Ritchie Valens

Chubby Checker, the Man Who Killed the Boner App

There's no way to say this in a ladylike fashion, so fuck it. Because someone, somewhere wants me to make middle-school boner jokes today, Chubby Checker of "Twist" fame is suing Hewlett-Packard and Palm for releasing the "Chubby Checker," an app used to estimate a dude's potential boner size by me ... More >>

Saturday Night: Red Bull Thre3style Regional Qualifier at Fitzgerald's

Red Bull Thre3Style DJ Competition Regional Qualifier Fitzgerald's January 19th, 2013 The illustrious Fitzgerald's was once again the center of the city's rich music scene Saturday night, as it hosted the Red Bull Thre3Style Houston qualifier. Five of Houston's brightest and most talented DJ stars ... More >>

10 Iconic Final Concerts Plus The End Of Beatlemania

The Beatles' concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park 46 years ago today was the end of an era for the band. Except for a famously unannounced appearance on top the Apple building two and a half years later, it would be the final live performance that the Fab Four would ever play together. It w ... More >>

Last Night: Los Lobos At Dosey Doe

It all seemed very dream-like: a band from East Los Angeles, playing rock and roll classics and Mexican corridos, inside of a 150-year-old barn in The Woodlands, all while I ate my dinner. Yet I wasn't dreaming, I was just at the Dosey Doe (25911 I-45 North). The intimate dining and music hall made ... More >>

Los Lobos

Four Artists Who Died Before Playing Houston

theindependent.co.uk​When Amy Winehouse died Saturday, almost everyone noted how the troubled British soul singer had joined the "27 Club," the list of legendary musicians who passed away at that age that also includes Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: And Then There Were None, Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, The Miss Firecracker Contest, Smokey Joe's Cafe

The Best Songs From 1958

​This Saturday is Craig's Hlist's father's birthday, and the man turns 53. Sorry to out your age, Dad, but it's for science. This week while doing other research, we found that most people whose art we enjoy were actually born in 1958. People like Alec Baldwin, Prince, Jello Biafra, Jools Holl ... More >>

Museum Of The Gulf Coast's Musical Treasure Trove

Photos by Craig HlavatyJanis Joplin's car​Rocks Off visited the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur this past Friday while on the the way to Louisiana for a quick vacation. The downstairs area is full of artifacts pertaining to the founding of the land around Port A, like military and anim ... More >>

Day Of The Dead: Music In Memoriam 2009-10

itscactus.com​Rocks Off doesn't mean to be morbid, but today is the Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday and festival honoring those who have gone before. So instead of waiting until the end of the year, the more traditional time for such things, we wanted to compile a list of the notable name ... More >>

"Day of the Dead Rock Stars"

Carlos Hernandez adds a few new twists to his annual Dia de los Muertos exhibit

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Plane Crashes And The Fall Of Icarus

The quicker us pick Icarus to be a stinker of a pilot, but anyone that near the sun ain't no shrinking violet. - Richard O'Brien, Ain't That to Die For ​ Lynyrd Skynyrd, "What's Your Name" Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the plane crash that killed Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant ... More >>

Last Night: Deer Tick At The Bronze Peacock

Photos by Jason Wolter​Deer Tick House of Blues (Bronze Peacock Room) October 13, 2010 What makes a Deer Tick? Equal parts The Band, Nirvana, Ritchie Valens, Duane Eddy and a heap of firewater. It's hard to describe Deer Tick to people who haven't heard them, but those are the best terms we c ... More >>

Inside "American Pie," Pop Music's Longest Allegory

​Rocks Off has always been a fan of symbolism, hidden meanings and puzzles in general, so besides Raymond Chandler, Stephen King and Larry McMurtry, our favorite form of "lit-rah-chah" is allegorical stuff like George Orwell's Animal Farm, William Golding's Lord of the Flies and Edgar Allan Po ... More >>

Johnette Duff Knows About The Ups And Downs Of The Film Business

Up & Down: Life in an elevator​Screenwriter/producer Johnette Duff has been dreaming about the premiere of her new film Up & Down -- literally."I dreamt that nobody woke me up in time for the premiere and so I got there late," she laughingly tells Hair Balls. "Then there were all these sce ... More >>

Cesar Lozano, Illegal Alien, Is Now Big Cease, American Dream Come True

​ The video that usually crowns our Latino hip-hop blog is going to come at the end of our story today, because without explaining how the American Dream has evolved, the music video won't be given the meaning it deserves. First, you need to know that the American Dream takes on many forms. The Am ... More >>

Hit the Road, Jack: 10 More Notable Musical Deaths From the Past Decade

​ Looking back, this past decade wasn't too kind to rock and roll as a whole. We lost plenty of people who weren't exactly disgustingly huge as Michael Jackson or as monolithic as Johnny Cash. This decade took its share of people who were massively influential and iconic, but not on the grand worl ... More >>

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 >>

Things to Do This Weekend If You're (Almost) Broke

Friday Bluesman John Nemeth jams the Big Easy Slim Harpo-style for the budget-friendly price of $5. Austin Collins, the Small Sounds and Stephen Chadwick twang it up at the Firehouse Saloon. $10. Eclectic pop-rocker David Garza turns the Continental Club into a "Discoball World." $10. DJs Cuba Goodi ... More >>

For Cinco de Mayo: Five Non-Mexican Mexicans In The Movies

Cinco de Mayo is a day for Americans of Mexican descent to commemorate their rich history and heritage while at the same time trying to ignore the legions of mouth-breathing Chron commenters clamoring for their deportation. And if being blamed for the H1N1 (don't call it swine) flu outbreak wasn't ... More >>

Classic Rock Corner: Graham Nash Interviewed

Joel BernsteinThere isn't much mystery to Graham Nash. Not that that's a bad thing at all. In fact, if you want to know how the British expat with the distinctive tenor vocals feels about anything - political and social issues, fellow musicians, his wife and children even religion - it's all ... More >>

It's Been 50 Years Since the Music Died

Fifty years ago today - February 3, 1959 - the world lost three of its early pioneering rock and rollers in a fiery plane crash over Clear Lake, Iowa. Texan Buddy Holly, Chicano rock godfather Ritchie Valens, and Sabine Pass-born disc jockey/songwriter J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson all lay ... More >>

Songs Not To Play At Intercontinental Airport's New Karaoke Booth

So now there's a karaoke booth at Intercontinental Airport. According to the Houston Chronicle, travelers can choose from "hundreds of titles."We got to wondering this morning about what's in their song selections there and more to the point -- what isn't.We imagine that the management of IAH's kara ... More >>

Grand Theft Auto X: The Screwston Chronicles

The Scene Is Dead. Long Live the Scene!

Ideas toward a Houston-style musical Day of the Dead

Pep Torres

Pep Torres performs Saturday, May 26, at the Continental Club, 3700 Main, 713-529-9899.

Exhumin' to the Oldies

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Los Lonely Boys

¡Viva México!

The International Fest casts light on one of the world's most underrated musical nations

Not Fade Away

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

Hi Del-Fi

New sounds from famed label

Del-Fi Today

1998 Houston Press Music Awards Nominees

Rotation

Unforgettable?

The new Bobby Fuller retrospective salutes a questionable legacy

Spanish Rocks

Sound Check

Hum Along with Marshall

Static

Same Old Waylon

The most rebellious thing Waylon Jennings has done is not change

Don't Laugh At a Legend Roky Erickson emerges from the cacophony with his first new album in a decade

In the Room

Bob Gallarza aims to bring Tejano music into the '90s