Tori Amos

The Length of a Song Should Not Dictate the Length of Its Music Video

I review a lot of music videos here on Rocks Off because I remain completely fascinated with them, since the days when I was a kid glued to MTV trying as hard as I could to understand exactly what was the meaning behind Metallica's "Unforgiven." I still believe that short musical films are the best ... More >>

7 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Fiskadoro, BT, Hickoids, The 71's, Etc.

Patently unclassifiable locals Fiskadoro ("post-punk"... maybe?) welcomes synth-punk act mnttaB all the way from Melbourne, Australia to notsuoH Friday night. Check out mnttaB's Bandcamp page; it's definitely the closest you'll get to seeing Suicide in Houston (this weekend anyway... we hear Suicide ... More >>

The Last VJ's Guide to Making a Good Music Video

It appears -- and every record label, manager, and publicist that I ask agrees -- that I am petty much the only mainstream journalist who dedicates himself to covering music videos as a regular, in-depth beat. I try to focus on at least one a week, though it obviously depends on what kind of product ... More >>

The 3 Best Musician/Wrestling Tag Teams

The world of wrestling and the world of music have an awful lot in common. You've got you over-the-top characters, the lights, the spectacle, the flashy costumes and choreography. (See this, in fact.) Pretty much the only thing separating them are the injuries, and depending on the rock show not eve ... More >>

First Person Shootr: "Punch-Struck" Will Creep You Out

I don't know much about First Person Shootr, and naming your band after a genre that makes up roughly 243 percent of all modern video games doesn't exactly make narrowing it down any easier. After some digging, I found out that it's simply another stellar side project by producer Lee Bannon. He call ... More >>

Big Yellow Taxi: Six Songs About Taxicabs

For poor kids, like myself growing up, a ride in a taxicab is a foreign adventure, particularly in Houston where it's not an especially necessary form of transportation like some other large cities such as New York. For us, it's the closest we could probably ever get to having a chauffeur, other th ... More >>

MTV Unplugged's 10 Strangest Moments

Those of you fond of criticizing the lack of music on MTV, take note: The network's venerable Unplugged series returns on Sunday with a performance by British indie-poppers Florence and the Machine. It'll be the first of eight shows planned for this year, with The Civil Wars and Dierks Bentley alrea ... More >>

A Crucifixion Playlist By A Satanist. Hey! That Rhymed!

Everyone who isn't going to burn in a lake of fire after they die, and even some of us, know that Jesus Christ was crucified on Good Friday only to respawn three days later on Easter. At that point, he emerged from a rabbit hole with a collection of painted eggs -- it was boring being dead, okay? -- ... More >>

10 Bands We'd Rather See in 3D Than Metallica

Kreepin Deth​Metallica recently announced that they would be releasing a film in 3D. Whether or not we're talking a concert film, something more along the lines of Some Kind of Monster, or a different approach entirely they haven't confirmed. Still, it seems most likely that they will follow i ... More >>

Tori, Tool, TLC And The Other Musical Debuts Of 1992

1992 was a pretty heady year for music in general, with the masses gobbling up all the gangsta rap, grunge, and pop-country they could. That year would see the release of not only R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People, Peter Gabriel's Us, Pantera's Vulgar Display Of Power, but also what is arguably The ... More >>

Top 10 Songs About Other Musicians

When you make music your life, it's only natural that you'd look at the people around you doing the same and find someone who just moistens the muse's panties. What we've tried to put together here is a list of those best efforts. Bear in mind, with one notable exception we've steered clear of fell ... More >>

The Best Episodes Of MTV's Unplugged

​MTV Unplugged was like health food for your soul during its heyday on the music channel, which was full of junk food. When artists stuck to the template and went untethered to electronic instruments and really dug into their music with new eyes it was amazing. Debuting in 1989 with Squeeze ... More >>

It's Pi Day, Pi Day, Gotta Get Down on Pi Day

​In keeping with Rocks Off's latest obsession, compiling soundtracks for oddball holidays, we were tickled pink as a chorus girl's nipple to learn that this Friday is Pi Approximation Day. The holiday was first in 1988 by a physicist named Larry Shaw, who made everyone march in a circle then ... More >>

Eight Halfway Decent Songs With Godawful Titles

​So, we listened to Coldplay's new single, "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" for the first time and, try as we might, we just can't hate it. Now, it's not great. One could argue that it only barely crosses the line into "good" territory. It sounds like Chris Martin locked himself in a room and l ... More >>

Four Comic-Book Characters Inspired By Musicians

​Rocks off just can't seem to get comic books out of our blood. Between being fully immersed in Comicpalooza last weekend and trying to point out to Broadway how many other comic characters would make better and safer musicals than Spider-Man, we've regressed to being 15 with ink-stained figur ... More >>

