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We Need More Rapper 8-Bit Video Games

2 Chainz and Juicy J have owned 2012, whether you like it or not. Both of them could have ran for President of the Ratchet United States of America and won in a landslide on the 2 Trippy ticket. Their greatest gift to mankind this year? Time-wasting awesomeness in the form of 8-bit video games. Y ... More >>

Last Night: Run D.M.C. at Fun Fun Fun Fest

Run D.M.C. Fun Fun Fun Fest Auditorium Shores, Austin November 2, 2012 SLIDESHOW: Run D.M.C., Bob Mould and Val Kilmer: Fun Fun Fun Fest 2012 Day 1 Ten years ago, almost to the day, Hip-Hop lost one of its most adored and influential pioneers. His passing left a void that neither his family, his ... More >>

My Trip to Napa Valley: Part II

I'm pretty sure I fell in love with Napa. It's like an alcoholic's wine lover's Disneyland; a land with a picturesque landscape and fantastic crisp breeze, with some of the world's best wine at your fingertips, just ripe for the taking. And the food scene: TDF. I was lucky enough to enjoy two incr ... More >>

#MadeInAmerica: The Rain, Restrictions & Randomness of Day 2

Day two of the first-ever Made In America music festival felt considerably less hectic and crowded than day one. The blazing heat of the previous day was replaced with scattered showers, and the humidity that follows, making for a sticky and slippery situation on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The crowd ... More >>

The Six Worst One-Game Uniforms You'll See In The 2012 College Football Season

Look good, feel good, play good? Not in these cases. This list doesn't include full-time offenders like Houston, who substituted a perfectly slick design for a blob. Instead, these universities -- some with long traditions -- will subject us to a fashion upchuck on select game days.

Run-D.M.C. Reuniting at November's Fun Fun Fun Fest

The surviving members of the Kings of Rock, Run-D.M.C., will headline Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest November 2-4 at Auditorium Shores, the festival announced this morning. The performance will be Joseph "Run" Simmons and Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels' first since DJ/producer and founding member Jam Master J ... More >>

Best Of The Rest: Houston's Top 6 Washington Avenue Bars

The Washington Avenue corridor is fascinating if not for the simple fact that its very existence for the last few years has ignited a firestorm of opinions about its worthiness as Houston's king of party scenes. Last year, Houston Press writers Craig Hlavaty, Shea Serrano and Mike Gigilio did an inc ... More >>

The Man Who Raped a 15-Year-Old Girl Looks Like This

Police have released a composite sketch of the man who dragged a 15-year-old girl into his car and raped her. The attack occurred on the south side of town near Zollie Scales Park March 21. The girl was walking along Cordray Street around 5:35 p.m. when a black, four-door Chrysler 300 with chariot ... More >>

The Best LP Side Ones Ever

Spurred on by the realization that both David Bowie's commercial breakthrough Let's Dance and Queen's News of the World had solid, sturdy side ones on their vinyl releases, I then began the hunt for other great vinyl slabs with amazing side ones. Of course, the idea is that this could only include ... More >>

He Said, She Said: WTF Is With Fashion These Days?

Just as it is said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, the same can be said for writing about fashion, though we know a few fashion magazines, blogs and crazed fashionistas that would violently differ. Even still at the end of the day, it's just fabric or animal skin coverin ... More >>

Y'all Musta Forgot: CQ and t.h.e. MisFit Crazy-8's The Sunday Soapbox

​Houston's history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We'll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. (Self-released, 2011) CQ & t.h.e. MisFit Crazy-8 Note: Heretofore, whenever t.h.e. MisFit Cra ... More >>

Last Night: Murs At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jae Tovar​Murs, Tabi Bonney, Ski Beatz Fitzgerald's October 2, 2011 Murs, Tabi Bonney and Ski Beatz dropped into Fitzgerald's Sunday for an intimate show in the Heights, Murs and Bonney's second time at Fitz this year. Bonney entered the stage at 10 p.m., wearing white skinny jeans ... More >>

Saturday Night: Ghostface, Raekwon & Mobb Deep At House Of Blues

Photos by Marco TorresRaekwon (left) and Ghostface Killah​Rock the Bells Tour feat. Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Mobb Deep, Cappadonna, Supernatural & Fat Tony House of Blues August 12, 2011 Near the end of Ghostface and Raekwon's hourlong set Saturday night, Ghost stood near the stage like he ... More >>

Our All-Time Fantasy Vans Warped Tour Lineup

Photos by Marc BrubakerWarped Tour 2010​Since 1996, the Vans Warped Tour has been a staple of punk and youth culture all over the world, uniting kids of all stripes under the violent heat of the sun one day out of the year in cities across the map. The traveling festival is responisble for bre ... More >>

The Best Tony Hawk Video Game Soundtracks

​It sounds like heresy to most older folks, this writer included, but for about the past decade, a lot of younger gamers have been discovering punk rock, ska, and classic and indie hip-hop through the Tony Hawk series of skateboarding video games. The idea may be repellent to those of us who r ... More >>

Last Night: Master P's Birthday Party At House Of Blues

Photos by Marco TorresSilkk the Shocker (left) and Master P​Master P's Birthday/No Limit Records 20th anniversary party House of Blues May 1, 2011 Apparently, there is a limit after all... and that limit is 20 minutes. That is exactly how long Percy Miller, aka Master P, graced us with his p ... More >>

Kid Rock

What Are Your Favorite Sneakers Ever?

