Janis Joplin

The Rocks Off 100: Robin Kirby, Silk and Sandpaper Songwriter

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? Singer-Songwriter Robin Kirby entered ... More >>

Houston's the Beans Grind Out an Album the Natural Way

The Beans have noticed a pretty insane trend lately; the Houston band has found itself compared to the likes of Texas rock legend Janis Joplin and Brittany Howard, vocal empresaria for the Alabama Shakes. The only problem in this equation? It's a band chock full o' dudes. They're cool with it, tho ... More >>

Janis Joplin at 70: What Might Have Been?

Janis Joplin would have been 70 years old on Saturday, which means it's been more than 40 years since she died. But even today Joplin's name is practically a household word, thanks to one of the most powerful, emotional, expressive voices in rock history. Of course Joplin was one of the original '6 ... More >>

Kozmic Pearl

Musically Speaking, What Is the Best Zodiac Sign?

Sometimes some musicians just can't even be put in the same sentence as one another. Depending on people's musical preferences. It's hard to compare and can be a bit confrontational. But one thing is for sure the day on which someone is born can't be changed. And then that's where astrology comes in ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Beehive, Black Coffee, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Lion King, Tamarie Cooper's DOOMSDAY REVUE (the greatest musical ever), Travelsty

Capsule Stage Reviews: Beehive, Large Animal Games, Alice in Wonderland: the Musical Queen, Black Coffee

Mail Dump: Janis, Little Richard, dBs, Donovan, Etc.

The mailbox has been truly kind the past several weeks. Sure, there are still piles of useless dreck to wade through/past/over. But those all get to go to the big box in the dark closet and await the apocalypse. But there are standouts and surprises almost daily. Let's begin with three important re ... More >>

Kozmic Pearl

Summer of Love 45th Anniversary

Rest Of The Best: Houston's Top 8 Jukeboxes

Along with pickled pig's feet and a steady supply of Slim Jims, a good jukebox is a prime element for any great bar. But, like dinosaurs, jukeboxes are a vanishing breed. Unlike digital jukes, iPods or DJs, jukeboxes require love, care and maintenance, as well as -- among the truly great ones -- som ... More >>

Friday Night: Alabama Shakes at Continental Club

Alabama Shakes doesn't like the "retro soul" label that often is attached to their brand of music. But, if their raucous set at Continental Club on Friday night is any indication, they should embrace it because they certainly owned it. "Y'all gon' be alright," singer Brittany Howard told the packed ... More >>

Happy Birthday Janis Joplin: Kozmic Pearl's Myrna Sanders On The Late Rock Icon

Today would have been rock great and former Port Arthur resident Janis Joplin's 69th birthday, a fact that would have Joplin snicker for the next year. Since her death in 1970, at the sad magical age of 27, the legend of Joplin has grown immensely, with her vocal style and stage presence helping inf ... More >>

On the Rocks: Cocktails Named After Musicians for New Year's Eve

Have a G.G. Allin and bring in the New Year indecently!​Everything is more exciting, sometimes even redeeming, when it has a cool name: Sexual acts, alcoholic beverages, movies, albums, etc. OK, maybe just sexual acts and drinks. Since there are thousands of sites that have the former covere ... 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 >>

Texas Pop Festival Finally Getting Historical Marker

Mike PorterBathe, hippies, bathe!​Rocks Off can't do anything about the drought, but this weekend we will be breaking our own personal drought and returning to the Austin City Limits Music Festival after taking 2010 off. But long before ACL, there was another massive musical gathering in Texa ... More >>

Diva-licious

Music Box Theater brings big-city, high-style cabaret to Houston.

35 Bands You Should Never, Ever Search On Google Images

dedica.laOnce unprintable in "family" newspapers, today the Butthole Surfers barely even rate on our list. You'll see why.​Here at Rocks Off, we take our blog ideas where we can get them - even from mistakes. Allow us to explain. About a month ago, we went to Rihanna at Toyota Center, and aft ... More >>

Idol Beat: I Do Not Like That will.i.am

​Only nine hopefuls remain in this, the 10th season of American Idol (AKA the Greatest Talent Competition Since the Battle of the Bands at San Dimas High School). It's time to separare the wheat from the chaff, the post-adolescents from the mere adolescents, those who are "in it to win it" fro ... 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 >>

Museum Of The Gulf Coast's Musical Treasure Trove

Photos by Craig HlavatyJanis Joplin's car​Rocks Off visited the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur this past Friday while on the the way to Louisiana for a quick vacation. The downstairs area is full of artifacts pertaining to the founding of the land around Port A, like military and anim ... More >>

