Frank Zappa

Turtle Soup: More With One of the Wildest Bands of the '60s

Today, when the 65-year-old Howard Kaylan looks back on the '60s, it's still hard to imagine the kind of commercial and chart success he had with the Turtles, and how by age 22, it was all over. "They say that wisdom comes with age, and at that time, I had absolutely none of it!" he laughs. "I mean ... More >>

The Turtles: The Raunchiest Band of the '60s?

Even the most voracious reader or rock-music biographies and autobiographies would be hard-pressed to find a better opening sentence than Howard Kaylan, lead vocalist of The Turtles, has in his new memoir Shell Shocked. "I was snorting coke on Abraham Lincoln's desk in the White House," it reads. T ... More >>

Gothic Council on the Perfect Gothic Workout Music

I hate working out unless it involves back flips and body slams. I used to do all my exercise in a bingo hall with no A/C in a wrestling ring that was harder than Frank Zappa in a used-panty store. Since I have long since left my wrestling dreams behind, I'm forced to go to the gym unless I want t ... More >>

Rusted Shut's Don Walsh Loves Him Some Zappa

If I were forced to choose a single favorite Houston musician, and no offense to all the others, I would pick Rusted Shut mastermind Don Walsh, easily. Rusted Shut has been a presence on the local scene for probably 25 years now, specializing in the kind of gruesomely loud and assaultive noise-rock ... More >>

Frank Zappa and Other Quicksand Artists

Tonight House of Blues will be graced by Zappa Plays Zappa, led by the late Papa Frank's oldest son Dweezil, who inherited some of his father's guitar skills. Zappa Plays Zappa is the preeminent traveling Zappa tribute show going, and Dweezil's love letter to his father's body of work, which has onl ... More >>

The Best Concerts In Houston This Week

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Fitzgerald's, January 21 The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has been back preaching the blues gospel and garage wail for three years now, since reissuing their catalog to rave reviews and excitement from fans young and old. The trio -- Jon Spencer, Judah Bauer and Russell S ... More >>

Def Leppard's Rick Allen and 10 More Miraculous Rock Recoveries

Twenty-eight years ago this week (New Year's Eve), Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen became famous. Well, he was already famous, we guess, for being the drummer for one of the finest pop-metal bands of all time. But on December 31, 1984, Allen became even more famous for being pretty much the only pop- ... More >>

Craig Hlavaty's 10 Best Houston Albums of 2012

It's that time of year -- or at least it has been since, like, November -- for rock writers to show everyone else how cool they think they are with their year-end best-of lists. How obscure can you get? How controversial can you be with your choices? "If only Honey Boo Boo released album that I co ... More >>

Catching Up With Austin Smith of A Sea Es

Tonight at 9 p.m., Fitzgerald's begins your torrid, drunken Halloween weekend with a free show featuring A Sea Es, Mystery Flavor, Poor Pilate and Candy Coated Mothership. Free for those of drinking age, that is. There will also be a $500 costume contest, great giveaways and, you know, tacos. Head ... More >>

Grandfather Child Prepare for Debut

Album recorded partially in drummer's parents' basement.

A Sea Es

App of the Week: Let iTranslate Voice Do Your Talking for You

App: iTranslate Voice Platform: iPhone Web site: iTranslate Voice Cost: $0.99 Back in the '90s, there was this cool band from Denton called Ten Hands. They were sort of a weird mix of the Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel and Frank Zappa. They had really quirky material and covered a wide range of style ... More >>

Bang A Gong: Duran Duran Guitarist Turned Rocker Andy Taylor Is 51

In the summer of 1987, the day before driving to Austin for freshmen orientation at the University of Texas, I went to see Andy Taylor at Fitzgerald's. The former Duran Duran guitarist had done a near-180 in his career, opting for T. Rex-inspired hard rock over the glamorous Britpop of Rio. After ... More >>

Not Average Joe: Six Rock and Roll Joes on the Day "Hey Joe" Turns 45

​Despite the fact that he never really had a major "hit" (Electric Ladyland reached number one as an album but he never had a single go higher than 20 in the US) and was terribly under appreciated while he was still alive, Jimi Hendrix is one of the giants of rock and roll. His songs and his g ... More >>

5 Bands Your Musician Friends Love...But You Don't

austinpost.comYep. Robert Plant "copped everything" from this guy.​In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Johnny Depp discusses the unwavering authenticity of Hunter S. Thompson, and likens his late friend to another great, often-troubled mind, saying: "...like Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elev ... More >>

Baron Wolman: A Bounty Of Iconic Rock Photography

Photos by Baron WolmanIke & Tina Turner​Every Picture Tells a Story - Baron Wolman: The Rolling Stone Years Omnibus Press, 176 pp., $37.50 If you could point to one thing that makes today's music journalists most jealous, it would probably be the music journalists of the '60s and '70s. Back t ... More >>

