James Taylor

Flashback: 1983

What buying concert tickets here was like 30 years ago.

Ask Willie D: Sexually Active Teen; White Man, Black Woman

Welcome to Ask Willie D, Rocks Off's advice column where the Geto Boys MC answers reader questions about matters, in his own words, "funny, serious or unpredictable." Something on your mind? Ask Willie D! I'M 15: I SMOKE, I DRINK AND I'M SEXUALLY ACTIVE Willie D: I have had sex with five differen ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Walter Suhr, the Straw That Stirs Mango Punch!

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. With his signature panama hat and a wide sm ... More >>

A Few Things You Didn't Know About "Oh! Susanna"

On this day in 1847, legendary American songwriter Stephen Foster debuted the song "Oh! Susanna" to a crowd at the Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "Who gives a tin Enchirito about something we sang in grade school?" you're shouting because you're a weird shouty person wi ... More >>

Contessa Andrea Von Schmidt, Dwayne Gator Liggins: It's the Quarterly Strange (Accused) Criminal Name Report

As we head into what passes for fall down here, it's high time we came up with another list of the strangest, funniest and most awesome names to pass through the Harris County Criminal Justice Center over the last few months. (Or years. We stumbled on some older ones.) As always, some of these peop ... More >>

The Beatles' Rotted Apple Records Ripe for Rediscovery

Strange Fruit: The Beatles' Apple Records Chrome Dreams, 162 mins., $19.95. While the Beatles' formation of their Apple company had roots in a tax dodge, the foursome really did (at least originally) seek to create a haven where creative types across different genres from art and film and design to ... More >>

Rock Me... Gently: How the Singer-Songwriters of the Mellow '70s Ruled

Hearts of Darkness: James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Cat Stevens, and the Unlikely Rise of the Singer-Songwriter By Dave Thompson www.backbeatbooks.com, 336 pp., $27.99 Whether you love their deep introspective, often angst-filled lyrics and laid-back strumming or despise them as weak-ass, spoiled, gr ... More >>

The 5 Most Tense Decisions to Be Made in a Heat Wave

Summer is here in full force, with record days of triple-digit temperatures sapping your energy and baking your hide. Hot temperatures bring with them a series of tense decisions that must be made, decisions where if you guess wrong, the circumstances can be dire. (Note: These do not include the ex ... More >>

Are SNL's Divisive Musical Guests Making It Relevant Again??

Even as sketch comedy tastes have changed, and a segment of the population has sadly written it off as an unfunny relic, NBC's Saturday Night Live is still pulling in cutting-edge, marquee musical guests each week, in the process creating national stars or pariahs. Or sometimes both. Case in point ... More >>

Top 10 Carole King Songs Written for Other Artists

Carole King is a woman who has played a major part in creating numerous classic hit songs. She has helped to shape popular music since she and then-husband Gerry Goffin (they divorced in 1968) wrote "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" in 1961. Her songs have been covered by such diverse artists as Smokey Ro ... More >>

The Simpsons' Top 11 Musical Guests

​When The Simpsons completes its last (contracted) season in 2014, it will have set staggering new broadcast records for longest running sitcom (over 550 episodes) and longest running prime time scripted TV series (25 seasons). These are all American records, of course, because the Japanese co ... More >>

Southwest's Pilot Apologizes For Misogynist, Anti-Gay Rant

Sorry about that.​KPRC, which first broke the story, has an update: The pilot caught on an open cockpit microphone denigrating gays and flight attendants has sent out a company-wide apology letter. Captain James Taylor said he "deeply regret[s]" the remarks. "Please know that this event has ... More >>

James Taylor

10 Uncool Artists Primed For Hipster Rediscovery

Tumblr"Aw, dammit, I grabbed Dad's iPod by mistake. Paul Simon... is that one guy, or two Beatles?" ​Remember emo kids? Only a few short years ago, the nation's venues of the nation were filled with kids in all black, wearing ultra-skinny jeans, eyeliner, white belts, and identical chopped-mea ... More >>

Upcoming: Chris Cornell, Katy Perry, Lil Wayne, Etc.

