwerks)

Wisdom of Solomon

A street preacher helps crack the meaning of the Sleepy Jackson's Lovers

Brian Jonestown Massacre

Friday, February 8

The Strokes

Is This It? (RCA)

Rotation

Is This It? (RCA)

Pink Floyd, Dr. Dre, Velvet Underground and Other Artists We're Glad Discovered Drugs

It was 45 years ago this past Friday... that Bob Dylan met the Beatles for the first time and, more importantly for Rocks Off's purposes, introduced them to marijuana. While this meeting of musical titans would never lead to any actual musical collaboration or "Monsters of Hippie Rock" series of co ... More >>

UK Web Site Shines "Unsigned Spotlight" on Houston's Watermarks

myspace.com/thewatermarksThe Watermarks at Warehouse Live, September 2009​ ​When Rocks Off wrote about Houston electro-rockers the Watermarks' Thoughts Like Bombs back in May, we said a song or two off the quintet's five-song EP - still available as a free download on the band's Web site - remin ... More >>

Fast As You: Rocks Off's Playlist for Sunday's Houston Marathon

anythingaboutcars.comThe 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner. Please keep your drooling to a minimum.​ The drinking stops tonight. Rocks Off is joining 30,000 other crazy, hardy souls to run the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Half Marathon this Sunday. (We're running the half - it's only our second race ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: A Lengthy Chat With Yo La Tengo Bassist James McNew

[Ed. Note: Nicholas L. Hall asked Rocks Off if we wouldn't mind publishing the entire transcript of his recent interview with Yo La Tengo bassist James McNew, the raw material of this week's print music feature. We're only too happy to oblige.] Jesper Eklow​Rocks Off: When last I spoke with your p ... More >>

Is Ex-Velvet Moe Tucker A Tea Partier Or Not?

​The Velvet Underground has certainly had an interesting second act. After Andy Warhol's favorite NYC "party" band soundtracked countless narcotic jags and laid the foundation for everything from punk rock to shoegaze, its members went on to very different lives: Lou Reed to street-life classi ... More >>

Jackson's Watering Hole's Sazerac

​The Velvet Underground has certainly had an interesting second act. After Andy Warhol's favorite NYC "party" band soundtracked countless narcotic jags and laid the foundation for everything from punk rock to shoegaze, its members went on to very different lives: Lou Reed to street-life classi ... More >>

Stirred & Shaken: Jackson's Watering Hole's Sazerac

Troy Fields​Heading into New Orleans on I-55, just before you cross the fourth-longest bridge in the world (and the second-longest in south Louisiana), you'll pass a couple remote restaurants/bars that for reasons I can't explain fit perfectly in the alluvial landscape. The exterior of NOLA-th ... 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 >>

Tax The Wolf Agrees: Velvet Underground > The Strokes

Michelle Tovar/ Tax the Wolf on Facebook​For the night before Thanksgiving, there is a lot going on in Houston tomorrow. But with all due respect to Robert Ellis & the Boys at Fitzgerald's and the LAX/Young Girls show at Groundhall - not to mention, on an entirely different scale, both Bruno M ... More >>

Tax The Wolf Shines As Velvet Underground

Photos by Marco Torres​Who loves the sun? Tax the Wolf does. Dressed for the occasion in ties and turtlenecks, the Houston prog-rockers downshifted into downtown chic to cover most of the Velvet Underground's 1970 album Loaded at the return of Rocks Off's Reduxion Wednesday night at Walter's o ... More >>

A Fistful of Soul

One righteous vintage vinyl party.

10 Sexually Suggestive, Food-Related Album Covers

​ If there are three things we report on quite well here at Houston Press Blog Central, it's food, sex and music. So, hell, let's merge 'em! Here is a rundown of ten of the most sexually suggestive, food- related album covers that caught our eye and gave us the craziest cravings. 10. Katy Pe ... More >>

Beautiful Chaos

Psychedelic Fur Richard Butler talks Talk Talk Talk redux.

The Doobie Brothers

Psychedelic Fur Richard Butler talks Talk Talk Talk redux.

Top 10 Songs To Leave Out Of Your Wedding Reception

​'Tis the summer season for tying the knot. But curse the occasion for creating the ultimate breeding ground for bad music - wedding receptions. It's one thing to unplug the jukebox in an act of defiance or flee a venue playing bad songs (I've done all of the above), but one doesn't exactly h ... More >>

For Labor Day: 10 Songs About Childbirth

kidzcareonline.com​Cyril Connolly said "There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall." The famed English literary critic knew, like several here at Rocks Off, that having kids puts a hell of a dent in a parent's free time, and the constant demands of children can make at ... More >>

Black Angels

kidzcareonline.com​Cyril Connolly said "There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall." The famed English literary critic knew, like several here at Rocks Off, that having kids puts a hell of a dent in a parent's free time, and the constant demands of children can make at ... More >>

Playbill: What's In The DNA Of Titan Blood?

​I get a lot of local music across my desk, mostly defanged and bloodless. Things that I feel an obligation to enjoy, an act which is starting to take it's toll on a soul. I'm too nice to say something sucks because something-something social contract. Cool story, bro. Like James Hetfield sang ... More >>

20 Albums To Leave Your Children Plus Five To Grow On...

​It started as a simple question: What albums would you leave your unborn children, if you knew you were on borrowed time and may not be around to show them the way. At first I asked for albums for sons, but then it grew broader, not out of needing to pacify the PC-thug in me, but to make sure ... More >>