Odessa

Randy Rogers Band Springs Surprise Trouble Release Show at Firehouse Saloon Tonight

The Randy Rogers Band has become a big enough name on the highly competitive Texas country/Red Dirt circuit that the quintet was chosen to open for George Strait and Martina McBride on Strait's Houston stop of his "The Cowboy Rides Away" tour at Reliant Stadium back in March. Reached by phone from " ... More >>

The 30 Essential Texas Restaurants: The List Is Live

Sorry about that teaser earlier this week. No fooling around this time, though: Our list is live. Go check out this week's feature -- "Eat Here: 30 Essential Texas Restaurants to Visit Before You Die" -- before reading on. We don't want to spoil any surprises for you. *** Read it yet? Are you sure ... More >>

Michelle Warner, 31, Buried By Ex-Boyfriend In Oilfield, Bayou Body Count No. 170

A man who has admitted burying his ex-girlfriend in an Odessa oilfield after killing her here has been charged with murder, Houston police say. Mark Augustin Castellano, 37, faces charges in the September 22 murder of Michelle Warner, 31, who was last seen in the 7200 Bellerieve on that day. Fami ... More >>

Anyone See Halliburton's Missing Radioactive Rod Lying Around?

Hair Balls has lost car keys, wallets, cats, and once even a rare Monet, but we'd like to think that we'd never lose a "potentially lethal" radioactive rod. But that's exactly what some Halliburton truck drivers did in the desert around Odessa last week, according to news reports. The "seven-inch l ... More >>

The First Alt-Country Record? Flatlanders Rediscover The Odessa Tapes

A lot of stellar music came out of that flat land known as West Texas. Bob Wills, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Terry Allen, Guy Clark, and the Sparkles are just a few artists who found something in the wind, the dust, the heat, the cactus, the mesquite, the sandstorms, the blizzards, t ... More >>

The Flatlanders

The 2nd Annual Main Street Block Party Announces Lineup

The Main Street Block Party is returning on January 28 to the The Continental Club, The Big Top, and The Mink's front and backrooms, armed with another great lineup, this time featuring Austin's What Made Milwaukee Famous and Dallas' hardcore cataclysm, Power Trip. The day-long festival was highly ... More >>

Clouds Are Ghosts: What Is Dark Is Also Uplifting

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're trying hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. ​The music of Clouds are Ghosts is hard to quantify. At first we were comparing the Austin group to the Legendary Pink Dots except that the ... More >>

Guerdwich Montimer: Bogus HS Freshman Hoop Star Heads to Prison

Guerdwich Mortimer just wanted to play ball​Guerdwich Montimer's reheated hoop dreams have been thrown in the trash. On Wednesday, the 23-year-old accepted three years in prison in a plea deal. Had he taken his case to trial next week, he might have wound behind bars for two decades. It had s ... More >>

Upcoming: Blue October, Guitar Shorty, Weird Al Yankovic, Etc.

​Asleep At The Wheel: Sat., Aug. 20. The Firehouse Saloon. Blue October, Iamdynamite: Sun., Aug. 21, 8 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 22, 8 p.m. House of Blues. Bela Fleck & The Flecktones: Wed., Oct. 12. House of Blues. "Dharmageddon" With B L A C K I E, Roky Moon & BOLT, Fat Tony, Tyagaraja, ListenLis ... More >>

West Texas Teardrops: Earmuffs, But No Sellout, In Austin

Ed. Note: This past weekend, Houston alternative/screamo rockers The Last Place You Look opened for Unwritten Law in Lubbock, Odessa, and Austin, and invited Rocks Off's Matthew Keever along. See links for Part 1 and Part 2. credTLPYL give it their all at Emo's.​After two nights in a row of s ... More >>

West Texas Teardrops: Incident In Odessa

Ed. Note: This past weekend, Houston alternative/screamo rockers The Last Place You Look opened for Unwritten Law in Lubbock, Odessa, and Austin, and invited Rocks Off's Matthew Keever along. Here is Part 1. The Last Place You Look on FacebookThe Last Place You Look's Justin Nava at Emo's in Austin ... More >>

West Texas Teardrops: On Tour With The Last Place You Look

Ed. Note: This past weekend, Houston alternative/screamo rockers The Last Place You Look opened for Unwritten Law in Lubbock, Odessa, and Austin, and invited Rocks Off's Matthew Keever along. This is his first of three reports. The Last Place You Look on FacebookCasa Oh No: The Last Place You Look' ... More >>

Abandoned Theaters: 75 Beautiful Pictures, Including Seven From Texas

​Buzzfeed has scoured the net and come up with 75 great photographs of abandoned theaters across the country. Some feature amazing interiors that look ready to house a play or movie immediately; others look like forlorn abandoned warehouses. Texas is mightily represented, with seven locations ... More >>

He's Only a Perv

Court rules video voyeur not a child pornographer

Alan Ray Steen: Just a Perv, Not a Child Pornographer

A tanning bed is not sexy, court rules​The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has formally ruled: Alan Ray Steen is a pervert, he's not a child pornographer. Steen liked to go to tanning salons and stick a video camera over the cubicle wall to tape women; one day the person he taped turned out ... More >>

Come and Bake It

Local movement fights for cottage food bill.