$5 Awesome: The Toys Soundtrack

Rocks Off has picked up some CDs over the years at prices so low we think that it would've been less insulting to the artists if we had stolen them. Some of these have become our favorite albums, and in this column we'll tell you what they are and why! ​For Rocks Off's money, there is no more ... More >>

The Internet's Freakiest Fan-Drawn Musical Art

Lady Gaga​Rocks Off scoured the Interwebs for at least an hour Thursday looking for the worst musical fan art we could find. Aside from being mildly sidetracked by pictures of Katy Perry and Britney Spears, we also found plenty of ghastly fan-made visages of their favorite rock and pop stars. ... More >>

Top 10 Rap Covers By Non-Rap Artists

​Artists have many ways of expressing admiration for their peers. Name-dropping those who inspire them in liner notes and offering them groupies on the tour bus are just a couple of ways of showing respect. Covering one of their popular songs? Now that's the ultimate tip of the hat. That's an ... More >>

Blogging From Bonnaroo: Damien Marley and Nas, Tori Amos, Steve Martin

Photo by Mark C. Austin/See a slideshow​Houston artist Tyagaraja recently won the Ford Fiesta Team Houston Battle of The Bands, the grand prize of which was a trip to perform at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee. Meghan Hendley, keyboardist/vocalist for Tyagaraja, reports back to us wit ... More >>

Rocks Off Exclusive: Things Beyonce Will Be Doing on Her Break from Music

​ On top of everything else this week, sadly the news has come out that our beloved Beyonce is taking a break from music. Just when we need her the most, right? We miss B and Ms. Fierce already, and we're already speculating what she might get up to while taking her sabbatical away from the public ... More >>

Midwinter Graces

The sounds of Christmas 2009 from Bob Dylan, Sting, Tori Amos, Rob Halford and more.

Coma White: A Sampling of Songs About the JFK Assassination

Craig HlavatyDealey Plaza in downtown Dallas​ Warning: Some of these videos contain very graphic images. Anyone who knows Rocks Off, even in passing, knows of his fierce JFK assassination obsession. The theories, the scientific data, the literature and the various opinions shooting through the Int ... More >>

Jimi Hendrix Covers: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (P.S. John Mayer Still Sucks)

This week marks the 39th anniversary of the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, which is famous for a couple of reasons. First, it was such a financial disaster it put the kibosh on any further Wight fesivals for the next 32 years. Second, and more importantly, it marked the penultimate performance of one ... More >>

When the Moon Becomes Round: Songs for the Summer Solstice

Frederic Vincent/ Wikipedia In Houston, June 21 comes and goes with very little fanfare. While technically it's the first day of summer, anyone can tell you summer around here started about two months ago. Nonetheless, it seems like a shame to leave all the celebrating to the pagans; why, they don't ... More >>

Tori Amos: Abnormally Attracted to Sin

Album of the Week: Tori Amos' Abnormally Attracted to Sin

Tori Amos Abnormally Attracted to Sin www.toriamos.comIf, like me, the only song you had heard off Abnormally Attracted To Sin prior to its release was the single "Maybe California," then (like me) the first few seconds of opening track "Give" made you whisper a relieved "Oh, thank God. It's not all ... More >>

The Last Roundup: New Wilco LP, Tori Amos, G.I. Joe Junkies, D Rose and More

Once again Rocks Off has been scanning Houston's music-oriented blogs so you don't have to. But go ahead and do it anyway. Breakfast On Tour has a link to stream the new Wilco album, conveniently called Wilco (The Album) and due June 30. Like Rocks Off often does, Dryvetyme Onlyne has been thinking ... More >>

Local Rotation: Evangeline's We're Alright Down Here

You just never know when or where you're going to stumble upon a great piece of work. You know? Guadalcanal Diary singer Murray Attaway's solo album In Thrall has been one of my top 10 albums for almost a decade, and I found it at the bottom of a dollar bin at Walmart at 3 a.m. Proof positiv ... More >>

Rabbit in the Moon

Paula Maya

Tori Amos

American Doll Posse

Chart Check

3/13 Playbill: Vienna Teng

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

Regina Spektor

Begin to Hope

Grind It Out with Pam

Tori Amos

Saturday, September 3, at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby. For tickets, call 713-629-3700. The Ditty Bops and the Like are also on the bill.

Vienna Teng

Thursday, April 1

Christopher O'Riley

True Love Waits (Sony Classical)

Practicing Judyism

Funny Gay Men

Rotation

New Releases Reviewed

Rotation

New Releases Reviewed

Tori Can Dance

Rotation

Rotation

Tori's Story

Letters

Rotation

Bill-bored

At least Tom Jones left the mesh shirt at home

Famous Amos

Bad girl Tori becomes more than a Kate Bush manque