Prince (Musician)

The Rocks Off 100: David DeLaGarza, Don of Tejano Stars La Mafia

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Any conversation about Tejano music is inco ... More >>

Last Night: Solange at Fitzgerald's

Solange Fitzgerald's March 12, 2013 Solange has a famous sister. You've probably heard of her; both women grew up around here. And now let that be the last time we mention the elder Knowles sibling, because her younger sister is definitely on some different shit. In her half-decade and change as ... More >>

10 Controversial Artists I Want to See on the New Arsenio

Woof woof woof woof woof. Get used to that, 'cause Arsenio is back. Nearly two decades after The Arsenio Hall Show disappeared from TV's late-night landscape following a five-year run, the man himself is being recalled to duty by CBS's syndicated-programming wing. The new Arsenio debuts in the fall ... More >>

The Real Fame Monster: How Much Evil Could One Pop Star Do?

Consider the following hypothetical scenario: over the past five years you, through a combination of talent and charisma, have managed to scale the music industry summit to become a pop icon with millions of fans worldwide, including 30 million followers on Twitter; among the millions are a group o ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: The Vocal Force That Is Kam Franklin

This Saturday night, Houston's The Suffers play the Continental Club with the Bandulus and Wilroy Black and The Boss on board as support. Widescreen ska/rocksteady act The Bandulus is also releasing a new album, The Times We Had, that night as well. You can give it a listen right here over on Band ... More >>

What Was Your Favorite Concert at The Summit?

It must be music-venue day today. Rocks Off would like to thank Jon Harvey of Houston (@oompahead) for alerting us via Twitter to the fact that on this day in 1975, when I was a few weeks away from turning one year old, the sports and entertainment arena then known as the Summit opened in Greenway P ... More >>

Madonna's Top 5 MDNA World Tour Transgressions

Madonna's Sex book turned 20 years old this week. The literary capstone on pop music's most frankly sexual career (sorry, Prince), the glossy collection of softcore smut managed to shock even the Material Girl's most ardent fans, crossing a few lines that many weren't entirely aware existed. Gay se ... More >>

Top 10 Great Guests for Beyonce's Super Bowl Halftime Show

Beyonce, the queen of all showbiz, is expected to officially be named the halftime headliner at Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans sometime today after MTV broke the news Tuesday afternoon. The choice seems fairly sensible. There are precious few pop stars of her magnitude out there right now, although ... More >>

The 20 Best YouTube Rock Docs You Can Watch Free (For Now)

**The 31 Best Music Documentaries of All Time So you don't have NetFlix, you hate the video stores (if you can even find one), you don't like going to the little red box next to the liquor store, but you do have an Internet connection, plenty of time on your hands, and an insatiable thirst for rock ... More >>

The 10 Best Guest Appearances On Other People's Songs

Have you ever had one of those moments when, you're listening to a song and hear something familiar, like maybe a familiar voice or wonder, "Okay, who is really playing this particular instrument?" Many times a band or an artist will guest star on a recording. Sometimes it's a well-known fact, such ... More >>

Musically Speaking, What Is the Best Zodiac Sign?

Sometimes some musicians just can't even be put in the same sentence as one another. Depending on people's musical preferences. It's hard to compare and can be a bit confrontational. But one thing is for sure the day on which someone is born can't be changed. And then that's where astrology comes in ... More >>

Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 6 Karaoke Bars

Here's something maybe you didn't know about karaoke culture: It's considerably more involved and nuanced than most anyone outside of it knows. For example, were you aware that, same as there are karaoke bars that aim to attract laughably bad singers, there are some that draw stunningly good, as w ... More >>

Marcie Chapa Gives Freedom Over Texas a Beat

With all due respect to pop-country stars Sara Evans and Billy Currington, the real show-stopper at the City of Houston's Freedom Over Texas July 4 celebration in Eleanor Tinsley Park Wednesday might be the Ernest Walker Band, the jazz/R&B/funk/Latin table-setters whose ranks -- all of them with Hou ... More >>

7 Songs Produced By Birthday Dude Jerry Harrison

If you know the name Jerry Harrison at all, it's most likely from his work as guitarist/keyboardist for Talking Heads. But he's had just as prolific a career as the owner of Sausalito Sound as he has had creating music with one of my favorite bands. After leaving Talking Heads and releasing a handf ... More >>

