Led Zeppelin

Get the "Led" Out: Five Other Famous Zeppelins

Led Zeppelin: one of the most famous and influential rock and roll bands of all time. The key word in there is influential. How many rock bands in 2013 do you suppose cite Zeppelin as a major influence on their sound? I'd say just about all of them, either directly or indirectly through their influe ... 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 >>

10 Songs Still Missing From Spotify & What You Can Listen to Instead

As recently mentioned, I'm a pretty big fan of Spotify. Speaking as someone who never got over getting burned by my purchase of Stroke 9's Nasty Little Thoughts I'm a big fan of having the chance to listen to a record all the way through before making a purchase. In their advertising the company i ... 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 >>

R.I.P. John Bonham: Top 5 Ways to Avoid Death by Misadventure

This week back in 1980, the rock world lost a good one. John Bonham, the fantastic, heavy-footed drummer for Led Zeppelin was found dead in bed in Jimmy Page's Windsor manor house. It was an ugly end for Bonzo. A longtime heavy drinker -- particularly when separated from his family -- Bonham had ... More >>

Squeezing the Lemon: Led Zeppelin & the 10 Most Shocking Rock and Roll Reunions

Five years ago this week, Led Zeppelin fans young and old squeezed their pants full of lemon juice when the band's three surviving golden gods -- Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones - announced that they'd be reuniting for a one-off concert in London. John Bonham's son Jason would man the s ... More >>

Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day Concert Film Coming to Houston October 17

Rewind: Squeezing the Lemon: Led Zeppelin & the 10 Most Shocking Rock and Roll Reunions This week we all saw the trailer to Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day, the concert film shot at Led Zeppelin's 2007 reunion show in honor of Atlantic Records impresario Ahmet Ertegun. The film will be playing in t ... More >>

Sex Expert Rachel Khona's Steamy Road-Sex Soundtrack

Nevermind the bushes, the parking garage, the vacant tollbooth, the Wendy's bathroom, the Walmart gardening center. I guess we've all been there, when the urge and vapors and blood flow gets to be so troublesome that we just gotta have sex in the car. It has to happen in the car. No exceptions. Th ... More >>

Mud Sharks, Satanism and Stairways: The Truth About Zep!

Get Lit: Led Zeppelin FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Greatest Hard Rock Band of All Time By George Case 370 pp., $19.99, www.backbeatbooks.com This entry into Backbeat's exhaustive and incredibly detailed FAQ series tackles the mighty Zep - so there's plenty of coverage about purported Sata ... More >>

Readers Poll: Album Titles As Your Legal Name?

Two weeks ago, Led Zeppelin II of Bethalto, Ill., passed away after suffering a heart attack at the age of 64. No, the Zep album didn't die. We all know that that album will last forever because it's damned awesome and loud, and the cover rules. The former George Blackburn legally changed his name ... More >>

New Featherface LP Conjures Some Actual Magic

It's been more than two years since Houston's Featherface has released a new record, though that doesn't mean that they were short on actively contributing to the local scene. Since the release of their last EP It Comes Electric, they've performed many shows and have been steadily growing in popu ... More >>

Jane's Addiction & Other Big 1987 Debut Albums

Tonight Jane's Addiction comes to the Bayou Music Center, touring behind last year's The Great Escape Artist, only their fourth studio album in their nearly 27 years as a band. A few weeks back Rocks Off talked to lead singer and Lollapalooza honcho Perry Farrell about the band's future and what cou ... More >>

Playing for Keeps: Vinyl Essentials

Here's our must-haves if you're kick-starting a record collection.

Readers Poll: The Best Third Albums Ever

This week in 1980, Van Halen released their third album Women And Children First, which contained the hits "And the Cradle Will Rock...," "Everybody Wants Some!! and fan favorite "Romeo Delight." It's not the best VH album ever, but it was, in fact, their third album. Most VH super-freaks I know an ... More >>

Why Taking The Piss Out Of Your Most Beloved Musicians Is Healthy

A few days back I wrote a less-than-excited review of Bruce Springsteen's latest album, Wrecking Ball. The Boss' official Twitter account has been retweeting every hyperbolic 140-character superfan review of the new disc. One guy claimed that Wrecking Ball made him sob on the side of the highway for ... More >>

The Warning: The 10 Heaviest Albums Before Black Sabbath

Forty-two years ago today, on Friday the 13th, the gates of hell opened up and belched forth Black Sabbath. Upon its release, the Birmingham band's eponymous debut album instantly became the heaviest, scariest, most evil record of all time, and it still ranks right up there. Calling this record "in ... More >>

The Roots Of Lionize: From Miles Davis To Led Zeppelin

It's hard to find a band that reps Miles Davis in the same breath as much as they do Led Zeppelin, but Lionize are that band. Recording in Jamaica with Steel Pulse's Sidney Mills, supporting beardos like Kylesa, Clutch, and cKy? Yes, that's Lionize for you. Opening for Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster ... More >>

10 Semi-Obscure Facts About Led Zeppelin

​On this date in 1968, former Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, and session musicians John Paul Jones and John Bonham played together for the first time, rehearsing in a West End studio space in London, England. The first song they played together was a version of "Train Kep ... More >>

