Marvin Gaye

Homegrown Houston - 3G

The American Bandstand (Extended) Hot 100

Somehow it's hard to believe that Dick Clark was only 82 years old when he died after suffering a "massive heart attack" Wednesday morning in Santa Monica, Calif. (Since I managed to survive one myself, I've noticed that anytime someone dies of a heart attack, it's always "massive."). Despite his yo ... More >>

Cory Jreamz's Polysemy Is A Mystery Worth Solving

There's something strangely appealing, calming and inviting about the cover of Cory Jreamz's four-track EP, Polysemy: A wine glass on a chair under a tree. But what's the story behind it? The young, artsy rapper, a 17-year-old senior at Pearland 's Glenda Dawson High School, may have been raised i ... More >>

5 Intentionally Bad Albums By Geniuses That Really Aren't So Bad

If there's one thing artists hate, it's record labels. Like managers, they were a necessary evil for the music business throughout much of the previous century, at least until piracy and digital uploading became a thing. The way it worked in the olden days, though, was that a record label would giv ... More >>

Killin' Them Softly: Celebrating 75 Years Of Roberta Flack

To strike someone with the "underrated greatness" term always carries a bit of weight behind it. You know, the quick snap question of "do they deserve it" comes to mind. Sorry, in the class of underrated greatness, diva subsection, lives Roberta Flack who at the platinum age of 75 still takes risks ... More >>

Smooth: 10 Definitive Neo-Soul Tracks

Nearly 12 years after the release of Voodoo, Michael Eugene Archer, better known for his stage name, D'Angelo, has emerged out of his self-imposed exile. After doing battle with drugs and alcohol for a decade, last week the singer kicked off a European tour entitled The D-Tour, for his first live pe ... More >>

14 Notable Female Rock Drummers

girlscantwhat.com​Last week, we rounded up a list of our favorite female rock bassists. We'd like to continue the trend of honoring rock's finest females, by next recognizing 14 notable female rock drummers. As usual, we will focus on the live-performing, touring drummers over time, rather tha ... More >>

Dead Rock Stars & Dia De Los Muertos Album Covers

Photo by Marco Torres​According to a recent Associated Press article picked up by everyone from The Huffington Post to Fox News, Day of the Dead celebrations are on the upswing, a trend attributed in part to the growing Latino population and Hispanic influence on the culture, as well as changi ... More >>

Saturday Night: Boz Scaggs & Michael McDonald At Verizon

Boz Scaggs & Michael McDonald Verizon Wireless Theater October 1, 2011 Now, Classic Rock Bob doesn't want to come off as some sort of out-of-touch curmudgeon ("What do you mean you don't sell cassettes anymore? Hey! You kids get off my lawn!"), but one of the reasons to love classic rock is very si ... More >>

Honey Honey: Banjos Plucked Like Foreplay

It's a well-known fact that band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're working hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. Trang An​Publicist Renee Harrison has a knack for finding us at our most vulnerable (hint: it's when we've almost reached the answer at the bot ... More >>

“Ruminations of a Cluttered Mind”

It's a well-known fact that band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're working hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. Trang An​Publicist Renee Harrison has a knack for finding us at our most vulnerable (hint: it's when we've almost reached the answer at the bot ... More >>

Five Filthy Conway Twitty Ditties Sure To Get Her To Press Charges

The tighter the pants, the stronger the pull. ​True story, back when we were trying to pick out Twitter handles in 2008, we almost went by @ConwayTwitter, but we instead went for a real name. Now the handle is taken, probably by someone who doesn't even like Conway Twitty, who would have been ... More >>

Five '60s Soul Stars Jay-Z & Kanye West Should Hit Next

thelocal478.comWelcome back to Billboard, Otis.​Say what you will about Watch the Throne - and people, including several members of Team Rocks Off, have said a lot - but it's all anyone in music seems to be talking about these days. Which makes sense; it's not every day that two megastars (the ... More >>

Soul City: The Amazing Jazz Crusaders

Black History Month is always a great time to recall some of Houston's greatest musical innovators and leaders. Rocks Off will highlight some of them during the remainder of February. "Hey, let's get back to that down-and-dirty old-school chicken-shack sound" mosaicrecords.com​While Houston ... More >>

20 Musician Biopics Currently In Development Hell

Happy birthday, Janis.​News came down last week that Sacha Baron Cohen will be stepping into the rhinestones and glitter as Queen icon Freddie Mercury. It's been a long time coming for Cohen, the Borat and Bruno star who is slowly becoming his generation's Peter Sellers and has been rumored to ... 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 >>

"Summertime" From Beyond The Grave

​Today marks the 44th anniversary of Janis Joplin's first gig with Big Brother and the Holding Company. One of rock's most staggering vocalists, Joplin became another star who left us too soon on October 4, 1970, when she overdosed on heroin while recording Pearl. George Gershwin's "Summertime" wa ... More >>

Jimmy Needham

​Today marks the 44th anniversary of Janis Joplin's first gig with Big Brother and the Holding Company. One of rock's most staggering vocalists, Joplin became another star who left us too soon on October 4, 1970, when she overdosed on heroin while recording Pearl. George Gershwin's "Summertime" wa ... More >>

Rick's Picks For iFest's Second Weekend

Ed. Note: Here are Houston International Festival Director of Peforming Arts Rick Mitchell's choices for can't-miss acts for the festival's second weekend, spread over five categories. Rick should know; he books all the artists. Rocks Off will follow with a few more picks of our own a little later o ... More >>

New On DVD: The Blind Side And Oh-So-Classic James Brown

​Well, everyone survived the frenzy of last Friday's release of The Twilight Saga: New Moon pretty much unscathed (the second installment of the Twilight series earned a cool $295.6 million at the box office and will no doubt earn another huge heap of money of DVD sales).If you're still in the moo ... More >>

Leon's Lounge Needs Some Soul. Brett "Dirty Honey" Koshkin Has The Platters.

