Jay Lee

5 Bands Studies Show Make You a Bad Person

We've been hearing for years that rock music makes us bad people. We've heard it from our parents, from teachers, from those goody-goody kids at school. AC/DC has probably written at least 100 songs about the subject. But what if I told you that scientists in the Netherlands have proved definitively ... More >>

Houston's Top 5 Large Music Venues

5. TOYOTA CENTER Aeros, Rockets and concerts. Oh my! Houston's Toyota Center is built to impress and hosts big-time, all-star performances, ranging from Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga to Metallica and Tool. When it isn't a sporting event, the venue's playing surfaces are removed, giving way to an extra ... More >>

15 Notable Houston Concerts of 2012

As we look back over 2012 this week, it is now time to revisit some of this year's memorable shows. It wasn't easy narrowing the list down to 15. Concerts are in chronological order. CHRIS GRAY DAY, The Continental Club So much local talent and so much love. Uh, if I'm maybe a little too biased on ... More >>

The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: October 22-25

Rodriguez House of Blues, October 23 Had he not fallen victim to slow sales in the early '70s, Detroit-born rocker Rodriguez could have been one of the biggest acts of the decade. After releasing two sturdy, Dylanesque albums, 1970's Cold Fact and Coming From Reality the next year, Rodriguez left r ... More >>

The Best Rockabilly Beauties From Rock Baby Rock It

See even more pinup queens in our Rock Baby Rock It slideshow. As William Michael Smith put it in his review, hot the operative word at Saturday's Rock Baby Rock It hot-rod show/musical extravaganza. Ladies were dolled up pin-up style all over the Island off Main, with tall hair, heavy make-up, and ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Talking With The Victims Of Candace Schwager's DWI Crash

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning or afternoon from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula i ... More >>

Jay Lee: Local Photographer Threatened With Lawsuit by Woman Who Used Copyrighted Photo Without Permission

When Houston photographer, Houston Chronicle blogger, and KPFT tech-talk show co-host Jay Lee found out last month that one of his copyrighted pics of Houston's skyline had been used without permission on multiple websites, he sent the web hosts a Digital Millenium Copyright Act notice informing the ... More >>

Shot In The Dark: Angels & A-Holes

When you're in the photo pit taking pictures for a publication such as Rocks Off, you can become the unwanted center of attention from both the audience and especially the artists. Most of the time you are only a few feet away from the performer, and often in their direct line of sight. They can and ... More >>

Shot in the Dark: A Brief Preview of Next Week's Show

Gosh, it's almost a week away from Rocks Off's second Shot in the Dark photo show. Snuck up on us. Today we just wanted to show you a few pictures you'll be seeing at War'Hous Visual Studios (4715 Main) next Thursday, May 17, from 7 to 10 p.m., like Marco Torres's striking photo of DJ Jazzy Jeff fr ... More >>

Shot In The Dark Photo Exhibit Returns May 17

Rocks Off is glad to announce that Shot in the Dark, our exhibition of concert photography that has appeared online and in the pages of the Houston Press, will return Thursday, May 17 at the War'Hous Visual Studios at 4715 Main in the Museum District. This year, since it's at an actual art space, a ... More >>

10 Rock Stars the GOP Should Nominate for President

As the 2012 presidential race begins to heat up in earnest, Rocks Off can't help but feel that the front-runners for the Republican nomination are lacking a certain je ne sais quoi. Call it star power. Call it sex appeal. Whatever it is, these guys ain't got it. If the GOP is serious about wresti ... More >>

Saturday: Chris Gray Day at the Continental Club

Photo by Marco TorresChris with the officers that saved his life.​Click here for a slideshow of the bands and here for a slideshow of the crowd. "I didn't know Chris was a celebrity." Chris Gray's mother told a rapt audience from the stage on Saturday afternoon that she was "overwhelmed" by ... More >>

