Freddie Mercury

Tickets for Muse's March Prog-stravaganza On Sale Now

Toyota Center already has a trio of big pop shows on the books for 2013 in Lady Gaga, P!nk and Rihanna, but starting right now (at this link) you can buy three English dudes whose production promises to be so immense it will crush those three ladies like a bug. Yes, Muse, the British trio that star ... More >>

Reader's Poll: The Compact Disc Turns 30

This week the compact disc turned 30 years old, and will no doubt spend it drinking with friends and wondering where the time went and lamenting the fact that they haven't gotten married yet. Few people know that the first commercial CD produced was Billy Joel's 1978 release 52nd Street, an album ... More >>

Is There Any Chance the New Thin Lizzy Album Won't Suck?

This week, Rolling Stone and NME got wind of the fact that '70s hard-rock heroes Thin Lizzy will hit the studio this fall to record their first new album since band founder/leader/icon Phil Lynott's death 26 years ago. The news was actually broken by HotPress.com last week, but it took a while for w ... More >>

10 Iconic Final Concerts Plus The End Of Beatlemania

The Beatles' concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park 46 years ago today was the end of an era for the band. Except for a famously unannounced appearance on top the Apple building two and a half years later, it would be the final live performance that the Fab Four would ever play together. It w ... More >>

Freddie For a Day Is September 5; Dress Like Mercury For a Good Cause

Rocks Off has always been a big champion of all things Queen and Freddie Mercury, so when we found out that Mercury Phoenix Trust, the AIDS charity set up in the late singer's name in 1992, was setting up something called Freddie For a Day, we had to pass it on. On September 5, Mercury's birthday, ... More >>

Star Wars Day: Recasting The Movie With '70s Rock Stars

Today is Star Wars Day, or "May the 4th be with you." Something less than a national holiday but more than a horrific pun, it's evidence that we still very much live in a Star Wars world 35 years after the movie was released, as well as that once the Internet gets ahold of an idea, the rest of us mi ... More >>

5 Bands That Should Break Up Immediately

Music fans are selfish. We might act like we only want what's best for our favorite bands, but the truth is that we really just want what will give us the most gratification. A lot of ink, both real and digital, has been used this year to talk about reunions. And while writers might dissect the mot ... More >>

The Best & Worst-Case Scenarios For The Future Of Musical Holograms

Like most night owls, I spent early Monday morning watching YouTube clips of a holographic Tupac Shakur playing Coachella with his friends Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg nearly 16 years after his death. It was at once creepy and crass, but altogether interesting no matter how you sliced it, and not just bec ... More >>

Adam Lambert To Join Queen: All Is Right In The World

Photo By Faith SilvaAdam Lambert at the Hobby Center in September 2010​No shit, right? Can we all agree that American Idol alum and modern glam-popper Adam Lambert is the best choice to front Queen in 2012? Good. No more discussion. Just lay back, close your eyes, and think warm thoughts, and ... More >>

Happy Gorilla Suit Day! 5 Music Videos for Celebrating.

Today is National Gorilla Suit Day. We're not explaining it for you because something so magical needs neither intellectual discourse, nor to be held up against the scrutiny of skeptics who are clearly dead inside. Just accept it. Today is National Gorilla Suit Day, and all are commended to observe. ... More >>

Show Me Your GIFs: Great Classic Rock 'N Roll GIFs Galore

It seems to me that musical history is made up of fragments of indelible images, good and bad, that inform each person's experience. Then there are the swatches of tunes that grab you by the heart strings or the throat, making you a fan for life. But it's those moving pictures that you first remembe ... More >>

20 Great Versions Of "Bohemian Rhapsody" That Aren't By Queen

This week in 1976, Queen were at the top of the UK singles chart with the epic - taking that word back - operatic, glammy cut "Bohemian Rhapsody" from their November 1975 album, A Night At The Opera. The single is still one of the best-selling releases in the UK, and it even had a resurgence 1991 in ... 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 >>

2011 Rewind: Concert Tickets From An Alternate Universe

This originally ran on June 8, but seeing that the year is coming to an end, we are looking back at some of our favorite blogs we gave to you these past 12 months. One of the best dreams we ever had was of covering a Clash show for Rocks Off. Yeah, dreaming about work isn't something to brag about ... More >>

Some Girls: When Rock Met Disco And Disco Met Rock

Rent money is for posers anyway. ​Tonight for one night only at the Houston Marq*E Stadium 23, Rolling Stones fans can finally catch The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas, a 1978 concert from the band's Fort Worth stop. The tour came on the heels of the May 1978 release of the band's So ... More >>

10 Things You May Not Know About Queen

​For week's dose of facts, we uncovered ten morsels about Queen, whose bassist John Deacon celebrates his 60th birthday today. This year marks several important anniversaries in the Queen universe, most of all the 20th anniversary of Freddie Mercury's death in late November. It's also been two ... More >>

New Queen Bio Separates Real Life From Fantasy

​Is This the Real Life? The Untold Story of Queen By Mark Blake Da Capo Press, 384 pp., $25. Drawing on other sources, his extensive previous interviews with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, and more than 100 new subjects, Blake (Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd) ... More >>

Multi-Tracks, One By One: An Aural Autopsy

​This past weekend Rocks Off hung out with a producer buddy, listening to multitrack recordings of some of the biggest acts in history, including the Beatles, Queen, Beastie Boys, and Van Halen. For someone who spends his entire life trying decipher recorded music as it is released and later p ... More >>

This Week In Deliciousness

Yup, we've got problems, all right.​Welcome back to Eating Our Words, where today we're keeping warm by burning calories screaming at our internet service provider. We won't tell you who we use at our house, but it's the one that slows down by a million percent every time it's stormy, or overc ... More >>

20 Musician Biopics Currently In Development Hell

Happy birthday, Janis.​News came down last week that Sacha Baron Cohen will be stepping into the rhinestones and glitter as Queen icon Freddie Mercury. It's been a long time coming for Cohen, the Borat and Bruno star who is slowly becoming his generation's Peter Sellers and has been rumored to ... More >>

In Case You Missed It...