The Best Fourth Songs On History's Greatest Albums

Sorry, Manowar, maybe next year...​As we come up on the July 4th weekend, Rocks Off considered a myriad of blog ideas to commemorate the holiday. Most patriotic songs, album covers, artists? Sorry, Lee Greenwood, Richard Pryor, and Ted Nugent, but it's all been covered. On this weekend of inde ... More >>

Zoo Station: A Noah's Ark Of 75 Animal Songs

And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee ... More >>

Lyrical Advice For The Class Of 2011

"Move back in with your parents! Let them worry about you!"​There will be no guitars and Marshall stacks at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion this weekend, just "Pomp and Circumstance." As the Class of 2011 walks across the stage soon to be occupied by Peter Gabriel, Widespread Panic and Ki ... More >>

River Oaks Shopping Center Loses Another Icon: Allrecords Moves Out

Allrecords: Moved, after 30 years​Another piece of the River Oaks Shopping Center has moved out: Allrecords, which for the past 30 years had been there offering a fine, eclectic selection of rock, jazz and Broadway, has moved out. Owner Fred Allred tells Hair Balls the neighboring Luke's Lock ... More >>

For 4/20: Hipgnosis' Greatest Bong Hits

​Rocks Off doesn't know if it's our Shot In the Dark photo show tomorrow or that batch of brownies someone sent us, but we've been in a really visual mood this week. We can't remember exactly what it is, but something told us today might be a good day to revisit the work of Hipgnosis. The gro ... More >>

Top 10 Led Zeppelin Songs Not Constantly On The Radio

​Of Led Zeppelin's nine stellar (OK, Presence was just all right) studio albums, it's hard to pick the five best. There are no dogs in the bunch, and unlike the Duran Duran Top 5 we did last week, it's harder and more heart-wrenching to limit them to just five. We can chop up the Durannies lik ... More >>

Top 10 Self-Titled Debut Albums

​It wasn't until we were discussing its release this week that Rocks Off realized we're basically the same age as Led Zeppelin's debut album. Recorded in October 1968 and released the following January, Led Zeppelin is 42 years old. It suffers from some of the same ailments as all of us who r ... More >>

Today's High Schoolers Shrugging Off New Music

​During this part of the year, your humble narrator treks from school to schools selling contest music to bands and orchestras. It's a good gig, and it enables us to get a good gander at what the next generation of musicians look like. However, after several years of doing it, we started noti ... More >>

What Is Classic Rock Today?

​What is classic rock in 2010? 15 years ago, it was was the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, anything Eric Clapton touched and every band your dad played in his car while he was making out with the girls he met before your mom. That's how we know classic rock: Big riffs, big voices, in ... More >>

Last Night: Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience At Verizon

Photos by Groovehouse​Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience Verizon Wireless Theater November 16, 2010 Some family businesses involve cleaning out septic tanks, others have you pulling teeth and filling cavities all day. Some have you selling used cars, while others mean slaving in a bakery ... More >>

Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience

Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax

Going Platinum: Artists We'd Pay $10,000 To See - And When

​It started one night on the patio of Big Star Bar in the Heights; over Lone Star and cigarettes, a handful of Houston music wags debated the shows they would pay top dollar to see from lartists, iving or dead. We argued the aspects of an At the Drive-In reformation, seeing Sam Cooke in 1963, ... More >>

Dead Meadow

Guitar Zero: Played It 'Til My Fingers Bled...

No, this song is NOT about the year of Woodstock and the Moon Landing. It was the summer winter of '69 2010. Robert told me to come up with five songs I wanted to learn how to play (on guitar, in case you weren't keeping up). The Wife, seeking to maximize the parental utility of my music lessons, h ... More >>

Free Tickets for Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and G.G. Allin... Sort Of

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 >>

Eyeballin': Down the Tracks: The Music That Influenced Led Zeppelin

Even the most naïve and surface Led Zeppelin listener tell you at least that they were influenced "by the blues." But this insightful and surprisingly solid documentary goes way further in delving into the sound and the performers which were in the minds (and on the home stereos) of Mssrs. Page an ... More >>

Led Zeppelin Live at the Sam Houston Coliseum

The UK's Times Online reported today that Led Zeppelin has created its own YouTube channel, with a boatload of footage including this nearly eight-minute clip of the band's concert at the Sam Houston Coliseum in August 1971. Ramble on... - Chris Gray

Who Stole the Roll?

White Linen Night in the Heights

Check out the latest offerings from area restaurants, businesses and galleries

Drenched in Blog: March Madness, Rock-Style

Whodini, Big Daddy Kane, Kool Moe Dee, Willie D

Big Smith

Over the Hills and Not That Far Away

Drenched In Blog: Middle Age Crazy

Drenched In Blog: Just Can’t Quit You Baby

Been a Long Time

But the Houston Symphony Wants to "Rock and Roll"

Blitzen Trapper

Quartet delivers classic Southern rock

Best Jukebox

Rock and Roll Never Forgets

Classic rock finds a new generation of fans and keeps on keepin' on into the new millennium

Zepfest 2004, Featuring No Quarter

Sunday, April 4

Nails in the Coffin

Five decades of Chess Records lead to a blues stalemate