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.

​This is Glass The Sky. They are a band. As such, they make music. And since they are being featured here, within the hallowed Artist of the Week spectrum, you can safely assume that their music proverbially rocks proverbial tits. Here's a sample:

Glass the Sky, "Portal"

If that tribal, spooky, effervescent chunk of indie glory didn't make you want to give them money, then you should consider calling the Guinness Book of World Records to tell them that man has finally found a way to live without having a heart.

Interview ahead. There is talk of Radiohead, clarinets and Sum 41's awfulness. Aces.

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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.

Young Sensation

​Last year, Young Sensation -bespectacled rapper, backpack enthusiast-- released a tape called C.H.I.L.L., a rounded, underappreciated effort that was fated to wander lost in the ebb and flow of mixtapedom.

Though you'd be forgiven for blindly disregarding his music based on his name, you'd be mistaken. YS is a talented emcee, seemingly capable of the kinds of flashes of rap aptitude (and altitude) that can build an underground rapper's buzz almost instantly, yet another weapon in the growing, growing, growing class of Houston rap freshmen.

As such, we bothered him for a bit to get him to say words in response to words that we said towards him. What follows is the interview. There is talk of non-drunk decision making, younger sensations and Tyga's "Rack City," or, as it's also known, God's Favorite Rap Song.

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Each Wednesday (or Thursday, if the guy that was supposed to be interviewed disappears like a gypsy), 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.

Photo by Marc C. Austin

​There are myriad ways that a band lands in front of the Artist of the Week's Deciding Council of Artist of the Weekdom. Most come via word of mouth, with people emailing/tweeting/poking/friending us suggestions. Sometimes we'll stumble across them, either at a show or while drunkenly playing on the Internet in the awful hours of the evening.

And every once in a while, on the rarest of instances, The Great Eatlon (that thing from the M. Night Shymalan movie about pools or whatthefuckever) will swoop down from the heavens, tattered old scroll held in his diamond claws, and deliver us the name of the band he'd like chosen. When that happens, we don't ask questions, we just do. That's how we came to know the music of The Handshake, a right proper indie rock band that balances hubris up against honesty with an impeccable sense of timing.

Interview ahead. Go forth.

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​That's a band called Handsome Ransom. They're a folk group. And they're good.

So good, in fact, that their music, which was playing on our computer early evening last week, managed to halt our sons mid-step as they sped through the living room.

"What's that, daddy," Boy B asked.

We told him that they were a new band we'd happened across.

"Can I have it," he followed up with.

"Have the band? Like, in their entirety? Or do you mean the music?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yes? Yes what, bro?"

"..."

"Dude."

"I have to go poop, daddy."

And that's the story of how Handsome Ransom became Artist of the Week. Interview ahead, including talk of flannels, the Acoustician Hypothesis and sitting in a car after the love of your life dies.

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World, meet Travi$. Do not dismiss him because he used a dollar sign instead of an "S" in his name. Give him a chance. It'll take four minutes (though we're suspecting if you let the video play for more than 0:30 and it doesn't push you into a seizure, you'll be sucked in for the totality of it).

Go ahead. Go on. Watch the video. We won't start without you. Go.

...

...

...

Done? Okay, great.

That was something, right? We've probably watched that thing 10 times since it fell into our inbox. It never gets old.

Travi$, from Houston but seemingly existing elsewhere in dark space, is clearly talented (and likely a little bananas), so we're attaching ourselves to his spaceship. Interview ahead. There is talk of pig heads, abstractionism and Kanye West.

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​A prophecy, delivered by a Golden Dream Eagle with ruby eyes and fire in its belly: In the near future, funk will rule the world. It will be the governing body and it will drive earth's natural process and it will be the sole religion and so on. When you're hungry, you'll eat funk. When you want to buy a new bicycle, you'll pay for it with locks of George Clinton's hair. Marriage dowries will consist of Sly and the Family Stone albums and ONLY SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE ALBUMS. The sun will literally wear sunglasses.

And when that day arrives, The Journey Agents, agents of funk and thump, will be kings. And future kings are always given space in the Artist of the Week column. So, here we are.

Interview ho, with mentions of The Matrix, nursery rhymes and chimpanzees. You know what it is.

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Photo by Marc Brubaker

B L A C K I E

​An appointment into the Houston Press Artist of the Week fraternity is perhaps the greatest achievement any musician can attain in his or her career. Here's a stat that will reflect exactly how amazing an accomplishment it is: No person and/or band that has ever been appointed Artist of the Week has been eaten alive by zombies. None. Zero. Zilch-o. That is a fact, bro.

Do you even understand what that means? The Artist of the Week is so revered, so cherished, so beloved, so deified, that even the undead -- GUYS GOVERNED BY SUCH A SUBTERRANEAN LEVEL OF AMORALITY THAT THEY SPEND THE ENTIRETY OF THEIR EXISTENCES TRYING TO EAT THE BRAINS OF HUMAN BEINGS -- have respect for its members.

Here are the ten best Artist of the Week interviews from 2011.

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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.

​Sometimes you think and sometimes you know. With Payton Rae, the 16-year-old country singer looking stardom square in the eyes, you know.

You know she's talented.

You know she's surrounded by the right people.

You know she understands what it's going to take to make it in the music industry.

And you know that she deserves to be in the most prestigious of prestigiousy clubs: the Houston Press Artist of the Week mafia.

Listen to "Sidelines" by Payton Rae

So, we asked. And, lo and behold, she pried herself away from her 105,000+ Twitter followers and answered some questions for us. After the jump, read about Payton Manning, which cartoon character Reba McEntire most certainly is not and which loveable creature absolutely terrifies Payton.

Rocks Off: First, tell everyone everything they need to know to about Payton Rae in exactly six words.

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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.

​Few bands in the history of the Artist of the Week column have had as steady a stream of You Should Pick These Guys As Artist of the Week support emails as Pasadena's folksy rockers Second Lovers.

No joke, people have literally been emailing every single day. And since this column is nothing if it not democratic, we gave them a proper listen, settling in on their Reverbnation page like it owed us money. And they were good. ARE good.

The foursome -- Nico Morales, Kathy Garza, Henry Largo, Ashley Parker and Santiago Paez -- weaves together charming vocals, semi-aggressive drumming and brave songwriting, which, coincidentally, just so happen to be three of the requirements for landing in this space on December 14th.

So we reached over for an interview. It's below. There is talk of robots, Jonah Hill and, duh, anal sex (those three things are not related). Read it.

Rocks Off:First, tell everyone everything they need to know about Second Lovers in exactly six words.

Second Lovers: Hot, nasty, badass whiskey sippin' heartbreakers

RO: What happened to the original lovers? What'd you guys do with them?

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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.

​O.N.E. has long been a Houston Press favorite. He is a talented rapper, focused and smart. He can be a bit overzealous in his lyricism occasionally, but that's always better than being a bit ignorant in lyricism (which is what's at the other end of that see-saw).

This Friday, he is having a mixtape release party for The Starting Five, his latest effort. (Celebrate.) So we tugged on his cape and asked him a few things. Keep it moving for his Artist of the Week interview, which includes an actual explanation for why he has so much punctuation in his name, what position the elephant-chested DJ JBOSS would play on a basketball team and what O.'s two very best lines might be.

Rocks Off: First, tell everyone everything they need to know about O.N.E. in exactly six words.

O.N.E.: Humble, diverse, cultured, passionate, trustworthy, driven.

RO: The name, can you explain that? Why O.N.E. and not One or, shorter still, 1? Is there some sort of cryptic meaning behind the punctuation and capitalization? Or did you think it just looked cooler?

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