Def Leppard

Sugar, We're Going Down: Songs For the Candy Crush Craze

Two weeks ago, I was a normal, well-adjusted American man. Now, I'm a fiend in need of repeated fixes. I'm a junkie who can't get enough of that sweet stuff. I'm addicted to Candy Crush Saga. Let's say your mail's addressed to the rock you live under. In that case, you may never have heard of C ... More >>

Alamo Drafthouse Singalongs Bring '80s Music Videos to Big Screen

The Alamo Drafthouse people are known for bringing you great movies and TV to their big-screens every week. Plus, the "coolest movie theater in the world" serves booze, which is never a bad thing, and their "no talking or texting" rules are even better. With locations coast to coast, the Austin-ba ... More >>

Music That Will Officially Be Old In 2013

One of my favorite pastimes is reminding my friends how old we are all getting, partly because I am cruel, and probably because even I am astounded that actor Steve Guttenberg is now three years older than Wilford Brimley was when they filmed Cocoon together in 1985. We can all think of things tha ... More >>

Saturday Night: Def Leppard, Poison & Lita Ford at The Woodlands

Def Leppard, Poison, Lita Ford Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion Saturday, September 1, 2012 Rewind: Lita Ford: Still Living Like A Runaway The Best Def Leppard Demos, Rarities, And Deep Tracks Lita Ford kicked off Saturday evening with her blazing cover of Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back." Consid ... More >>

Lita Ford: Still Living Like A Runaway

In the '80s, Lita Ford was one of the most prominent female voices in hard rock. With hits such as "Kiss Me Deadly" (which was named the 76th "Greatest Hard Rock Song Of All-Time" by VH1), "Back To The Cave," and "Close My Eyes Forever," she was on a winning tear. Plus she still had (and has) oodl ... More >>

The Best Def Leppard Demos, Rarities, And Deep Tracks

Def Leppard is one of the quintessential rock bands of the '80s. With such hits as "Foolin'," "Hysteria," and the ever-popular "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and countless others. Despite the numerous tragedies that have befallen the band, including the death of guitarist Steve Clark and a car wreck that ... More >>

Meet the 2012 HPMA Showcase Nominees: Glasnost

Rocks Off reached out to the artists playing this year's Houston Press Music Awards showcase Sunday, August 5, and asked them to introduce themselves. Here's what they sent back. Catch up with the other showcase nominees and see our the rest of our HPMA coverage Rocks Off: When and where was your ... More >>

Pollstar: Woodlands Pavilion Now World's No. 3 Amphitheater

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, site of Sunday night's aromatic 311 show, has long been one of the country's busiest concert venues, usually ranking at or near the top in annual attendance. Now it's officially one of the busiest in the world. In concert trade publication Pollstar's new survey ... More >>

Parental Advisory! Another Look at the PMRC's "Dirty 15"

In 1985, the Parental Music Resource Center was formed as basically a watchdog group over popular music. Essentially, their goal was censorship. However, there was one big problem: The group was made up of the likes of Tipper Gore (wife of then-Senator and future Vice President Al Gore), Susan Bake ... More >>

Corporate Rock Still Sucks

Rock of Ages posits Tom Cruise as a hair-metal god and hair metal as something un-awful.

Girls, Girls, Girls At 25: Anatomy Of A Strip-Club Classic

Mötley Crüe, those depraved kings of '80s sleaze, took a major step toward strip-club immortality 25 years ago this week when the band released its fourth album, Girls, Girls, Girls.. Glossy, debauched heavy metal ruled the charts in the summer of 1987 -- Whitesnake, Ozzy, Bon Jovi and Poison all ... More >>

The American Bandstand (Extended) Hot 100

Somehow it's hard to believe that Dick Clark was only 82 years old when he died after suffering a "massive heart attack" Wednesday morning in Santa Monica, Calif. (Since I managed to survive one myself, I've noticed that anytime someone dies of a heart attack, it's always "massive."). Despite his yo ... More >>

Readers Poll: The Best Third Albums Ever

This week in 1980, Van Halen released their third album Women And Children First, which contained the hits "And the Cradle Will Rock...," "Everybody Wants Some!! and fan favorite "Romeo Delight." It's not the best VH album ever, but it was, in fact, their third album. Most VH super-freaks I know an ... More >>

Pop Rocks: So Who's Going to Perform at Next Year's Super Bowl Halftime Show?

If Janet Jackson's nip slip in 2004 threw ice water on the practice of using current entertainers for Super Bowl halftimes, M.I.A.'s middle finger salute dumped it in the Bering Sea. Finally, after eight years of K. Billy's Sounds of the '70s and Pete Townshend's belly (which somehow didn't draw *an ... More >>

Friday Night: Def Leppard & Heart At The Woodlands

Photos by Groovehouse​Def Leppard, Heart Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 23, 2011 Like so many of their 80s hard rock brethren, Def Leppard has always straddled the line between serious musical territory and the self-parody that threatens all bands associated with that era. On one ... 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 >>

Upcoming: Billy Joe Shaver, Def Leppard, Stephen Marley, Etc.

