Black Sabbath

Get Lit: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by Joel McIver

Black Sabbath: The Rules of Hell Box Set Reviewed

Aftermath: The Black Keys at Meridian

Retro Active: The Ian Gillan-Fronted Black Sabbath

Ian Gillan on his brief stint in Black Sabbath Last week, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi filed a lawsuit against Live Nation, claiming that one of the promotion behemoth's subsidiaries, Signatures, sold a bunch of Sabbath merch after a licensing agreement expired in 2006. Though the idea of Blac ... More >>

Metalocalypse: Texas Hippie Coalition

Denison-based Texas Hippie Coalition, or THC to fans, lays claim to the title "Kings of Red Dirt Metal," and will more than likely rock you the eff out. These guys feel like Pantera meets Lynyrd Skynyrd, so horns most definitely up. (Plus, the drummer goes by "Cowboy.") Lead singer Big D ... More >>

In The Dark

Denison-based Texas Hippie Coalition, or THC to fans, lays claim to the title "Kings of Red Dirt Metal," and will more than likely rock you the eff out. These guys feel like Pantera meets Lynyrd Skynyrd, so horns most definitely up. (Plus, the drummer goes by "Cowboy.") Lead singer Big D ... More >>

Totimoshi: Milagrosa

Denison-based Texas Hippie Coalition, or THC to fans, lays claim to the title "Kings of Red Dirt Metal," and will more than likely rock you the eff out. These guys feel like Pantera meets Lynyrd Skynyrd, so horns most definitely up. (Plus, the drummer goes by "Cowboy.") Lead singer Big D ... More >>

Iron Maiden

Denison-based Texas Hippie Coalition, or THC to fans, lays claim to the title "Kings of Red Dirt Metal," and will more than likely rock you the eff out. These guys feel like Pantera meets Lynyrd Skynyrd, so horns most definitely up. (Plus, the drummer goes by "Cowboy.") Lead singer Big D ... More >>

Gold Metal

Denison-based Texas Hippie Coalition, or THC to fans, lays claim to the title "Kings of Red Dirt Metal," and will more than likely rock you the eff out. These guys feel like Pantera meets Lynyrd Skynyrd, so horns most definitely up. (Plus, the drummer goes by "Cowboy.") Lead singer Big D ... More >>

So, What Is It?

Denison-based Texas Hippie Coalition, or THC to fans, lays claim to the title "Kings of Red Dirt Metal," and will more than likely rock you the eff out. These guys feel like Pantera meets Lynyrd Skynyrd, so horns most definitely up. (Plus, the drummer goes by "Cowboy.") Lead singer Big D ... More >>

Heaven and Hell

The Heaven and Hell tour stops Wednesday, May 2, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Robbins Dr., 281-363-3300.

The Jonbenet

Wednesday, July 26, at Walter's on Washington, 4215 Washington, 713-862-2513

Stapp Infection

Sanctimonious hypocrites need love, too

Between the Cracks

Profiling local bands

The Linus Pauling Quartet

Songs of the Cretaceous

Oneida, with Ume and the Jonx

Friday, August 12, at Rudyard's, 2010 Waugh Drive, 713-521-0521.

Corrosion of Conformity, with Alabama Thunderpussy, Crowbar and Suplecs

Saturday, July 2, at the Engine Room, 1515 Pease, 713-654-7846.

Hot Shows

Summertime concerts that will leave you sweating

Best Jukebox

Summertime concerts that will leave you sweating

Letters

Summertime concerts that will leave you sweating

Party of Helicopters

Friday, January 4

Jason Aldean

Friday, January 4

Heaven & Hell: The Devil You Know

Friday, January 4

Monotonix

Friday, January 4

Season of the Witch

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

A Rocks Off Playlist: Halloween Songs That Don't Suck

Yeah... screw this thing.​Let's face it: the Monster Mash blows. So do many of the songs we're forced to suffer through every Halloweentide. A couple of years ago, Rocks Off heard "One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater" on XM Radio's Halloween-themed channel, and wanted to sneak into a ha ... More >>