Express Yourself: The 10 Best Deep Tracks of Madonna's Career

Daniel KramerPhoto by Daniel Kramer.​Madonna is one of those artists that does it all: she sings, dances, acts, and occasionally writes. The main thing that keeps her fans begging for more is that she always seeks to reinvent herself - whether it be her 'Borderline'-era '80s street-style or th ... More >>

RIP Etta James: A Dynamic Voice And An R&B Legend

​Etta James, whose fiery voice helped influences generations of R&B singers, has died at the age of 73, after a long bout with leukemia. James, known best for her ballad "At Last", had been ill for sometime, and had went home to be with family just a few weeks ago around the holidays. Accord ... More >>

Overlooked and Underrated: Finding Bonnie's in South Houston

​It spent nearly 25 years in the hands of a woman who started as a bar owner when she was only a few years short of senior discounts, and upon her death, it was passed on to her beautician because she didn't have any blood family, though she seemed to have the other kind in spades. Bonnie's ha ... More >>

On the Rocks: Cocktails Named After Musicians for New Year's Eve

Have a G.G. Allin and bring in the New Year indecently!​Everything is more exciting, sometimes even redeeming, when it has a cool name: Sexual acts, alcoholic beverages, movies, albums, etc. OK, maybe just sexual acts and drinks. Since there are thousands of sites that have the former covere ... More >>

Jeremiah Clarke: Why You Shouldn't Play "Trumpet Voluntary" at Your Wedding

Today is the 337th birthday of composer and organist Jeremiah Clarke. You have heard his most famous work dozens of times in your life and never really thought about it. Clarke composed the "Prince of Denmark March," which is usually called "Trumpet Voluntary." Due to a mix up in a famous songbook, ... More >>

Some Strings Attached: Puppets In Music Videos

The Muppets had a successful and profitable opening yesterday, proving that after 30 years of television and movies, Kermit still has his acting chops. Jim Henson's premiere Muppets motion picture, The Muppets Movie, came out in June of 1979. The film was the first to feature a leading cast of pup ... More >>

The Five Worst Music Movies Ever*

* That aren't actual musicals *eye roll*​It would be easy to pick out a bunch of terrible musicals to make fun of. First off, most musicals seem stuck in the 1930s, when every song everywhere sounded like a show tune, and therefore stank. Second, we're afraid of polarizing our audience. You ... More >>

Nothing's Shocking: Thank You, Iggy Pop

singinglamb.caA young Iggy Pop has his way with a microphone stand c. 1968​Cyberspace was all abuzz on Monday, thanks to Lady Gaga's "shocking" VMA performance of "You and I" dressed as a young Ralph Macchio, or at least that's what it looked like from here. It was creative and bold, and defin ... More >>

Justin Bieber Movie Reveals Pop Star Shaves, Has Hot Mom

"OMG you can reach and touch his face" ​Thursday night, Rocks Off went to the first midnight screening of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, in 3D no less. Yes we had a chaperone, but the late hour and the theater's location wasn't conducive to masses of screaming girls. The location we saw it ... More >>

1991: Best Music Year Ever?

Rocks Off Sr.'s choice for 1991's best album.​1991 was one of the biggest years in modern music. It was when metal went pop, radio country ruled, grunge went mainstream, and rap began its climb to chart dominance, even if it was spearheaded by a white candy rapper from Dallas. There were man ... More >>

"Auld Lang Syne," In All Its Many Colors

​Harry: What does this song mean? My whole life, I don't know what this song means. "Should old acquaintance be forgot" - does that mean we should forget old acquaintances, or if we happen to forget them, that we should remember them, which is not possible because we've already forgotten them? ... More >>

11 Songs You Shouldn't Sing At The Office Holiday Party

​'Tis the season for office Christmas holiday parties. No doubt you have already had yours at work, or are getting ready for one. They all include copious drinking, great food, stolen glances, slurry conversations, "Can ah bum ah cigarette?" and intentional accidental groping. No bonus this ... More >>

Top Eight Worst Musician Vanity Film Projects

​Rocks Off won't speak for everyone, but if we ever found ourselves a platinum-selling artist, we kinda doubt we'd press our luck by veering off into the world of acting. We mean, it hardly ever works from the opposite direction (right, Don Johnson?), so what good can possibly come from assumi ... More >>

Four Loko: We Investigate Just How Bad It Is (UPDATED With Morning-After Reflections)

