Paul McCartney

Drenched in Blog: Happy 25th, Thriller

The Blog of Lists: 25 Vegan Musicians

Paul McCartney Stuns Oklahoma City

Get Lit: Beatles for Sale by John Blaney

Another Beatles book? Doesn't the world already know everything it possibly can about the Fab Four, from the nickname of their favorite Hamburg pill dealer to the mustache style of the cab driver who took George through the streets of Rishikesh? Well... no. And as long as interest in the band ... More >>

Rotation

Another Beatles book? Doesn't the world already know everything it possibly can about the Fab Four, from the nickname of their favorite Hamburg pill dealer to the mustache style of the cab driver who took George through the streets of Rishikesh? Well... no. And as long as interest in the band ... More >>

Classic Touch

Another Beatles book? Doesn't the world already know everything it possibly can about the Fab Four, from the nickname of their favorite Hamburg pill dealer to the mustache style of the cab driver who took George through the streets of Rishikesh? Well... no. And as long as interest in the band ... More >>

Tonight: Windsor Drive EP Release at Fitzgerald's

Windsor Drive Bridges EP www.myspace.com/windsordrive The second EP, Bridges, from local indie darlings Windsor Drive (currently signed to Ping Pong Music) drops this Saturday at what promises to be a spectacular show. Luckily, Rocks Off managed to snag an advanced copy in electronic form so ... More >>

News Hostage

KPRC RSVPs

Up in the Air

Continental Airlines helps out Lee Brown's re-election campaign

French Kicks: Swimming

Continental Airlines helps out Lee Brown's re-election campaign

Hinder, Papa Roach, Buckcherry

Continental Airlines helps out Lee Brown's re-election campaign

Houston Music Map

Queen Norah reigns, Josh Groban pains, and lots of Natalie Maines

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

The Chieftains

The Chieftains perform with the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pops, Friday through Sunday, January 5, through January 7, at Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana, 713-224-7575.

Old Folks Rock

McCartney doesn't pretend to be anything but a sap. And Jagger still acts like he's God's gift to sexdom.

Paul McCartney

Saturday, November 19, at Toyota Center, 1510 Polk, 713-758-7200.

A Thin Line...

Introducing the most hated men in rock (besides Sting)

Super Furry Animals

Wednesday, September 24

Remembering 1969, Part 1: Altamont, Rosemary's Baby, Santana at Woodstock and More

1968 might have been - at least politically - one of the most turbulent years of the '60s. Students rioted left - specifically, the Left Bank in Paris - and right against the war in Vietnam, while back home racial tensions escalated, especially after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The po ... More >>

Remembering 1969, Part 3: The Beginning of the End for the Beatles

Note: see Part 1 here and Part 2 here. For most of 1969, the Beatles were pretty much comatose - after the disastrous Get Back sessions (which would later spawn the Phil Spector-produced Let It Be), they reconvened to the studio that spring to record the music for what would become their final reco ... More >>

Slide Show: Day of the Duos

Today marks the anniversary of the day in 1957 that John Lennon met Paul McCartney, when Paul happened to take in John's pre-Beatles band, the Quarrymen, at a Liverpool church picnic. Exactly seven years later came the London premiere of A Hard Day's Night, the manic movie whose soundtrack cemented ... More >>

The Beatles: Rock Band Is In the House

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​ It's like Christmas morning here at Rocks Off today. We just got our copy of The Beatles: Rock Band and, like a car wreck or the Williams Tower waterwall, can't stop staring at it. (Must... look... away...) It looks like developer Harmonix spared no expense - and, at $250 ... More >>

More Musical Medocrity For Houston's Private Party Of The Year

​For those folks out there wondering if superlawyer Mark Lanier had suddenly -- after all these years -- finally developed good musical taste, you can rest assured: He hasn't.Tort King Lanier is famous for his Christmas parties, elaborate (if liquor-free) bacchanals that feature kiddie rides, top- ... More >>

Congratulations to Our Live Nation Club Passport Winners, and More Background on That John Entwistle Photo

​ We finally have a winner in Rocks Off's photo contest for those Live Nation Club Passports we started giving away back when George W. was president. Not really, but it seems like it. Congratulations to Houston's Mitsy Parsons, whose shot of her with NYC up-and-comer Ryan Star at September's Coll ... More >>

Shonen Knife

​ We finally have a winner in Rocks Off's photo contest for those Live Nation Club Passports we started giving away back when George W. was president. Not really, but it seems like it. Congratulations to Houston's Mitsy Parsons, whose shot of her with NYC up-and-comer Ryan Star at September's Coll ... More >>

KISS Off

The makeup-clad rockers may be hilarious, but they're hardly metal.

