Dean Martin

Five Great Texas Tributes from Unlikely Sources

All month long now, the AV Club has been running a new feature called State Songs featuring performances of famous songs revolving around each of the fifty states, one state per month. This month was Texas, so of course it caught our attention here at Rocks Off. But it made me think about something. ... More >>

Throw Back

Catch Me If You Can has loads of action, but the story's a little thin.

Christmas Past: 10 Christmas Songs That Are Really About Drugs

While we celebrate the holidays, Rocks Off is resurrecting a few of our best Christmas-themed blogs from the past few years. (Wait... resurrecting is Easter. Never mind.) This blog originally appeared October 26, 2011. Halloween is right around the corner, so you know what that means: Time to start ... More >>

New Book Gives Session Aces the Wrecking Crew Their Past Due

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret By Kent Hartman Thomas Dunne Books, 304 pp., $25.99. Motown had the Funk Brothers, Nashville had the A-Team, and Stax/Volt had their Memphis men, but gold-record-for-gold-record, no group played on more hits in the '60s and '70 ... More >>

The Coolest and Uncoolest Songs About America's Coolest City (Us)

Above is Dean Martin doing "Houston" on his television show. Epic fail, but nice outfit. As you may have read, Forbes magazine recently determined that, by their measurement criteria, Houston is now America's coolest/hippest city. Of course, while the rest of the world has looked down its nose for ... More >>

The Rat Pack Is Back

Rocks Off's Annual Descent Into Sunny 99.1's Christmas Music K-Hole

Since 2008, I have spent an hour listening to Sunny 99.1 FM's Christmas music for the Rocks Off blog. Right after Thanksgiving, it's the first thing on my checklist, right next to finding new, weird holiday music for you and trying not to gain 20 pounds in merriment by January. Most of the time on ... More >>

National Sandwich Day Is Thursday, November 3!

Photo via karlializa.com​Fact: We love sandwiches. PB&J, BLT, grilled cheese, po-boy, Cuban, Reuben, cheese steak in Philly or muffaletta in New Orleans, single or multi-tiered, we can't get enough. We love them simple and oh so complicated, hot and cold, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some ... More >>

10 Christmas Songs That Are Really About Drugs

memecenter.comMerry fuckin' Christmas, mang.​Halloween is right around the corner, so you know what that means: Time to start making a list and checking it twice. Bourbon, gin, scotch, vodka, Xanax, painkillers... Walgreen's and CVS have already stocked their shelves with wrapping paper, plas ... More >>

Five Very Bad Father's Day Gifts

Father's Day: What are you gonna do? You are forced by the powers that be to get something, unless your Dad has passed on to his reward. And if you're a Dad yourself, then you have to resign yourself to books from that one author someone saw on your shelf (never mind that you hated that book), tool ... More >>

Top Five Songs About Horses

​Rocks Off's regular readers presumably know by now that we love few things more than offbeat anniversaries, and recently we came across one of the oddest yet. Thirty-two years ago Monday, on Feb. 28, 1979, the "actor" who played the original Mr. Ed in the 1960s TV show passed away. Yes, we're ... More >>

ACL Day 1 Recap: Sonic Youth, Spoon, The Strokes, Nice People...

Brittanie SheySonic Youth​ For lots more pictures from Friday, see our slideshow here. Rocks Off wonders what kind of guitar budget Sonic Youth has. They aren't very gentle with their instruments. This occurred to us as we were standing a few feet from the large screens projecting their exte ... More >>

Craig's Hlist: Our Grandmother Gave Us Food Poisoning, You Get These Songs

​ This is the debut of Craig's Hlist, wherein the Hlavaty side of He Said She Said backs off from his weekly HSSS duties to record a bi-weekly solo blog of sorts. If HSSS was the Velvet Underground, then Craig's Hlist is his Transformer or something. Though at best, it probably just Steve Perry's ... More >>

He Said She Said: Did We Shave Our Legs For This? More Cornball Country Comedy

Not all country music has to be about down-and-out truck-driving lifestyles, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, abusive husbands and the dissolution of the American Dream. More than any other genre, country lends itself so nicely to parody and self-satire. The best country music is self-referential, where the artist k ... More >>

For The Lebowski Bash: Five Dudes Better Than The Dude

The Big Lebowski has undergone a hell of a transformation since hitting big screens over a decade ago. A (very) mild financial success upon theatrical release, it's gone on to become a bona fide cult phenomenon, spawning "Dudeism" -- an online religion with over 60,000 ordained ministers -- and the ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Joey Harris & the Mentals

​From the first bars of ripping blaster "Little Boy," Joey Harris and his Mentals explode like Elvis's heart after a fried banana sandwich. The Mentals don't even bother with a title for this one. It's clear from the Rolling-Stones-in-a-barroom stomp of the opening track that the ethic and spirit ... More >>

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. in Song

In the Name of Love

Digitalia: iTunes' Top Holiday Songs

The holiday season is a time to enjoy favorite pastimes like expanding your credit-card debt, eating way too much food, and arguing with your relatives. And of course, there's the best staple of them all: butchering holiday jingles. Never finding a song they didn't want to shill, iTunes offers an e ... More >>

Raul Malo

The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands

It’s Frank, Sammy and Dino — again

Lee Hazlewood: Stranger in This Land

The renaissance cowboy cut a wide swath through the West, and inspired a generation of songwriters

The Houston 100: From Mack Hayes to Hersal Thomas

Drenched In Blog: Death Comes Ripping

Austin Lounge Lizards

Austin Lounge Lizards perform Saturday, July 21, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999. The Black Angels and God's Temple of Family Deliverance are also on the bill.

Houston Mixtape Volume III

More local anthems

Roger Clemens and Clay Aiken Are Both Totally Overrated

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

Burning the Yule Log

The Dean Is Risen

Some Dean Martin albums we wish existed

The Impossible Bomb

I'll Drink to That

Fuel your New Year's Eve with these boozy sing-along tunes

Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum

Christmas is the weirdest time of the year. Who better to musically document the season than John Waters?

Computer Error

When it comes to local facts, don't rely on Allmusic.com

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Enough's Enough

The Spy Kids go 3-D, but where are Mom and Dad?

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Xmas Marks the Spot

A guide to new holiday discs, from surprise presents to Tannen-bombs

Pasta, Wine and a Fake Leg

Wannabes can become mobsters for a night at The Soapranos

Bringing Out the Baby

The premiere of Baby Jane puts local talent in the spotlight

Best Value

Andy's Home Cafe

The Women's Rooms

Two local exhibits explore the female psyche without being confined by it

Men in Black

Method Man and Redman have a Blackout, tour with Family Values

Pasta à la Goth

Rao Now

A new owner drags the River Oaks Grill into the '90s -- or at least the late '70s

Night & Day

April 16 - 22, 1998

Rotation

Doesn't Suck

Beavis and Butt-head get off the couch and onto the big screen

The Politics of Cool

Sound Check

Hot Plate