Chuck Berry

Guitar Shorty

MySpaced Out: Fortress Europe

Social Distortion

Ask your local rocker to stop (over-)using his wah-wah pedal

Nails in the Coffin

Five decades of Chess Records lead to a blues stalemate

Cadillac Records Can't Handle the Truth

Spinning Blues into Lies

Who Stole the Roll?

Spinning Blues into Lies

Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker

Local filmmaker Raymond Gayle explores how the pioneers of rock became anomalies

The Girl Next Door, Ford at Fox, Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season, The Wire: The Complete Fourth Season

Local filmmaker Raymond Gayle explores how the pioneers of rock became anomalies

Guitar Shorty’s Birthday Party

The bluesman spends his b-day on stage

Guitar Shorty

Guitar Shorty performs Saturday, January 13, at the Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club, 5731 Kirby, 713-523-9999.

Ariel Pink, Belong, Slovak Republic

7 p.m. Thursday, March 2, The Proletariat, 903 Richmond, 713-523-1199.

Standing Behind the Man

Playing in Chuck Berry's pickup band can be a trial by rock and roll fire

Domino Kings

Friday, February 24, at Blanco's, 3406 West Alabama, 713-439-0072. Saturday, February 25, at 2 p.m., in-store performance at Sig's Lagoon, 3710 Main, 713-533-9525.

Heybale

Saturday, October 15, at the Continental Club, 3700 Main, 713-529-9899.

James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards

Live in Aught-Three (Compadre Records)

Best AM Radio Personality

Paul Berlin

The Boob Scotch Tour

Staying abreast of modern trends in blues with Bob Log III

Racket

Searching for the First Rock Song

Local Music Reviewed

Searching for the First Rock Song

New Blues

Alternative rock robs pop's cradle

HPMA: Guess What? More Winners: Sideshow Tramps, Homopolice & A Dream Asleep, DJ Sun

Chris Gray​ Well, Little Joe didn't sit in with the Flamin' Hellcats, but Scarface sure did. Dude's got some serious Chuck Berry mojo going on. Who knew?Best Tribute Band: Beetle. Thanking a multitude of Houston music royalty. Beetle really is a sight to behold, and about a minute fraction of the ... More >>

"MMMBro": Hanson And Other Rock And Roll Bands Of Brothers

Back in the summer of1997, one couldn't walk out of their house without hearing someone humming, blaring, or damning to Hell that juicy nugget of pop rock that was Hanson's "MMMBop". Depending on your age and gender, you either understood the hooky genius of the song or you were just in love with t ... More >>

Dust in the Wind

Son Volt's latest album is steeped in Midwestern musical history.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Last Men Standing

​Lonesome Onry and Mean vaguely remembers someone telling us a couple of years ago that Las Vegas bookies actually had a line on whether Chuck Berry would die that year (we think it was 2007). The macabre factor aside, remembering this Wednesday got LOM to pondering about the Godfathers of Rock an ... More >>

Tonight: Houston Filmmaker Raymond Gale's Electric Purgatory at Domy Books

Electric Purgatory screened almost two years ago at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, but Rocks Off still hasn't seen Houston director Raymond Gayle's film about the plight of the black rocker. We're gonna miss the next screening too - tonight at Domy Books - due to Thanksgiving travel, but we are ... More >>

"We're Ashamed The President Is From Texas" And Other Acts Of Career Suicide

Seven years ago this week, the Dixie Chicks had the No. 1 country single in the U.S. with Bruce Robison's lump-raising "Travelin' Soldier." Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the Bush Administration was putting the finishing touches on its Iraqi invasion strategy, which prompted Chicks lead singer Nat ... More >>

Eyeballin: James Brown Cape-Walks Away With The T.A.M.I. Show

Often written about, mythologized, and showing up in clips on rock docs and YouTube, the 1964 concert movie The T.A.M.I. Show has amazingly never been released in uncut format until now. And though it was shot in black and white, the exuberance and energy of the concert overcomes any pigmentation pr ... More >>

Five Guys Named Moe

Louis Jordan is the guy who originally got the joint jumping

Eight Songs That Make Us Want To Go Back To School

​Last week, when Rocks Off was editing our former intern Matthew Keever's article about the worst back-to-school soundtracks when Jerry Lee Lewis' "High School Confidential" popped into our head out of the blue. Not really out of the blue, we guess, but the next thing we knew we were thinking, ... More >>

The Rolling Stones At Hofheinz Pavilion In 1972, Firsthand

Ed. Note: Rocks Off's own Lonesome Onry and Mean himself, William Michael Smith, attended the Rolling Stones concert at Hofheinz Pavilion in June 1972 that was filmed for the movie Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones. Since the movie screens at 7:30 p.m. tonight at several Houston-area theaters ... More >>

Batusis Is No Throwback

Cheetah Chrome and Sylvain Sylvain make rock and roll new again.

Friday Night: Batusis At Mango's

Photos by David EnsmingerCheetah Chrome​Batusis feat. Sylvain Sylvain and Cheetah Chrome Mango's December 10, 2010 "Everything was as it always had been ... the years were a mirage and there had been no years," E.B. White once wrote, describing the collapse of time. This is what Batusis effor ... More >>

The Radiators

Photos by David EnsmingerCheetah Chrome​Batusis feat. Sylvain Sylvain and Cheetah Chrome Mango's December 10, 2010 "Everything was as it always had been ... the years were a mirage and there had been no years," E.B. White once wrote, describing the collapse of time. This is what Batusis effor ... More >>

The Best Concert Movies Of All Time

​A quick note before CHL starts this hlist. We define a concert movie as a flick that documents one or more shows on a tour. More narrative-oriented rock flicks like D.A. Pennebaker's Bob Dylan mash note Don't Look Back, Charles Peterson's grunge chronicle Hype!, and of course the lighthearted ... More >>

Does Elvis Still Matter?

