Grace Jones

The 12 Finest Trees In Texas: A Photo Tour Of The State's Pretty, Historic, Beloved Live Oaks & More

Texans love their trees, whether they're being used for climbing, or getting some desperately needed August shade, or as a easy-to-remember landmark for locals making plans to meet each other. To be sure there are some less peaceful uses of trees in Texas history: lynching, sniping, chaining people ... More >>

The Cavern and the Top 10 Iconic Rock Clubs In History

Last week back in 1957, the most famous rock club in England opened in Liverpool. There was absolutely no rock and roll on the bill that night. The Cavern Club was originally opened to mimic the cellar jazz bars that owner Alan Synter visited in Paris. There was a strict jazz-only policy in place ... More >>

Quietly, For a Dance Club, Rich's Reopens Under New Ownership

Rich's, the popular but troubled Midtown dance club, has quietly reopened under a new ownership group after the landlord evicted previous tenants in May. The venue at 2401 San Jacinto is now operated by a group of investors calling itself Rich's Sacred Ground Inc. According to Texas Alcoholic Bever ... 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 >>

Supermodels Make Hot Supermodels: Top 10 Supermodel Children

Last week pictures of Cindy Crawford's daughter surfaced across the intertubes. The little stunner is already following in her mother's footsteps and modeling, at the ripe age of ten! That may seem a bit young to be hitting the catwalk, but you have to admit she has a look (no discernible moles as f ... More >>

Trite Wedding: 5 Ceremony Song Suggestions That Aren't Your Usual Crap

Rocks Offs day job is as a clerk in a sheet music store, and this is the time of year when a lot of people start coming in to buy sheet music for their weddings. Frankly, it's one of the most monotonous parts of the job. 99 percent of the people pick the same, unimaginative pieces over and over agai ... More >>

Prisoners of Sex: 10 Movie Womanizers, from the Sick to the Sublime

The movies are full of bed-hopping men -- think of Humphrey Bogart's serial flirtations in The Big Sleep (1946), and Richard Roundtree laying his way uptown and down in Shaft (1971). But in Steve McQueen's Shame, slated to open in Houston December 16, womanizing is not just an outgrowth of the plot ... More >>

Dear Penis: 20 Songs About The Tube Snake Boogie

prince.orgGuess who turns 53 today?​Good Lord, what would we do if not for Weinergate? It's hot as hell outside, the Astros are terrible and Rick Perry might run for president next year. But as long as there are congressmen tweeting pictures of their junk to women they barely know, Rocks Off h ... More >>

Local Musicians Choose Their Favorite Super Powers

Lee Alexander, pictured with his band of invisible skulking perverts​It wasn't that long ago that a few brave filmmakers realized that it was in fact possible to make a superhero movie that didn't suck IQ points from an audience and might even, surprise surprise, be somewhat faithful to their ... More >>

iPod: Happy Anniversary, You Little Devil

Can somebody please tell us what the hell Firewire is? Nine years ago today - November 10, 2001 - Apple unveiled a new kind of MP3 player known as an iPod. About the size of a deck of cards, the device contained five gigabytes of memory, enough for about 1,000 songs, and cost $400. Four. Hundred. ... More >>

$5 Awesome: The Toys Soundtrack

Rocks Off has picked up some CDs over the years at prices so low we think that it would've been less insulting to the artists if we had stolen them. Some of these have become our favorite albums, and in this column we'll tell you what they are and why! ​For Rocks Off's money, there is no more ... More >>

Remember Willie Dee's Controversy?

The best album cover in rap history​Houston's history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We'll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. Willie Dee Controversy (Rap-A-Lot, 1995) Note: Yes, we' ... More >>

Give Me No Man's Land: 5 Songs For The Fallen

​Today is Memorial Day, and Rocks Off would like to honor our brave and beloved dead as we honor everything - through music. At no time in American history have there not been men and women in life-threatening danger trying to protect us, whether it was a declared war or not. This is a sacrifice w ... More >>

Spermy Night In Georgia: Sexed-Up Songs To Set The Mood For Blowfly

Let's get one thing perfectly clear: Blowfly is the original dirty rapper. Before anyone in 2 Live Crew was old enough to set foot into a peepshow stall or buy a pack of cigarettes, Clarence "Blowfly" Reid was spewing forth raucous raps like "Spermy Night In Georgia" and "What a Difference a Lay Mak ... More >>

Idol Beat: Houston, We Have a Contestant

Houston's Paige Miles made it to the top 24.​Last night's American Idol was rote even by Idol standards, and it's because the hour really should have been folded into Tuesday's episode. Trimming the 46 contestants 24 would have made a solid two-hour ep, but stretched to three it wound up feeli ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: Exene Cervenka on Losing a Friend, Weeping Willows, Albums as Collage and Her Good Buddy Biscuit

Ali Smith/Bloodshot Records​Exene Cervenka is one of those musicians who makes an interviewer nervous; like, you hope the questions you come up with are good enough not to piss her off, or worse, laugh at you. Besides a published poet and accomplished visual artist, Cervenka and now-ex-husband/re ... More >>

For Your Entertainment? Nice Try, Adam Lambert, But These Music-Awards Moments Were Even Creepier

​The best news that Jennifer Lopez could possibly have heard this morning was that America is still more interested in clucking about public displays of gayness than in pointing and laughing when a diva falls on her ass. We imagine there's already one of those jumbo-sized Harry & David fruit b ... More >>

Top Ten Dance Collections of 2008, Both Mixed and Unmixed

Any knucklehead with DSL and a laptop can now make an electronic track. With a half hour of clicking and fiddling, you can sample enough cheesy beats and mashups to clog arteries from here to Berlin. Simple dropdown mouse maneuvers can transform electro tracks into progressive house tracks (from dry ... More >>

Drenched in Blog: Why the Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special Creeps Me Out

In 1988, few things were as cool or innovative on Saturday mornings as Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Each week, we screamed the secret word, connected dots, watched old weird-ass cartoons and saw Saturday Night Live star Phil Hartman play a surly sea captain. The show was something five-year olds and ... More >>

“Maripolarama: Perverse City”

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

Art Capsule Reviews

A picture of our opinions on local exhibitions

Art Capsule Reviews

A picture of our opinions on local exhibitions

Art Capsule Reviews

A picture of our opinions on local exhibitions

Capsule Reviews

A picture of our opinions on local exhibits

Beauty Secrets

No one will be ready for your jelly when style diva Jenyne Raines is done with you

Retro Electro

Meet Larry Tee and the circus freaks of electroclash

Debt Releaf

Cigarette companies get crafty

Rotation

Static

Lady Sings the Pinks

Self-created disco-diva Pinque: If this is camp, it's camp with a guilelessly straight face