Battleship Potemkin

Stuff You Should Know About: Maddox Brothers And Rose

"America's Most Colorful Hillbilly Band" ​Lonesome, Onry and Mean was watching a YouTube of Merle Haggard's "Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man)" recently and, as he introduced the song, Merle commented that the inspiration for the song was the Maddox Brothers and Rose. According to Hag, "No one rem ... More >>

Yates High: 1985 State Champs and 'Team of the Decade' Celebrates 25-Year Anniversary

Photo by Chasen MarshallYates High '85: the debate continues over whether it was the greatest Texas team ever.Twenty-five years ago, Houston was home to, arguably, the greatest high school football team ever to take the field in Texas. During that season, Yates High was unstoppable on offense and im ... More >>

Grand Prize's Vieux Carre

Stirred & Shaken: Grand Prize's Vieux Carre

Troy Fields​Compared to other big cities, Houston does not have a hipster problem - if you feel otherwise, either your definition is too broad or you just got off a Greyhound from somewhere like Odessa. Still, when neighborhood sports bar Ernie's closed and news broke that slightly more polish ... More >>

A Rock & Roll Time Capsule From Friday Night Lights Country

myspace.com/sweetmikeycThat's right, that's former Elvis Presley guitar-picker Scotty Moore on the far left.​ As Lonesome, Onry and Mean noted yesterday, even in an age when no one supposedly buys, listens to or reviews albums anymore - three words: Record Store Day - too many albums pour into our ... More >>

Tender Mercies

Bombing survivor Sam Baker comes to grips with forgiveness on Cotton.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: All Hail the King of Irish Rock and Soul, Van the Man Morrison

Obviously with U2 and the Pogues alone, the Irish scene has had a huge effect on the pop music of the past half century. But no list of Irish influences on 20th century rock and roll can be complete without Van Morrison. ​In 1968, LOM's senior year in high school, Them played the Ector County Col ... More >>

MP3 of the Day: "Claudette," Still a Better Song Than a Storm

It's been so quiet in the tropics lately that even Ike-scarred Houstonians were able to forget that it's hurricane season - until this weekend, that is, when not one but three disturbances showed up "down there." (Better than some other things showing up "down there," Rocks Off can tell you that mu ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Hoyle Nix and Big Spring's Stampede Club

Photo courtesy of Jody NixHoyle Nix (left) and Bob Wills, mid-1950sThere's an old saying in West Texas about Midland and Odessa, two oil towns only 20 miles apart in the middle of nowhere: raise your kids in Midland, raise hell in Odessa. True enough, Midland has all the soul of a loaf of Rainbow br ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Western Swing Royalty at iFest

Looking ahead to the Houston International Festival - never mind the SXSW bollocks - I was pleasantly surprised to see that Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys will be playing on the Texas Stage at 6 p.m. on April 18. Not long ago in these cyberpages, we examined the gloom and doom that surrounds the ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Roy Orbison and Odessa

Aftermath: Silver Jews at Walter's on Washington

Sam Baker

Pretty World

Stage Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

How to Hide Your Weed

An ex-cop from East Texas decides to switch sides

Singing with Giants

Fun and games with Austin's Hickoids

Lights On or Off?

The fight for a TV show about truth, justice and high school football

Joe Ely

Friday, June 9, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2524 Norfolk, 713-528-5999

Got Your Health

How much more can you cut?

Broadway Baby

Somehow, Odessa will be Woodstock this summer for Sondheim lovers

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Hell of a Catch

Friday Night Lights goes deep -- a rare route for football movies

Horrific Haikus

Death-metal band names make for fun magnetic poetry

The Red Elvises

Friday, November 15

Bridges II the Bend

Two tiny publishers from Houston land the sequel to Madison County

Stirred and Shaken

The Hong Kong Disco's Seven & Seven

Texas Thunder

Stay true to Pantera. They're true to you.

Familiar Turf

The Yards authoritatively walks in the footsteps of some famous filmmakers

Post-Cold War Crazies

In Their Own Time

How deep is your love for the Bee Gees?

The Why of WorldFest

Houston's film festival returns a "lean, mean movie machine"

Yiddish Yahoos

The Austin Klezmorim's clamorous eclecticism