Tom Petty

Liquidating Your Record Collection Is Harder Than You Would Think

Every time I come home from work, I find myself going to my guest-room closet and staring at crates and crates of compact discs and vinyl I don't know what to do with. Aside from the ones that I hold dear to my musical development or use for my DJ work, I have tons for which I have no sane plan. D ... More >>

Kings of the Stone Age

Dave Grohl and other rockers toast L.A.'s Sound City.

Top 5 New Rules for Internet Jukeboxes

Used to be, you'd have to hit bar after bar until you found one with just the right jukebox, and then that was your own personal lair of alcohol consumption from then on. The people demanded more freedom of choice, however, so most bars have already switched over to Internet jukeboxes, where one can ... More >>

A Texican In New Orleans: Lessons Learned From Jazz Fest

This past weekend was the last for this year's edition of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which started way back on April 27. The festival runs over two weekends, usually Thursday through Sunday. Obviously since it is a uniquely Nawlins institution going back to 1970, it's not a festival t ... More >>

Six-String Pawn Stars: Top 10 Famous Stolen Guitars

Tom Petty got a real kick in the balls late last week when he discovered that his vintage blond 1967 12-string Rickenbacker and his Gibson SGTV Junior had been stolen from a California soundstage where the Heartbreakers had been rehearsing for an upcoming tour. Three other vintage guitars owned by b ... More >>

Supergroups: 10 Bands That Sprang From Other Bands

From the remnants of other great bands are often birthed more great bands. Oftentimes these little side projects go under the radar unless you are a hardcore fan, or the new band itself gains a lot of airplay or word of mouth. Either way, some of the greatest rock bands of all time have been birthe ... More >>

Support Staff: 10 Of Pop History's Greatest Backing Bands

Being behind the scenes is what most musicians who don't write songs or sing expect of their lives once they start seriously playing. A career backing someone up can be extremely rewarding, particularly if you are part of a transcendent group of musicians that goes from simply backing up an artist i ... More >>

Cactus Releasing Buxton's Strange Five Days Early At Tonight's In-Store

Houston's own Buxton gets their moment in the sun in the next few weeks as their debut album for New West Records, Nothing Here Seems Strange, gets wide release. But the band's home store, Cactus Music, will be releasing it tonight five days early during the band's in-store, set for 7 p.m. In addit ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

I'm a little hesitant because it's half IPA. I'm very enthusiastic, however, because it's two things just crammed right the crap together. I love a good mish mash.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we promise never to have a talking anthropomorphic food item as ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Finally, The Super Bowl Is Safe For PG-13 Rated Entertainment Again

The boob that launched a thousand obscenity complaints...​Over seven years after the FCC went into a tizzy over Janet Jackson exposing her breast during the 2004 Super Bowl (making a D-cup out of an A-cup, perhaps), a federal appeals court upheld its finding yesterday that the commission acted ... More >>

The Modern Age: 10 Facts You May Not Know About The Strokes

Marco TorresThe Strokes' Julian Casablancas at ACL 2010​This week marks 12 years since the Strokes debuted as a live band, at NYC's Spiral on September 14, 1999. The crowd, they recall, was five paying customers and assorted band girlfriends - humble beginnings for a band that would be both ex ... More >>

Top Five Most Overpaid Musicians In The World

​Last month Forbes released their list of the 25 highest-earning musicians of 2010, and the list contains several talents Rocks Off is happy to see keeping the lights on. No. 1 on the list, U2, is still a favorite of ours after all these years, and it's always good to see Tom Petty, Jay-Z, and ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Alternative Songs for the 2012 Candidates

Please god, no.​Poor Michele Bachmann, first the John Wayne/John Wayne Gacy thing, now Tom Petty's piling on as well: The inaugural music-related strike of the 2012 presidential race comes from Tom Petty, who issued a cease and desist letter to Michele Bachmann's campaign to get her to stop ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Songs In The Key Of [Presidential] Fail

Please god, no.​Poor Michele Bachmann, first the John Wayne/John Wayne Gacy thing, now Tom Petty's piling on as well: The inaugural music-related strike of the 2012 presidential race comes from Tom Petty, who issued a cease and desist letter to Michele Bachmann's campaign to get her to stop ... More >>

Top Six Artist Vs. Record Label Feuds

​Pink Floyd has finally settled its lengthy dispute with their longtime record label EMI. The band, which signed to the label over 40 years ago, first took EMI to court last spring in an effort to clarify their existing contract. Floyd sought to prevent EMI from "unbundling" their albums by se ... More >>

Frickin' Lasers: Six Artists Who Could Really Use Them

Photo illustration by Monica FuentesNow that's more like it.​If you don't have tickets for tonight's Ghostland Observatory show at Warehouse Live, you are shit out of luck. Sorry to say, but the show is sold out, and when things sell out at that venue, they mean it. Seriously, you may have to ... More >>

Before Ray & Dave, Noel & Liam, There Was Don & Phil...

