Vampire Weekend

SXSW: Tomorrow's It Band: the Virgins

SXSW: Lessons Learned from Drenched in Blog's Craig Hlavaty

SXSW: Carbon/Silicon, Ting Tings, Santogold, MGMT, The Cribs, White Rabbits, Supersuckers and Robyn

Has ACL Festival Jumped the Shark?

XM Nation: Catching Up and Moving On

ACL: Sunny Sweeney Yes, Vampire Weekend No

Aftermath: The Walkmen, Little Ones and Young Mammals at Walter's on Washington

Were These Really the Best Songs of 2008?

The Gutter Twins Maybe Rocks Off spent a lot of 2008 with his head in the archives, but he was paying attention to new stuff too. Occasionally. It's as easy as satellite radio, channel 47's (Ethel/Alt Nation) weekly new-music hour Submission/Transmission. Monday night, S/T happened to be playing ... More >>

Annual Pazz & Jop Results Released

Congrats, TV on the Radio! This morning our sister paper in Manhattan's Cooper Square, the Village Voice, released the results of its annual Pazz & Jop poll, where hundreds of music writers and editors rank their favorite albums of the past year in what has to be an absolute nightmare for th ... More >>

Digitalia: Microsoft Songsmith Corrects Artists' Glaring Oversights

Billy Idol, "White Wedding"... sort ofMicrosoft Songsmith, a music-making computer program, has already racked up plenty of Internet accolades based on its eerily terrible commercial, wherein normal, everyday people dealing with normal, everyday problems - such as being tasked to write an ad campa ... More >>

Local Rotation: Young Mammals' Carrots

Young Mammals Carrots www.myspace.com/youngmammals Carrots is the former Dimes' first full-length, and first physical product of any kind since 2006's Animal EP netted the quartet a slew of Houston Press music awards and set the local indie-rock community's hearts atwitter long before a ... More >>

Spring Cleaning

Young Mammals Carrots www.myspace.com/youngmammals Carrots is the former Dimes' first full-length, and first physical product of any kind since 2006's Animal EP netted the quartet a slew of Houston Press music awards and set the local indie-rock community's hearts atwitter long before a ... More >>

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. in Song

In the Name of Love

Afropop Arrives

Motherland music hit a fever pitch with U.S. bands this year

Islands: Arm's Way

Motherland music hit a fever pitch with U.S. bands this year

Juneteenth Revisited

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

British Sea Power, with Film School, Colour Music and the Watermarks

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Local Motion at Cactus Music

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Local Motion at Cactus Music

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Local Motion

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Aftermath: Surfer Blood, More Than the Poor Man's Vampire Weekend, at Mango's

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​ One can sit around all day and wax faux intelligent about where a band gleams their influences from. It's armchair quarterbacking for the kind of folks who wake up in the middle of Sunday afternoon and could give a good goddamn about 100 yards and monied monoliths of bro. ... More >>

Come Party With Rocks Off and Lego Rock Band at Khon's

Next Tuesday over at Khon's (2808 Milam), Rocks Off is throwing a free Christmas party for Houston, with our new copy of Lego Rock Band. You do remember the drunken scene at our Beatles: Rock Band shindig in September at Coffee Groundz, right? We wish we did, but we're pretty sure that they may hav ... More >>

Houston 2020: The Future Is Unwritten

But hey, that's not stopping Noise.

Get Behind the Mule

Gov't Mule main man Warren Haynes swears he takes time off, but we don't really believe him.

SXSW As It Happens: Surfer Blood Makes Waves at the Village Voice Media Party

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt​A series of texts from Brandon K. Hernsberger starting at 12:41 p.m.: I'm in line at Village Voice. Shit is CRAZY long. Most people here to see The xx. 5 in 5 out. Surfer Blood up next. Dudes are effing HUGE. I see people eating inside and I'm jealous. Next door ... More >>

Austin City Limits Festival Tickets On Sale Tomorrow At 10 A.M.

