Marco Torres

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If time is indeed money, occasionally the amount of time reviewers can spend waiting for artists' management to approve our requests for tickets and photo passes can add up to more than if we'd actually paid for them ourselves. That's what happened over the weekend, as Rocks Off waited (and waited... and waited...) to hear back from Alicia Keys' people, via our intermediary at promoters AEG-The Messina Group, to find out whether or not we'd have tickets for her show Saturday night at Toyota Center with Robin Thicke and Melanie Fiona.

We never did. In fact, at 7:30 p.m., 30 minutes after the doors opened, our TMG contact texted us back saying she still hadn't heard anything. Luckily, smooth-talking Rocks Off photographer Marco Torres was able to finesse his way inside, somehow, so at least we've got these photos from Saturday.

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groovehouse

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Any night Aaron Neville is in town during the holiday season is one "O Holy Night" indeed. The New Orleans-born crooner and his band, featuring saxophone-tooting brother Charles, brought their Christmas set to House of Blues Friday night, warming the audience's heart better than all but the stiffest batch of egg nog.

For more photos see our slideshow here.

Marco Torres

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One of the true architects of hip-hop, Rakim stopped by House of Blues' Bronze Peacock Room Tuesday night to conduct a clinic in peerless lyricism. Rocks Off's lensman Marco Torres was there. Did you know Rakim is the nephew of R&B trailblazer Ruth Brown? We didn't either.

Click here for a slideshow.

Michael Pittman

L-R: Jesse Dayton, Mike Stinson and Davin James twang it up in Montgomery County.

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When the Conroe Cajun Catfish Festival says "rain or shine," they mean it. The rains poured Friday night and Sunday, but that didn't keep the festival from drawing a huge crowd on Saturday when the weather was cool and perfect. And the music was stellar from start to finish.

Click here for a slideshow.

As you may already know if you followed Rocks Off's copious ACL coverage, Austin's Zilker Park is a muddy ruin. We use the term "muddy" loosely, as much of the turf churned into muck by dancing festival-goers was a substance called "Dillo Dirt," which is part recycled sewage. As a salute to the brown soup created by the City of Austin's efforts to go green, we've put together a slideshow of album covers featuring dirt, mud and, of course, poop. Enjoy!

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Marc Brubaker

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Rocks Off's stable of reviewers are resting up for ACL now - or they'd better be, dammit - but that didn't stop intrepid photographer Marc Brubaker from braving the fake blood, ginormous codpieces and everything else GWAR to get scary-good shots like the one above Tuesday night at Warehouse Live. Click here for a slideshow.

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Enjoy our slideshow of labor-related album covers, comrades. Viva la revolucion!

Amber Roussel

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Craig Kinsey (left) and Geoffrey Muller of Sideshow Tramps led a foot-stomping hillbilly hallelujah revival at Summer Fest Sunday, inspiring a mosh pit with overstimulated takes on gospel/blues standards like "St. James Infirmary" and "John the Revelator." Lots more where that came from: Click here for a slideshow more than 140 pictures strong.

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Courtesy of our friends at the Chron, here is the heartwarming story of Houston's George Vera, a 500-lb purveyor of illegally bootlegged albums who managed to mule a gun past the guards at both the city and county jails. How did he do it? Vera squirreled the piece safely away between the folds of his flesh. They didn't catch him, either; he confessed to a guard while in the shower.

It makes you wonder: what kind of albums might a quarter-ton criminal be bootlegging? Rocks Off has some ideas...

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For most rock acts, the traditional way to deal with success is to rework their lyrics, image and sound to become palatable to a larger audience. Usually this means brightening the subject matter, cleaning up the bad words, softening the sharp edges on those power chords and getting haircuts that cost more than the previous album.

This is a process commonly known as "selling out"; however, it doesn't always work that way. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the artist in question becomes angrier, more depressed and/or more confrontational. Here are some of those albums.

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