Janis Joplin

Happy Birthday Kurt Cobain: Where Would He Be Today?

Last year on this date in honor of what would have been late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's 45th birthday, I wrote a blog supposing where the grunge icon would have been in 2012. It got a lot of traction and people loved and hated it. Imagining him as a dubstep DJ was really for grins and shock valu ... More >>

Top 5 Old Songs Ripe for Hipster Updates

After having grown up in a pop-music culture that every day grows more adept at rehashing, re-imagining and (let's be frank) flat-out stealing sounds from those who came before, today's indie bands are no strangers to aping their influences. And unlike post-punk and grunge before them, this class do ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Cliff Dotterer of Black Dog Records

Who? Cliff Dotterer is the co-owner and operating manager of Black Dog Records, which just moved to its new Bellaire location last week. The shop's inventory of records and collectibles includes a who's who of rock legends and current artists, as well as rarities, imports, T-shirts, record player ne ... More >>

Ooh La La, Grace Potter

Country's biggest summer tour an alt-pop blond bombshell.

Beehive

Welcome To My World: 10 Musicians Who Deserve Their Own Reality Show

Ever since The Real World hit the MTV airwaves in the early '90s, reality television has been all the rage. However, since The Osbournes debuted in 2002, some of that reality programming has catered to music fans. Even such music artists as country artist Tanya Tucker, rapper/minister Reverend Run ... More >>

Law and Order: Top 10 Best (Or Worst) Musicians' Arrests

Nobody is above the law - not even musicians even though some of them may think they are. However, some of their outrageous behavior has become legendary. Others have spawned rumors, killed their careers and/or made them the butt of many jokes. In fact, this makes me wonder why there is not a cele ... More >>

Women On Top: 10 Female Artists We're Way Into Right Now

March is Women's History Month, and Rocks Off has been thinking a lot lately about the indelible contributions to popular music made by women over the last few decades. After all, where would Elvis Presley be if it weren't for Big Mama Thornton? Probably still dead, we guess, but you get the point. ... More >>

Kurt Cobain At 45: Where Would He Be In 2012?

​Had he not died in April 1994 by his own hand -- or sinister forces working for Courtney Love (insert maniacal laugh) -- Kurt Cobain would have turned 45 years old today. The rock icon killed himself at the age of 27, leaving behind not only a daughter to fend for herself against the wiles of ... 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 >>

10 Things You Need To Grab At Black Friday Record Store Day

While your other shopping contemporaries are slashing each others' throats at Walmart and Best Buy for $20 plasma televisions and six Blu-Ray players for $5 on Black Friday next week, why not sleep in and head up to your favorite local record store and fight other music nerds for limited edition vin ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Damaged Divas of the Decades, Debbie Does Dallas, the Musical, Galveston! the Musical!, Guys and Dolls

Father Figures: 100 Famous Musicians' Paternal Professions

If you're a Texan of a certain age, this week you've probably spent some time mourning the death of Jerry Haynes, the children's TV host better known as Mr. Peppermint. Haynes' show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Peppermint Place, ran from the '60s to the '90s and was widely syndicated across the state, incl ... More >>

BestFest: Honky Tonk Brothers Draw Blood, Carolyn Wonderland Laps The Field

Photos by Jason WolterThe Honky Tonk Blood Brothers​The Home Brew stage served up a buffet of local talent with Johnny Falstaff, John Evans, Southern Backtones' Hank Schyma, and Craig Kinsey of the Sideshow Tramps, otherwise known as the Honky Tonk Blood Brothers. Each member of the quartet tu ... More >>

BestFest: Chamillionaire, Starmaker; The Tontons, New Stars

Marc BrubakerKing Koopa: Talent scout in his spare time.​God Almighty, that cool front did not last anywhere near long enough. The crowd seems to be in pretty good spirits, but it's just past the hottest part of the day right now and fatigue is starting to show. It's better now - ed. People a ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Damaged Divas of the Decades, Farragut North, Goodbye Charlie, Kissless the Musical, Once Upon a Mattress, A Triumph of Love

Capsule Stage Reviws: Damaged Divas of the Decades, Once Upon a Mattress, Sylvia

Diary Of A Girls Rock Camp Counselor: Best Week Ever

Photos by Allison WagonerCampers Zoey and Lilli show off their DIY album art.​Today is the last day of Girls Rock Camp Houston and Rocks Off has already cried twice. It's only 7 a.m. We never thought we'd get so emotionally involved - psych, we're babies - but being surrounded by these gifted ... More >>

R.I.P.: Remembering The 27 Club - Jimi, Jim, Janis, Kurt...

