Lynyrd Skynyrd

Merry Christmas, High Rollers: The Most Expensive Vintage Concert Tees On eBay

A few days ago I asked Rocks Off fans on Facebook what the most they had ever spent on a concert tee was. Most people topped out at $50 for touring legacy acts, while some shelled out a lot more for hoodies and limited-edition tees. Now the world of concert posters is a whole other animal unto its ... More >>

The Republican Candidate's Guide To Picking Campaign Music

This week Republicans from around the country gather in Florida to celebrate all things conservative and curse Issac for stealing the national spotlight. For me the 2012 Republican National Convention marks the true start of the presidential campaign season, the playoffs to the primaries' regular se ... More >>

New Lynyrd Skynyrd: What Have We Been Missing?

Though the plane crash that claimed the lives of singer Ronnie Van Zandt and guitarist Steve Gaines looms horrifically large over the history of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the band's legacy is as much about survival as it is tragedy. More than 35 years since the band was nearly snuffed out for good, their clas ... More >>

Happy Memorial Day: 10 Songs To Honor Our Veterans

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 >>

Lynyrd Skynyrd Borrows Scarface Album Title For New LP

Something must be in the air, with this bizarre concurrence of Houston rap and classic rock. We blame the supermoon. This morning, Rocks Off told you about ZZ Top using the chopped-and-screwed standard "25 Lighters" in the Texas band's new commercial for flavored malt beverage Jeremiah Weed. Not an ... More >>

5 Bands That Should Break Up Immediately

Music fans are selfish. We might act like we only want what's best for our favorite bands, but the truth is that we really just want what will give us the most gratification. A lot of ink, both real and digital, has been used this year to talk about reunions. And while writers might dissect the mot ... More >>

Top 5 Songs About Whiskey

Whether it's rye or bourbon, straight or blended, Irish, Scotch or Canadian, rock, country or classical, whiskey and warblers go way back. Even Stravinsky was quoted as saying "My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey." In whiskey-related weird news ... More >>

Say My Name: Bands Named After Actual, Real People

Punk Rock Elite​This Friday would have been Z.Z. Hill's 76th birthday, but the popular Texas bluesman passed away in 1984 from a heart attack. Most people only know who the late soul crooner is through his connection to ZZ Top. The moniker of that little ol' band from where we are sitting righ ... More >>

Your Favorite Bands: How To Correctly Pronounce Their Names

​Back in December 1998, when Eminem was just hitting MTV and rap radio, we remember people pronouncing his name as "Eee-mine-im," and not the candy-inflected way it actually was. We even made the mistake during our first viewing of "My Name Is" late at night on the video channel and calling a ... 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 >>

Five Essential Boogie-Rock Albums

​Boogie-rock has probably been derided by critics more times than people have torched a doob while listening to BTO. Intellectual types tend to write it off as guys with feathered bangs, mustaches and shirts open to their navel playing songs about cars, girls and partying (and partying in cars ... More >>

Kid Rock

Match These Bands With Their Awful Original Names

​Provided they didn't take the easy way out and name themselves after a song (Rolling Stones), their hometown (Boston) or each other (Hall & Oates), almost every band that went on to sell millions of records, get tons of radio play and sell out arenas has had some form of the following convers ... 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 >>

10 Freaky Fetish Fair Items, Repurposed Away From Perversion

The Sheraton Brookhollow was the scene this weekend for the Fetish Fleamarket, a large gathering of BDSM types seeking products, tips, partners, all kinds of things. We sent a photographer out to do a slideshow, and we have to admit a lot of this stuff looks like it would be....underused, you know? ... More >>

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Plane Crashes And The Fall Of Icarus

The quicker us pick Icarus to be a stinker of a pilot, but anyone that near the sun ain't no shrinking violet. - Richard O'Brien, Ain't That to Die For ​ Lynyrd Skynyrd, "What's Your Name" Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the plane crash that killed Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant ... More >>

House Of Blues Extends Tax-Free Merch Sale Through 7 p.m. Today

​House of Blues has extended its "Great Rock 'N' Roll Sample Sale" to a second day, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. today in the Bronze Peacock Room. Sales tax for all merchandise, available for as low as $3 for CDs and hats (Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, KISS) or even $1 for tour programs (Springstee ... More >>

