​1992 was a pretty heady year for music in general, with the masses gobbling up all the gangsta rap, grunge, and pop-country they could. That year would see the release of not only R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People, Peter Gabriel's Us, Pantera's Vulgar Display Of Power, but also what is arguably The Cure's last great album, Wish, although 2000's Bloodflowers has it's champions.

This was also the year that saw not one, but two new Bruce Springsteen albums in Lucky Town and Human Touch. Let the Bruce fanatics fill you in on those, sans the E Street Band.

On the country front, only three artists, Garth Brooks, Wynonna Judd, and Billy Ray Cyrus, held the top slot on the country albums chart in 1992, dominating the list for 12 months. Brooks hit big with Ropin' The Wind, and it's follow-up, The Chase. His Christmas album, released in August 1992, Beyond The Season, was the best-selling holiday album of the year, but never made it to number one.

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This originally ran on June 8, but seeing that the year is coming to an end, we are looking back at some of our favorite blogs we gave to you these past 12 months.

​One of the best dreams we ever had was of covering a Clash show for Rocks Off. Yeah, dreaming about work isn't something to brag about, but we remember the dream fondly. Hell, we don't even think we tweeted once during the dream, which was a first. The best part about the dream was fighting for a Joe Strummer guitar pick with the dad from Family Ties.

What? It's a dream, and for the record, we kicked Michael Gross' ass.

A few weeks back we found a few concert-ticket generators online and set about making our own: Shows we can't see because people are dead, broken up beyond repair, or just obstinate. The worst part was figuring out who would play where, and assuming that none of them would be relegated to smaller venues. Obviously the Beatles and Bob Dylan would never play low-attendance venues, but you never know how much an artist could go in decline.

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Photos by Jason Wolter

Jason Isbell (left) with Amanda Shires on violin.

​Wow, Rocks Off is a huge fan of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, but Saturday night this hard-charging band from Muscle Shoals, Alabama got a lesson in Texas big beat. Isbell himself was sitting in the backstage area while James McMurtry was laying down the law according to Texas, and Isbell looked like someone who was appreciating, who was going to school.

McMurtry, known to be aloof, misanthropic and political, had the fire in his eyes from the first blistering note of "Turtle Bayou Turnaround." We hadn't seen McMurtry in a while, and while he's always been top shelf, he seems to have elevated his game to the highest levels in the past year. It doesn't hurt that he's had the same rhythm section -- bassist Ronnie Johnson and drummer Darren Hess -- for almost two decades. They had it locked in so tight all McMurtry had to worry about was tearing up his Paul Reed Smith six-string. And McMurtry put on a guitar player clinic a la David Grissom.

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Photo By Craig Hlavaty

​Ryan Gosling, current Hollywood it boy and probable Oscar nominee for this year's Drive, is here in Austin with director Terence Malick filming scenes for the upcoming feature Lawless. You may remember that at Austin City Limits Festival in September that Christian Bale was also with Malick lensing with Malick for the same picture.

That's Malick directing his cast and crew with Gosling in the middle of the action. Fans were clamoring for snapshots with Gosling as he was filming, mostly unaware that the cameras were rolling.

Social media jumped on the case, following Gosling along the way at FFFF. There is already a Tumblr account dedicated to him here, Ryan Gosling At Fun Fun Fun Fest, with pics of the actor in various places on the festival grounds. Faith Silva, who has shot some stuff for Rocks Off, managed to snag a pic with Gosling on Friday. No word yet on how dreamy he smelled or if you fall in love with him when his eyes look into yours.

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​We have all been there. You may have had a few drinks, you are at your favorite band's show, and you come to find yourself in the vicinity of one of your heroes. Word vomit. Torrential word vomit. But you mean well.

"I really think youse guys is great and your albums really means a lots to me all the time," you stammer before giving an awkward hug and spending too much on merch and cursing yourself on the way home.

We have met plenty of our heroes and strike out swinging. There was the time our digital camera crapped out when we met Iggy Pop in Austin and we made one of the legends of awesomeness wait for it to fix itself. How can we forget the time that country star Sara Evans asked to specifically to not sit next to us on a flight. Was it the Misfits shirt and the Hell's Angels bio?

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Photos by Craig Hlavaty

Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, duh.

​See the bands and bikinis of the Hangout Festival in our slideshows.

Imagine the Austin City Limits Music Festival or even the rapidly approaching Free Press Summer Fest on pure, white sand just feet away from a (variably) blue ocean, or as Thurgood Jenkins from Half Baked would say, "Right near da beach. Boy-eeee!"

The Hangout Music Festival is located at Gulf Shores, Ala., on the shores of the Gulf Of Mexico, in the sleepy resort town of just a few thousand people, and mere miles east of Mobile. This year's edition of the three-day festival was just the second in its history. In a crowded crop of music festivals, Hangout is actually the biggest in its habitat, meaning it can cater to masses starved for big-budget sweaty spectacles.

With a lineup including Motorhead, Paul Simon, Foo Fighters, Flaming Lips, My Morning Jacket, Widespread Panic, The Black Keys and Primus, among others, the second year was more than enough to compete with the established big boys in the festival industry.

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Last night during their Buzzfest 26-closing set at at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, classic alt-rockers Jane's Addiction had the distinct honor of announcing to the nearly sold-out crowd at the shed that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by American special forces.

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Craig Hlavaty

​It was a music nerd's dream, one of your favorite bands of the past ten years reuniting. Even though the titanic-sounding Canadian bass and drums duo Death From Above 1979 only released one LP, one EP, and a remix album, they managed to cultivate a following of rabid punks, indie-rockers, and metal freaks. Their announcement earlier this year that they would be coming back for the Coachella Festival was met with rapturous social media applause.

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Craig Hlavaty

​ Billy Gibbons sat in with The Cringe at Rachael Ray's Feedback Party at Stubb's just after lunchtime for a cover of Elmore James' blues standard "Dust My Broom." The ZZ Top guitarist also mentioned his BFG hot sauce line, of which he had a bottle in his back pocket.

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Marco Torres

​Bun B celebrated his 38th birthday last night at the launch of Vice magazine's new music site, Noisey.com, at Austin warehouse district club Kiss & Fly.

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