Debbie Harry

22 Coots and Codgers Making the Rest of Us Look Bad

While the rest of the music business has been slow to awaken from its holiday slumbers, the biggest shows in Houston this weekend come from two artists who have been up a long, long time -- 87 years, to be exact: Bluesman B.B. King and country crooner Ray Price. (Actually, Price will turn 87 on Satu ... More >>

It Came From the Bowery: Punk Magazine Returns

The Best of Punk Magazine Edited by John Holstrom It Books. 372 pp., $30. While the thought of a hardcover, slick-papered, coffee-table book anthologizing the decidedly low-rent, ragtag Punk magazine might seem the antithesis of punk, even a curmudgeon like Johnny Rotten would have to spit a gob in ... More >>

5 Movies That Used the Power of Rock to Slay Demons

I have it on very good and not at all fruitcaked authority that rock and roll is the devil's music. It corrupts the minds of young people, turning them all into savages that breed and destroy in an orgy of murder-boinking that caused the end of the America we all remember so well. Or, you know, not ... More >>

Who's Ripping Off the '80s This Year?: The 5 Biggest Offenders

In case you hadn't noticed, the '80s are back. They have been for a few years, but it seems like with each passing year we get more and more new bands wearing their influences on their sleeve. That's putting it mildly. The influence is, in fact, so pervasive as to make these bands practically offens ... More >>

Last Night: Devo & Blondie at Arena Theatre

Blondie, Devo Arena Theatre September 19, 2012 What a week for New Wave around here. Psychedelic Furs and Go-Go's still to come, and Blondie and Devo teaming up for the "Whip It to Shreds" tour Wednesday night at the Arena Theatre. New Wave is as good a term as any to describe a style of music tha ... More >>

The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: Blondie/Devo, Uncle Lucius, etc.

Houston's football, etc., who package the spidery and poignant guitar passages of '90s bands like Mineral and Rainer Maria into a super-crunchy outer shell, went to the UK this summer and released a three-song split with Square Business in July. Monday, see if you can talk the trio out of a T-shirt ... More >>

Blondie: The Best New Wave Band of All Time

Grace Potter: The Lion That Roared

In this week's print edition of the Houston Press, Rocks Off talked to singer Grace Potter about her spot opening this summer's "Brothers of the Sun" tour co-starring country superstars Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, and the hit duet with Chesney that got her there, "You and Tequila." But there's so ... More >>

New Wave Crazy: Blondie & Devo Hit Arena Theatre September 19 (UPDATED)

UPDATE: According to Press Here Publicity, the venue is Arena Theatre, not Bayou Music Center. Everything else is the same. This makes me happier than anything on a Monday morning should. I listen to music in cycles, and for the past several months have been stuck in the '80s, more specifically any ... More >>

#1 Crushes: Our Favorite '90s Rock Vixens

Tonight House of Blues welcomes Garbage back to Houston after a seven-year hiatus. The group, lead by fearsome Scottish redhead Shirley Manson, has been sorely missed from the music scene. They are currently touring behind their upcoming album Not Your Kind of People, which hits stores May 14. Rock ... More >>

Turn The Radio On: Top 10 Musicians Who Should Be DJs

A few years ago, Van Halen front man David Lee Roth filled in for Howard Stern on his nationally syndicated radio show. Roth also served a stint as a deejay for New York's 92.3 Free FM. This is nothing new, because many artists have at some point served as DJs, such as Greg Kihn of the Greg Kihn ba ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Landing A Man, Millionaire Matchmaker Style

Because if a single 50-year-old can't get you into a relationship, who can?​Didn't Bravo start its life as something other than the place where the most embarrassing specimens of mankind wash up on our channel listing like so many Cuban refugees? I vaguely recall there being performing arts an ... More >>

Iggy Pop, the Bordeaux Connoisseur: The Funniest Food Requests on Riders

ITO EN, you're all that I wanted in a tea.​The next time someone calls you a picky eater, direct them to Weezer's backstage rider for their 2010 tour. Weezer demands that both regular and Canadian bacon be available for breakfast, that there be almond butter but no peanut butter, that there m ... More >>

Music's Top 10 Most Fashionable Women Right Now

GroovehouseThe Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O at the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival​Fashion, like songwriting and other artistic outlets, is a form of self-expression. It adds to one's aura; it speaks on her behalf. Yet fashion sometimes gets overlooked in music, and undeservedly so. Follow ... More >>

Sleigh Bells

Solo Albums: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

​Tomorrow night, former Audioslave lead singer and (thankfully) current Soundgarden member Chris Cornell will be at House of Blues for a long-sold-out acoustic show. Recent set lists have included a number of Temple of the Dog songs, some solo work, the usual 'Garden and 'Slave tracks, plus a ... More >>

SXSW Last Night: Queens Of The Stone Age At La Zona Rosa

Craig Hlavaty​Rolling Stone magazine surely knows how to throw a showcase, bringing forth Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis, Mini Mansions, and Black Angels to open for a reinvigorated Queens Of The Stone Age on Wednesday night. Every band on the bill coalesced with each other beautifully and succinctl ... More >>

Who's Too Old To Rock & Roll?

