Kenny G

Slip Slidin' Away: My Life as a Rock Journalist With the Houston Press

I had a hernia operation in the early summer of 2006, and had nothing to do all day but hobble around with cool cane a borrowed from Grandpa Hlavaty and play on the Internets for two months or so. I had developed the injury while working at Domino's, but it was cool because their insurance helped ... More >>

Top 5 Weirdest & Worst Musical Collaborations

In the history of music, there have been many meetings of the mind between people with similar attitudes, styles, and ideas. Some of these just felt right from the very beginning and you knew they were destined to produce greatness. That's what happened when Brian Eno met David Bowie and later when ... More >>

Return to Forever... Returns!

Return to Forever The Mothership Returns Eagle Rock (2-CD/1-DVD), $24.98. Combining the wordless instrumental dexterity of jazz and the loud, hi-energy performance of rock, jazz fusion bridged that musical gap during the genre's '70s heyday. And three groups led the way: Weather Report, the Mahavis ... More >>

Other "Coachella" Festivals We'd Like To See

So, Coachella tickets sold out a few weeks ago. Evidently, the lineup is killer, accommodating to most tastes. Last year, the festival sold out in a week. This year, even with two weekends available, tickets sold out within a couple of hours. Don't have tickets to the show? Don't fret! What if ... More >>

Commercial Break

103.7 is winning fans with its "adult alternative" format.

Rocks Off's Annual Descent Into Sunny 99.1's Christmas Music K-Hole

Since 2008, I have spent an hour listening to Sunny 99.1 FM's Christmas music for the Rocks Off blog. Right after Thanksgiving, it's the first thing on my checklist, right next to finding new, weird holiday music for you and trying not to gain 20 pounds in merriment by January. Most of the time on ... More >>

Homemade Mosquito Repellents And Why They Suck

Not one of the floodwater mosquitoes currently plaguing Houston​You go outside in Houston this week, you are going to be bit. At least until the cold front comes through Thursday. You don't want to use noxious chemicals on yourselves or your loved ones, so you turn to natural mosquito repelle ... More >>

Doting Mama

Tamarie Cooper returns to poke mostly gentle fun at the U.S. and delivers a new national anthem.

Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Almost Almost Famous

​Neil Strauss Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness ItBooks, 554 pp., $16.99 While most music-journo compendiums usually collect a sonic scribe's most famous interview pieces into one book, Strauss - one of the finest currently practicing the trade - takes a whol ... More >>

Top 20 Despised, Yet Wildly Popular, Bands And Musicians

Scott Stapp, lead singer of Creed (above), stops at House of Blues tonight on his current acoustic tour. More than likely you have already clicked off this blog, or at least already gone on auto-pilot to call him a fuck-ass in the comments section. We'll wait a sec for you to come back. OK, the ... More >>

Super Bowl XLV Commercials: The 5 Best And 5 Worst

Baby Darth Vader is soooooo cutesy-wootsey​From Audi to Groupon, yesterday's Super Bowl Commercials ran the gamut. There was less blatant sexism than previous years, and a lot more CGI, and a few commercials sure to have people talking either due to their shock value or outright offensiveness. ... More >>

Black Eyed Pleeease!: Fergie & The Gang At The Super Bowl Halftime Show

Earlier this week we chronicled for you our favorite Super Bowl halftime shows, from Petty and the Who, to the Boss and the Stones. Tonight we will be live-blogging all the musical attractions from Super Bowl XLV from Dallas, er, Arlington. ​ Lined up in the next few minutes we will see Christina ... More >>

Super Bowl XLV: Livebloggin' the Commercials!

Betty White enjoys a Snickers.​For someone who watches the biggest television event in America strictly for the breaks, last year was a bummer. Betty White's Snicker's ad, and the Kia commercial featuring a posse of partying toys were two standouts in a year of boring, sexist and outright dumb ... More >>

"Auld Lang Syne," In All Its Many Colors

​Harry: What does this song mean? My whole life, I don't know what this song means. "Should old acquaintance be forgot" - does that mean we should forget old acquaintances, or if we happen to forget them, that we should remember them, which is not possible because we've already forgotten them? ... More >>

Our Annual Hour In Sunny 99.1's Holiday Hell

​The day before Thanksgiving, Sunny 99.1, "Houston's Official At-Work Station" did its yearly change-over to all holiday music. It's now a Houston tradition to turn over the dial at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Eve to snort your first line of Burl Ives or Brenda Lee of the season, before you have ev ... More >>

Last Night: Michael Bolton At Jones Hall

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​Michael Bolton with the Houston Symphony Jones Hall September 8, 2010 It was a little over a year ago that Aftermath saw Yanni, and just a few months back that we saw Kenny G. Wednesday night we saw Michael Bolton, forming a power-trio of artists that you're not suppos ... More >>

Nickelback Coming Back Again; All We Can Do Is Shrug

Craig Hlavaty​Rocks Off would like to think we've pretty much inoculated himself to "bad music" to the point where nothing fazes us anymore. We can roll into an Insane Clown Posse show, no problem. Kenny G? We'll shake dude's hand and talk shop with him. But Nickelback is a different story. ... More >>

Texans Cheerleaders On Tour: Inspiration From Led Zep And The Air Force

Nourishment in several languages​The Texans cheerleaders are headed to Japan on a USO tour, because our brave service members want to hear what Matt Schaub is really like. Or maybe they want to look at cheerleaders.Texans cheerleader Lindsay (as always, first names only to deter stalker creeps ... More >>

Five Songs We Don't Want To Hear At Buzzfest

​This Sunday, Craig's Hlist embarks on one of the most dangerous adventures of his music-journalism career, covering BuzzFest XXIV out at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. It will be our first go-round at the bi-annual modern-rock radio festival. This year's line-up was the first one that made ... More >>

Aftermath: Never Mind The Hipsters, Kenny G Blows Us Away

Photos by Craig HlavatyEd. Note: This is merch from the show and not a poster from Craig's room... we think.​ Aftermath shook hands Thursday night with Kenny G, a man who has arguably been one of the most reviled men in pop music now nearly 30 years. Why are we bringing this up? It's not to name-d ... More >>

Will You Be This Guy's Date To Kenny G?