Get Lit: Paul McCartney: A Life by Peter Ames Carlin

​Rocks Off understands that this effort is meant for a more general audience and not a Beatles obsessive like himself who owns a bookcase stocked with 93 Fab-related tomes (we counted). And on that level, A Life is a fine if surface summation of the life and career of Sir Paul. Much of Carlin's na ... More >>

New iPhone? Rocks Off Has an App for That.

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray​ We know a ton of you got iPhones over the holiday break. Well, good news: Rocks Off has spent the last few months developing our own iPhone applications (or "apps," as the urban kids are saying) and we're thrilled to debut them here. All inquiries, critici ... More >>

Great Moments in Douchebaggotry: Michael Jackson Takes Paul McCartney's Advice... In the Douchiest Way Possible

Great Moments in Douchebaggery is brought to you by Rocks Off's upcoming Washington Shore party, Thursday, February 11, at the Washington Avenue Drinkery. All types of douchebags are encouraged to attend. Sadly, the duo enjoyed only a very brief period of skipping merrily about together.​In the ea ... More >>

Weird Al Yankovic Dishes On Gaga, Michael Jackson, McCartney And More

Seth Olenick​While most comedy artists quickly dissipate into one-hit-wonderdom, Weird Al Yankovic has continued to reign as the accordion-toting king of musical satire for over three decades now. In anticipation of Saturday's show at Verizon Wireless Theatre, Rocks Off chatted with Weird Al a ... More >>

Seven Musical Marriages Sullied By Proposition 8's Repeal

​Just in case you're one of the very few people who hasn't yet been seized by government shock troops and forced to marry someone of the same sex, a California Supreme Court judge ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional Wednesday. This would be the proposition which officially defines marriage as ... More >>

Beatles Mockumentary Revisits "Paul Is Dead" Myth

Paul McCartney Really is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison Highway 61 Entertainment 95 mins., $14.95. ​ROCKS OFF WORLD EXCLUSIVE: At last, the truth can be told about one of rock and roll's greatest mysteries! As he lay dying of lung cancer in 2001, a weak George Harrison dictated ... More >>

Five Reasons Your Bass Player Hates You

​John Entwistle. Paul McCartney. Cliff Burton. Flea. John Paul Jones. Geddy Lee. Les Claypool. Geezer Butler. Lemmy. Lemmy! These are just some of the best bassists that rock and roll has ever seen. But not all is bright for these folks, thumping or picking away on their rumbling four-string ... More >>

FAIL: Morrissey, Scott Weiland, Whitesnake, Conspiracy Theorists

​Morrissey Loves Animals So Much It Makes Him Racist: Morrissey has been one of the biggest ambiguously snarky pussies in all of rock music for some years now, popular among 15-year-old bisexuals of all races and creeds. Sometimes, however, the former Smiths frontman likes to make a straightf ... More >>

In Case You Missed It...

Marco TorresIt's a bird... it's a plane... it's... Usher!​Rocks Off knows you have had a busy week. So have we. But, we figured, what with Thanksgiving and Black Friday and traveling to and from your various other holiday ports of call, you may not have had as much time in front a computer as ... More >>

Guns N' Roses, Rolling Stones, Prince Coming In 2011?

