United Kingdom

Yet Another Cooking Show: The American Baking Competition Heads to CBS This Summer

Over the last several years, cooking shows have popped up on a variety of networks, rather than the mother ship of all food and cooking shows, the Food Network. If Cupcake Wars and re-runs of Top Chef Just Desserts doesn't do it for you, this summer CBS will air a summer baking competition on May 29 ... More >>

Five Songs You Should Be Evicted for Playing

Here's a news story you may have missed recently: a man in the UK was so utterly obsessed with the Spice Girls song "Viva Forever" that he played it over and over and over again, until he pissed off his neighbors and landlord so much that they kicked him out of his apartment. I've heard of people lo ... More >>

SXSW Releases First Batch of 2013 Performers

Here go hell come, SXSW has just released the first batch of names for the 2013 festival. I know, only a week after Fun Fun Fun Fest and a month since ACL. Did you see the FPSF blog from earlier today? Yeah, time is moving too fast. The big names on the list so far include the Zombies, Alt-J, Akro ... More >>

Terminal Confusion: Why Are These the UK's Most Popular Funeral Songs?

Recently, a survey conducted in the UK revealed the most popular songs played at funerals. The big news everyone seems to be talking about is that Adele's "Someone Like You -- a song all about how replaceable a person is -- made it to No. 22. But we here at Rocks Off find the Top 5 equally confoundi ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Matt Marcus of Eatsie Boys Food Truck, on Selling Food out of His Dorm Room in Military School and Landing an Internship at The Fat Duck

Matt Marcus Eatsie Boys Food Truck 845-430-8479 www.eatsieboys.com This is Part 1 of a three-part chef chat series. Parts 2 and 3 will run in this same space on Thursday and Friday. The Eatsie Boys have one of the most popular food trucks in Houston right now. Known for their pork snuggies, fanc ... More >>

Dear Olympics: More Nudity And/Or Violence, Please

"We live in a cynical world, a cynical, cynical world..." said a very smart man once. Maybe it was Nietzsche, or Elmer Fudd. Artifacts like the Olympics -- both the summer and winter variety -- have grown boring and stale. TV giant NBC is getting torn to shreds for including haircut Ryan Seacrest ... More >>

Summer Olympics Weather Will Feel More Like Autumn for Many

Jolly ol' England with its fish and chips and beefeaters and shrimp on the barbie...wait, OK, not that last one, is hosting the Summer Olympic Games this year as everyone who isn't living in a cave probably knows (they might know as well). They've gone all out over the last ten years' building facil ... More >>

Sonisphere UK Cancelled: Are Music Festivals in Trouble?

News emerged late last month that the U.K. date of Sonishphere, the traveling European hard-rock festival, has been canceled. It's a pretty big blow for music fans across the pond -- the headliners scheduled for the event included Queen with Adam Lambert, KISS and Faith No More, and reunited Swedish ... More >>

Taped Live Brit Plays Come to Sundance Houston in High Def

It's like a tour of the British theater scene on the cheap. Sundance Cinemas is bringing four taped performances of the National Theatre of London to downtown Houston starting in January and running through April. And even in a city like Houston with its extensive theater scene, Sundance Cinemas ex ... More >>

This Just In: SXSW Announces First Round Of 2012 Showcasing Bands, Including Fat Tony and Something Fierce

Photo By Marco TorresFat Tony at a day show at SXSW '11​Sweet lord, it's not even Thanksgiving yet and South By Southwest is making us excited for March in Austin already. Today the industry festival announced a few bands coming to the capitol city next year, and a few Houston names and Rocks ... More >>

Riot Riot Upstart: Songs For The UK Riots

photoshoplooter.tumblr.com/​A few days ago, in the midst of the worst of the rioting going on around London, which has now dominated the headlines for the better part of a week, someone on Twitter remarked "If Americans rioted every time the cops shot somebody we'd have no time for cocaine and ... More >>

6 Wrestling Finishing Moves That Would Suck at Stopping Riots (w/ Video)

Your riot-control specialist​I am admittedly not always the most up to speed on current events. I'm a generally selfish person. If it has nothing to do with my a) job, b) family, c) friends, d) bank account or e) need to satisfy hunger pangs, then whatever "it" may be gets thrown on the back b ... More >>

For 4/20: Hipgnosis' Greatest Bong Hits

​Rocks Off doesn't know if it's our Shot In the Dark photo show tomorrow or that batch of brownies someone sent us, but we've been in a really visual mood this week. We can't remember exactly what it is, but something told us today might be a good day to revisit the work of Hipgnosis. The gro ... More >>

Cage Match: Werewolf Of London Vs. Purple People Eater

​Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a while since we had a Cage Match. Our apologies, we couldn't find a band willing to take on Nickelback - really. Be that as it may, get yourselves ready for a special Halloween edition as two of the greatest monsters in song take on each other. You gotta ask ... More >>

"Rape Gaze": Worst Genre Name Ever? Not Quite...