Five Things In Sports More Annoying Than Those Vuvuzelas

Photo by pempempie​Folks, it's time to shut up about those stupid African trumpets already: The constant drone of cheap and tuneless plastic horns is killing the atmosphere at the World Cup. Where are loud choruses of "Oooohhhs" from enthralled crowds when a shot scorches just wide of the go ... More >>

Dead Confederate

Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin': The 10 Horniest Christmas Songs Ever

​The approach of Christmas presents a number of dilemmas. Should you put the moves on that hot co-worker at the holiday party? Is now really the best time to come out to your heavily Pentecostal family? And what brand of top-shelf vodka best drowns out the drone of your in-laws and the shrieks of ... More >>

Drive-By Truckers

Aftermath: Collective Soul and Black Stone Cherry at House of Blues

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​ Something strange happened during the '90s. Southern Rock as we once knew it all but disappeared. Charmed by grunge, drowned in amplification, bands began shedding the elements of blues and country that threaded that noble line from Lynyrd Skynyrd through the Georgia Satel ... More >>

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

Photos by Kim Douglass What is this place? Where it's OK to wear tank tops that cut off mid-abdomen with a pair of Daisy Dukes and a straw cowboy hat? And is that Bret Michaels eating nachos? A place like this could make any outsider feel like Alice only instead of a wonderland, they may be at a NAS ... More >>

Seven Skynyrd Songs Better than "Sweet Home Alabama" or "Free Bird"

Allow Rocks Off to let the cat out of the bag for a second: this evening at the Woodlands, Lynyrd Skynyrd will close with "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird." Taking nothing away from either song - they are, after all, a serious rebuke to Dixie-haters and Southern racists alike disguised as a pools ... More >>

Win a Pair of Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd Tickets

As part of Live Nation's all-day $24.99 lawn-ticket sale for shows at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, they've kindly offered us a pair of lawn tickets to the June 30 Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd shred-off to give away. But of course, we're not just going to give them to you. If you want them, just a ... More >>

Summer Sounds

Enough shows to keep concertgoers busy all season long

Hello, Houston!

Noise breaks down the months of live music ahead

The Nanny State Hates The Cars On Your Front Lawn

As goes Port Arthur, so goes Houston.The noble Golden Triangle town recently passed an ordinance banning people from parking their cars on their front lawns.Always eager to take their lifestyle cues from Port Arthur, the Houston City Council has followed suit with an ordinance of its own.Homeowners ... More >>

Songs Not To Play At Intercontinental Airport's New Karaoke Booth

So now there's a karaoke booth at Intercontinental Airport. According to the Houston Chronicle, travelers can choose from "hundreds of titles."We got to wondering this morning about what's in their song selections there and more to the point -- what isn't.We imagine that the management of IAH's kara ... More >>

Drive-By Truckers, A to Z

Alabama Ass Whuppin'

Who Stole the Roll?

The Bright Side Of Pollution

Whither Southern Rock?

The Most Demanding Songs in Rock History

Miranda Lambert

Get Lit: Rock & Roll Heaven, by Robert Dimery and Bruno MacDonald

Give Us a Hand

Against Me!

New Wave

Allman Brothers Band

Sunday, September 25, at Verizon Wireless Theater, 520 Texas, 713-225-8551.

Play It Pretty for Cabaret Voltaire

A Rice grad stakes his claim as the inventor of the ironic "Freebird" request; also: there's a Lanky new kid on H-town's burgeoning pop-rock scene

Lynyrd Skynyrd and Montgomery Gentry

Thursday, March 17 (Montgomery Gentry), and Friday, March 18 (Lynyrd Skynyrd), at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Reliant Center, 1 Reliant Park, 832-667-1400.

Roadie Royalty

Houstonian author and Webmaster Karl Kuenning is a prince among road dogs

Best Strip Club

MOFRO

Beyond Borders

Alabama Thunderpussy roars with countrified rock

The Eclectic Company

Inman Gallery's latest show offers an assortment of West Coast artistic souvenirs

Drive-By Truckers

Decoration Day (New West)

Various Artists

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

Free Birds and Drop Kick Chihuhahas

New Year's Eve Houston at Bayou Place

Static