The Velvet Underground

Saturday Night: Plants And Animals At Fitzgerald's

Plants and Animals, Vestibule Fitzgerald's May 27, 2012 "It takes a good friend to say you've got your head up your ass," sang Plants and Animals lead vocalist Warren Spicer Saturday. It does. These Montreal musicians played their hearts out to a small but mighty crowd at Fitzgerald's. Truthfully ... More >>

5 Bands Lou Reed Should Have Called Instead of Metallica

As mentioned in Nathan Smith's "Bummer, Dude: The 10 Big Musical Disappointments of 2011", Lulu, the not-at-all-anticipated-by-me aural abortion resulting from the un-Godly union of The Progenitor of All Things Cool, Three Insufferable Man-Children & Kirk Hammett, SUCKED. This was crushing for me on ... More >>

14 Notable Female Rock Drummers

girlscantwhat.com​Last week, we rounded up a list of our favorite female rock bassists. We'd like to continue the trend of honoring rock's finest females, by next recognizing 14 notable female rock drummers. As usual, we will focus on the live-performing, touring drummers over time, rather tha ... More >>

You In Color: The Black Angels' Christian Bland Talks Film Scores

Photo By Craig HlavatyThe Black Angels' Alex Maas at Free Press Summerfest in June​Tomorrow night the Black Angels hit Houston for the third time in about a year, with a gig over at Fitzgerald's with fellow retro-doomers Dead Meadow and Spindrift. The last time the Angels were in Houston it wa ... More >>

German Measles Break Non-Metal "No Disease Names" Rule

Todd Purple​ You know, if we had to sum up The German Measles' music, we'd have to just stick with saying, "They're from New York." It's a very, very Velvet Underground, East Coast approach to rocking you and mocking you. They're so obscure they haven't even heard of themselves, you motherlovi ... 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 >>

Friday Night: Batusis At Mango's

Photos by David EnsmingerCheetah Chrome​Batusis feat. Sylvain Sylvain and Cheetah Chrome Mango's December 10, 2010 "Everything was as it always had been ... the years were a mirage and there had been no years," E.B. White once wrote, describing the collapse of time. This is what Batusis effor ... More >>

In Case You Missed It...

Marco TorresIt's a bird... it's a plane... it's... Usher!​Rocks Off knows you have had a busy week. So have we. But, we figured, what with Thanksgiving and Black Friday and traveling to and from your various other holiday ports of call, you may not have had as much time in front a computer as ... 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 >>

Aftermath: Beach House, Real Or Imagined, A Breathtaking Walter's Show

Photos by Eggs/ breakfastontour.com​ Aftermath is not quite sure what we can possibly add to a band already self-aware enough to put the word "dream" in its album title. We can tell you this, though: We put on Beach House's Teen Dream, the Baltimore duo's second LP for Sub Pop, shortly before leav ... More >>

Craig's Hlist: Our Grandmother Gave Us Food Poisoning, You Get These Songs

​ This is the debut of Craig's Hlist, wherein the Hlavaty side of He Said She Said backs off from his weekly HSSS duties to record a bi-weekly solo blog of sorts. If HSSS was the Velvet Underground, then Craig's Hlist is his Transformer or something. Though at best, it probably just Steve Perry's ... More >>

Beyond Fake

Indie-rock scholars Yo La Tengo forge a unique sound through tireless study of others' music.

Jonathan Richman

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 >>

Million-Dollar Mud

The 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival became a quagmire everywhere but onstage.

ACL Aftermath, Part 2: Now That That "Dillo Dirt" Unpleasantness Is Out of the Way, How About Some Music?

Mark C. AustinSeems like we recognize this guy from somewhere...​ More and more, Aftermath uses ACL more than SXSW to see which recent buzz bands are worth their salt, and of course to check on how some old favorites are doing. This year, tops on our new-to-us list were Blitzen Trapper, who manage ... More >>

Houston 101: You Knew We Would Have To Do This One -- Liberty Hall

​Liberty Hall, by the 1970s, had somewhat survived its time as a church and an American Legion hall to become probably the hippest rock club in the city.Comfortably seedy, the Hall hosted legends like the Velvet Underground, Gram Parsons (with Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt sitting in), the Ramones ... More >>

Dear Sy~3nc3

Aftermath: Gene Loves Jezebel at Meridian

Photos by Daniel Kramer/ click here for a slideshowEvery so often, a show that might otherwise be just OK becomes something much cooler when there's hardly anybody there to see it. Aftermath isn't talking about some fresh-out-of-the-box band playing its first show in front of friends and fami ... More >>

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 >>

Get Lit: The Pitchfork 500

Indian Jewelry: Free Gold

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

Last Night: Sean Reefer & the Resin Valley Boys at Boondocks

SXSW: Lou Reed. Live. For One Song. Lou Freakin’ Reed.

Best Non-2007 Music of 2007

Vinal Edge Now Selling Hunter Ward’s T-Shirts, Vinyl

Get Lit: The Act You’ve Known for All These Years: A Year in the Life of Sgt. Pepper and Friends, by Clinton Heylin

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Is Is (EP)

Bill Callahan

Bill Callahan will perform on Wednesday, April 18, at the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, 2402 Munger, 713-926-6368.

Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo performs Friday, April 6, at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, 713-225-5483. David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights also appear.

Glory Days

The Strokes, with the Eagles of Death Metal

Wednesday, March 15, Verizon Wireless Theater, 520 Texas, 713-230-1666

Rock and Role Model

The timeless Jonathan Richman comes to the Continental

Rotation

Back in the Saddle

The Cowboy Junkies ride again

Azita and Carina Round

Life on the Fly (Drag City) and The Disconnection (Weapons of Mass Entertainment / Interscope)

Country Teasers, with NTX+ Electric Deth

Friday, January 23

Heard It Through the Grapevine

Notes toward new and better criticism and marketing of wine and song

Singapore Sling

Sunday, November 9

Gilding the Lily

Studio tricks ruin what could have been for the Dandy Warhols

Sondre Lerche

Faces Down (Astralwerks)

Dave Navarro

Trust No One (Capitol Records)

Mouse Bait

Shrek plunders the Magic Kingdom for empty laughs

Playbill

Joel Stein

Silent Type

The multitalented Alejandro Escovedo prefers to let the music do the talking

Silence on the Dial

Two weeks ago the FCC shut down Montrose Radio. Can the pirate station survive the bust? Can the pirate station survive itself?

Rotation

Static

Moon Men

Luna may be vague about what it wants to say, but it's memorable in how it says it