As part of our ongoing celebration of Elvis' birthday week, Rocks Off asked our writers the simple question in the headline. ​Chris Gray: Absolutely he still matters. When I was compiling that list of quotes and lyrics about Elvis earlier this week, I wasn't that surprised to see that even Be ... More >>

Friday Night: Jerry Lee Lewis At Nutty Jerry's

Ed. Note: A reader wrote in Wednesday informing us that the reason Mickey Gilley required assistance moving at Friday's show is because he fell down some stairs in a 2009 accident. After several months at TIRR, where U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is now, Gilley has resumed performing (though not play ... More >>

MCM: More Local Music News Than Fried Food At The Rodeo

Each week Rocks Off navigates the treacherous seas of the mysterious Internet, casting nets to bring you the finest and freshest music news from around Houston. Enjoy. ​Scale The Summit's new album, The Collective, was released this week, and the entire thing is up for streaming on Soundcloud ... More >>

Friday Night: Chuck Berry At Nutty Jerry's

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Chuck Berry Nutty Jerry's, Winnie March 4, 2011 "Chuck Berry is food" - Keith Richards There is no adequate way to describe the evolutionary gift that Chuck Berry signifies to the world at large. He created everything that we hold dear and true - all the sex, anger, s ... More >>

Top 10 Musical Scenes In Quentin Tarantino Films

​Sunday, Quentin Tarantino, one of the best modern film directors not named Uwe Boll, turns 48 years old. It's hard to believe the beloved hipster director has now been on the public radar for almost 20 years, with his feature-length debut and breakout movie Reservoir Dogs turning the big 2-0 ... More >>

Beautiful Chaos

Psychedelic Fur Richard Butler talks Talk Talk Talk redux.

"Satisfaction": The Mother Of All Rock & Roll Riffs?

​Today is the 46th anniversary of Keith Richards rolling over in his sleep in a Florida hotel, humming the main riff of "Satisfaction" into a bedside tape recorder and going back to slumber, or nodding off. The Rolling Stones would record the song months later and make it their calling card, t ... More >>

The Best Songs From 1958

​This Saturday is Craig's Hlist's father's birthday, and the man turns 53. Sorry to out your age, Dad, but it's for science. This week while doing other research, we found that most people whose art we enjoy were actually born in 1958. People like Alec Baldwin, Prince, Jello Biafra, Jools Holl ... More >>

Lemmy & HeadCat Mates Walk The Rockabilly Walk

​You could say that the members of roots-rock trio HeadCat got together to pay tribute to the King. But instead of the baby Jesus of Bethlehem, these three wise men -bassist/singer Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead), drummer Slim Jim Phantom (ex-Stray Cats), and guitarist/pianist Danny B. Harvey (ex ... More >>

The Carpettes: Unsung UK Punks Back For The First Time

​Punk bands like The Clash have been lauded by critics and fans spanning across the globe, while other superb acts like The Carpettes have remained stuck between the cracks of history. This is almost tragic, since their blend of fine-etched, unblemished pop-tinged punk was just as riveting as ... More >>

Say My Name: Bands Named After Actual, Real People

Punk Rock Elite​This Friday would have been Z.Z. Hill's 76th birthday, but the popular Texas bluesman passed away in 1984 from a heart attack. Most people only know who the late soul crooner is through his connection to ZZ Top. The moniker of that little ol' band from where we are sitting righ ... More >>

Looking Back at A Very Special Christmas Track by Track

​In the late 1980's, music empresario Jimmy Iovine cobbled together quite a collection of pop and rock artists to record songs for a Christmas album benefitting the Special Olympics. In 1987, A Very Special Christmas was released and rapidly became an instant holiday classic thanks to the star ... More >>

Santa Killas Are Coming: Our Annual Christmas Card From The Insane Clown Posse

​Out of some of the most proudest moments of my five-year tenure here at the Houston Press - interviewing Rob Halford, talking to an agitated Chuck Berry on a couch backstage after a gig, shaking hands with Charlie Sheen - one of the best days ever was finding a Christmas card in the mail from ... More >>

Allen Oldies Band

​Out of some of the most proudest moments of my five-year tenure here at the Houston Press - interviewing Rob Halford, talking to an agitated Chuck Berry on a couch backstage after a gig, shaking hands with Charlie Sheen - one of the best days ever was finding a Christmas card in the mail from ... More >>

Last Friday Night: Glen Campbell At Arena Theatre

Photos By Barry Sigman​After reading Chris Gray's review of the last Glen Campbell show here in Houston back in September at the Stafford Centre, I was expecting the worst at Campbell's Friday night show at the Arena Theatre. The country legend had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's a few month ... More >>

Show Me Your GIFs: Great Classic Rock 'N Roll GIFs Galore

​It seems to me that musical history is made up of fragments of indelible images, good and bad, that inform each person's experience. Then there are the swatches of tunes that grab you by the heart strings or the throat, making you a fan for life. But it's those moving pictures that you first ... More >>