Robust Night Of Roots-Rock Shows Scene's True Grit

Jay LeeDave Alvin​Rocks Off feels like we live in a Western. This is nothing unusual for us, except right now is the part of the movie (every movie) where one cowboy turns to the other one and says, "It's quiet out here." The other answers, of course, "Yeah... too quiet." Since about Free Pre ... More >>

Motley Crue At Toyota Center: A Taste

Photos by Jay Lee​Rocks Off had to run by the (rocks) office this afternoon, so we thought we'd post a few photos from Friday's Motley Crue/Poison/New York Dolls glamstravaganza at Toyota Center while we were up here, plus a few tweets from the show. See our full review, and more photos, tomor ... More >>

Ke$ha Invites Fans To Send Her Their Teeth

Jay Lee​Reigning slutwave queen Ke$ha is requesting than fans send her their teeth in order for her to make a necklace she hopes to wear at a future awards show. Apparently one fan has already done so in the past, and Kesha has taken to wearing the single tooth around her neck. Not content wit ... More >>

Saturday Night: Josh Groban At Toyota Center

Photos by Jay Lee​Josh Groban Toyota Center May 14, 2011 Josh Groban is an unusual pop star. Unusual for 2011, anyway. One hundred years ago, many "pop stars" as we think of the term today drew their repertoires from light opera and Italian bel canto. The vocal techniques and subject matter ... More >>

Last Night: Jimmy Buffett At Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Photos by Jay Lee​Jimmy Buffett & the Coral Reefer Band Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion May 5, 2011 See more changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes in our slideshow. Blowing through the jasmine of our mind, Aftermath once got it in our head somehow that Jimmy Buffett wrote "Margaritavill ... More >>

Friday Night: Ke$ha At Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Jay Lee​Ke$ha Verizon Wireless Theater April 29, 2011 Before Ke$ha even hit the stage for her sold-out show Friday night at Verizon Wireless Theater, we saw limos full of prom-ready teens pulling up to the venue, mounds of glitter were embedded into the cracks in the pavement surrou ... More >>

“Shot in the Dark: Houston Press Concert Photo Exhibition”

Shot In The Dark: How The Whole Mess Started

Mark C. AustinKings of Leon at Verizon Wireless Theater, October 2008​Just a couple of days now before Rocks Off - the person and the blog - proudly presents Shot In the Dark: Houston Press Concert Photography, our first-ever exhibit of live pics we've collected in about three and a half years ... More >>

Shot In The Dark: The Ones Who Got Away (So Far)

UPDATE (3:23 p.m.): Promotional video by Monica Fuentes added after the jump. Jay LeeLittle Joe Washington at the Continental Club's 10th anniversary, July 2010​Slowly but surely, Rocks Off has been getting ready for our "Shot In the Dark" photo exhibition at Warehouse Live's Studio next Thur ... More >>

Showing Off Our Photogs at Shot In The Dark Photo Show

Photo by Jay Lee​In 2008, Rocks Off began giving our readers some of the best live concert reviews and photos to go along with them. When we started, it was usually up to the writers themselves to take the pictures from the photo pit or from the crowd. This writer remembers shooting the Foo Fi ... More >>

Friday Night: Devo At Warehouse Live

Photos by Jay Lee​Devo Warehouse Live March 25, 2011 See more peek-a-boo pics of Devo, openers Octopus Project and their fans in our slideshow. When Aftermath first heard Devo's latest album, Something for Everybody, we listened with a cringe. It had been 20 years since the band had released ... More >>

Friday Night: Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears And The Relatives At The Continental Club

Photos by Jay LeeBlack Joe Lewis​Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, The Relatives Continental Club August 27, 2010 A few times a year, the Continental Club hosts shows that can be legitimately described as "soul happenings," usually featuring venerable Gulf Coast stars such as Archie Bell, Roy ... More >>

Little Joe Washington's Comeback Thrills Continental Anniversary Party

Photos by Jay Lee​Less than a week after finally going home from the rehabilitation facility where he had been recuperating from a pair of surgeries to clear an obstructed bowel, beloved Houston bluesman Little Joe Washington put on a spellbinding - if brief - performance at the Continental Cl ... More >>

