Al Green

UPDATED: Is ACL Festival Ignoring Houston? Does It Even Matter?

UPDATED (Thursday, 2:50 p.m.) to reflect the Houston-area roots of a few ACL performers this year, as pointed out by reader comments. We stand by our original point, though. As most of our readers no doubt know by now, the Austin City Limits Music Festival announced its 2013 lineup at the stroke of ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Billy Dorsey, Grammy-Winning MARATHON Runner

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? It is apt that songwriter and producer ... More >>

The Best Shows In Houston This Week: Rihanna, Suzanna Choffel, Wavves, etc.

Rihanna Toyota Center, April 15 Rihanna has combined her athletic stature, formidable vocals, down-for-whatever attitude and some alarming life choices to become a flashpoint pop star, a lightning rod for controversy that even Lady Gaga would have trouble rivaling these days. Musically, the Barbado ... More >>

Here's the Lowdown: The Boz Scaggs Interview, Part 1

From his earliest records and concerts to his most recent discs and tours with buddies Michael McDonald and Donald Fagen as the Dukes of September, Boz Scaggs has always shown a reverence for music history. That's especially true for the old blues and R&B tunes he'd hear wafting over the airwaves fr ... More >>

In Plain Sight

McClain Gallery presents a cavalcade of Houston painting.

Saturday Night: Kashmere Stage Band at Fitzgerald's

The Legendary Kashmere Stage Band Fitzgerald's July 21, 2012 Craig Baldwin, the passionately loud and boisterous band director of the Kashmere Stage Band, broke his ankle recently and was forced to perform in a boot and with a cane Saturday night at Fitzgerald's in the Heights. Music, however, is a ... More >>

A Soulful Christmas In July

I didn't think I would succumb to sharing with the world how freaking hot I think it is because every time I see one of you complaining about it on Facebook, I envision your head between a Foreman grill. That might be pregnancy hormones speaking, but seriously; it's July, we're in Houston, it's ou ... More >>

RIP Donald "Duck" Dunn: 5 Other Great Label Bassists

See Also: "Support Staff: 10 of Pop History's Greatest Backing Bands" Donald "Duck" Dunn, the bassist for Memphis soul band Booker T & the MGs - the house band at seminal '60s Stax Records - passed away in his sleep early Sunday morning, according to his friend and longtime bandmate Steve Cropper. ... More >>

Executive Entertainers: America's Most Musical Presidents

Big-money supporters were treated to the first indelible moment in Barack Obama's reelection campaign last Thursday when the President crooned the opening lyric from Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" from the stage of the Apollo Theater in Harlem. It was just the sort of off-the-cuff instance that c ... More >>

Ramadan Iftar, Sponsored by the City, Draws Hundreds of Muslims

Photo by Mandy OaklanderMayor Parker backed Saturday's citywide iftar. ​Sealed bottles of water sit on the white-clothed tables before the crowd of thirsty fasters. It's Ramadan, so for one month, observant Muslims like those gathered here at the downtown convention center will abstain from ea ... More >>

Lady Gaga Sings The Big Easy Blues

Photos by Annelia WililamsEugene Moody​Rocks Off woke up to Lady Gaga on Good Morning America this morning. It looked like she was having a little trouble with her zipline. The reason Rocks Off woke up to Lady Gaga on Good Morning America this morning, instead of Channel 13's Eyewitness News ... More >>

Saturday Night: Robin Thicke At Arena Theatre

Photos by Marco Torres​Robin Thicke Arena Theatre February 12, 2011 Is describing a show as an aural roofie politically incorrect? Because Saturday night's Robin Thicke show at the Arena Theatre seemed to put all the women in the crowd into a sexy soul-fog with a syrupy thicke-ness. We even s ... More >>

Rice's Baker Institute on Drugs

KPFT recordings to be archived there.

Rick's Picks For iFest's Second Weekend

Ed. Note: Here are Houston International Festival Director of Peforming Arts Rick Mitchell's choices for can't-miss acts for the festival's second weekend, spread over five categories. Rick should know; he books all the artists. Rocks Off will follow with a few more picks of our own a little later o ... More >>

Distant Early Warning: Al Green, Clint Black, Don McLean, Lightning Bolt, Ludacris, Miranda Lambert, Quintron & Miss Pussycat, Tony Joe White, Etc.

