Billy Gibbons

“Thunderstruck” on I-45

Lingering Long on Love Street

Googlism with Houston Musicians, or Why Beyonce Is Stealing My Mojo

Classic Rock Corner: Mudcrutch, Golliwogs, Mynah Birds, Moving Sidewalks and More

Beards of a Feather: Rick Rubin to helm ZZ Top session

Billy Gibbons Tells an Awful Blonde Joke: Video and Pictures from ZZ Top's DVD Release Party

Slip Inside This House: MP3s from the Moving Sidewalks, the Proper Circle and Those Boys

Houston (and Rocks Off) Makes Spin Magazine

The Famous And Not-So-Famous Of HISD's "Prominent Alumni" List

You probably don't realize it, but the Houston school district's website has a page dedicated to prominent alumni, listed by high school.Unfortunately, many of the "prominent" alumni are politicians, especially current and former HISD board members. Any definition of "prominent" that includes HISD b ... More >>

Living the Unexamined Life, Happily

ZZ Top is still bad, but now they're planet-wide. And they ain't thinking too hard about it

Top Harp

ZZ Top is still bad, but now they're planet-wide. And they ain't thinking too hard about it

Flamin' Hellcats Corral Scarface, Billy Gibbons, Texas Tornados for New Album

Local trio the Flamin' Hellcats have been some busy vatobillies. The band is in San Antonio this week recording its new album with Grammy-winning engineer Joe Trevino at Blue Cat Studios, and keeping some pretty fast company. Frontman Jaime Hellcat reports that the band's old bud ... More >>

The Greatest Texas Rock Album of All Time

Local trio the Flamin' Hellcats have been some busy vatobillies. The band is in San Antonio this week recording its new album with Grammy-winning engineer Joe Trevino at Blue Cat Studios, and keeping some pretty fast company. Frontman Jaime Hellcat reports that the band's old bud ... More >>

Bill Bentley Goes Online with Sonic Boomers

Native Houstonian creates Web site for boomer music fans

Hill Country Hoodoo

No record deal, no recordings — no problem for the South Memphis String Band.

Various Artists

Uptight Tonight! The Ultimate '60s Garage Collection

Amplified

Eliminated

Best Place to Buy a Musical Instrument

Eliminated

Totemic Burger

Bask in the glow of this glorious sandwich

Write On

Jim Maxfield's Tanglewood Pharmacy is home to the autographs of the rich and famous

Local Rotation

Harlem Slim: Delta Thug

Remembering Fever Tree's Don Lampton

Besides Michael, Farrah, Ed McMahon and Sky Saxon of the Seeds, last week's bumper crop for the Grim Reaper also claimed Don Lampton, a founding member of '60s local psych-rock band Fever Tree. Lampton, 61, played keyboards and rhythm guitar for the Bostwick Vines, which became Fever Tree after husb ... More >>

Tres Hombres

Discovering why ZZ Top is "critic-proof"

Vintage ZZ Top Artwork and Houston's Hippie Past

scarletdukesCan you guess which one is Billy Gibbons? Chris GrayWhat goes around comes around. The same week ZZ Top is playing The Woodlands (which you may have read about on Rocks Off once or twice this week), the Buffalo Bayou Partnership announced it's renovating the International Coffee Buildin ... More >>

Aftermath: ZZ Top and Aerosmith at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Photos by Mark C. Austin Make all the Guitar Hero jokes you want. Whatever it is that's kept ZZ Top and Aerosmith in the public eye for almost four decades - video games or beards-n-babes videos, Back to the Future cameos or Michael Bay ballads, bee-stung lips or cheap sunglasses - they've never for ... More >>

"Buddha Bubba": Billy Gibbons and Bill Narum's Fellow Artists Comment on the ZZ Top Graphic Designer's Passing

​When Rocks Off learned that Texas countercultural icon and longtime ZZ Top graphic designer Bill Narum passed away Wednesday night, one of the first things we did was reach out to the ZZ camp for a statement. The Lil' Ol' Band from Tejas' publicist just got back to us with a message from the ... More >>

Our Five Favorite Heavy Metal Christmas Carols

​Every year the Christmas gods try to throw us the same old boring and tired holiday music. Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Hall & Oates are just fine, but this member of Rocks Off needs the blood of the innocent and punishing power chords under his dead, decaying tree. We sought ... More >>

2010 Musical Resolutions

In which we advise our favorite people in the Houston scene on their goals for the coming year.

Houston 2020: The Future Is Unwritten

But hey, that's not stopping Noise.

Get Behind the Mule

Gov't Mule main man Warren Haynes swears he takes time off, but we don't really believe him.

Inquiring Minds: Gov't Mule's Warren Haynes On Billy Gibbons, Lightnin' Hopkins, Ray LaMontagne And More

Shore Fire Media​ In this week's print edition of the Press, Warren Haynes talks about juggling his membership in the Alpha and Omega of jam bands, the Allman Brothers Band and The Dead, with the musclebound blues-rock engine he started in 1994, Gov't Mule. The Mule pulls into House of Blues Satur ... More >>

Devin The Dude Vs. Texas Board Of Education; Summerfest Prices Go Up Tonight; Rare Lightnin' Hopkins Portraits For Sale; ZZ Top To Play Chile Benefit

The Awl writes about Devin the Dude, making fun of the dumbifying of Texas' public-school curriculum. Today is your last chance to get Summerfest passes for the low, low price of $22.50. They go up at midnight. Prince Paul, who only produced De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, has signed on to DJ ... More >>

Sharp-Dressed Fans

Billy Gibbons and other Houstonians share their favorite Astros memories.

