New York Dolls

Bizarre Acting Roles by 20 Famous Musicians

It's a toss-up whether actors or musicians will go to greater lengths to make rent, but some musicians have even found themselves so hard up they've been forced to take an acting gig. Such is the case with the haystack-sized Sleepy LaBeef, who in 1968's The Exotic Ones appeared as the "Swamp Monster ... More >>

Now Houston Baseball Fans Know What It's Like to Hate the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Before I became enamored of rock stars, rock journalists, punk rockers, metal mavens, or DJs, the first idols in my life were Houston Astros players, namely Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and the late Ken Caminiti. So on Wednesday, when the Baseball Hall of Fame failed to induct Biggio or Bagwell, or ... More >>

Blondie: The Best New Wave Band of All Time

How Far Can We Get From the Velvet Underground?

Since Rocks Off bought a smartphone this past January, we have downloaded almost 400 songs from iTunes. We know, we need help. But we have become fascinated with the damn thing. One of the features we like the best is "Listeners Also Bought" at the bottom of each album's page, which we assume ranks ... More >>

Todd Rundgren

Kiss, Motley Crue Hit Houston Together August 3

Kiss and Motley Crue are set to go on tour this year together, hitting the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion August 3, in the the thick of what will probably be a nasty, hot Texas summer. What should they call this tour? Maybe the "Shout It Loud at the Devil Tour"? Or how about "Detroit Rock City Bo ... More >>

Lord Lordy, Look Who's Forty: The Best Albums Of 1972

Last week I told you about the best debut albums of 1992, making a lot of us feel old in the process. Hell, I was only nine when those came out and I felt feeble making the list. This week we look at the best albums of 1972, now four decades in the hole, but no less fulfilling and influential. Wha ... More >>

No Surprises: Rock Hall Set To Induct Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys

Photo By Marco TorresGuns N' Roses are Rock Hall bound, but which version of GNR will show up? ​This morning (well, it leaked last night) the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland announced their 2012 class of inductees. Included on the list are Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Bo ... More >>

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs Rush...Again

Photo by Jeff Balke​A couple years ago, I was sitting on the back porch at the Continental Club talking music with a fairly well known music writer who seemed to believe that anything with a big hook or the slightest inkling of musicianship beyond the garage band aesthetic was utter garbage. I ... More >>

Ace Frehley's Wild Rocket Ride

No Regrets by Ace Frehley with Joe Layden and John Ostrosky 320 pp., $26, Gallery Books ​Even by standards of '70s hard rock excess, original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley was out of this world. In this breezy, buzzy, and debauched memoir, The Spaceman takes readers on a rocket ride through his ... More >>

Vandervelde

G N' R, The Cure & Chili Peppers Could Be Hall Of Famers Next Year

Oh, this will be a fun induction ceremony...​This morning, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland announced the list of nominees for its Class of 2012: The Small Faces & The Faces, Freddie King, The Cure, Guns 'N Roses, Heart, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Spinners, War, Joan Jett and the Bl ... More >>

Friday Night: Motley Crue & Poison At Toyota Center

Photos by Jay Lee​Motley Crue, Poison, New York Dolls Toyota Center June 10, 2011 "This drink tastes like rank hooker ass," says the man in the club-level bar, clad in an oversized Motley Crue shirt from one of the last Crue Fest jaunts in Houston. It must be a bad batch of Bud Light coming f ... More >>

Motley Crue At Toyota Center: A Taste

Photos by Jay Lee​Rocks Off had to run by the (rocks) office this afternoon, so we thought we'd post a few photos from Friday's Motley Crue/Poison/New York Dolls glamstravaganza at Toyota Center while we were up here, plus a few tweets from the show. See our full review, and more photos, tomor ... More >>

Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx: The Rocks Off Interview

"I'm dying for rock and roll to become exciting again" ​Tonight, the grand rock and roll triumvirate of Motley Crue, Poison, and the New York Dolls pulls into the Toyota Center. Each band comes armed with decades of experience, great songs, and a boatload of modern influence, including the Do ... More >>

Walk on the Wild Side

One tour unites three very different faces of glam-rock.

Dirty Diaries: The Motley Crue Literary Canon

​Anyone who knows this member of Rocks Off will know that he owns most every book written about Motely Crue, or written by a member of Motley Crue. Yes, next to Howard Zinns's A People's History of the United States and a well-worn copy of American Psycho, sits the collected literary works of ... More >>

More Like "Hall Of Lame," Am I Right?

​Ladies and gentlemen, your 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is ready to admit a new class: Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Neil Diamond, Darlene Love and Dr. John have all been inducted for 2011, the foundation announced Wednesday. With the exception of Wai ... More >>

Friday Night: Batusis At Mango's

Photos by David EnsmingerCheetah Chrome​Batusis feat. Sylvain Sylvain and Cheetah Chrome Mango's December 10, 2010 "Everything was as it always had been ... the years were a mirage and there had been no years," E.B. White once wrote, describing the collapse of time. This is what Batusis effor ... More >>

Batusis Is No Throwback

Cheetah Chrome and Sylvain Sylvain make rock and roll new again.