​As a student of rock music since he was born and sat in front of MTV and VH1, Craig's Hlist has grown up hearing constant aching throb of the number 27, the end-marker for a collection of rockers who died at that hallowed age, due mostly to their own chemical and/or personal misadventures. ... More >>

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals

Last Night: Soul Asylum At House Of Blues

Photos by Jason Wolter​Soul Asylum House of Blues December 30, 2010 '90s alt-rock mainstays Soul Asylum took the House of Blues stage Thursday night, 18 years after their breakthrough release Grave Dancers Union. Front man Dave Pirner is conceivably regarded as one of the era's most colorful ... More >>

Music's Top 10 Biggest Post-Drug Comebacks

​The list of drug casualties in rock and roll is a long and sad one. All the suicides, car crashes and the stray gang-related murder are outweighed by the amount of people who just can't stop putting junk into their system, or at least moderate it to a point where they aren't lying cold on a h ... More >>

Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Etheridge

American Idol: Miley As Mentor

​There were many dark and torturous moments in last night's American Idol. If forced to pick just one, I would have to go with the selection of Miley Cyrus as this week's "mentor" to the singers. The mentor thing, I am gathering, is a regular feature in which a recording artist stops by to lis ... More >>

Idol Beat: Miley As Mentor

​There were many dark and torturous moments in last night's American Idol. If forced to pick just one, I would have to go with the selection of Miley Cyrus as this week's "mentor" to the singers. The mentor thing, I am gathering, is a regular feature in which a recording artist stops by to lis ... More >>

Which Other Local Musical Landmarks Deserve Historical Markers?

Chris Gray SugarHill Studios​Monday's announcement that the Texas Historical Commission has approved Eric Davis' proposal for an official state historical marker honoring Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins is wonderful news, but it's also only the tip of the iceberg. Plenty of other spots around town, ... More >>

Idol Beat: Here We Go Again...

Last night's guest judge: a bobblehead doll Victoria Beckham​I've never watched a whole season of American Idol before, but that's a minor detail. Actually watching this show doesn't seem to be necessary to know as much about it as the most devoted fans: Amateur singers judges = quasi-drama. ... More >>

American Idol: It Begins

Last night's guest judge: a bobblehead doll Victoria Beckham​I've never watched a whole season of American Idol before, but that's a minor detail. Actually watching this show doesn't seem to be necessary to know as much about it as the most devoted fans: Amateur singers judges = quasi-drama. ... More >>

The Forgotten Festival

The 1969 Texas International Pop Festival

Dirty, Dirty Hippies Were the Least Odious of Woodstock's Many Shameful Legacies

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, as if you needed us to remind you. Documentaries, feature films, tours and boxed CD sets have been rolling out all summer in order to wring still more cash from the corpses of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and - to a lesser extent - Country Joe McD ... More >>

Aftermath: Heartless Bastards at Warehouse Live

Photos by Craig Hlavaty Sometime Wednesday night, Aftermath tweeted into the ether that we were watching a "female-fronted southern fried T Rex" while semi-Austin transplants the Heartless Bastards cranked into "Early In The Morning" about halfway through their set opening up for the Houston-bashing ... More >>

Bradford Gray Telford and Jericho Brown

Web exclusive!

Tonight: Battle of the Bar Bands at House of Blues

A more cutthroat distant cousin to the rock/soul package tours of the late '50s and '60s, "Battle of the Bands" competitions were never really in style - except maybe in the Sunset Strip hair-metal heyday of the mid-'80s - but they never really go out of style either. Tonight at House of Blues, ... More >>

Upcoming Texas Twists on 30 Rock

Regular readers may be aware that Rocks Off has become somewhat obsessed with NBC's 30 Rock lately. Actually, that's not true. He's been obsessed with the show since the first time he saw it - Alec Baldwin is a comedic genius, and oh, that Tina Fey - but its recent tendency to insert plot ... More >>

The Return of Mail Call

It's been a while, but let's see what's been lurking in the bin... *Kenton & Hill (Houston): "A side project from Last Soul Descendents producer Darren Roberts, this masterpiece brings together live jazzy, funky, hip-hop grooves with heavy dance beats to create a unique sound." D-Fu-J- ... More >>

“Day of the Dead Rock Stars”

See Bob Marley, Bo Diddley and others given the DOD treatment by artist Carlos Hernandez

Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues, with Appaloosa

Marty Stuart's American Odyssey Does Houston

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

David Leaf’s documentary shows the giant steps the feds took against a cultural icon

Reverberations: Thee Headcoatees, The Love Me Nots, The Black Hollies and L.A. Slumlords

This Just In: Hard Rock Hosting Melissa Etheridge Listening Party

All's Mel

Hellish Houston

A summer selection of the Bayou City's most miserable music and depressing songs

Macy Gray

Lost Legends

Tary Owens helped rescue the early roots of Texas music. Then those songs saved Owens from himself.

More Blues Than You Can Use

Unforgettable?

The new Bobby Fuller retrospective salutes a questionable legacy

The Name Game

When Austin's Little Sister found she had too many siblings, she became Sister 7

Just Bitchin'

7 Year Bitch does it faster and harder