Subject: La Grange

• Drenched in Blog: Lily Allen Plus One

  December 19, 2007

• Marty Stuart's American Odyssey Does Houston

  April 11, 2008

• A Fall from Glory for Hruska’s Grocery & Bakery?

  May 21, 2008

• ZZ Top Signs to Rick Rubin's American Recordings

  July 3, 2008

• Aftermath: Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

  August 11, 2008

• Tonight: Maroon 5 and Counting Crows, Little Brother Project, Jack Ingram and Shooter Jennings, Ne Plus Ultra and More

  September 5, 2008

• La Grange Hotel Liked Ike, AG Says

  La Grange has been heretofore known mostly as the home of the fabled "Chicken Ranch" immortalized by ZZ Top and The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. Now it can be known as the home of The Most Heartless, Coldest Bastard of a Motel In Texas (Allegedly). Texas AG Greg Abbott charged the Cottonwood Inn in La Grange today with overcharging people fleeing from Hurricane Ike.

  November 18, 2008

• Deadly Pitfalls

  September 17, 1998

• News of the Weird

  October 1, 1998

• Aftermath: Alan Jackson at RodeoHouston

  Photos by Mark C. Austin/ Click here for a slideshowAlan Jackson is like the world's most comfortable pair of boots. Over the past 20 years, the Georgia-born singer and songwriter has amassed an enormous catalog of songs loaded with self-deprecating modesty, gentle tongue-in-cheek humor and unabashed sentimentality, that every so often - whether happy-hour Jimmy Buffett duet "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" or Grammy-winning 9/11 rememberance "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)"

  March 5, 2009

• Aftermath: ZZ Top at RodeoHouston

  Mark. C. Austin/ Click here for a slideshowAftermath can not begin to tell you how much of a beacon ZZ Top was for him over the past few days. The lil' ol' band from Texas' RodeoHouston finale may not have had anything to do with SXSW per se, but knowing the first thing he would be doing upon returning to Houston was heading down to Reliant Park to watch the Bearded Ones and the Beardless One Named Beard kept him going. And sure enough, nothing in Austin last week could com

  March 23, 2009

• Amplified

  January 6, 2000

• Aftermath: SXSW

  March 26, 2009

• Best Burger in Texas?

  May 29, 2008

• Gamers Become Stars with Rock Band or Guitar Hero

  January 31, 2008

• Various Artists

  Sharp Dressed Men: A Tribute to ZZ Top (RCA)

  May 16, 2002

• Houston's Very Best Songs Ever

  September 27, 2007

• Eenie, Meenie, Minie...

  With a menu boasting so many treats, decision-making can be difficult at Leibman's

  March 2, 2000

• Fat Beats

  The real reason Houston stays near the top of the chunkiest-city charts

  March 9, 2006

• Amplified

  Eliminated

  December 30, 1999

• Play "Free Bird"!

  Using the Bob-O-Meter to rate cover songs

  July 7, 2005

• Double-Wide Divide

  Critics say Perry's turnpike plans will take a terrible toll on Texans

  January 13, 2005

• Rotation

  Handsome Boy Modeling School, Molotov and Rufus Wainwright

  December 9, 2004

• Beer Bond

  Gourmet meets good ol' boy

  April 15, 2004

• Can I Get a Witnes?

  DJ Witnes hosts a new hip-hop show on KPFT

  August 28, 2003

• First and Ten (Months to Go)

  Block party kicks off Super Bowl countdown

  April 10, 2003

• Prodigal Sons

  The Man in Black claims his Bastards

  August 16, 2001

• World Class?

  Houston can't join the ranks of other cities until it has an anthem of its own

  June 14, 2001

• Got Legs

  The perpetually self-doubting Todd Lewis stands tall on the Toadies' long-overdue second album

  March 22, 2001

• Graven Images

  A respected preacher gets busted for child pornography on his computer. Has he delved into the worst of cyberspace depravity or just the stuff of scholarly research?

  October 19, 2000

• Night & Day

  April 16 - 22, 1998

  April 16, 1998

• Is the Honor System Dead?

  Photos by Robb WalshDriving back from vacation, I noticed a honey stand along the highway in the town of Shirley, Arkansas with a sign that said "Self-Service." I pulled over and took a look. There was sorghum, local honey, bee pollen, beeswax and honey candy for sale. You took whatever you wanted and left your money in a box with a slot in it. I got a bottle of sorghum and one of honey for a total of $11. You don't see honor boxes at roadside stands much anymore. But there is something reassuri

  July 14, 2009

• Our Favorite ZZ Top Covers: QOTSA, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, Tina Turner and... Rapeman?

  [Note: Now with added Ministry.] Counting down to Friday's ZZ Top/Aerosmith show in The Woodlands is starting to feel like the week Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers played there last year: a steady build of anticipation and antsiness, until Friday we're flat-out squirming to get out of the office. By the way, if all you think Rocks Off does is sit around listening to classic rock, we'll have you know that Monday we blasted brand-new albums by the Dead Weather - that's yet another Jack White pro

  July 14, 2009

• Tres Hombres

  July 16, 2009

• The Best ZZ Top Videos (We Could Find Online)

  Not one but two gentlemen with long beards may be sneaking down your chimney today. They will leave memorabilia such as guitar picks and signed drumsticks, and if you've been a good boy or girl all year, may even give you a free guitar lesson. Instead of milk and cookies we're told they prefer Lone Star and funky fine Texas barbecue, and we would advise against sitting on anyone's lap unless you've really given it some serious thought. Someone, somewhere, is convinced that there is money to be m

  July 17, 2009

• Aftermath: ZZ Top and Aerosmith at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

  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 forgotten that eventually it all circles back around to the stage. And never been unable to deliver when it does. Formed half a continent but not many years apart, ZZ and Aerosmith found common ground e

  July 20, 2009

• Food Fight: Battle Chicken Fried Steak

  Photos by Katharine Shilcutt A contentious battle if there ever was one... Chicken fried steak (or CFS, for short) is up there in the great pantheon of Texas foods alongside cheese enchiladas, brisket and chili. But just because a food is inherently Texan doesn't mean you can always find it done well in Houston, and vice versa: Some of the best Mexican food in the world is found right here in the Bayou City. Steve Earle said it best in a recent interview with John Lomax: "Houston was a

  July 23, 2009

• 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, no one area musician sounded more like Southeast Texas. That he spent his life moving all over the area, on both sides of the Sabine, only serves as evidence in favor of one of our geographical hypothe

  August 18, 2009

• Donut Patrol: Best Donuts

  ​The glazed old-fashioned at Best Donuts on Braeswood at Hillcroft in Meyerland was excellent. It was also much bigger than the sad, stale little raised and glazed donut I sampled there. While I stood at the counter, I could see hot donuts cooling on a rack in the back, but I couldn't convince any of the non-English speaking employees to get me one. Whether they truly didn't understand me--or they just didn't want to go get me a hot donut -- I am not really sure.

  October 22, 2009

• Texas Traveler: Two Wheels Good, Four Wheels Bad

  Photo by Brittanie Shey​Since the weather in Texas is finally what the rest of the world calls normal, nothing beats hitting the streets on two wheels. Texas Traveler can hardly explain the way everything looks and smells different when you get out of the cage (see entry number two). And we're not just talking about motorized vehicles. A state so vast and varied as Texas is the perfect place to explore on motorcycle, scooter or bicycle. See, most people are emotionally attached to their c

  November 9, 2009