Sind Axl und Slash wieder Freunde geworden?​Rocks Off is in the concert business for all intents and purposes. We scour Pollstar and other Web sites and almost hourly looking for new shows and tours to tell you about around the clock. In the span of writing this introduction we just listed Luc ... More >>

Paul McCartney's Life Seldom Less Than Fab

​Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney By Howard Sounes Da Capo Press, 634 pp., $29.95. While the Beatles and Beatle-related bookshelf is groaning beyond belief, the main thing to know about Fab is this: Howard Sounes has produced the finest, most detailed, and most up-to-date doorstop tome ... More >>

10 Beatles Urban Legends: True Or False?

​When you're a band like the Beatles - who first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964, 47 years ago today - tall tales and urban legends spring up all around... mostly because when a band is a worldwide cultural phenomenon, anything can seem possible or even plausible. Some of th ... More >>

Love Through the (St)ages

​When you're a band like the Beatles - who first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964, 47 years ago today - tall tales and urban legends spring up all around... mostly because when a band is a worldwide cultural phenomenon, anything can seem possible or even plausible. Some of th ... More >>

Music's Five Most Notorious Killers, Besides The Band

​On St. Patrick's Day 1985, serial killer Richard Ramirez (right) murdered two women in Los Angeles, beginning a killing spree that would eventually tally over 14 people and leave him with the nickname "The Night Stalker." From a young age, Ramirez was fascinated and inspired by the occult and ... More >>

Dear Paul McCartney: Please Come Play Houston

connect.in.com​Dear Paul McCartney, Hi. This is Craig Hlavaty and I write about the musics for the Houston Press Rocks Off blog here in the Bayou City. Lately I have been seeing on Twitter and the greater Internet that you are slowly piecing together a concert tour of baseball stadiums. Which ... More >>

10 Songs For Pissed-Off Travelers

This spring, Austin honky-tonker and Pasadena native Dale Watson had some dates in Australia and made the mistake of booking a flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Singapore-based budget carrier Tiger Airways. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, not only did the airline charge Watson a $500 exce ... More >>

The Best Episodes Of MTV's Unplugged

​MTV Unplugged was like health food for your soul during its heyday on the music channel, which was full of junk food. When artists stuck to the template and went untethered to electronic instruments and really dug into their music with new eyes it was amazing. Debuting in 1989 with Squeeze ... More >>

Pop Rocks: A (Not Really) Canonical List Of Wardrobe Malfunctions (NSFW)

Bad idea.​The "wardrobe malfunction" is a phenomenon I confess I wasn't really aware of until Super Bowl XXXVIII. Half of us at the party were watching the actual Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake halftime show, the other half were watching the South Park (or was it Family Guy?) episode running ... More >>

Pop Rocks: What's Your [Wardrobe] Malfunction? (NSFW)

Bad idea.​The "wardrobe malfunction" is a phenomenon I confess I wasn't really aware of until Super Bowl XXXVIII. Half of us at the party were watching the actual Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake halftime show, the other half were watching the South Park (or was it Family Guy?) episode running ... More >>

10 Awesome, Awful & Odd "Hey Jude" Covers

​This week in 1968, The Beatles inaugurated their Apple Records label in a most auspicious fashion, releasing "Hey Jude" as a 45. The B-side was "Revolution." Written by Paul McCartney and employing a 36-piece orchestra, "Jude" did nothing to dispel the perception that Paul was the "soft" Beat ... More >>

Ask Me Anything: What Would You Ask Your Favorite Artist?

"What do you love about music?" ​Part of the job here at Rocks Off - this daily Make-A-Wish kid circus - is talking to musicians and people in the musical know. One of the most fun parts of the job is booking an interview with an artist coming to town and cramming for a few days into the nook ... More >>

Live and Let Die: The Music of Paul McCartney

"What do you love about music?" ​Part of the job here at Rocks Off - this daily Make-A-Wish kid circus - is talking to musicians and people in the musical know. One of the most fun parts of the job is booking an interview with an artist coming to town and cramming for a few days into the nook ... More >>

He's Alive! Top 9 Musician Death Hoaxes of 2011

Gotta hand it to Jon Bon Jovi, the guy has a sense of humor.​It seems like 2011 was the year of the celebrity death hoax which involved many musicians. We use that term loosely for the sake of this blog. Death is never a joking matter but you can't help but chuckle at the thousands of folk w ... 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 influenti ... More >>