​"20th Annual KTRU Outdoor Show" With Washed Out, Real Estate, Fat Tony, Young Mammals, Grandfather Child, The Tontons: Sat., April 9. Rice University. Billy Joe Shaver: Sat., June 18. Dosey Doe Coffee Company. Chingo Bling, DJ Ebonix: Fri., April 8. Bronze Peacock Room @ House of Blues. C ... More >>

Today's High Schoolers Shrugging Off New Music

​During this part of the year, your humble narrator treks from school to schools selling contest music to bands and orchestras. It's a good gig, and it enables us to get a good gander at what the next generation of musicians look like. However, after several years of doing it, we started noti ... More >>

Five Songs Classic Rock Radio Should Kill NOW

​Rocks Off is a prisoner of the airwaves. At home we can listen to just about anything we want thanks to the comforts of 24-7 satellite radio. Actually, we rarely tune in anything besides Outlaw Country, but that's another story. We can't bring the satellite receiver to work, where we spend th ... More >>

Scumbag Karaoke

When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Metal Edition

​Dave Chapelle teaches us that the art of "keeping it real" may sometimes go awry. According to urbandictionary.com, this occurs when "in the act of keeping it real, the outcome is unexpected and usually has a negative effect on the individual who decided to keep it real." Rock stars are not i ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs Guaranteed to Offend the Opposite Sex, Part 2

It's been 25 years since Tipper Gore and the ladies of the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) self-righteously rode the the rescue of delicate ears across America, claiming that rock music was "infecting the youth of the world with messages they cannot handle." It was the 1950s all over again. Th ... More >>

Cheap Trick, Def Leppard, Poison

Bayou Beat: McKenzies Break Up, Live Nation Goes for (Almost) Broke, New Discovery Green Season, etc.

Chris Gray​ Unfortunately, Houston power-pop prodigies the McKenzies (above) announced after Free Press Summer Fest they have broken up, for the usual reasons. "It's all on good terms," the band said via email. "It's just been really hard to do anything... everyone has personal things to do - scho ... More >>

The Last Roundup: Something Fierce Rounds Out Tour Dates, Opening In the Watermarks, Pitchman Iggy Pop and More

Kim DouglassWe just love running this Wild Moccasins picture... can't you tell? Something Fierce released the rest of the trio's tour dates on Hands Up Houston. Lords of the Loop pay poetic tribute to Def Leppard via haiku. 29-95 takes a look at the Wild Moccasins' (above) tour diary. Exactly three ... More >>

What's Your Favorite Musician Joke?

What do you call a musician without a girlfriend? Homeless. What do you throw a banjo player if he's drowning? His banjo. What's the difference between a saxophone and a lawnmower? You can tune a lawnmower. What's the difference between an accordion player and a terrorist? Terrorists have sympathize ... More >>

Sean Hannity To Torture Houston's Wallets

Photo courtesy bobgo29What would you pay to see Sean Hannity in concert? No, we don't mean seeing him be waterboarded -- although he said he'd do that for charity, and Keith Olbermann offered to pay $1,000 to an Army charity for every second Hannity stood it, Sean-o somehow hasn't agreed to it yet.H ... More >>

Hello, Houston!

Noise breaks down the months of live music ahead

Happy April Fool's Day: Fools in Popular Music

Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray In the Tarot, "The Fool is the spirit in search of experience. He represents the mystical cleverness bereft of reason within us, the childlike ability to tune into the inner workings of the world." Hat sold separately.As you've hopefully been able to t ... More >>

Songs You Didn't Get As a Kid

Did you know that ZZ Top's "Pearl Necklace" is essentially about a man ejaculating onto a woman's neck? No? Well, neither did I when I was 12. That is just disgusting. It is a disgusting, insanely catchy song, and I had no idea what it was about until I was an adult. I thought it was about a wo ... More >>

My Guitar Hero Gently Weeps

They're not yelling "Bruce" this time. They're booing

Rock the Bayou…Can You Handle It?

L.A. Guns

Houston Rockets, 2007-2008: Requiem for a Season

A Day in the Life of Cable Sports Programming

Miss Pop Rocks: Girls Who Like Girls But Who (Really) Like Boys

Drenched in Blog: Kekkou desu, Mr. Roboto!

Balls of Fury

Answer all correctly and win a Def Leppard album

Confessions of a Classic Rock Whore, or One Man’s Journey

Yellow and Green

Paris Green's new CD Rambling Yellow Paper

Best Albums of the Year, 2006

The Darkness

One Way Ticket to Hell...and Back

Pop Rocks

Ten albums that'll snap and fizz in your ear buds all winter long

He's a Maniac

The Nightfly puts his white-boy dance moves to the supreme test at Lizzard's Pub

Pop-Punk Penance

A cool kid seeks heavenly redemption

Woodlands Wonders

Meet Paris Green -- the newest entry in the next big thing from Houston sweepstakes

Peak Performance

Himalaya scales dangerous mountain passes while uplifting the spirit

Welcome to His Nightmare

Michael Bruce gave voice to Alice Cooper - until the singer killed the band

RodeoHouston: Some 'Splainin to Do

Secret correspondence from the rodeo

Def Defying