This weekend the Moving Sidewalks, best known as the band Billy Gibbons was in before ZZ Top formed, were once again a living, breathing, kaleidoscoping musical being. Gibbons and the other Sidewalks - Tom Moore (organ), Dan Mitchell (drums) and Don Summers (bass), all of whom still live in Texas - ... More >>
Houston's top 5 local music venues.
The Beatles' concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park 46 years ago today was the end of an era for the band. Except for a famously unannounced appearance on top the Apple building two and a half years later, it would be the final live performance that the Fab Four would ever play together. It w ... More >>
Memorial Day, the last Monday of May is a federal holiday originated to commemorate our country's fallen soldiers. Yes, some view it as a work holiday and a good time to barbecue, but our veterans would have to disagree. To honor our vets, we put together a playlist this day in remembrance of those ... More >>
Everyone has their meltdown moments, no doubt about it. We make mistakes and, most of the time, we try to correct them. We have them because we are all human. Unfortunately, though, when you are in the spotlight, your hurts, tantrums, mistakes and meltdowns are all magnified for all the world to se ... More >>
Experience Hendrix Tour Arena Theatre March 22, 2012 It was a guitar-gasm of monstrous proportions at the Arena Theatre when string shredders, bass thumpers, keyboard squealers, and one very, very hardworking drummer paid tribute to the musical legacy of Jimi Hendrix in a 3 hour show that expertly ... More >>
As far as the estates of deceased classic-rock artists go, few can hold a lighter to the efforts of Jimi Hendrix's in terms of keeping the artist and their music alive. In recent years, Experience Hendrix, LLC -- run by Jimi's half-sister Janie -- has churned out a number of products to satiate bot ... More >>
On this day in 1965, British songstress Petula Clark reached number one on the charts with "Downtown," a pop classic with an unforgettable hook that has become a mainstay of oldies radio, film soundtracks and TV advertisements in the years since. The song even served as a plot point in an episode o ... More >>
Despite the fact that he never really had a major "hit" (Electric Ladyland reached number one as an album but he never had a single go higher than 20 in the US) and was terribly under appreciated while he was still alive, Jimi Hendrix is one of the giants of rock and roll. His songs and his g ... More >>
Yesterday, about a half-dozen of my Facebook friends forwarded a gloom-and-doom listicle from a site called Buzzfeed entitled "12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music." Now up to over one million hits, the doom-and-gloom piece is subtitled "This is the saddest thing you'll read a ... More >>
This originally ran on June 8, but seeing that the year is coming to an end, we are looking back at some of our favorite blogs we gave to you these past 12 months. One of the best dreams we ever had was of covering a Clash show for Rocks Off. Yeah, dreaming about work isn't something to brag about ... More >>
This week, we found out that a sex tape featuring Tupac Shakur exists, made in 1991 just five years before his fatal shooting in Las Vegas. Shakur's estate is the only entity that can release an item with the late rapper's likeness involved, and his mother Afeni Shakur is unlikely to allow a video o ... More >>
For a guy who died at 27, Jimi Hendrix left behind a massive body of work, from finished studio efforts and live recordings to experimental noodlings and jams. Since taking over the estate's affairs, Janie Hendrix has overseen a number of projects to preserve and promote the music and legac ... More >>
Jimi Hendrix & Band of Gypsys Live at Fillmore East (Experience Hendrix/Columbia Legacy) 140 minutes, $13.98. The latest release in a busy year for the Hendrix estate is this 1999 documentary, pumped up with extra footage, that explores Jimi's short-lived but influential Band of Gypsys lineu ... More >>
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 >>
Marc BrubakerThe Toadies Warehouse Live April 15, 2011 Friday night, The Toadies took Warehouse Live's main stage in front of quite a rowdy crowd, hyping the crowd with such well-known hits as "I Come From the Water," "Backslider" and, before the evening's entertainment had ended, a reinterp ... More >>
Becoming Jimi Hendrix By Steven Roby and Brad Schreiber Da Capo Press, 274 pp., $17.95. While the bulk of most Jimi Hendrix bios detail the post-Are You Experienced? album and Monterey Pop performance era, this is the first to concentrate solely on his pre-fame years. As a result, the autho ... More >>
Your humble narrator went to our day job on Saturday like we always do. We stopped at Sonic on the way and got a bacon sandwich like we always do. Then we spent the rest of the weekend praying to every Non-Jewish, Non Muslim God we could think of to please not make us throw up the delicious b ... More >>
We've all seen the famous footage of Jimi Hendrix humping, burning, and finally smashing his guitar to bits at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. What not many people realize is he initially performed this act of musical instrument immolation some months before, at the suggestion of writer Keith ... More >>
As Hair Balls pointed out, we've only got three more of these weird number/same number/same number days left this century after today. Such chronological repetition appeals to the hidden obsessive-compulsive in all of us, so join us as we wash our hands nine times, lock the door nine times, and l ... More >>
Should be an interesting scene at House of Blues this evening, where Method Man, not exactly the shy type, might get a little more attention than he bargained for. Rumor has it some time between sound check and the tall, fragrant rapper's headlining set with Redman, he'll be served with papers in ... More >>
Photos by Mark C. Austin Make all the Guitar Hero jokes you want. Whatever it is that's kept ZZ Top and Aerosmith in the public eye for almost four decades - video games or beards-n-babes videos, Back to the Future cameos or Michael Bay ballads, bee-stung lips or cheap sunglasses - they've never for ... More >>
Besides Michael, Farrah, Ed McMahon and Sky Saxon of the Seeds, last week's bumper crop for the Grim Reaper also claimed Don Lampton, a founding member of '60s local psych-rock band Fever Tree. Lampton, 61, played keyboards and rhythm guitar for the Bostwick Vines, which became Fever Tree after husb ... More >>
Held each year between 1968 and 1970, England's Isle of Wight Festival was the premier outdoor rock party for the British counterculture. The last edition (before its recent revival) proved the largest-attended (600,000!) and best, with a lineup that included Jimi Hendrix in his last major performan ... More >>
It's a veritable tribute band meltdown at the House of Blues this weekend, and we have a handful of free tickets up here at Rocks Off HQ to get you into three sure-to-be drunken shows starting this evening. Come pick 'em up at the front desk at 1621 MIlam, Suite 100, until 6 p.m. On the bill tonight ... More >>
Being Jimi 's baby brother can be a tough row to hoe, especially if you play guitar
Have You Forgotten?
Local filmmaker Raymond Gayle explores how the pioneers of rock became anomalies
The Tel Aviv trio performs its raw rock
The bluesman spends his b-day on stage
Guitar Shorty performs Saturday, January 13, at the Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club, 5731 Kirby, 713-523-9999.
Here are a bunch of hilarious misheard lyrics. Now send us more.
Friday, June 20
Cosmos's Rum Dummy
Saturday, February 2
Buddy Guy finally gets the respect he's always wanted
A spate of tributes and reissues that hit and miss
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