Houston (Scotland)

The Rocks Off 100: Kimberly McCarver, Missouri City's Meadowlark

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Sometimes a hunch will pay off. Kimber ... More >>

Reserve 101 Rolls Out a Fall Cocktail Menu With Something For Everyone

There's a huge range of palates when it comes to cocktail drinkers. Some like boozy concoctions where it's basically drinking the spirit with just a little enhancement, and others -- especially younger drinkers and those who rarely indulge -- don't even want to know the alcohol is there. You wouldn' ... More >>

Houston Bartenders Head to NOLA for Tales of the Cocktail

Houston bartenders including Lainey Collum, Ornella Ashcroft, Alba Huerta and Sheridan Fay showed up to represent Houston at Tales of the Cocktail. Photos by Alex Gregg Now in its 10th year, Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans has become a sort of South by Southwest for serious spirits aficionados ... More >>

Mikkeller Offers a New Salvo in the Beer Wars: 300 IBU Tastes Like Burning

The beer wars are nothing new. Long before craft beer came along, the large macro breweries engaged in back-and-forth barbs, jockeying for position in the market. Usually carried out via marketing and commercial sniping, the battles all but amounted to multimillion-dollar re-enactments of schoolyard ... More >>

What Every Musician Needs: Better Shut Up Lines

We all hate the trope "Houston, we have a problem," but we do have a problem in Houston with talkative, inattentive crowds at live shows. Scanning back over reviews from the past two years, at least 20 percent of them mention crowd noise. So what do the musicians think and, more importantly, what ... More >>

Erland And The Carnival Map Modern Man In New Video

Vanessa Galvin​When Rocks Off wants the lowest of the lowdown on good new music that isn't centered here in the Lone Star State, we always turn to Mick Cullen at Subterranean Radio. His three hour program has become a Thursday night ritual with us as he guides us through some of the most excit ... More >>

“Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting”

Sneak Peek at Blue Fish (No, the Other Blue Fish)

​I have to wonder if, when Dallas-based Blue Fish set its sights on Houston, they realized that there was already two restaurants here with the same name. Not just any restaurants, but fellow sushi restaurants -- and fairly popular ones at that. Confusion is bound to play out for the rest of t ... More >>

"Auld Lang Syne," In All Its Many Colors

​Harry: What does this song mean? My whole life, I don't know what this song means. "Should old acquaintance be forgot" - does that mean we should forget old acquaintances, or if we happen to forget them, that we should remember them, which is not possible because we've already forgotten them? ... More >>

Chef Adison Lee: Not New to Nobu, But New to Raku

The seared albacore was particularly good with the freshly-grated, real wasabi served in a huge, fragrant mound.​Chef Adison Lee is passionate about fish. That should really come with the territory when you're helming one of Houston's most upscale sushi restaurants, but Lee seems singularly i ... More >>

Colin Hay Is Still A Man At Work

​Though best known as the frontman of iconic and infectious '80s group Men at Work ("Who Can It Be Now?" "Down Under," "Overkill," "It's a Mistake"), for over 20 years Colin Hay has forged a newer identity as a singer-songwriter to a growing fanbase less likely to yell out "Vegemite Sandwich!" ... More >>

Silly Alley

The 39 Steps turns a Hitchcock drama into hilarious farce.

Rocks Off's Rodeo Concert Guide: Brad "Not Jake Gyllenhaal" Paisley

Date: March 11 Name: Brad Paisley AKA: "Isn't That Jake Gyllenhaal?" Genre: Freemason country Best Known Song(s): "Alcohol," "She's Everything," "Ticks," "Ow, My Back" Key Demographic: Confused Brokeback Mountain fans, people who only eat the vanilla section of Neapolitan ice cream Previous HLSR A ... More >>

The New American Whiskeys

​Branch Water Tavern, the subject of this week's Café review, has a collection of rare American whiskeys behind the bar that really widened my horizons. St. George single-malt tastes like it was made in Scotland. It starts out as dark-brown ale and is distilled in a tiny copper pot still. It' ... More >>

Tonight: Songwriting Legend Mark Germino at Anderson Fair

​Veteran Nashville songwriter Mark Germino will be making a rare Houston appearance tonight at Anderson Fair. The last time Germino played there, no less a fan than Steve Fromholz drove over from Austin to catch the show. A songwriter's songwriter, Germino is one of the most revered writers in the ... More >>

Houston Rugby Takes A Giant Step Forward

By the time Brad Allen finished his first-half scoring run, the Houston Athletic Rugby Club had the game in the bag. Now they're headed to the first Sweet 16 playoff berth in club history.   "It's a really big deal," says club president Will Wornardt, who searched records dating to the inceptio ... More >>

This Week in SXSW: Katy Perry Kisses the "Lake of Fire"

There's now less than a month to go until we here at Rocks Off throw sobriety and sane living to the wind at this year's SXSW festival. This past week we learned of a boatload of new stuff about the weeklong liver-damaging voyage in March, so here goes... The list of bands keeps growing and gro ... More >>

Incident In Scotland May Spur Lawsuit By Houstonian

Tired of the Hype, But That's All There Is

Next month, Houston gets to be a cool kid. But only for a week.

Spy Stories

Edwin Wilson said he was still in touch with his former employer, the CIA, when he shipped explosives out of Houston to the Middle East. The CIA denied it. The CIA lied

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

Coming to Numbers

Crawfish

Mardi Gras Grill hosts a weekly eating contest

Mojo Risin' Coffee House

Dave Ransom and Abi Tapia

Lemonade Stand

It ain't easy protesting in a van

The Killers vs. the Killers

How do these pretty boys stack up against some real dealers of death?

Make Mine a Guinness

The author discovers his genetic Irishness

The Fido Solution

The ultimate answer to too many strays, cash-strapped budgets, animal shelter abuses and starving people

A Base for Drums

Bounce to beats unlimited at Bayou Bhangra's monthly parties

Globe Theater

East meets West at the Houston Shakespeare Festival

Curry for the Laddies

London Sizzler serves up Indian food made the British way

The Great Pretender

Bonnie "Prince" Billy gets the royal treatment

Heavy Heaving

The Scots know about throwing games

Cardiac Kids

The Austin rejects of Young Heart Attack rule Houston and the UK

Hype This

Fleetwood Mac opens the Toyota Center, the Chron hyperventilates, and a city grumbles

Houston 1, Luftwaffe 0

Tim Murrah's Stuka goes down in flames

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

The Eel Thing

Looking for a veteran sushi chef who'll actually talk to you? Chef Toda's your man.

A Classic Mistake

Dated doesn't mean feted at Main Street Theater

Art, Lies and Videotape

Lynne McCabe's subjects steal her show

Welcome to His Nightmare

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

Driving Ambition

Trading with the Enemy

Houston oil companies maintain their profitable ties to Libya, in roundabout ways

Steady Eddie

Decades of torn-up road behind him, Van Halen's guitar god keeps chugging ahead

Static

The Few, The Proud, the Battered

At Harlingen's Marine Military Academy, the line between discipline and abuse is sometimes as thin as a knife's edge

On the Fringe

Winter blasts Macbeth

Sometimes, love does conquer all

Graphic Ideas

The Burial and Resurrection (maybe) of Doug Sanders

For 14 years, Doug Sanders ran Houston's most celebrity-filled golf tournament. Then he was accused of sticking his hand in the till. Now he wants to come back.

Press Briefs