Photos by Jody Perry

Aaron Neville
After four certified platinum albums and a few Grammys, Aaron Neville -- now 72 -- would have had every right to hang it all up years ago. Instead, to the delight of fans, the New Orleans soul singer found himself performing at iFest this weekend in support of his fourteenth studio album, My True Story, his first release in seven years.

Clad in a white button-down, blue jeans and with a beige fedora atop his head, Neville closed down the World Music Stage early Sunday evening, crooning to the horde of listeners that had gathered to hear and see the legend for themselves, eventually getting everyone to snap their fingers and dance along. He performed plenty of his own songs, including "Hercules," "Don't Go, Please Stay" and True Story's title track, peppering his set with renowned classics such as Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and Ben E. King's "Stand By Me."

If Sunday's performance was any indication, Neville's still got soul to spare, and he won't be slowing down anytime soon. MATTHEW KEEVER

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Rocks Off asked our staff members who will be covering the Houston International Festival for us this weekend to give us one or two choices for artists they don't want to miss.

Photos courtesy of Houston International Festival

Bootsy Collins

Forro In the Dark
Bud Light World Music Stage, 2:30 p.m. Saturday/Center Stage, 6:30 p.m. Saturday

As one of the first acts to hit the iFest stage, Forro In the Dark provides an early exposure to the delights and diversity of Brazilian music. The group should be an enjoyably educational introduction to the "forro" musical style, a dance-happy amalgamation of rhythms primarily powered by the interplay of guitar, flute and percussion.

In a decade of playing on its home turf, the New York-based but Brazilian-rooted group has built a fervent fanbase that includes David Byrne, who sang on two songs on the band's debut album. MICHAEL POINT

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One of the greatest musicians of all time has died. Ravi Shankar, sitar legend and easily one of India's most revered cultural ambassadors, passed away Tuesday afternoon at age 92 in San Diego.

According to ZeeNews, he had been having trouble breathing and was admitted into the hospital last week.

Mr. Shankar is survived by his wife Sukanya and two daughters, sitar player Anushka Shankar and Dallas-bred singer-songwriter Norah Jones. Yes, that Norah Jones.

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For the past two months, New York City-based composer/songwriter David Nyman has been turning back the clock and making MIDI versions of popular and current indie-rock and hip-hop jams.

His Tumblr page, where he unloads his Soundcloud clips of these tiny wonders, is getting very popular, and was showcased by Internet timesuck saviors Gorilla Mask this past week.

One of his most recent opuses is a MIDI version of Chamillionaire's "Ridin' Dirty", which reminded me of what it felt and sounded like to have one of those great, indestructible Nokia phones. Remember the snake game??

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Said to be a product of South Korea's robust economy, optimism and cultural pride, K-Pop has taken over the eastern part of the world and is now making its mark in the West. K-Pop really made a hit in American pop culture this past summer, with the rapid online spread of Psy's "Gangnam Style." That video was released on July 15, and by the end of August had reached the No. 1 position on YouTube's Top 100 Music Videos chart with more than 9 million views per day.

In September, Psy was signed to Schoolboy Records, the U.S. label also home to Carly Rae Jepsen and Justin Bieber. Now, this past weekend, "Gangnam" surpassed Bieber's record for most-viewed YouTube video of all time at more than 820 million times and counting.

"Gangnam Style" is essentially about big balling in the affluent Gangnam district of Seoul, while the "horse-riding" dance move featured in the video is now a staple on dance floors worldwide. But Psy is hardly the only dynamic K-Pop performer out there. For your curiosity, here are a few other K-Pop upstarts with all kinds of style.

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Photos by Craig Hlavaty

This past weekend was the last for this year's edition of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which started way back on April 27. The festival runs over two weekends, usually Thursday through Sunday. Obviously, since it is a uniquely Nawlins institution going back to 1970, it's not a festival that can be re-created just anywhere. Also, with that age comes experience.

My job means that I get to cover tons of festivals. Huge tentpoles like Free Press Summer Fest, Vans Warped Tour, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Fun Fun Fun Fest, Houston International Festival, Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and the new electronica-geared Identity Festival are some of my favorites. I would still like to see Chaos In Tejas in Austin, and finally hit up some of those crazy British countryside deals like Glastonbury and Reading.

Forgive my lateness, but Jazz Fest was a whole new animal to me, but I think I will be visiting this one more in the future.

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Play-N-Skillz

The Houston International Festival enters its second weekend tomorrow, with featured musical acts WAR, Joe Louis Walker, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Texas Tornados, Del Castillo, Steel Pulse and lots more. Although iFest's performers come from all over the world, all around the main stages will be the sights and sounds of its featured country, Argentina.

Rocks Off is still a little sore that iFest didn't book Buenos Aires's answer to the Clash, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, but we're sure they did what they could. It looks like LFC is at least still together, so maybe one of these days.

Of course the national music of Argentina -- national obsession, even -- is tango. You'll hear plenty of tango Saturday and Sunday, including splendid accordionist Hector del Cuerto returning for his second weekend. But Argentina is a big, diverse place, and plenty of Argentines -- either native or Argentine-American -- have distinguished themselves in more contemporary fields of music. Some of them have done quite well for themselves on these shores.

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REEEERRRRR WUB WUB WUB WUB REEEEEEERRRRRRR WUBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Maybe all along, the Dear Leader's starvation and darkness deal with his oppressed people was just his way of keeping them slim and hot, for fun in the dark, because we all know only fun things happen in the dark right? Like that Lady Gaga song "Dance In The Dark".

Alright, that's mean as hell, considering as the late Christopher Hitchens noted that North Korea was full of "starving and stunted dwarves, living in the dark, kept in perpetual ignorance and fear, brainwashed into the hatred of others." Well, that actually sounds like your local mall during the holidays. Or Internet commenters.

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Photos By Craig Hlavaty

Last week while this member Rocks Off was in Dallas for the 48th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination and our annual trek to Dealey Plaza, we stopped in to the Eight Track Museum in the Deep Ellum district of the city.

The opening rumblings of the small museum, located in the back of store front in Big D was heavily covered by our sister paper the Dallas Observer, with a line of blogs and ink was just beckoning us to swing on by. The Huffington Post also weighed in on the collection, with glowing praise.

We aren't really devotees of eight-tracks -- we only have a handful of Stones eights -- but music mania and collecting is our life, so it was a must. The crates and crates and numerous boxes of wax and compact discs in our house should start paying rent. Plus, a chance to see a trove of Rutles eight-tracks was worth the drive alone.

Bucks Burnett's baby is a one-of-kind journey back to a nearly-hidden chapter in music history, when cassette tapes were still a few years off, and portable recorded music was still in it's infancy. Of course, vinyl was always king, and even today as it continues it's reign over our bank accounts. But eight-tracks are something special and dear to Burnett.

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We can't remember where we read this recently, but it was a truism. It read something like, "Old music doesn't exist. There's music you've heard and there's music you haven't."

We wonder if the same applies with life. "Old stories don't exist. There are those you've read about and those you haven't."

Rocks Off has music and a story that you probably haven't heard or read about.

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