Little Joe Washington Moved To Private Room At Ben Taub

Jay Lee​Rocks Off just received this update on Little Joe Washington's condition from his friend (and ours) Reg Burns: Just left from seeing Joe. He was been moved out of SICU and is on the same floor, unit 4B, room 7, bed 3. He immediately recognized me and seems more cognizant than the last time ... More >>

Neil Young, Old Man, Loudly Looks Back At His Life

Photos by Jay Lee​ Even Neil Young, whose lyrics are generally among the most unironic in rock and roll, has to grasp the irony of singing "Old Man" from the other side of the mirror. But as he's gone from "twenty-four and there's so much more" to "look at how the time goes past," the 64-year-old' ... More >>

Neil Young, Fans Will Never Walk Alone

Photos by Jay Lee​ Neil Young is about to embark on one of the most grizzled and stoic phases of his career, and Houston got its first taste of it on Friday night at Jones Hall. He was loud, he was poignant and every word and note he wrung from his cast of guitars and various plinkers dripped ... More >>

KISS Brings "Hottest Show On Earth" (Duh) To Woodlands

Jay Lee​ KISS returns to Houston for the second time in less than a year September 17. This time the monstrously monolithic classic-rockers will be gracing the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion for a tour they are calling the "Hottest Show on Earth." A local on-sale date will no doubt be announced s ... More >>

The Twitterverse

More than just cyberspace, the tweet life inspires people to make friends and adopt causes in person. It has a few problems, too.

Help Rocks Off Adjust This Year's HPMA Categories

Jay Lee2009 HPMA Best Blues, Best Guitarist and Local Musician of the Year Little Joe Washington​Rocks Off is about to take the first steps down the long and winding road to this year's Houston Press Music Awards in late July, but we'd like our readers' help with something first. We will be revisi ... More >>

Little Joe Washington Still Having Birthdays, Celebrating Them In Public

Jay Lee​Last year around this time, Rocks Off and our buddy Lonesome Onry and Mean both got caught up in multi-day musical benders that left us both dazed and confused (conditions from which some would argue we have never fully recovered). Although our respective paths through those days were very ... More >>

The Weekend In Photos

Not everyone was at the Houston Chevron Marathon this weekend, even though we couldn't have had more perfect weather for it. Some of you were at pubs and clubs, some of you were getting your roller derby on, some of you were at a burlesque show (naughty!) and some of you were at our very own Artopia ... More >>

KISS Online Takes the Pruning Shears to Rocks Off's Already-Favorable Review

Photos by Jay Lee/ Click here for a slideshow​ Rocks Off welcomes any artists' opinion of our critiques of their work, be it one of our more shining reviews or the instances where we pull up out the six-shooters and make them dance for their musical sins. But it's when you take our entire review, ... More >>

Aftermath: KISS, Hotter Than Hell and Strutting Like Dinosaurs In Houston Rock City

Photos by Jay Lee​ KISS is a depleting natural and cultural resource. One day there will be no KISS left, and all the world will have is four garish black and silver suits sitting in some futuristic Smithsonian display. We have had KISS on this Earth for almost 40 years, and many people have never ... More >>

Let It Glow, Let It Glow, Let It Glow

While we might be short -- extremely short -- on snow in Houston this holiday season, we had plenty to glow about on Saturday night at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Houston's famous art cars were on display as the public had never seen them before at the first annual Gloworama. People accu ... More >>

Hustlers Brass Band's Big Top Residency Begins Tonight

Jay Lee​ Dismal weather getting you down? Short days got you singing the blues? Are you hungry for some free red beans and rice and funk-drenched brass-band jams? Got five bucks? Then get on down to the Big Top tonight and/or every Tuesday through the end of the year for the Hustlers Brass Band's ... More >>