We're not saying Soundgarden is playing ACL, but you never know...​That's right. Now why would Rocks Off make something like that up? Hope you have $180 lying around and don't have any meetings or classes or anything like that tomorrow morning, because they're going to go quick. Better go ahead an ... More >>

2010 ACL Line-Up Goes Live And (Early) By Surprise

The line-up for the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival went live at the fest's website at midnight this morning while the rest of the world was snoozing. Luckily we are up and stirring to bring it to you. No Pavement and no Soundgarden, but we do have the Strokes down. More commentary coming in ... More >>

Which ACL Headliners Will Play Houston?

www.eaglesband.comWho knew the Eagles shot their publicity stills for The Long Road Out of Eden at ACL 2005?​When the Austin City Limits festival lineup is released every spring, one of Rocks Off's favorite parlor games besides wondering what sort of Biblical weather-related calamity God will visi ... More >>

5 New Pop-Star Sitcoms We'd Like To See

Today marks the 43rd anniversary of <>The Monkees winning an Emmy for Best Comedy Series, making them the first musical act ever to win that award. 1967 also marked a transitional period for the band, which was moving toward creative freedom on the television show in which they started out as ... More >>

Post-Apocalyptic Videos, Rap Cartoons And Plenty Of Punk History

Catastrophic Skies (extended cut) from Chase Rees on Vimeo. • Pale, the mainstream-y dark rock band from Houston, has a new video out for their song "Catostrophic Skies," featuring a high-concept post-apocalyptic motorcycle gang. It's kinda goofy. But hell, look at those production values. • L ... More >>

ACL Fest Releases Schedule; Adds Black Lips, Silversun Pickups

black-lips.com via FlickrBrand-new ACL 2010 adds The Black Lips​The Austin City Limits Music Festival released the schedule grid for this year's gathering in Zilker Park Oct. 7-9. The festival also added several bands, including Atlanta garage-punks (and recovering exhibitionists) the Black Li ... More >>

Top 10 Celebrity Music-Video Cameos

​Ratt, "Round and Round" Thursday night, Ratt hits up Warehouse Live with what passes for their original line-up. At their peak, the band was a gritty and decadent alternative to bands like Poison, skewing closer to Motley Crue in terms of excess and drug abuse. ​The band managed to ... More >>

What Does Katy Perry Taste Like?

​Last week when we gave Kesha a bloggardly shellacking, we compared her and other female pop stars of her ilk to burritos. You may remember we said she was a gas-station burrito and Miley Cyrus was a Big Mac wrap. It was either a stroke of genius or the starved ramblings of a music writer subs ... More >>

What Does Katy Perry Taste Like?

​Last week when we gave Kesha a bloggardly shellacking, we compared her and other female pop stars of her ilk to burritos. You may remember we said she was a gas-station burrito and Miley Cyrus was a Big Mac wrap. It was either a stroke of genius or the starved ramblings of a music writer subs ... More >>

How Is Houston Doing ACL-Wise?

Marco TorresThe Eagles have flown, at least as far as Houston is concerned.​If you have even bothered to venture out of doors during these days of 105-degree heat indices and "Unhealthy" air-quality advisories, you may have noticed that things have been a little light on the roadshow front lat ... More >>

Vampire Weekend

Marco TorresThe Eagles have flown, at least as far as Houston is concerned.​If you have even bothered to venture out of doors during these days of 105-degree heat indices and "Unhealthy" air-quality advisories, you may have noticed that things have been a little light on the roadshow front lat ... More >>

Cage Match: Steven Curtis Chapman Vs. Vampire Weekend Vs. Witness To The Fallen

No, this is not Vampire Weekend.​Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight a battle will be waged for your musical souls. Three opponents, each personifying an aspect of rock and roll - though for some that such a designation may be kindly inappropriate. In this corner, with his guitar and a somewhat pec ... More >>