The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert: Live at the Royal Albert Hall Eagle Vision, 120 minutes, $11.98. ​Long before the professional pairings of the Robinsons, Gallaghers, Davies or even the Righteous, (and just after the Burnettes), there was the early rock and roll fraternal act of the Everl ... More >>

Friday Night: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers At The Woodlands

Photos by Jim Bricker​Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 24, 2010 In a catalog studded with them, one of the saddest songs Tom Petty ever wrote is also one of the most revealing. As far as we know, it's never seen the light of stage since the tour for its ... More >>

Tom Petty's Ten Most Underrated Songs

​ "I Should Have Known It" Rocks Off has an especially acute case of clockwatcher's syndrome this afternoon, because as soon as we leave the office we're heading up to The Woodlands for the big Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers/ZZ Top show. Some of you out there might be doing the exact same t ... More >>

Drive-By Truckers

House Of Blues Extends Tax-Free Merch Sale Through 7 p.m. Today

​House of Blues has extended its "Great Rock 'N' Roll Sample Sale" to a second day, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. today in the Bronze Peacock Room. Sales tax for all merchandise, available for as low as $3 for CDs and hats (Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, KISS) or even $1 for tour programs (Springstee ... More >>

Howlin' Wolf Hits 100; Did He Ever Hit Houston?

​Like Tom Petty - heard the new album yet? - once sang, it's good to be king. While Rocks Off No. 2 is saddled with justifying his tendency to sing "Over the Rainbow" in the car when (he says) no one else is around, we've been looking into the local connections of someone else with a birthday toda ... More >>

Magpies Swoop Into Mucky Duck Sunday

myspace.com/magpiesrock​ One of Lonesome, Onry and Mean's favorite roots-rock bands returns to Houston Sunday to play the Mucky Duck. Cleveland's hard-traveling Magpies fall somewhere in that sweet zone between Tom Petty and the Gourds, meaning they rock it hard but with plenty of twang. With its ... More >>

What Constitutes a Killer Show? Six Personal Case Studies

​ Rocks Off is going to suck it up and go on the record as saying we had a great time at the Lady Gaga drag karaoke event last Sunday at Guava Lamp. Perhaps it was just the impaired judgment induced by the holiday cheer we'd imbibed at the Christmas party before, but the show was thoroughly enjoya ... More >>

Feel a Whole Lot Better: For His Birthday, Five Great Non-Petty Tom Petty Songs

Tuesday just happens to be the 59th birthday of Rocks Off's personal hero, role model and by all accounts someone who smokes even more weed than we do, Thomas Earl Petty. Speaking of, it's also Snoop Dogg's birthday, which means 10/20 deserves to be a NORML holiday even more than 4/20 does. But unt ... More >>

Blind Boys of Alabama

“Live in Texas” Photo Exhibit

Web exclusive!

Get Lit: The Pitchfork 500

Jack's Mannequin

XM Nation: Catching Up and Moving On

Happy Tom Petty Day!

Tom Petty Day, Part 2: TP&HB Videos

Tom Petty Day, Part 3: Off to the Show!

Fried Rice: In the Hot Seat with Ben Murphy

The Science of Pop

Do we really need a formula for perfect music?

Overnight Express: In Case You're Not Sick of Me Going on About Tom Petty...

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

Dave Matthews Sucks, Almost as Much as Ken Hoffman Does

Drenched in Blog: Haddaway Go Away

Last Night: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at Super Bowl XLII

No Lingerie Bowl? What's the Point?

Heartless Bastards

The Heartless Bastards perform Wednesday, January 17, at the Continental Club, 3700 Main, 713-529-9899.

The Dean Is Risen

Some Dean Martin albums we wish existed

She's Gone (Away from) Country

But Tift Merritt's latest release, Tambourine, is up for Best Country Album

Easy Does It

Todd Snider returns to folk from a rock experiment gone haywire

Letters

MPFree.com

New way to hear music is music to consumers' ears

Rotation

Even the Normal (Get Lucky Sometime)

Craftsman Tom Petty uses the right tool for the right job

Post-Christmas Clearance

John Frusciante and Hildegard von Bingen never went to Festus, Missouri