Marco TorresIt's a bird... it's a plane... it's... Usher!​Rocks Off knows you have had a busy week. So have we. But, we figured, what with Thanksgiving and Black Friday and traveling to and from your various other holiday ports of call, you may not have had as much time in front a computer as ... More >>

Freddie Mercury's Musical Stepchildren, Darlings

​Today marks 19 years that the world has been without Queen front man Freddie Mercury, who was taken from us on November 24, 1991. He died of AIDS complications, a disease he kept hidden from the world until just a day or so before his death. He was the first major, epic rock star to be kill ... More >>

Friday Night: Ghostland Observatory At Warehouse Live

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Ghostland Observatory Warehouse Live October 29, 2010 For more photos from the show, see our wild 'n' crazy slideshow here. As Rocks Off approached Warehouse Live Friday, we were treated to a group of construction workers and cops...in true Halloween-costume fashion, ... More >>

Ghostland Observatory

Backmasking Bieber, Black Keys, Kanye, Etc.: What Do You Hear?

​"It's my sweet Satan ... Oh I will sing because I live with Satan." "Turn me on, dead man." "Turned out nice again." "Eat donkey crap." Every since the beginning of rock and roll, listeners and disgruntled parents alike have been searching for hidden meanings in music. Was Paul dead, w ... More >>

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 >>

Last Night: The Houston Symphony Does The Music Of Queen

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​The Houston Symphony Jones Hall July 22, 2010 There is perhaps no better way to experience the music of Freddie Mercury and Queen than with a full orchestra. Nothing about the band wasn't large and grandiose in scope, making them one of the bands most ripe for the orch ... More >>

Hazy Shade Of Winter: Are The Vancouver Olympians Listening To These Songs?

Rocks Off has Olympics on the brain. After hearing the theme from Chariots of Fire at the Houston Symphony and watching the bizarro Opening Ceremonies featuring Nelly Furtado, Bryan Adams and Sarah McLachlan, all we want to do when we get home from a long hard day is watch men in Vera Wang one-piec ... More >>

He Said She Said: The Sweet, Sweet Sounds of Revenge, Part 2

​For someone who wears motorcycle boots and carries a knife, the bald(ing) He Said rightfully looks like he should be one of the most vindictive cats in the world. But in reality, the only revenge we have ever taken has been of the emotional variety, and that's probably much worse than any windows ... More >>

Federal Reserve

This downtown bar is modest in everything but its whiskey selection.

Get Lit: Queen - The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Rock by Phil Sutcliffe

​Coffee-table books on rock bands usually fall into one of two categories; either they're chock-full of great visuals with very little textual information, or the book looks like the U.S. tax code with a few snapshots thrown in. Thankfully, music journo Sutcliffe got it right both ways with this w ... More >>

Mommy's Little Monster: Songs To Remind You That Children are Inherently Evil

​Like you, as Rocks Off grows older we have to come to terms with the fact that many of our friends are having children. Usually we can just scroll quickly past the offspring-related Facebook updates or send those 12-MB emails containing brood photos into the Trash folder unread. No harm, no foul. ... More >>

Songs for Naughty Children

As Rocks Off grows older we have to come to terms with the fact that many of our friends are having children. Usually we can just scroll quickly past the offspring-related Facebook updates or send those 12 MB emails containing brood photos into the Trash folder unread. No harm, no foul. But the hol ... More >>

Come Party With Rocks Off and Lego Rock Band at Khon's

Next Tuesday over at Khon's (2808 Milam), Rocks Off is throwing a free Christmas party for Houston, with our new copy of Lego Rock Band. You do remember the drunken scene at our Beatles: Rock Band shindig in September at Coffee Groundz, right? We wish we did, but we're pretty sure that they may hav ... More >>

Stranger Musical Pairings Than Dancing With the Stars' Tom DeLay and Cheryl Burke

​Dancing With the Stars announced the pairings for its upcoming season Monday - like you care - and while some out there are no doubt crunching the odds of Debi Mazar and that Russian guy squaring off with Chuck Liddell and...that Russian chick in the finals, local interest is still focused on fo ... More >>

In Honor of Michelle Obama and "Shortsgate," the Best Ass Songs of All Time

In a year when the biggest news stories aren't about war or the environment but a mentally unbalanced woman having a litter of children and the death of a creepy pop singer who hadn't put out a decent album in 25 years, it should come as no surprise that so many people would be up in arms ... More >>

Please Add to Our F*** List

Life is hard; we understand that all too well. Some days, the whole thing just seems meaningless and trite, not unlike like so many new American Idol runners-up who are being foisted upon the general public as if they are the second coming of Freddie Mercury, when they are in all actuality just a du ... More >>

Ghostland Observatory

The Killers: Day & Age

A Classic-Rock-Free Morning

Xiu Xiu

Five Spot: Rock's Top Flavor Savers

Paul Rodgers: All Right Now

Drenched In Blog: Sealed with Kiss

The M Word

Musical terms that should be illegal

Ghostland Observatory

Ghostland Observatory will perform Thursday, January 25, at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, 713-225-5483.

The Darkness

One Way Ticket to Hell...and Back

Various Artists

Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen

Playbill

Goudie

Peep Show