​Female Demand, American Sharks, Satin Hooks, Tow The Line: Sun., March 28, 8 p.m. Walter's on Washington. Al Green: Sun., May 16. Arena Theatre. Chuck Allen Floyd Band: Sat., June 12. Dosey Doe Coffee Company. Casiotone For the Painfully Alone, Magical Beautiful: Sat., April 17. Khon's. Clint Bl ... More >>

Season of the Witch

U2's awe-inspiring Reliant Stadium show prompts a search for the unknown — and unknowable — in music.

Aftermath: Maxwell Loves All the Single Ladies, Who Definitely Love Him Back, at Toyota Center

Photos by Groovehouse​ Maxwell sure knows his audience. And not just all the single ladies - many of whom were up and dancing to Beyonce's ubiquitous hit the prince of neo-soul used as his intro music Tuesday at Toyota Center - but the men who love them, or at least want to get with them. "Fellas, ... More >>

Heroic Iraqi Refugee On His Deathbed As Family Struggles to Obtain Temporary Visas to Be At His Side

Photo courtesy of Dario Lipovac​Houston's Iraqi refugee community is saying a painful goodbye to one of its most valued members. Now Marwan Hamza's friends are scrambling to help his family do the same. Hamza, 22, is on his deathbed at Memorial Herman hospital after crashing his car earlie ... More >>

A Third Ward Pawnshop iPod and the Mysterious Fate of Previous Owner "Scooby"

Whoever he is (was?), Scooby's iPod wasn't short on R. Kelly.​So a couple of weeks ago, after three or four years of increasingly faltering service, Rocks Off's 30 GB iPod finally died. Completely. Out of sheer broke-assedness, we had held on to it for longer than most. By the end, its quirks and ... More >>

Hey Texans -- You Can't Disappoint Us If We Don't Have High Hopes

​In our cover story this week, we take a look at the Houston Texans' brief-but-tangled history of breaking our hearts. A franchise that seems to begin each year riding on seemingly reasonable hopes of improvement consistently ends it with waves of disappointment.We also rounded up some predictions ... More >>

Distant Early Warning: Al Green, Arctic Monkeys, Living Colour, Meat Puppets, Melvins and More

Al Green: Fri., Sept. 11. Arena Theatre. Arctic Monkeys: Sat., Oct. 3. House of Blues. The Beauvilles, Flowers To Hide, The Live Lights: Sat., July 25. Meridian. The Black Crowes, Truth & Salvage Co: Wed., Oct. 14. House of Blues. "Broke Lizard: Live": Thu., Oct. 15. House of Blues. Cold, Tapro ... More >>

Local Album of the Week: Leela James' Let's Do It Again

Leela James Let's Do It Again www.leelajames.com To understand what an arresting, puzzling record Leela James' Let's Do It Again really is, look no further than the L.A. native and adopted Houstonian's cover of Foreigner's mid-'80s soft-rock/gospel-lite singalong "I Want to Know What Love Is." ... More >>

Playing Favorites

Sunday Night Blues in Mr. Gino's Salt-of-the-Earth Lounge

Love and Happiness

Community Bar

A new Midtown bar caters to — gasp! — mature adults

A New Class of Rappers Finally Bucked Houston's Syrupy Stereotype This Year

It Is What It Is

Janiva Magness

Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues, with Appaloosa

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Austin

The Houston 100: From Charles Brown to Sippie Wallace

Rick Mitchell Pops His ACL Cherry

"Black Light/White Noise: Sound and Light in Contemporary Art."

Black or not, the artists showing at the CAMH are a talented group

Catfish Reef: Somethin' Serious

Randy Weeks

Friday, June 23, at the Continental Club, 3700 Main, 713-529-9899

Rock and Roll and Rather Exhilarating

The best band in the universe does its Brecht thing with hooks

Cat Power

The Greatest

Let There Be Rock

Ten albums that make it easy to avoid fretting about your old-fashioned, Rockist ways

Playbill

Somethin' Serious

Big Mike looks for a fresh start after three and a half years in the joint

Nü-School Drool

Fresh out of rehab, Saliva's Chris D'abaldo hopes being on the Jägermeister tour won't make him Pavlov's dawg

Darius Rucker

Back to Then (Hidden Beach)

Best Place to Learn "The Whip"

SSQQ Dance Studio

Rotation

Rotation

Sound Check

Trawling in Deep Water

Peary Perry's lawsuit against the city may indeed have implications for the November mayoral election -- but perhaps not the ones Perry and his lawyer have in mind

Rotation

Sex Sells

Regular Treat

Pop Moment