Three Bassoons Walk Into a Bar...: The Near-Classical "Noncert" at Under the Volcano

Photos by Chris Gray​ Under the Volcano does not feel like Under the Volcano. The TVs are off, so no more NBA on ESPN. Hayes Carll's Trouble In Mind has come and gone - in its entirety - on the jukebox, taking its bad livers, broken hearts and drunken poet's dreams with it... mostly. Earlier, a re ... More >>

Listology: Toxic Noise DJ Bakka's Top Bone-Crushing Jams

​Every third Wednesday at Boondocks, the space upstairs turns into the most fabulous place in Houston for rockers, punks and metalheads when DJ Bakka revs the turntables for his popular "Toxic Noise" DJ sets. It's like going to visit a high-school bully's bedroom in 1987. If you still miss Shanle ... More >>

Monoliths & Dimensions: The Best Metal Records of 2009, Part 1

​This year was such a good one for heavy music, I wound up having to cheat when putting this list together. I just couldn't settle on ten albums that kicked my ass the hardest in 2009; there were dozens of candidates. The best I could do was fourteen, so each of my top four slots are ties. 10. Meg ... More >>

Back to the Future: The Musical Lineage of the Sword

Craig HlavatyThe Sword at Free Press Summerfest 2009​This Sunday night, Austin's The Sword pulls into Warehouse Live to lay waste to our city's collective eardrums. The band was in town last August for Summerfest and was shit-hot, coming right off of an opening slot for Metallica over in Europe. T ... More >>

Answers To Our "Metal Or Hymn?" Quiz

au_tiger01 via flickr.com​ A little harder than you thought, wasn't it? If Sunday-morning hymns belong to the King of Kings, and heavy metal is the Prince of Darkness' domain, they sure seem to copy each other's notes a lot. If you haven't seen our little sacred-vs.-profane brain-teaser yet, go ah ... More >>

To Get You In The Mood For Summer Movie Season, The Worst Blockbusters Of The '00s

​For better or worse, the summer movie season kicks off this weekend with the release of Iron Man 2 (which I believe is a Black Sabbath documentary).It's the time of year when temperatures rise and IQs drop as folks looking for relief from the sweltering heat seek shelter in air-conditioned theate ... More >>

Girl Talk Toilet Paper Mash-Ups Balloons = Party!

Marc Brubaker​ Aftermath didn't think it was possible to up the ante any more at this year's Summerfest until Girl Talk took the stage Saturday night. In our estimation, it was the biggest and baddest Summerfest party to date. We might even venture to say that achieved the biggest and baddest summ ... More >>

Bands Named After Movies, Characters & Other Film Stuff

​Ever wonder which of your favorite bands are named after movies? So have we. So we went out and did a little bit of research. BANDS NAMED AFTER ACTUAL MOVIES My Bloody Valentine: The seminal shoegaze act took their name from a low-budget 1981 horror movie about a guy who really, really hat ... More >>

Mary Sarah Ready For The World At Age 15

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. Mary Sarah on Facebook​We ... More >>

Ozzy & Sabbath Songs We'd Like To Hear Tonight (But Won't)

​It's the curse of being a fan. You want to hear all your favorite songs, but you know that the artist only has so much time onstage, and what with trying to shill a new album nobody has heard and playing the requisite classics, may only have time for an obscure nugget or maybe two. With Ozz ... More >>

Last Night: Ozzy Osbourne At Toyota Center

Photos by Groovehouse​Ozzy Osbourne Toyota Center January 18, 2011 See pics from last night's show, featuring Ozzy and opener Slash, in our slideshow. For metal fans like Aftermath, Ozzy Osbourne's now 42-year-long career represents a platinum standard of evil cool. You start with Black Sabb ... More >>

Match These Bands With Their Awful Original Names

​Provided they didn't take the easy way out and name themselves after a song (Rolling Stones), their hometown (Boston) or each other (Hall & Oates), almost every band that went on to sell millions of records, get tons of radio play and sell out arenas has had some form of the following convers ... More >>

25 Famous Bands' Less Famous Previous Names

​As promised, here are the answers to Rocks Off's "Original Band Name" quiz from Tuesday. John St. Lee, if you'd care to email us, we'll see what we can do about getting you a prize. Do you like Devo? 1. Chicago: At about 25 or 6 to 4, the Windy City jazz-rockers realized The Big Thing sucked ... More >>

Rappers: What Are Your Final Four Picks This Year?