​ Leon's Lounge, the venerable Midtown throwback dive, is currently closed for renovations as new owner Pete Mitchell (Under the Volcano) gives it a good scrubbing, but it should be back open before too much longer. Maybe as soon as next month. Earlier this week, Rocks Off heard some equally good ... More >>

Dr. Strangelove

Tool and A Perfect Circle wouldn't work, so Maynard James Keenan channels his love of Hee Haw through Puscifer.

The Top Rock-Star Death Conspiracies: Elvis, Michael, Kurt, Tupac and More

It seems that the stranger and weirder our world gets by the day, humanity struggles to find reasons behind all this calamity and tragedy. We try our best to find conclusions to why bad things happen, and when we can't fully fathom that the awful truth is just that, instead try to blame the influen ... More >>

Ten Cover Songs So Bad They'll Shrivel Your Soul

Two nights ago, while carelessly patrolling the back alleys of the internet, Rocks Off stumbled across Hilary Duff's execrable cover of The Who's "My Generation". Well, what did you think, YouTube commenters? ​ You sure you're not being too harsh? ​ Yeah... ours too. Someday, when we ... More >>

A Third Ward Pawnshop iPod and the Mysterious Fate of Previous Owner "Scooby"

Whoever he is (was?), Scooby's iPod wasn't short on R. Kelly.​So a couple of weeks ago, after three or four years of increasingly faltering service, Rocks Off's 30 GB iPod finally died. Completely. Out of sheer broke-assedness, we had held on to it for longer than most. By the end, its quirks and ... More >>

Andy Vargas, David de la Garza

Whoever he is (was?), Scooby's iPod wasn't short on R. Kelly.​So a couple of weeks ago, after three or four years of increasingly faltering service, Rocks Off's 30 GB iPod finally died. Completely. Out of sheer broke-assedness, we had held on to it for longer than most. By the end, its quirks and ... More >>

Get Lit: The Pitchfork 500

Whoever he is (was?), Scooby's iPod wasn't short on R. Kelly.​So a couple of weeks ago, after three or four years of increasingly faltering service, Rocks Off's 30 GB iPod finally died. Completely. Out of sheer broke-assedness, we had held on to it for longer than most. By the end, its quirks and ... More >>

Janiva Magness

Whoever he is (was?), Scooby's iPod wasn't short on R. Kelly.​So a couple of weeks ago, after three or four years of increasingly faltering service, Rocks Off's 30 GB iPod finally died. Completely. Out of sheer broke-assedness, we had held on to it for longer than most. By the end, its quirks and ... More >>

Five Songs for MLK Day

Whoever he is (was?), Scooby's iPod wasn't short on R. Kelly.​So a couple of weeks ago, after three or four years of increasingly faltering service, Rocks Off's 30 GB iPod finally died. Completely. Out of sheer broke-assedness, we had held on to it for longer than most. By the end, its quirks and ... More >>

Elephant's Memory

New releases from the Apples In Stereo and Of Montreal pick up the thread of a legendary collective

Our top DVD picks for the week of December 13

New releases from the Apples In Stereo and Of Montreal pick up the thread of a legendary collective

The O.G. of Love

Johnny "Guitar" Watson gets his due with a terrific two disc set

R. Kelly

Happy People/U Saved Me (Jive)

They Are Too the Boss of You

They Might Be Giants enjoy life as a two-man industry

Arts Grant

A basketball icon brings classics of African-American art to TSU

Playbill

A basketball icon brings classics of African-American art to TSU

Van Hunt

Van Hunt (Capitol)

Hot for Teacher

Jack Black makes School of Rock rock

Al Green

Thursday, September 18

Alphabet Soup

The Colour Clear knows exactly where it should be filed in the record store. But what about in real life?

War on War Songs

Iraq and roll don't go together well when rockers protest

Black Gold

A gusher lay beneath the surface, but you had to drill deep

What Was Going On

At long last, the spotlight replaces the Shadows that obscured the Funk Brothers

Fly Spy

Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson's cash-in pays off

Real & Bold

Mary J. Blige

Whiggin' Out

Avant-rock takes shape in the Afghan Whigs and its wild front man

Rotation

Avant-rock takes shape in the Afghan Whigs and its wild front man

Rotation

Avant-rock takes shape in the Afghan Whigs and its wild front man

Sex Sells

Avant-rock takes shape in the Afghan Whigs and its wild front man

Rotation

Avant-rock takes shape in the Afghan Whigs and its wild front man