Astro Memories, Part Two: Author/ Supermodel Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top

Photos by Bob Merlis​As we mentioned earlier, today's issue -- our annual look at Astros' Opening Day -- takes what Sarah Palin would no doubt call a "hopey-changey" approach to the 2010 season.Not for us to wallow in despair; instead we asked prominent Houstonians for their favorite Astro memorie ... More >>

iFest Aftermath: After The Rain, A Downpour Of Gulf Coast Soul

Photos by Eggs/ breakfastontour.comThe Hustlers Brass Band was popular with our writers and photographers.​ As Sunday morning came down in sheets of rain and the crackle of thunder, prospects looked cloudy for Day 2 of the Houston International Festival. Intrepid music fans who dragged out of bed ... More >>

Dr. Dog, Deer Tick

Photos by Eggs/ breakfastontour.comThe Hustlers Brass Band was popular with our writers and photographers.​ As Sunday morning came down in sheets of rain and the crackle of thunder, prospects looked cloudy for Day 2 of the Houston International Festival. Intrepid music fans who dragged out of bed ... More >>

ZZ Top Opening Tom Petty's Texas Dates

Rocks Off has been sitting on this information pretty much all day, and after teasing you on Twitter all day, it feels so good to finally get it off our chests. That's it right up there in the headline, more or less - Houston's hometown boyz ZZ Top have been tapped "by special arrangement" (your gu ... More >>

Friday Night: ZZ Top At The Woodlands

Photos by Jim Bricker​ZZ Top Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 24, 2010 People talk all the time about the depleting ozone layer, melting polar ice caps, melting polar bears, ravaged rain forests, shortages of crude oil, but that can all go to Hell. When ZZ Top is gone from this Eart ... More >>

Buxton, Wild Moccasins Join New West Records

Here at Rocks Off, we try our best to cover all the local music news, both large and small. Where else are you going to read that you can play Slim Thug on Words With Friends? It is reasons such as these that we trudge the war zones of RSS feeds, seeking out crucial tidbits of information. Buxton o ... More >>

SXSW: The 10 Best Of The Fest This Year

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​

Tequila Talk with Stewart Skloss of Pura Vida Tequila - Part I

Founder Stewart Skloss with a bottle of the Pura Vida Anejo​I didn't expect to actually meet with Stewart Skloss when I contacted the offices of Pura Vida Tequila. I especially did not expect to meet with him the week of Cinco de Mayo and the launch of their radio station, the first ever "fu ... More >>

Tequila Talk with Stewart Skloss of Pura Vida Tequila - Part 2

The three Pura Vida labels and the limited edition Extra Anejo​Wednesday, we spoke with Stewart Skloss of Pura Vida Tequila and learned a little about how his brand got started and what makes Pura Vida stand out from the big names in tequila. Today, we talk food and "The Gibbons."

Lyle Lovett, Billy Gibbons Named Official Texas State Musicians

ZZ Top's Dusty Hill and Frank Beard were rumored to be appointed Texas' Offiical 2012 Alternate State Musicians.​With apologies to Townes Van Zandt, there's good news from Austin today. Good news for Houston. The Texas Commission on the Arts has chosen arguably the Houston area's two most rec ... More >>

ZZ Top Debuts New Song... In Space

​The first bit of music from ZZ Top's long-awaited, long-delayed, semi-mythical forthcoming album has leaked... but not anywhere on Earth. Astronaut and friend of ZZ Michael Fossum, currently headed to the International Space Station on a Russian spacecraft, is carrying a copy of "Flyin' High ... More >>

ZZ Top Will Release New Album By Year's End, Gibbons Says

Jim BrickerZZ Top at The Woodlands, September 2010​After years of hemming and haw-haw-haw-hawing about how far along it is, who they are working with, and whether or not it even actually exists, ZZ Top singer/guitarist (Rev.) Billy F. Gibbons said the trio plans to release its first studio alb ... More >>

The Most Bizarre Music Memorabilia Ever Auctioned Off

michaeljacksonfuneral.orgNote: Not the actual million-dollar jacket.​Have you ever worked in a souvenir store, memorabilia outlet or run an online auction? If so, odds are you have developed a venal, burning hatred for collectors. Rocks Off isn't going to mince words: collectors are some of t ... More >>

Eat 'Em And Smile: Our Favorite Pictures Of Birthday Man David Lee Roth

Too much party. ​Lemmy, Josh Homme, Keith Richards, Marc Bolan, GG Allin, and Billy Fucking Gibbons - that's just a sampling of the rock stars that Rocks Off wishes he could be. The list goes on and on. Today though is the birthday of a one of the most special rockers to ever high-kick on this ... More >>

Awesomeness and Hearing Loss at the 2011 Texas BigBeat

How do a crapload of drums sound when playing in unison in an airplane hangar? Pretty freaking awesome. ​In the Cameron Crowe-directed documentary Pearl Jam Twenty, lead singer Eddie Vedder discusses the detrimental impact of the band's Spinal Tap-like replacement of drummers, equating each ch ... More >>

Flying High Again: Five-ish Guys That Made the Flying V Famous

Photo by Jeff BalkeMy ultra-classy Gibson guitar refrigerator magnets including the V (second from right).​There are few instruments more distinctive than the Flying V. It's odd that a guitar this funky looking has been commonly used by a wide range of guitar players from country and blues to ... More >>