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday that isn't a national holiday, Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​This Week's Panel: Uzoy, Eskabel, Renzo, Kyle Hubbard, D-Risha and J ... More >>

The 10 Best Rock Samples In Hip-Hop

​Rocks Off just finished reading Ian Christe's 2007 Van Halen biography, Everybody Wants Some, which chronicles the band's history from the Van Halen boys' entry into the U.S., the upbringing of David Lee Roth, and devastating, fatal 1985 crash into Mount Sammy Hagar. Sad stuff if you're a Rot ... More >>

For 4/20: Hipgnosis' Greatest Bong Hits

​Rocks Off doesn't know if it's our Shot In the Dark photo show tomorrow or that batch of brownies someone sent us, but we've been in a really visual mood this week. We can't remember exactly what it is, but something told us today might be a good day to revisit the work of Hipgnosis. The gro ... More >>

The Best Fourth Songs On History's Greatest Albums

Sorry, Manowar, maybe next year...​As we come up on the July 4th weekend, Rocks Off considered a myriad of blog ideas to commemorate the holiday. Most patriotic songs, album covers, artists? Sorry, Lee Greenwood, Richard Pryor, and Ted Nugent, but it's all been covered. On this weekend of inde ... More >>

Arctic Monkeys & The Rock N' Pop Class Of 2006

Arctic Monkeys, Version 2011​This past decade, 2006 was one of the better years in music, with a ton of debuts, great albums and catchy singles. It was also the year this member of Rocks Off started putting his musical critiques into a computer, joining the great circus known as the music indu ... More >>

Tony Iommi: Music's Other Man In Black Proves His Heavy Mettle

​Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath By Toni Iommi with T.J. Lammers Da Capo Press, 416 pp., $26. Imagine this passage being read in your best "Behind the Music" narration: It was in the center of a dirty, grimy sheet-metal factory in Birmingham, England, when a 1 ... More >>

Never Say Die!: Black Sabbath Reforming In 2012 For Tour & Album

​Today in Los Angeles, legendary, pioneering heavy metal group Black Sabbath convened in front of reporters at the Whiskey A Go Go to announce a 2012 reunion tour and album, set for a fall release. The event, hosted by Henry Rollins, was telegraphed by a countdown clock on the band's official ... More >>

The Most Overused Expressions in Music Critics' Twitter Feeds: An Epic List

motifake.com​It is impossible to overlook this peculiar trend any longer: A few choice words and phrases seem to be dominating many of 2011's music critiques, particularly on Twitter. Seemingly forcibly wedged into friends' and journalists' 140-characters-or-less makeshift tweet reviews, the f ... More >>

GET LIT - Glenn Hughes: The Autobiography

​In the '70s and '80s, during stints with Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and solo/duo efforts, Glenn Hughes proved a triple threat musically as a singer, songwriter, and bassist. Plus, he had fucking rock star hair. The problem was, he also did three times the amount of drugs -- cocaine ... More >>

Friday the 13th: 13 Ways To Say "Eff You" To The Phobia

Buy it​It's Friday the 13th. What's good about it: There's not another Friday the 13th movie coming out. What's bad: Awful things may happen to you, according to tradition, lore and urban legend. If you're scared of today (and no, we're not going to attempt to look knowledgeable by cutting ... More >>

Drum Kit From Hell: With Bill Ward Out, 5 Replacement Drummers For Black Sabbath

Drummer Bill Ward, furthest right, has left the band.​Black Sabbath's big reunion plans seem to be cursed. First, guitarist and the only consistent member of the band Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma. Then they had to drop out of playing Coachella due to Iommi's diagnosis. The latest spe ... More >>