Science!!!!​The latest bit of juvenile delinquency that has the authorities up in arms is Four Loko, a powerful caffeinated beer that's sending kids to hospitals.The "powerful" part -- 12 percent alcohol in a 24-ounce can -- gets you wasted, and the "caffeinated" part keeps you up instead of passi ... More >>

Start Wearing Purple: No Bullies Allowed

​Bullies suck. Growing up, Craig's Hlist watched a lot of kids in school getting the brunt of the, quote-unquote, "cooler" people giving them hell for being big, gay, handicapped or just smart. They would start fights, make up songs or stories about them, or find ways to embarrass them in fr ... More >>

Last Night: Lady Gaga At Toyota Center

Photos by Marco Torrea​Lady Gaga Toyota Center July 25, 2010 For Lady Gaga's show last night at Toyota Center, the first of a two-night sold-out stand in Houston, she managed to meld blood, sacrilege, fire, pain, heavy metal, love, and the power of music into one mass of light and sound. Fr ... More >>

Musicians Do More In Bed Than Just... Sleep

​Today is the anniversary of one of the most unusual events in a most unusual decade. On May 26, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their "Bed-In for Peace" at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel. It was the second of such boudoir-bound protests (or, if you prefer, media stunts); the couple folded ... More >>

Mavis Staples Will Take You There - Conroe - Friday Night

​Apparently there are still plenty of tickets for Mavis Staples in Conroe Friday night. Part of the Sounds of Texas Music Series at the Crighton Theater, the show also includes gospel-rocker Mike Farris. Staples, a recent Best Contemporary Blues Grammy nominee for her Live: Hope At The Hideout, is ... More >>

Spermy Night In Georgia: Sexed-Up Songs To Set The Mood For Blowfly

Let's get one thing perfectly clear: Blowfly is the original dirty rapper. Before anyone in 2 Live Crew was old enough to set foot into a peepshow stall or buy a pack of cigarettes, Clarence "Blowfly" Reid was spewing forth raucous raps like "Spermy Night In Georgia" and "What a Difference a Lay Mak ... More >>

Aftermath: Darius Rucker's Forever Road To Purple Rain, Via David Allan Coe And Hank Jr. At RodeoHouston

Photos courtesy of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™​Took us long enough, but Aftermath finally understands the rodeo. After one performer who left us cold, and another who turned Reliant Stadium into the world's biggest gospel/R&B revival, Darius Rucker's set Tuesday was the definition of " ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs for Your New Year's Eve Party

You know when you're at a bar or a party and everything seems über-subdued, then suddenly someone pops a dollar in the jukebox or a CD in the player and it's just the right song for the moment? And then everyone hops up and does this synchronized line -ance perfectly choreographed for the song just ... More >>

I Gave Her a Ring...: Musical Minutiae About Fingers and Birds

​Although we recently discovered how to access the primitive version of Facebook on our non-iPhone (so watch out), Rocks Off generally lives in an Internet-free bubble outside the office. And happily so, so it took until Monday's late local news for us to see - and subsequently laugh our fool head ... More >>

Unusual Suspects at The Usual

Trackside bar welcomes amateur karaoke stars — and everybody else

Recent Super Bowl Halftime Highlights and Lowlights

Backfield in Motion

Flannel File: "Girl Bros." Wendy & Lisa

[Note: Flannel File is an offshoot of Retro Active, focusing on the new hot nostalgia decade - the '90s, of course.] As Retro Active expands its purview from the '80s to the '90s, it's somewhat appropriate that this post remarks on some folks who became massively popular in the '80s but who, oddly ... More >>

Artist of the Week: Prince AJ

The Geto Boys Reunite

Prince Fielder Sued in Houston Federal Court for Allegedly Helping Pops Hide Assets

The Music Critics Dictionary

Translating critic-speak

Silk

Always and Forever

Texas Burger Binge

Our food critic reports on the state of the Texas burger -- and recommends 18 you need to try immediately

Nouvelle Vague

Nouvelle Vague

On the Down-Low

Shovel away all that Usher, Prince and Lil Jon you've been jamming, and dig this year's buried black-music treasures

On the Down-Low

Shovel away all that Usher, Prince and Lil Jon you've been jamming and dig this year's buried black-music treasures

Boobs Versus Prudes

Only Prince can walk the tightrope between sensuality and artistry

Mount Coy

South Park Mexican carves out his place in history with the 2001 Music Awards