"Summertime" From Beyond The Grave

​Today marks the 44th anniversary of Janis Joplin's first gig with Big Brother and the Holding Company. One of rock's most staggering vocalists, Joplin became another star who left us too soon on October 4, 1970, when she overdosed on heroin while recording Pearl. George Gershwin's "Summertime" wa ... More >>

Whoa! 21 Famous Musicians' High-School Yearbook Photos

Willie Nelson, the LAST time he had his hair short.​While Rocks Off was seeking out the best rock star yearbook photos for this blog, we came to a conclusion: Everyone was ugly in their yearbook photos, except Gwen Stefani and Beyonce Knowles. Everyone else looks weird as hell, or nothing like the ... More >>

Freak Flags Fly At Art Car Ball

Photo by P3t3rT​The best thing about Art Car Weekend is it's the one weekend in Houston where everybody can let their freak flag fly. Last night at the Art Car Ball, Rocks Off saw a woman wearing nothing but Koosh Balls on her tatas and a dude who was way more excited than necessary to be wear ... More >>

Art Car Ball/Sneak Peek

Idol Beat: The "Best of the Rest," Or So Fox Says

​Last night's American Idol was a clip show, plain and simple. Nothing else going on at all. Granted, every cattle-call audition episode can feel like a clip show, with an endless run of short, forgettable stories placed one after the other. But last night's installment didn't even pretend to ... More >>

American Idol: The "Best of the Rest," Or So Fox Says

​Last night's American Idol was a clip show, plain and simple. Nothing else going on at all. Granted, every cattle-call audition episode can feel like a clip show, with an endless run of short, forgettable stories placed one after the other. But last night's installment didn't even pretend to ... More >>

Remembering Janis: Port Arthur's Pearl Would Have Been 67 Today

Today would have been Port Arthur native Janis Joplin's 67th birthday. Rocks Off started his day at the desk with her greatest-hits collection and all her work with Big Brother & the Holding Company that gets overlooked in lieu of her bigger singles. Pearl is still seen by many as the magnum op ... More >>

Eyeballin: Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! - the Rolling Stones In All Their Late-'60s Satanic Majesty

In late 1969, the Rolling Stones were at a musical crossroads. They were two years away from the deep blues of Sticky Fingers and its follow-up, the majestically scuzzy Exile On Main Street. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were still very much tinkering with their new bluesier direction that would t ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: Houston and "Brazoria"

The final installment of our Five States of Texas project brings it all back home, to the new state of Brazoria, encompassing all of Southeast Texas from the Brazos Valley to Sabine Pass. ​Patron Saint: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. A master of rock and roll, country, Cajun/Creole, blues and jazz, n ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs for Getting It On

[Ed. Note: While we were off watching Night Ranger videos or something - which should tell you all you need to know about our own sex life at the moment - Rocks Off No. 2, Craig Hlavaty, and Web Editor Katharine Shilcutt started going back and forth about how men and women want to hear very differen ... More >>

Burnin' for You

Going Viral

The infestation of classic-rock threatens the cultural legacy of an entire generation and must be stopped.

1968 with Tom Brokaw

Web exclusive!

Oh, Christ: Original Limp Bizkit Lineup to Reunite

Because things aren't already bad enough out there right now, the original lineup of crotch-rocking mooks Limp Bizkit annouced today they are reuniting. Here, according to a joint statement by the band's Fred Durst and Wes Borland, is their reasoning: "We decided we were more disgusted and b ... More >>

30 Rock Takes Another Little Piece of Port Arthur

One of the only things Rocks Off loves as much as Tom Petty and chicken-fried steak is NBC's brilliant, multiple Emmy-winning 30 Rock, which he thinks is the best TV comedy since The Larry Sanders Show. Now he loves it even more after last night's deliciously twisted episode, "Senor Mach ... More >>

Eyeopener Tour: Music Maestros

The Orange Show shows off Houston’s musical history

SXSW: Black Diamond Heavies at Fado's Patio

Capsule Stage Reviews: Frozen, Jersey Boys, Love, Janis, Sugar Bean Sisters

Capsule Stage Reviews: Frozen, Love, Janis, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Veronica's Room

Love, Janis

The Alley Theatre remembers a Texas legend

Get Hustle

Rollin' in the Ruins

Party Train

Janis, the Dead, the Band and others take the happiest trip of their lives

Podunk

Saturday, December 15

Psychedelic Cheeseburger

For serious meat-on-a-bun surfers

Playbill

Big Mouth: Beth Hart. Also, L'Amico Fritz and Gianni Schicchi

Internalizing the Blues

Night & Day

October 29 - November 4, 1998

Get It While You Can

Jerry Ragavoy and the ghost of Janis Joplin

Blues Survivor