​"Would anyone like to listen to the rich, one-of-a-kind tapestry of samba and salsa, ballads and bossa nova with a well-dressed man?" All right, the Kenny G show at the Arena Theatre is in less than five hours or so, and this guy needs a date. Not us, because we are probably going solo since our ... More >>

Yes, We're Going To Kenny G. Got A Problem With That?

​Yes, tomorrow night Craig's Hlist will be at Kenny G with your mother and your weird aunt who likes to buy you fertility crystals for the summer solstice. Kenny G intrigues us to the no end. Along with Michael Bolton, he was a part of a tag-team duo of pop culture musical dregs in the '90s. But t ... More >>

Creepy, Inappropriate and Otherwise Weird Christmas Albums

​ Christmas is 22 days away, so you still have time to put in some online orders for delivery. And, coincidentally enough, we're going to bet that whatever holiday album you've been playing for the past few years is starting to get a little stale. You can only enjoy the velvet crooning of Bing Cro ... More >>

Distant Early Warning: Akron/Family, Beach Boys, Dark Star Orchestra, Jonathan Richman, Noah & the Whale, Xiu Xiu, etc.

​Akron/Family, Warpaint: Tue., Feb. 23. Walter's on Washington. The Beach Boys: Fri., March 19. Jones Hall. Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys: Fri., Feb. 26. Continental Club. The Boxmasters: Fri., Dec. 18. Fitzgerald's. Dark Star Orchestra: Thu., March 4. House of Blues. Eddie Griffin: Sat., Jan ... More >>

Kick 'em While They're Down: The Worst Songs Ever Recorded For Charity

Please take this thing away from me. Please.​ When Rocks Off received an email touting Sting's new MySpace charity video for the Prince of Wales' Rainforest Project, we almost chipped a fingernail hurriedly clicking on the link, which promised oodles of celebrities such as Olivia Newton-John, Rich ... More >>

Aftermath: Yanni at Toyota Center

Craig Hlavaty Words like pageantry, wonderment, and spectacle aren't used very much in the Aftermath lexicon. It's hard to divvy out those special labels when we are covering bleeding dudes in bondage gear half-raping each other on stage, the weekly parade of washed-up alt-rock groups making another ... More >>

Attention Readers: Music Award Nominees Should Be From, You Know, Houston

When Rocks Off got back from lunch today, a colleague had put a completed Houston Press Music Awards nomination ballot in his mailbox with an attached Post-It note that said "Best Ballot Ever." Rocks Off read it over, and it was both hilarious and heartbreaking. The young gentleman from Midtown may ... More >>

Attention Readers: Music Award Nominees Should Be From, You Know, Houston

When our Rocks Off blog got back from lunch today, a colleague had put a completed Houston Press Music Awards nomination ballot in his mailbox with an attached Post-It note that said "Best Ballot Ever." Rocks Off read it over, and it was both hilarious and heartbreaking. The young gentleman from Mid ... More >>

A Few Rejected Inaugural Ball Theme Songs

Eminem feat. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent, "Crack A Bottle" The Good: Many bottles will be popped during tonight's festivities, we imagine, if not quite as many models. Also, the ongoing partnerships between this trio of rap titans says something about the present state of race relations in this country, ... More >>

From Discreet to Discrimination

Relaxing at the modish Ibiza Lounge, addressing claims of racism at Bond Lounge

Musical Food Groups

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

Gray's Anatomy

I Am the Walrus, Part 1

Winter is prime time at Willie G's oyster bar

The Hanukkah Songs

Wherein we find the coining of our new favorite word: Jewpergroup

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Wack's Very Special Holiday Music Guide

Talkin' 'Bot Love

Like Big Fish for little kids, Robots works hard to please everyone

Gettin' Windy in the City

The Chicago clip crew gleefully gabs on in Barbershop 2

Hip-hop Honky-Tonk

Local MCs make the scene on the Almeda drag

Hair Today...

A documentary restyles a misconstrued haircut

Xmas Marks the Spot

A guide to new holiday discs, from surprise presents to Tannen-bombs

RIP, KIKK

A redneck institution drowns in a flood of syrupy smooth jazz

No Mo' Pogo

Time to say "ska-dios" to the Suspects; also, the Music Awards jinx strikes again

Kenny Garrett

No one told him jazz is dead

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Popular

Spyro Gyra keeps making the best friendly jazz

Silver and Gold (and Green)

Some artists make holiday records for the beauty, not the bucks

Rotation

Press Picks

All the Colors of Jazz

Kirk Whalum's sax paints with a broad palette of sounds

English Renaissance

Houston jazz keyboardist Paul English releases Beauty