​It's entirely possible that the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney will each go on tour this year. With ages ranging from 63 to 69 among the four remaining core Stones, the band is obviously the oldest continuing touring rock act, capable of breaking ticket records almost 50 years into the gam ... More >>

Slutwave: Pop Phenomenon Or Feminist Scourge?

"Every generation needs a new revolution." - Thomas Jefferson Marc BrubakerKe(Dollar Sign)ha at House of Blues, July 2010​As one of the few women on the Rocks Off writing team, we were fervently proud to take an introspective stab at the new, curiously named micro-genre that 2010 bestowed upo ... More >>

Mullets & More: 17 Signature Musical Hairstyles

​If you have hair, Craig's Hlist hates you. Not in a "you shot my whole family" or "you are the serial killer who dissolved my sibling in a vat of acid" way, more in a "you got the last sausage and cheese kolaches at the office" way. Our hair loss began sometime in high school, when we were ... More >>

6 Ideas: How to Dress Like A Rock Star

​This Saturday we'll be Partying Like A Rock Star with Allen Hill and DJ Psychedlic Sex Panther... and maybe Tina Turner, Pink, Zombie Michael Jackson, and probably a few Elvii... or at least some people in attire inspired by famous singers. The event at House of Dereon is a fundraiser benefit ... More >>

The AIDS-Spreading German Popstar And Four Other Horrifying Rock Legends

​Hanging out backstage with Ronan Harris of VNV Nation last Sunday, his synth-excellency imparted a tale that Rocks Off hoped to the gods was not true, and led us down the path of myth and rumor to bring you a list of five of the most horrifying legends in pop-music lore. The tale Ronan told is th ... More >>

Songs We Play When We Play With Guns

​After almost 27 years, Craig's Hlist has found himself immersed in gun culture. It's not so much a masculine phallic thing (believe us, we have questioned it), as much as it is a family bonding experience. It's easier to go to a gun range with our family out in Pearland on a Sunday afternoon than ... More >>

Aftermath: Blondie, Graceful and Casual at the Arena Theatre

Photos by Daniel Kramer​ Even at today's prices, dreaming is free. That's why an evening with Blondie is such a bargain. Sandwiched between the Donnas (who sounded tight and sassy from the will call line) and Pat Benatar (still "Invincible"), Debbie Harry's crew navigated the Arena's revolving sta ... More >>

No Exit

Blondie casts a wide net indeed on the band's Last.fm station.

Single-Album Sets We'd Like to See, Part 2: Blondie, Green Day, U2 and More

There are so many artists coming to Houston this summer and fall who should pick up on the "classic album" trend Rocks Off could hardly stop at just five. See our picks for Nos. 6-10 here. 5. Blondie (Arena Theater, August 23) Album: Eat to the Beat (Chrysalis, 1979) After 1978's Giorgio Moroder-ass ... More >>

Aftermath: No Doubt, Paramore, and The Sounds at Cynthia Woods

Photos by Mark C. Austin Any returning mega-band thinking of mounting a huge reunion tour to drain poor folk of their cash (cough Blink-182 cough) need look no further than No Doubt's current tour and sold-out set last night at Cynthia Woods to see how it should be done. For the bands that we ... More >>

Spring Cleaning

RIP Gary Kurfirst

Stop Making Sense Music-business legend Gary Kurfirst passed away from undisclosed causes while on vacation in Nassau, the Bahamas, January 13. A venue owner, talent manager, film producer and label founder, Kurfirst opened New York City's Village Theater, later known as the Fillmore East, in 1967 ... More >>

Soul Day at ACL: I Feel Good!

Aftermath: Twotenanny at the Mink

“Maripolarama: Perverse City”

The influential artist Maripol exposes the see-and-be-seeners of New York’s ‘80s underground art world

Felix da Housecat

Art Capsule Reviews: "Amy Sillman: Suitors and Strangers," "Chemical City," "The David Whitney Bequest" and "Practice Makes Perfect"

Art Capsule Reviews: "Chemical City," "David McGee: El Soñador Elegante," "Practice Makes Perfect" and "To 25!"

Art Capsule Reviews

Deborah Colton Gallery: “Chemical City”

Seven artists interpret life in New York City

Garbage

Absolute Garbage (Deluxe Edition)

Rain and the Parade, But Not Necessarily Both at the Same Time

Totally Gay

The Detroit Cobras

Thursday, October 27, at Rudyard's, 2010 Waugh Drive, 713-521-0521.

Gabba Gabba Henh

The Ramones bopped toward history and an unhappy end

The Kids Aren't Alright

Fledgling director Jonas Akerlund spins the next hip dope flick

Rock and Roll Swirlie

Manhattan's Toilet Boys keep '80s hair metal and '70s glam rock from circling the drain

New Releases Reviewed

Luscious Jackson

Convalescent Punk

Blondie has new record, legs

Guilt Galore

Creepy Six Ways swarms with mom-induced psychoses

Rotation

Rotation

Rotation

Rotation