Babylon

Westheimer Babylon

Seven popular myths and urban legends about Numbers.

Seven Popular Myths and Urban Legends About Numbers

Not long back I had the opportunity to explore the origin of the name of my favorite Houston club, Numbers. My source explained to me that the name originated from a late '70s slang term indicating a hot guy or girl during the club's original disco days. The upstairs area of the club also sported s ... More >>

Raw Power

Iggy & the Stooges headline the fifth Free Press Summer Fest.

Daddy, Why Is Numbers Called Numbers?

One thing has always bothered me whenever I attend concerts and dance nights at Numbers, and that is, "Why the Hell is it called Numbers, anyway?" Now, I know that I have something of a fixation on the meaning of names in the music scene, but I've also had several readers ask me to look into it over ... More >>

What Was Your Favorite Concert at The Summit?

It must be music-venue day today. Rocks Off would like to thank Jon Harvey of Houston (@oompahead) for alerting us via Twitter to the fact that on this day in 1975, when I was a few weeks away from turning one year old, the sports and entertainment arena then known as the Summit opened in Greenway P ... More >>

The Old 97's Rhett Miller: "Then the Stage Gets a Lot Bigger"

Music Feature: Streets of Where I'm From This is an exciting time to be an Old 97's fan. Out of nowhere, almost, the Dallas quartet is now one of the longest-tenured and most successful Texas bands of its generation. All four original members are intact, they never "took a break," and they've never ... More >>

Stevie Wonder Divorce Heralds Impending Doom

Even though Mason Lankford said, "There will come a day when we forget the Rapture ever even happened," Rocks Off is keeping an eye out for signs of our impending Armageddon. I was wrong last time, but I'm totally right this time! Sad news in the entertainment world. Beloved pop star Stevie Wonder, ... More >>

Summer Fest Releases Schedule & Stage Times

Time to make some hard choices, folks. Free Press Summer Fest just released the schedule for this year's two-day event June 2 and 3 in Eleanor Tinsley Park.

Deborah Coonts: So Damn Lucky

Numbers Game

Of hell spawns, dinner theater and a venue actually old enough to have traditions.

The End is Nigh: 2012 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Edition

Mason Lankford said, "There will come a day when we forget the Rapture ever even happened," but Rocks Off is keeping an eye out for signs of our impending Armageddon. We were wrong last time, but we're totally right this time! Once again the time has come to select the most excellent musicians in o ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Landing A Man, Millionaire Matchmaker Style

Because if a single 50-year-old can't get you into a relationship, who can?​Didn't Bravo start its life as something other than the place where the most embarrassing specimens of mankind wash up on our channel listing like so many Cuban refugees? I vaguely recall there being performing arts an ... More >>

Happy Birthday Don Was: His Five Best Production Jobs

Vicky Sapp​Nerds like us - you have to be a music nerd if you're reading a blog on Don Was - have favorite producers, like some sports guys have favorite coaches. Sometimes we listen to an album just because someone we like produced it, or it somehow gives it us extra cred even if we may not l ... More >>

Get Ready: The Five Best Post-Apocalypse Books Not Written by Stephen King

It was the `70s, man​The Rapture, as has been reported, is coming tomorrow morning. About this there is no doubt, according to some of the most influential and knowledgeable billboards in the nation. Being bright-side-of-life kinda people, we've offered five terrific results to come from the ... More >>

The Worst Concert Rip-Offs We've Ever Seen

jackslackofrestraint.blogspot.com​On this day in 1978, the rapidly disintegrating Sex Pistols finally fell apart for good. Conveniently enough, they did it onstage at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom, on the final night of the ill-fated U.S. tour that also lurched its way through San Antoni ... More >>

Keyboardist Seeks Arabic Players To Explore Local Scene

​Rocks Off combs through Craigslist's postings hoping to find the genesis of some great musical endeavor. So when we saw a posting looking for Arabic singers, we were intrigued. After all, this is a time of mosque burnings and our upstairs neighbors passing anti-Sharia laws. It must take a he ... More >>

Preacher Joseph Herrin: Gulf Oil Spill The Fault Of All Us Abortion-Loving Houstonians

I'm looking at YOU, Houston​BREAKING -- A new, undeniably correct theory on why there's a huge oil spill has just been announced. There's a spill, it seems, because God hates how we Houstonians just love abortion. Oh, and Joel Osteen's to blame, too.The theory is proposed by a preacher (and, we as ... More >>

Pop Rocks: You Really Should Be Watching Supernatural

​The CW is, by all generally accepted standards of measure, a horrible network. Just about every show is aimed at that unfortunate segment of the pre-adolescent population whose parents can't afford basic cable, so instead of several hundred channels of garbage programming, these poor kids are fo ... More >>

Aftermath: David Gray Is For Lovers; Phosphorescent Needs More Stage Time

Photos by Jason Wolter​David Gray is an artist, but not one to be puzzled over. The British singer-songwriter trades in sophisticated pop songs that express simple emotions, as unambiguous as many of their titles: "Be Mine," "Now and Always," "The One I Love," "You're the World to Me," "This Year' ... More >>

Most Downloaded "Hope For Haiti" Texan? Although She Killed, Not Beyonce

Between fighting crime, reducing global warming, mending our socks and, you know, everything else Rocks Off does when we're away from the office, we caught a good bit of Friday evening's "Hope for Haiti" telethon. We didn't have much choice, because the George Clooney-organized, celebrity-packed fu ... More >>

All Good Again

Important things to know about Atlanta mystery men Goodie Mob.

Before We Go: A Thousand Cranes, the Muses, Johnny Bush, the Old Quarter, Katy Perry, a Numbers Documentary and More

The above cartoon - give it a minute; it'll show up - is somehow tied into Saturday's show at Avant Garden featuring A Thousand Cranes, How I Quit Crack and Metal Rouge. Rocks Off wishes he could tell you how, but he digs the Monty Python and the Holy Grail homage. Colorado traditional Celtic duo t ... More >>

"Iraqi Artists in Exile" Showcase Their Haunting Works

Cut and Shot

Mexican-American Culture

Elvira Arellano = Jesus?

Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week

Gold Metal

Our top DVD picks for the week of March 14

Sunshine When It's Gray

Drywall

Barbeque Babylon

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Destroying Babylon

Death by Stereo wants to unite the world's punk and metal kids. How sweet.

Suddenly This Summer

John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson face off in a Southern-gothic indie

Call Him Al

An epic story turns human -- and fallible -- in Oliver Stone's Alexander

Murder Music in Sharpstown

Houston yawns as Jamaican homophobe Capleton blazes through town

Thievery Corporation

The Outernational Sound (ESL)

Blue Ball

Come to -- but not at -- the Gatsby

Ted Leo

Hearts of Oak (Lookout)

Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley

Halfway Tree (Motown)

Tooned In To Anime

Fans say there's nothing Mickey Mouse about these Japanese cartoons with their stories of love, sex, death and saving the world

Playbill

Steel Pulse

See-Worthy

Disney's old-school Atlantis strikes gold under the ocean

The Great Divide

Paula Vogel's The Mineola Twins splits the family (and politics) in two

News of the Weird

Rotation

Night & Day

June 11 - 17, 1998

Press Picks

Static

Rotation

Rotation

Troubleshooter for the Millennium

Suddenly, as the year 2000 approaches, Phillip Arnold's study of first-century apocalyptic Christians is more than a scholarly pursuit