Les Paul

Stolen Gear Blues 2: Prevention Boogaloo

Running around like a bunch of wannabe guitar gumshoes is fantastic, but wouldn't it be better to just avoid losing any gear all together? Fortunately, it's pretty easy to keep things safe or at the very least traceable. It goes without saying that the musician's I spoke to wish they had taken a few ... More >>

Christmas Past: 15 Odd Christmas Gift Ideas for Musicians

While we celebrate the holidays, Rocks Off is resurrecting a few of our best Christmas-themed blogs from the past few years. (Wait... resurrecting is Easter. Never mind.) This blog originally appeared November 21, 2011. As the timeless tale of the Little Drummer Boy reminds us, there is no greater ... More >>

Six-String Pawn Stars: Top 10 Famous Stolen Guitars

Tom Petty got a real kick in the balls late last week when he discovered that his vintage blond 1967 12-string Rickenbacker and his Gibson SGTV Junior had been stolen from a California soundstage where the Heartbreakers had been rehearsing for an upcoming tour. Three other vintage guitars owned by b ... More >>

Life Out Loud: Remembering Jim Marshall's Amplifier Legacy

I was about 12 years old and in the hallway outside the gymnasium of my school when I heard it. Someone had a guitar and he was playing it LOUD. I knocked open the double doors and a friend was wailing on a beautiful cherry sunburst Les Paul and it was so damn LOUD. I got a little closer and there ... More >>

We Tell You Who Will Win Grammys So You Don't Have To Watch Them

SPOILER ALERT​The best thing about the annual Grammy nominations and awards shows is the clamor of anger that rises up when the mere mention of the event even comes up. Immediately people begin calling it a travesty, trotting out all the people who have been snubbed -- Jethro Tull beats Metall ... More >>

Five on Five: Fender vs. Gibson, Who Had the Better Players?

​For guitar players, it's an age old question: are you a Fender guy or a Gibson guy? Over the years since both companies became popular in rock music, many other guitar manufacturers have made inroads, but none have been able to surpass the power and tradition of these two giants in the guitar ... More >>

Flying High Again: Five-ish Guys That Made the Flying V Famous

There are few instruments more distinctive than the Flying V. It's odd that a guitar this funky looking has been commonly used by a wide range of guitar players from country and blues to rock, but it has. Over the years, particularly in the '80s when "the weirder the shape the better" and "splotched ... More >>

15 Odd Christmas Gift Ideas for Musicians

​As the timeless tale of the Little Drummer Boy reminds us, there is no greater gift than the gift of music. But what about those on your Christmas list who already have plenty of music in their lives? Buying gifts for musicians is no easy task -- most of them already own the entire Rush disco ... More >>

The Ten Coolest Animated Google Doodles

​Today, Google's logo looked like the image above and became a heated topic on Twitter. The logo -- referred to as a "doodle" -- had people wondering why anyone should celebrate the birthday of a dead guy and just who the hell Gregor Mendel was in the first place. In fact, Google regularly ... More >>

Pluck Yourself Silly On Google Today

​In honor of late musician and solid-body electric guitar inventor Les Paul, who would have turned 96 today, Google's home page is transformed into a digital approximation of a guitar. Each of the ten "strings" that make up the logo today sounds off, changes color and even vibrates when you ro ... More >>

Happy Anniversary, Appetite For Destruction

​July 21, 1987 began as a day like any other. The Reagan Administration told The New York Times that any discussion of presidential pardons in the Iran-Contra affair were "inappropriate at this time." Iran announced it would ignore the cease-fire with Iraq unanimously approved by the United Na ... 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 >>

The 6 Absolute Ugliest Custom Guitars On The Planet

​Rocks Off is currently in the market for a good guitar yet has next to no money, so for the past few months we've been tantalizing ourselves by poring over the multitude of guitars of the Internet. There are some mighty pretty signature guitars out there, including Angus Young's signature Gib ... More >>

Aftermath: Dick Dale, Merry Prankster And Heavy-Metal Grandpa, At HOB

Photos by Brittanie Shey​ Dick Dale is the grandfather of surf-rock, if your grandfather dressed like a 70-year-old Steven Segal, practically invented heavy metal (his 100-watt amp goes all the way to eleventy) and turned a traditional Greek song into a 1960s anthem. Like most grandfathers, he's m ... More >>

Dick Dale

The Great Green Room In the Sky: The Grim Reaper's 2009 Musical Roll Call

​Thankfully, 2009 was a sorry year for the Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter. Aside from the not terribly unexpected (but still weird) demise of the King of Pop, few bona fide legends went on to the Great Green Room Beyond the Sky. The Rock Death Meter rates rock deaths on a ten-point scale in three c ... More >>

Les Paul Is Shredding Axes With Jesus and GG Allin Now (Wait, That Can't Be Right...)

Thanks to Mr. Jesse Dayton for showing us this clip Les Paul, the musician who literally created the definitive sound of rock 'n roll with his slew of equipment inventions, has passed away at the rockin' age of 94. Seriously if you make it that far after spending your life in smoky halls and reco ... More >>

"The Sounds I See: Photographs of Musicians"

This MFAH exhibit features live shots of popular music's greatest contributors

Monday Night: Ace Frehley at Meridian

Gamers Become Stars with Rock Band or Guitar Hero

Meet the newest kind of bar band

Last Night: King Khan & BBQ at Rudz

Darrell Scott

That's a Lot of Levi's

Aaron Loesch Vies to Become the Guitar Center King of the Blues

A dying Houston scene suddenly might have new life

Notes from the Road: Opie Hendrix

Muck a Duck

Must-see shows at McGonigel's Mucky Duck

Rebel with a Cause

Dimebag lives on in these new recordings

Darrell Scott

Live in NC

Wigged Gigs

A selection of some of the wildest, weirdest, and most dangerous bands and shows in Houston history

Best Place to Buy a Musical Instrument

Playbill

Rock You like a Hurricane

The Press Music Awards Showcase brings a category-five storm of tunes

Reverse Fairy Tale

From Beverly Hills to Omaha with Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis

Playbill

The Cult

Sacred Blues

Blues 2 Joy writes a new testament for the devil's music

Dready Metal

Unlike their North American counterparts, Jamaican rappers are incorporating heavy metal into their material, with some amazing results

One For All

Sax giant Illinois Jacquet helped desegregate Houston audiences

American Dream

Just a man and his guitar, Martin Sexton covers a lot of ground live

Steady Eddie

Decades of torn-up road behind him, Van Halen's guitar god keeps chugging ahead

Sound Check

Static

Notes from the Front

Vamping down memory lane with members of the Kiss Army