Huh-Huh-Huh: 20 Bands Beavis and Butt-Head Turned Us Onto

​Next Monday, Beavis and Butt-Head returns to MTV with original episodes for the first time in 14 years. The final episode of the show's original run aired on November 28, 1997, and marked the closing of a chapter of our lives. Not only were they instrumental in forming our vocabulary - fartkn ... More >>

Captain Beefheart, Art-Rock Visionary, Dead At 69

last.fmCaptain Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet (left), and Frank Zappa​Sad news out of California today for the avant-garde and experimental rock world: Rocks Off has learned from multiple online sources that Don Van Vliet of influential rockers Captain Beefheart passed away today at the age of 6 ... More >>

Day Of The Dead: Music In Memoriam 2009-10

itscactus.com​Rocks Off doesn't mean to be morbid, but today is the Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday and festival honoring those who have gone before. So instead of waiting until the end of the year, the more traditional time for such things, we wanted to compile a list of the notable name ... More >>

"Rape Gaze": Worst Genre Name Ever? Not Quite...

myspace.com/wearecreep​Let's take a moment to think about labels and what they mean to us. Why do people feel the need to label things? The obvious answer is: It's the only way we know what stuff is. To anyone who automatically dismisses the very idea of labeling, just imagine what it would b ... More >>

I Am Mesmer, Hilary Sloan, Kelly Doyle

Music's 15 Gnarliest Moustaches

​Moustaches are all the rage these days. From shirts to snow globes, rides, wax and tattoos, everyone wants a moustache or at least to support the cause. Rocks Off even has a moustache. When it was longer we combed it while driving or lounging, much to the chagrin of the people around us. Ce ... More >>

5 New Pop-Star Sitcoms We'd Like To See

Today marks the 43rd anniversary of <>The Monkees winning an Emmy for Best Comedy Series, making them the first musical act ever to win that award. 1967 also marked a transitional period for the band, which was moving toward creative freedom on the television show in which they started out as ... More >>

Kinky Friedman

King Cry Baby: A Team Leno Playlist

​If you've been keeping up with the business going on between Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno, odds are you've already picked a side. Every team needs its fight songs, and although Team Leno looks a lot smaller than Team Conan - in fact, Rocks Off isn't sure if we've even met anyone on Team Leno - they ... More >>

For Black Friday, The Top 5 Videos Set In Shopping Malls

"Are you off your fucking meds or something?"​We at Rocks Off are a bit puzzled by the continued practice of cramming ourselves into local malls on "Black Friday," or whatever we're calling the day after Thanksgiving this year (we perfer to remember it as a Megadeth song). Wasn't online shoppi ... More >>

Fight for Your Right

Does the U.S. belong with the Axis of Evil?

Before We Go: Odds and Ends on Mechanical Boy, Katy Perry, George Strait, Future Blondes and More

"SWING LOW AND CARRY ME HOME" By Mechanical Boy from Michael Fodera on Vimeo. It's about time for Rocks Off to head off to the bunkhouse for some much-needed R&R, but first here's a few final tidbits that have recently come to our attention. Mechanical Boy just released its first video, "Swing L ... More >>

Jandek, MV + EE

Eat Your Vegetables: Zappa for Beginners

[Eat Your Vegetables is a new Rocks Off column exploring experimental, improvised and other generally odd music.] Express disinterest in Frank Zappa to one of his fans, and they're likely to insist you hear Hot Rats - or at least, so I read somewhere once; Zappa devotees becoming steadily less nume ... More >>

Classic Rock Corner: In Memoriam 2008

You know, the Grim Reaper don't care if you're a multiplatinum music legend, a one-hit wonder or studio-only sideman - he's comin' for you someday! And in 2008, he seemed to like keyboardists and drummers most. A number of classic rockers left for "The Great Gig in the Sky," foremost of whom is the ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: RIP Jimmy Carl Black

Get Lit: Riot on Sunset Strip -- Rock 'n Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood

The Blog of Lists: 20 Teetotaling Musicians other than Ian Mackaye

Truckee Brothers: Double Happiness

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

You Blog What You Is

Between the Cracks

Profiling local bands

So Long, For Now So Long

RIP, Gatemouth Brown

Double Ax

Eric Johnson and Adrian Belew fret for you at Club V

Coming Through in the Clutch

Even a wayward washing machine can't drop these sludge-rockers to the canvas

Groupie Grooves

Little Feat can only hope to receive the same "welcome" they got here 31 years ago

Bagels Rip My Flesh

New York Coffee Shop offers authentic East Coast fare -- complete with attitude

Rotation

Jazz Royalty

George's last name may be Duke, but on the keyboards, he's a king

Buff Boys

Press Picks

Rotation

Live Shots

PSAs for the People

Fried fish, jazz and Zappa memorabilia: Consume mass quantities