myspace.com/wearecreep​Let's take a moment to think about labels and what they mean to us. Why do people feel the need to label things? The obvious answer is: It's the only way we know what stuff is. To anyone who automatically dismisses the very idea of labeling, just imagine what it would b ... More >>

Second-Line Parade Commemorates Katrina Anniversary

Mark Britain​Sunday evening about 500 people lined west Richmond Avenue to commemorate the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a New Orleans-style second line parade. The parade, hosted by Dave & Busters, was a reunion of sorts for Katrina refugees still living in Houston. Occasio ... More >>

Manchester United: Five Reasons To Hate Them

Yeah, yeah -- tradition yadda, yadda, yadda​Manchester United F.C. will be making their first trip to Houston as they play the MLS All-Stars at Reliant Stadium Wednesday. As one of soccer's most successful and most recognizable clubs, Man U is the sole reason why a record-sellout crowd is expected ... More >>

Game Time: 2010 World Cup -- I Am Darth Soccer

"Luke!! I am your bad-luck charm!!"​If ever there were a sporting event that was tailor-made for watching in a sports bar with a room full of diehard fans, it's World Cup soccer.It's the one sporting event that takes a pretty easily graspable concept for the casual fan (put ball in goal -- and in ... More >>

FAIL - Billy Corgan, Courtney Love, Justin Bieber, Celene Dion, Apple

If you're reading this, you're either on the Internet, or else you've mastered multi-dimensional thought-projection processes that would make Michio Kaku cry like a little girl. We'll assume the former, and just in case you don't already know, the Internet has decided that the word "failure" is too ... More >>

Coffee Review: Has Bean's Farmer Direct Bolivia Machacamarca

​The UK coffee crowd has been gaining momentum for quite some time now, and we were lucky enough to get to sample this gem from Has Bean, a coffee-roasting and home-brewing supply company out of Stafford, UK.

Brew Blog: Banana Bread Beer from Wells & Young's Brewery

​This week's historical excuse to sample a beer comes from February 9, 1900, when the English established the Davis Cup tennis competition. A good, potassium-rich recovery food for athletes playing tennis or other taxing sports (i.e. not golf) is bananas, and thus we have two excuses for disc ... More >>

Sinking Ship

Pirate Radio gets a tame U.S. release, but we still love rock and roll.

Cutout Bin: Album Cover Wars!

​ The Party Boys, The Party Boys Epic (UK), 1987 Big hair /mustache combo: -1 Paisley vest: -1 Balding/long hair combo: -3 Mullet n' bolo tie combo: -3 Reeboks (-2 per shoe x 4) = -8 Eko guitar: 2 Thumbs up (-3 per thumb x 2) = -6 From England: -3 TOTAL: -23

Top 5 Cold Drinks: Alcoholic Version

A lovely, limey caipirinhaA while back we made a list of beverages that hit the spot in hot weather. But we didn't include anything with alcohol the first time. An ice-cold beer usually does the trick, but sometimes a balmy evening calls for a beverage with a muddled ingredient or cocktail umbrella. ... More >>

Lost Tuneage: Sweet (Formerly The Sweet)

wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_(band)Who 'Dat? From the land of England in 1968 came a band called The Sweetshop, featuring singer Brian Connolly, bassist Steve Priest, drummer Mick Tucker and guitarist Frank Torpey slogging it out on the pub circuit. By 1970, Andy Scott had replaced Torpey, and the band ... More >>

Fine Hour: Short Films by Humphrey Jennings

This Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s program shows a complex British filmmaker from multiple angles

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

Celtic Scots and Hispanic Mexicans

Paydirt : "The Thames Mudlarks"

A delightful show at CTRL features seven London artists

Fish Gone Wild

Family Ties

For Argentine director Daniel Burman, life is a movie

Escalator Buffet

Bombay Brasserie's new second-story location will have to do for the time being

The Business, with Roger Miret and the Disasters

Thursday, May 18, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717

On the Right Track

Nine Black Alps

Tuesday, March 21, Walter's on Washington, 4215 Washington Avenue, 713-864-2727

The Hype of March

Who will be the band of 2006, and why you shouldn’t care

Curry for the Laddies

London Sizzler serves up Indian food made the British way

Gastropub Crawl

The Red Lion isn't just another fake British pub -- it's an authentically fake British pub

Bang This

The Red Lion Pub

You, Spy

Why can't Americans make TV shows as good as Brit import MI-5?

Caged Angels

Chart-toppers in the UK, Ash is happy on the American club circuit. But how long will it stay there?

Girls with Balls

The UK's Bend It Like Beckham scores big

What Would Woody Do?

Billy Bragg and the Blokes want to know

Playbill

Steel Pulse

How Now Mad Cow?

Europe has a problem with diseased cattle. Should Texans be wary?

News of the Weird

Scare Tactics

Highs and Lows

A needle, a junkie, a heroin habit -- welcome to Great Britain in the '90s

What Invasion?

Spacehog comes in peace, but finds success anyway

British India