Slide Show: Zappa Plays Zappa at House of Blues

Jay Lee​ Looking more and more like his late father Frank every year, Dweezil Zappa continues to keep his dad's legacy of classically complex, absurdist jazz-rock alive through his constantly touring "Zappa Plays Zappa" ensemble. Unfortunately Rocks Off's reviewer was unable to make it to last Sat ... More >>

Aftermath: Drive-By Truckers' Cathartic, Down-Home Halloween Redemption at House of Blues

Photos by Jay Lee​ It took Aftermath most of Friday to figure out why we were in such an awful blue funk after Thursday's Pogues show, especially after the band delivered a more brilliant set than even this 20-year fan thought they were capable of. But after leaving work early and relaxing for a w ... More >>

HPMA: We Have Some Winners: Little Joe Washington, Cornbreadd, Flying Fish Sailors

Chris Gray​ Umbrella Man got the HPMAs off to a rousing start with some heel-kicking, toe-tapping zydeco gospel - after they cleared off the cables so hobbled singer Kam could get to center stage on her Rascal-like scooter. Then the first round of winners was announced... Best Folk: Flying Fish S ... More >>

Your One-Stop HPMA Showcase Link

GroovehouseLos Skarnales just wouldn't quit at House of Blues Sunday.​ Rocks Off is just about recovered from Sunday's HPMA showcase mayhem, or as recovered as we're going to get. Despite some bitching on Hands Up Houston - what else is new? - everybody we've talked to had as much of a blast as we ... More >>

Aftermath: Roky Erickson at the Continental Club

Jay Lee Remember when Little Richard quit rock and roll because he was worried about going to hell? Roky Erickson is what would have happened if he went... and came back. The 61-year-old '60s survivor, fronting a sleek three-piece band whose collective age may have added to 61, played a 75-minute s ... More >>

Can't Get It Out of My Head: "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"

Jay Lee Rocks Off would wholeheartedly like to wish Ms. Stevie Nicks a very happy birthday today; since she's the epitome of a rock and roll lady, we'll refrain from revealing her actual age. At Fleetwood Mac's Toyota Center concert earlier this month, Nicks seemed to be walking with a limp, and he ... More >>

Aftermath: Fleetwood Mac at Toyota Center

Photos by Jay Lee Every night the band goes onstage, Fleetwood Mac faces a concert onus only a handful of other groups need worry about: Are its songs too iconic? Is the rush of watching Stevie Nicks twirl out "Landslide" or "Rhiannon" live any match for the lifetime (or decades, anyway) of memories ... More >>

Sole Of Houston: East Side Story -- Trains, Tequila, Dogs & Grief

Photos by Jay LeeI just can't get enough of Houston's East End/Second Ward/Ship Channel area, so that is where the latest installment of the Sole of Houston took us. I don't think I can recreate the route with anything more than about 90 percent accuracy, but my best guess is that it looked so ... More >>

Aftermath: Son Volt at the Continental Club

Photos by Jay Lee"Now and then it keeps you runnin', never seems to die..." The opening line to Son Volt's soothing elegy "Windfall," which closed out Tuesday's main set at the Continental Club - just like almost every other SV set since the band's 1995 debut Trace - goes a long way to explain ... More >>

H-Town Hangman Addendum: Blaggards Prize Still Unclaimed

Photo by Jay Lee Blaggards frontman Patrick DevlinWell, despite being so easy Bob Ruggiero a caveman could do it, it appears as if the world premiere of H-Town Hangman still couldn't manage to deliver on the prize front. Or, rather, the first Hangman winner didn't stick around long enough to ... More >>

Got Five Minutes and a Mug?

Then you, too, can have a "chocolate cake" that looks like something you'd find in the lower intestine of an elephant.  Sounds tempting, right? The "Five Minute Chocolate Cake" recipe has been circling the internet for years, wowing college students and lazy eaters the world over.&nb ... More >>

Flying Fish Sailors

Poke You in the Eye (Topmast Productions)

Shanty Irish

The Flying Fish Sailors hoist anchor on a sea of Irish ballads and salty songs