Buddy Holly

10 Iconic Final Concerts Plus The End Of Beatlemania

The Beatles' concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park 46 years ago today was the end of an era for the band. Except for a famously unannounced appearance on top the Apple building two and a half years later, it would be the final live performance that the Fab Four would ever play together. It w ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 5 Restaurant Playlists

The only times I notice the music in a restaurant is when it's really bad (Christmas music playing year round at Sichuan Cuisine), really out of place (Nine Inch Nails blaring out of the speakers at now-closed Tony Vallone joint Ciao Bello or Cannibal Corpse washing over the line of patrons at Amy's ... More >>

Marshall Crenshaw, The Bottle Rockets

John Wayne: Let The Duke Be Your Muse, Pilgrim

Icon. Racist. Legend. Badass. Song inspiration. All of these are phrases that could describe Marion Mitchell Morrison. John Wayne is another. Loved by millions, hated by Public Enemy, he became an iconic image of what being an American meant. He's also responsible for planting the creative seed in ... More >>

Looking Glass: Rock Music's Five Most Famous Four Eyes (Other Than Buddy Holly)

Holly had no idea what he was starting.​The Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting article about Buddy Holly's optometrist. That's not something most people would think about when it comes to music, but fashion has been significantly influenced over the years by music. In much the same way C ... More >>

The 20 Best Tribute Albums Of All Time

Hootie covered Zeppelin!? '90s U So Crazy!​This year alone has seen a multitude of tribute albums, from two Buddy Holly lovefests to the upcoming ZZ Top tribute set from a very motley crew of artists, including Nickelback, Daughtry, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (yum), and Wyclef Jean. Let t ... More >>

Buddy Holly Raves On Into 21st Century

​Lonesome Onry and Mean's buddy doesn't like the new tribute to Buddy Holly, Rave On, which features a major-league lineup of artists ranging from Sir Paul McCartney, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Graham Nash to youngsters like Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Black Keys and the unlikely inclusio ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: And Then There Were None, Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, The Miss Firecracker Contest, Smokey Joe's Cafe

Out Today: New West Strikes Gold On Robert Ellis, Old 97's Discs

​It's a light batch this week as far as new releases go, with the Independence Day holiday cutting into the label's schedules. As it stands now, Rocks Off is holding a jug of coffee in our hands to try to wake up from the food and chill-time coma we embarked on last Friday. We are surely not in th ... 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 >>

Out Today: Beyonce's 4 Is Square, Limp Bizkit Chokes The Cobra

What is this I don't even....​This week in new releases sees is one of the most varied in months, with new discs by Beyonce, Limp Bizkit, Dolly Parton, and Thievery Corporation hitting shelves and digital outlets today. By far though, the sexiest album cover is the Beyonce art for 4, and the m ... More >>

Beyonce Nude, Still A Texas Gal At Heart

Funny, she seems to have clothes on here...​Rocks Off has been clicking our "This Week In Beyonce" category more and more lately, and we expect to keep doing so as the hype builds surrounding her latest album, 4, which is scheduled to be released June 28 but leaked to the Internet Wednesday. ... More >>

Nine Songs on Gary Busey's Playlist with Video Evidence

​We've all been so caught up with Charlie Sheen's personal life that it seems we've forgotten about the O.G. Gary Busey. He might not be "winning" as much as Sheen, but at least he still has an acting job with Celebrity Apprentice and the occasional TV movie like Gingerdead Man. We did some ... More >>

What Is Classic Rock Today?

​What is classic rock in 2010? 15 years ago, it was was the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, anything Eric Clapton touched and every band your dad played in his car while he was making out with the girls he met before your mom. That's how we know classic rock: Big riffs, big voices, in ... More >>

Museum Of The Gulf Coast's Musical Treasure Trove

Photos by Craig HlavatyJanis Joplin's car​Rocks Off visited the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur this past Friday while on the the way to Louisiana for a quick vacation. The downstairs area is full of artifacts pertaining to the founding of the land around Port A, like military and anim ... More >>

Inside "American Pie," Pop Music's Longest Allegory

​Rocks Off has always been a fan of symbolism, hidden meanings and puzzles in general, so besides Raymond Chandler, Stephen King and Larry McMurtry, our favorite form of "lit-rah-chah" is allegorical stuff like George Orwell's Animal Farm, William Golding's Lord of the Flies and Edgar Allan Po ... More >>

The Internet's Freakiest Fan-Drawn Musical Art

Lady Gaga​Rocks Off scoured the Interwebs for at least an hour Thursday looking for the worst musical fan art we could find. Aside from being mildly sidetracked by pictures of Katy Perry and Britney Spears, we also found plenty of ghastly fan-made visages of their favorite rock and pop stars. ... More >>

Going Platinum: Artists We'd Pay $10,000 To See - And When

​It started one night on the patio of Big Star Bar in the Heights; over Lone Star and cigarettes, a handful of Houston music wags debated the shows they would pay top dollar to see from lartists, iving or dead. We argued the aspects of an At the Drive-In reformation, seeing Sam Cooke in 1963, ... More >>