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 >>

MTV Struggles to Remain Relevant By Naming A Twitter Jockey

​This week MTV announced an online campaign looking for the network's first-ever TJ, or Twitter Jockey. Unlike the video jockeys of the cable station's past, these folks would instead live-tweet from MTV events for a year, earning a salary, and live in New York City. In addition to Twitter, th ... More >>

Malcolm McLaren Has Pulled Off His Last Great Rock And Roll Swindle

​Malcolm McLaren, influential punk heavyweight icon and fashion engineer has died at the age of 64 at a hospital in Switzerland, where he was battling cancer. To say that his life was polarizing is an extreme understatement; to agree that he was integral to the shaping of modern music is a univers ... More >>

(Don't) Book 'Em, Dano: 42 Artists Who Have Absolutely No Business Touring Together

​ When Rocks Off received word last week that indie duo The Big Pink was embarking on a 2010 tour with NYC's A Place to Bury Strangers, our initial thought was, "Cool," followed closely by, "Ew." For once, there's a promo poster we really have no desire to see. But then our next thought was, "Coul ... More >>

No Reservations: Outer Boroughs

Photo by duluoz_cats​Regretting having spent almost his entire life in Manhattan with nary a trip to the four outer boroughs, Anthony Bourdain took on the robust culinary scenes of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island in this week's episode of No Reservations. It seemed like a familia ... More >>

Traumatized Beyond Belief

Readers are horrified to learn what BARC does with its dead dogs.

Live Shots: New York Dolls at the House Of Blues

Aftermath stepped out to see the legendary New York Dolls hit the House Of Blues last night off Caroline. Our photographer Dan Kramer took some amazing pics as always. Here's a taste of his work while we get our review together... Photo By Daniel Kramer

Aftermath: New York Dolls & Black Joe Lewis at the House Of Blues

Photos by Daniel Kramer Aftermath is not going to purport to know what the New York Dolls were like live, in their Thundered and Killer-ed heyday of kitsch and campy kiss-offs. We weren't even in Pre-K when Buster Poindexter was singing "Hot Hot Hot" on Saturday Night Live. But for chrissakes ... More >>

Personality Crisis

The New York Dolls aren't too long in the tooth to sing "Jet Boy."

Touring with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Get on the bus, it's a family affair.

Hello, Houston!

Noise breaks down the months of live music ahead

Aftermath: Morrissey at Jones Hall

Craig HlavatyTropical Storm Morrissey blew through Jones Hall Saturday night, leaving a full house of hyperventilated fans - never more so than when, during "Let Me Kiss You," he removed his shirt to reveal an enviable set of abs - and more than a few moist eyes in its wake; after the sh ... More >>

Texas Punk Music Is Gay

The smartest people in rock and roll are queer.

How About Some SXSW Day Parties? A LOT of SXSW Day Parties?

We here at Rocks Off are only about a week away from chafed inner thighs, weird Japanese punk bands puking in hotel pools and sweating out our morning mojitos while walking to an art space off 4th Street. South By Southwest is now only a week away. It was all fun and games in December when we w ... More >>

Three Screamin' Ladies: Karen O, Brody Dalle and Lisa Rieffel of Killola

Josh Wildman/ www.yeahyeahyeahs.com Yeah Yeah YeahsWhat a week last week was for three of rock and roll's preeminent screamin' ladies. In a few short days, our heroines have unleashed major news and two new singles. Let's recap. Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs): Last Tuesday, the Yeah Yeah Ye ... More >>

Winter Wonderglam

Aftermath: Eagles of Death Metal at Meridian

Photos by Craig Hlavaty  It's super-hard to intelligently review a party band. You can't very well sit in one corner of the venue, gently stroking your scholarly beard jotting down notes on each intricate riff and drum fill. In the interest of science, you have to immerse yourself in the at ... More >>

Slideshow: New York Dolls in Dallas

Reverberations: Garage Rock Downloads on MySpace

Plastic Idols : Singles, Demos & Live: Houston Punk '78-'80

The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists

A new book compiles punk's greatest hits and biggest dicks

White Demons

Say Go

Best Albums of the Year, 2006 Part II

New York Dolls

One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This

RIP, Syd. And RIP, 'Cid.

A psychedelic pioneer and the drug that helped do him in are both sorely missed

Whiskey, Whiskey, Whiskey! Bands, Bands, Bands!

A South By Southwest diary

Sharp-Dressed Men

So Interpol's natty and into British post-punk. You got a problem with that?

Rock and Roll Swirlie

Manhattan's Toilet Boys keep '80s hair metal and '70s glam rock from circling the drain

Oxford Punks

Out of Mississippi comes the rowdy Neckbones

Young Punks

Peach-fuzzed trashers Pure Rubbish are Houston's anti-Hanson