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday that isn't a national holiday (or thereabouts), Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​This Week's Panel: ESG, John Dew, Chuckway, Hollyw ... More >>

JayyJust: More Than Your Ordinary Mandarin-Rapping Femcee

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. ​Judgmental as it might s ... More >>

NFL, College Football, Twitter, Pancake Bites and Bestiality -- Weekend's Best Bets

A regular Paul the Octopus​So last season I did these Best Bets posts on Fridays and made every attempt to conduct myself like an actual handicapper, coming up with reams of statistics and subjective observations to lead to a conclusion that I hoped made reasonable sense. End result? A predic ... More >>

Last Night: Matisyahu At House Of Blues

Photos by Groovehouse​Matisyahu House of Blues July 27, 2010 8:54 p.m.: Man, we totally underestimated the market for American Hassidic Jewish reggae musicians. This place is packed. 8:56: Dub Trio is on stage. They're a fairly impressive trio from Brooklyn. Not Beastie Boys impressive, but ... More >>

Five '90s Musical Fads We Remember Well, But Don't Really Miss

​A little over a decade ago, swing music made a strange comeback. You may remember seeing people all over dressing like '40s hipsters, jumping and jiving in Gap commercials and most every club or bar was offering swing lessons. It started with the release of the film Swingers, which still mi ... More >>

Butterfly Explosion at SXSW: Irish Shoegaze in a Basement Rec Room

Shoegazer shoes Butterfly Explosion March 17 Habana, Austin, Texas When you go see a band because they're labeled "shoegaze," you get a smile on your face when you see them set up 19 different foot pedals on the stage. You don't need to double-check your SXSW schedule. You know you're in the right ... More >>

Aftermath: Goodie Mob at House of Blues, With a Completely Unexpected Bun B Cameo

Photos by Marco Torres / Click here for a slideshow​9:25 p.m.: Standing in line to pick up tickets with the photographer, Bun B happens to walk up right behind us. (The Bun B Law of Inevitability is infallible.) I turn around and tell him hello and that we've spoken on the time several times ... More >>

Ask a Rapper: Karina Nistal Loves Common, Mike Jones Not So Much

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to introducinglisto ... More >>

Houston's Rememberances of Warped Tours Past

For the past 15 years, the Vans Warped Tour has been barreling through city after city across the globe creating punk rockers out of boy scouts and riot grrls out of band geeks. The traveling punk, hardcore and emo road show has been coming to Houston since 1995. The first taste local punks got of f ... More >>

What Makes Cornbreadd Run

How the Houston rapper turned a near miss on MTV into a victory for himself — and his city

H-Town Sneaker Summit — Winter ‘09

Check out the latest way to keep your feet fresh to death

Top 10 Most Hated Rappers

Who made the shit list

Cuervo, Cuervo

CD Review

Houston Rap: Kicked to the Curb?

Sneaker Summit

Come and kick it with some sneaker heads

Gwen Stefani and Lady Sovereign

Lady and The Vamp

Dark Water

A reporter, a photographer and canoeist Tom Helm paddle from the Galleria to Galveston Bay by canoe and kayak, finding beauty, danger and urban debris in equal measure

They Did What?

The top WTF moments of 2005

Something Missing

Liev Schreiber adapts a best-selling novel, without the best results

Time to Grow Up

No more excuses for the Houston Texans

Fun with Guns

Have a blast at the Lone Star Shoot

Boozin' Music

Everybody in the club gettin' tipsy at Helios

Blue Ball

Come to -- but not at -- the Gatsby

Pop-Punk Penance

A cool kid seeks heavenly redemption

Connect the Dots

Laura Lark takes a jab at women's magazines

The Real Shock Rock

From California to New Hampshire, blackface minstrelsy is re-emerging. Should it?

Bayou Riddims

Dubtex furnishes the soundtrack to 21st-century H-town

Damn, That DJ Made My Day

Jam Master Jay, 1965-2002

Ice Ice Maybe

A decade after Vanilla Ice melted down, he's back with the man who made him

Pipeline to the Pros

One of the straightest paths to the NBA begins on the summer hoops circuit. All the kids have to do in return is wear the right shoes.

Whistlin' Trixie

You'll lap it up as the title character in Alan Rudolph's quirky comedy trips over her own tongue

Solid Delivery

Costner scores by striking out the schmaltz

Children of the Korn