Art Car Ball/Sneak Peek

He Said She Said: 10 Artists Who Never Got Their Due, Part Deux

It's the plight of every musician. You struggle and struggle to make it big in the business, only to find that even the most modest margin of fame barely comes with a modicum of respect. Even artists with a lot of influence on later, more popular musicians fall by the wayside in the annals of rock ... More >>

Hit the Road, Jack: 10 More Notable Musical Deaths From the Past Decade

​ Looking back, this past decade wasn't too kind to rock and roll as a whole. We lost plenty of people who weren't exactly disgustingly huge as Michael Jackson or as monolithic as Johnny Cash. This decade took its share of people who were massively influential and iconic, but not on the grand worl ... More >>

Aftermath: The Hates Go Back to the Future at Cactus Music

Photos by Brittanie Shey​They left the costumes at home, but The Hates were still able to exude the infectious charm of a past era in their tribute to an early rock 'n' roll icon, Buddy Holly, Friday night. The Hates performed under the moniker The Blue Suedes at Cactus Music as part of the ... More >>

Rave On: Houston Punks the Hates Do Buddy Holly at Cactus Music

www.myspace.com/hates​The premise alone is enough to pique Rocks Off's interest. The Hates, Houston's long-running Mohawk-fronted punk trio, will transform themselves tonight into The Blue Suedes, a Buddy Holly tribute band. The occasion? Cactus Music's third-annual toy drive, benefitting the Hous ... More >>

"Kill Yourself" or "Don't Give Up"? Five Possible Theme Songs for the 2009 Houston Texans

[Ed. note: Due to an editing mistake, this should have been up Friday afternoon. Apologies... we sure hope it didn't jinx the Texans or anything.] ​You may have missed it - what with there being almost no media coverage whatsoever - but football season started this week. Our own Texans are looking ... More >>

Five Direct Beatles Connections to Texas

Four postcards included in the limited edition of The Beatles: Rock Band​ Looks like Beatlemania 2.0 is in full swing. Rocks Off may have mentioned how excited we are to play The Beatles: Rock Band at Coffee Groundz tonight, with prizes, drink specials and much laughter as we try to gnash our way ... More >>

Things to Do This Weekend If You're (Almost) Broke

Friday Bluesman John Nemeth jams the Big Easy Slim Harpo-style for the budget-friendly price of $5. Austin Collins, the Small Sounds and Stephen Chadwick twang it up at the Firehouse Saloon. $10. Eclectic pop-rocker David Garza turns the Continental Club into a "Discoball World." $10. DJs Cuba Goodi ... More >>

THE USUAL'S THE USUAL

Chart Check: Texans on Amazon.com

[Rocks Off scrolled through the various Top Sellers lists on Amazon.com this afternoon to see which albums by Texas artists are moving, and where.] Top Sellers Overall 2. Steve Martin, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo 7. Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel ... More >>

It's Been 50 Years Since the Music Died

Fifty years ago today - February 3, 1959 - the world lost three of its early pioneering rock and rollers in a fiery plane crash over Clear Lake, Iowa. Texan Buddy Holly, Chicano rock godfather Ritchie Valens, and Sabine Pass-born disc jockey/songwriter J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson all lay ... More >>

Freddie Krc

Something Fierce: There Are No Answers

Local Rotation: Something Fierce's There Are No Answers

Something Fierce There Are No Answers www.somethingfiercemusic.com Open letter to the Warped Tour: If you don't include Something Fierce on your 2009 80-something band docket, you deserve to have Andy Macdonald or Kyle Loza do one of their extreme-sports stunts right into your figurat ... More >>

Songs Not To Play At Intercontinental Airport's New Karaoke Booth

So now there's a karaoke booth at Intercontinental Airport. According to the Houston Chronicle, travelers can choose from "hundreds of titles."We got to wondering this morning about what's in their song selections there and more to the point -- what isn't.We imagine that the management of IAH's kara ... More >>

J.D. Herman's Matagorda Island Discs

Various Artists: Juno: Music from the Motion Picture

Thrift Store Cowboys

Lubbock sextet stays true to country, bluegrass and blues

PB: Luxurious Panthers 1/6

The Other Man in Black

Waylon Jennings, Nashville Rebel

Los Super 7

Heard It on the X

Marshall Crenshaw

Friday, April 23

Erasure

Other People's Songs (Mute)

Butthole Surfers

Saturday, July 13

Best Used Clothing

Buffalo Exchange

Not Fade Away

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

Retro Active

Two Tones of Steel

Unforgettable?

The new Bobby Fuller retrospective salutes a questionable legacy

Sound Check

Bone to Pick

A voice lost in the shadow of Buddy Holly demands his due. Question is, what took him so long?

Hum Along with Marshall

Static