​Air Waves, Football, Etc: Sun., Feb. 13. Fitzgerald's. Avant: Sun., Feb. 13. House of Blues. Listenlisten, Bear Crossing, Binary Marketing Show: Sat., March 19. Super Happy Fun Land. Black Lips, Vivian Girls: Fri., April 29. Fitzgerald's. Born Liars, The Energy: Wed., Feb. 9. Mango's. By ... More >>

David Caceres

More Like "Hall Of Lame," Am I Right?

​Ladies and gentlemen, your 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is ready to admit a new class: Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Neil Diamond, Darlene Love and Dr. John have all been inducted for 2011, the foundation announced Wednesday. With the exception of Wai ... More >>

Last Night: Jack Johnson At The Woodlands

Photos by Liana Lopez​Jack Johnson Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion August 18, 2010 Check out a slideshow from last night's concert. The dirty secret about Jack Johnson is that he may be the closest thing this generation has to the iconic singer-songwriters our parents grew up with in the lat ... More >>

The Ultimate Sandal-Rock Mixtape

​Tonight Craig's Hlist will drive all the way out the Woodlands to see Jack Johnson, one of sandal-rock's biggest superstars. He's like the Lady the Rolling Stones of sandal-rock. He's like the McDonald's of sandal-rock. He's James Taylor for people who shop at Whole Foods. He's the Sex Pistol ... More >>

Hit the Road, Jack: 10 More Notable Musical Deaths From the Past Decade

​ Looking back, this past decade wasn't too kind to rock and roll as a whole. We lost plenty of people who weren't exactly disgustingly huge as Michael Jackson or as monolithic as Johnny Cash. This decade took its share of people who were massively influential and iconic, but not on the grand worl ... More >>

He Said She Said: Hot, Sweaty, Angry Workout Songs

​When it comes to exercise, men and women don't have many different reasons for doing it. Mainly, both genders want to look better naked if perchance they find themselves without clothes on around a stranger they want to sleep with. Life expectancy, general health, and mental well-being are all se ... More >>

I Wanna Be Your Dog: Michael Vick's Entrance Music

Keith Allison​The mystery of whether or not Michael Vick would be picked up by an NFL team was solved pretty handily last week, when the Philadelphia Eagles signed him as a backup for Donovan McNabb. The Eagles were able to look past Vick's history of...questionable behavior because they need a re ... More >>

Another Rock Mag Bites The Dust: Performing Songwriter Says Goodbye

Print publications focusing on music continue to fall like pine trees in a hurricane. The latest to close its doors is 16-year-old Performing Songwriter. Editor/publisher Lydia Hutchison announced Wednesday that the June issue would be the last. The magazine joins No Depression, Blender and Count ... More >>

1968 with Tom Brokaw

Web exclusive!

Songs Not To Play At Intercontinental Airport's New Karaoke Booth

So now there's a karaoke booth at Intercontinental Airport. According to the Houston Chronicle, travelers can choose from "hundreds of titles."We got to wondering this morning about what's in their song selections there and more to the point -- what isn't.We imagine that the management of IAH's kara ... More >>

The Weather Channel: So What’s Up?

Max Stalling, blacktopGYPSY

California Guitar Trio

Musican threesome go bohemian

Summer Mix Tape

Dead Rock West

Honey and Salt

Houston Rock Scene Woes, Continued

A tri-ologue with three scene vets about selling out, not being true to yourself and rocking too hard

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

Vallejo

Vallejo performs Friday, January 5, at the Continental Club, 3700 Main, 713-529-9899.

Just Say No Más

In which we examine Cancuntry music

A Pack of Mutts

The lone wolves of 2005

Dana Cooper

Made of Mud

For Those About to Rock

Guitar Hero cranks rhythm-gaming up to 11

One Tree Hill Tour, with the Wreckers, Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz

Thursday, March 17, at Numbers, 300 Westheimer, 713-526-6551.

Devin the Dude

To Tha X-Treme (Rap-A-Lot)

Beautiful Music

The young and the younger flock to John Mayer and Maroon 5

Eric Hisaw, with Greg Wood

Thursday, August 28

Erasure

Other People's Songs (Mute)

Melissa Adams

Firefly

Blowing Smoke

Government and civic boosters know the way to clean up the air in polluted southeast communities: add another chemical plant

Scenes from the Bayou Sphere

Hail to the '80s

A rash of new compilations makes a case for the Me Decade's place in rock history

Sound Check

Press Picks

Sounding Out Mary

Mary Karlzen doesn't want to be anyone but herself

Rotation