Def Leppard

Best Albums of the Year, 2006

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

Drenched in Blog: Kekkou desu, Mr. Roboto!

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

A Day in the Life of Cable Sports Programming

Houston Rockets, 2007-2008: Requiem for a Season

Rock the Bayou…Can You Handle It?

Def Defying

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 >>

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 >>

My Guitar Hero Gently Weeps

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

Aaron Loesch Vies to Become the Guitar Center King of the Blues

A dying Houston scene suddenly might have new life

Rock The Bayou Is a Bust

A dying Houston scene suddenly might have new life

L.A. Guns

A dying Houston scene suddenly might have new life

Balls of Fury

Answer all correctly and win a Def Leppard album

Hello, Houston!

Noise breaks down the months of live music ahead

Yellow and Green

Paris Green's new CD Rambling Yellow Paper

When Mixtapes Attack!

What if the sound track to your life sucks?

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

Letters

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

Played Out

The filmmakers have consumed all the standard clichés and yakked them up in the humorless Rock Star

Peak Performance

Himalaya scales dangerous mountain passes while uplifting the spirit

Bright Lights, Bridge City

The PC Cowboys, the world's only politically correct country band, speak in a Press exclusive

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

Rotation

Secret correspondence from the rodeo

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Cheap Trick, Def Leppard, Poison

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Scumbag Karaoke

​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 >>

Happy Anniversary, Appetite For Destruction

​July 21, 1987 began as a day like any other. The Reagan Administration told The New York Times that any discussion of presidential pardons in the Iran-Contra affair were "inappropriate at this time." Iran announced it would ignore the cease-fire with Iraq unanimously approved by the United Na ... 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 >>

Where's the Rock?

106.9 The Zone misses The Point.

Sam's Place

Lightnin' Hopkins finally gets his own historical marker.

Five More Heavy Metal Christmas Carols

​Last year's unholy Christmas metal list was so popular, we decided to reach back into our quasi-Santanic bag and find five more songs for you to blare while trimming the tree and wrapping presents. We made our list too late to catch Rob Halford's Christmas album, Winter Songs. Otherwise it ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx: The Rocks Off Interview

"I'm dying for rock and roll to become exciting again" ​Tonight, the grand rock and roll triumvirate of Motley Crue, Poison, and the New York Dolls pulls into the Toyota Center. Each band comes armed with decades of experience, great songs, and a boatload of modern influence, including the Do ... More >>

Saturday Night: Santana & Spearhead At The Woodlands

Photos by Marco Torres​Santana, Michael Franti & Spearhead Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 10, 2011 Timeless. Classic. Legend. OG - all classifications that tend to be distributed loosely in the music industry these days. Yet for Carlos Santana, the skinny Mexican kid who played at ... 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 >>

World AIDS Day: Artists Who Have Contributed to the Cause

​Today is World AIDS Day. The theme this year is "Getting to Zero," focusing on zero AIDS related deaths. In hopes of achieving this goal, there has been many a celebrity to endorse AIDS awareness and various charities around the world. Quite a few musicians have used their celebrity status ... More >>