Last Night: Vampire Weekend And Beach House At Verizon

Photos by Mark Britain​Vampire Weekend, Beach House Verizon Wireless Theater October 7, 2010 It's hard to quantify a show featuring two of the darlingest indie darlings the indie-darling machine has ever invented back-to-back in a non-festival setting. These events don't happen often, because ... More >>

ACL Day 1 Recap: Vampire Weekend, More Strokes & Sonic Youth, Sulking

Photos by Marco TorresVampire Weekend​ For lots more pictures from Friday, see our slideshow here. Friday night at ACL began with Aftermath charging our phone up until 6:45 p.m., then sulking because the Internet was down in the media tent (duh), and then stocking our man-satchel with cans o ... More >>

Friday Night: The National At House Of Blues

Photos by Groovehouse​The National House of Blues October 8, 2010 Houston crowds like to party. The National does not. These two seemingly indisputable musical facts led Aftermath to imagine all sorts of nightmare scenarios for the Brooklyn band's visit to House of Blues Friday night, from t ... More >>

11 Musical New Year's Resolutions For 2011

​Craig's Hlist stopped making New Year's Eve resolutions the older and more stubborn we got. We normally don't quit or change things forever unless we are forced to do so. ('Sup, ladies?) This makes it hard for us to keep any New Year's Eve resolutions. If anything, it's easier to change organ ... More >>

Things We Never, Ever Want To Hear Again

​Editor's Pick: Vampire Weekend's "Holiday." Everything I hate about indie rock (cloying, fey, highly irritating) and car commercials (they're car commercials) in about 15 seconds.. Repeated seven or eight times a fucking hour. Marc Brubaker: "Check us out on Twitter!" or anything else Twitt ... More >>

Against Me!

​Editor's Pick: Vampire Weekend's "Holiday." Everything I hate about indie rock (cloying, fey, highly irritating) and car commercials (they're car commercials) in about 15 seconds.. Repeated seven or eight times a fucking hour. Marc Brubaker: "Check us out on Twitter!" or anything else Twitt ... More >>

Surfer Blood

​Editor's Pick: Vampire Weekend's "Holiday." Everything I hate about indie rock (cloying, fey, highly irritating) and car commercials (they're car commercials) in about 15 seconds.. Repeated seven or eight times a fucking hour. Marc Brubaker: "Check us out on Twitter!" or anything else Twitt ... More >>

SXSW: Hunx Shows Off His Junk At Red 7

Craig Hlavaty​It's a proud day when we can write a headline like that, especially for a band as fun as Hunx & His Punx, who played a cherry mid-evening set as Red 7 on Saturday night. During a SXSW so far which has seen us walk out of many venues after hearing way too many Vampire Weekend and ... More >>

More Local Music News Than People Asking Us For Summer Fest Passes

It's Friday, June 3 - do you know what that means? That's right, Free Press Summer Fest is a scant day away. In mere hours the city shall be frolicking to the Satanic call of rock 'n' roll, getting sunburned and dehydrated, tripping on Lord knows what, and having a grand ol' time. Until then, howeve ... More >>

iceage

It's Friday, June 3 - do you know what that means? That's right, Free Press Summer Fest is a scant day away. In mere hours the city shall be frolicking to the Satanic call of rock 'n' roll, getting sunburned and dehydrated, tripping on Lord knows what, and having a grand ol' time. Until then, howeve ... More >>

Five ACL '11 Bands That Could Headline In 2012

Jim BrickerSmith Westerns at Fitz in February​This Thursday night, Rocks Off leaves for the 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival at Austin's Zilker Park. This year promises to be a hot one, from the killer temperatures, the constant wildfires just miles from the venue, and the mouth of Frida ... More >>

Montrose Winter Social: Festival of Sound Checks

Photos by Barry Sigman​For more pics from the inaugural Montrose Winter Social, check out our slideshow. The years spent organizing and attending a number of live music events have taught us several valuable lessons: 1) the line-up will inevitably change the second after being finalized and s ... More >>