Saturday Night Live

A Paean to the Pogues, For St. Patrick's Day

What does it mean to be Irish? Red hair? The gift of gab? A drinking problem? The itch to fight? Of course not. All you need to be Irish is a deep and abiding affection for the Pogues. When I was probably 15, a freshman in high school, I started staying up late enough to watch Saturday Night Live ... More >>

One Night Stand

Kevin Nealon

30 Years Later: 9 Songs For John Belushi

Thirty years ago today, we lost John Belushi, one of the most brilliant comedic actors of his time. He was a member of some of the best seasons of Saturday Night Live in the mid to late '70s, and starred in the classic comedy Animal House. He was one of the Blues Brothers with fellow SNL-cast member ... More >>

Are SNL's Divisive Musical Guests Making It Relevant Again??

Even as sketch comedy tastes have changed, and a segment of the population has sadly written it off as an unfunny relic, NBC's Saturday Night Live is still pulling in cutting-edge, marquee musical guests each week, in the process creating national stars or pariahs. Or sometimes both. Case in point ... More >>

5 Places I'd Rather Play Than Saturday Night Live

​Recently I returned to being an active musician, and that is peachy with a side of keen. Like most musicians, I'm a day dreamer who spends his bathtub time answering in-depth questions from imaginary hot, red-headed music journalists about the undeniable genius of my art. Also returning are t ... More >>

Tea Party Princess

Victoria Jackson went from the big leagues of comedy to the rabid right of modern politics.

Victoria Jackson Responds, Claims Feature Profile Was Lies Written by a Socialist

Responds is probably the wrong word to use when you consider the long rebuttal Jackson wrote regarding Gus Garcia-Roberts profile on the former SNL cast member that ran this week in Village Voice publications including the Houston Press. Jackson claims that Garcia-Roberts wrote things that were fal ... More >>

You Bettah Work: 10 Rock/Pop Musicians Who Could Take Up Modeling

Lucky for Lana Del Rey -- whose awkward-at-best Saturday Night Live performance last weekend left indie critics second-guessing her skill -- she has a backup career on which to fall, if needed. Last week, days before becoming a poor bundle of nerves on SNL, the up-and-(maybe)-coming songstress signe ... More >>

Four Epic Twitter Rants in Honor of Kanye West

Photo by Marco Torres​When Kanye West tweets, magical things happen. West's high powered account lay dormant for quite sometime after his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album but last night, the floodgates were opened from West's creative mind. What emerged was a sprawling 85 tweet rant tha ... More >>

Happy Birthday Paul Shaffer: Here Are Five Reasons Why He is Cool

Back in the 1980's, there was a certain class of musician who considered a slot in the Late Show with David Letterman band as the ultimate gig. Of course, that lineup hasn't changed since 1983, but dare to dream. From the very beginning, there was Paul Shaffer. The quirky Canadian keyboardist and s ... 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 >>

"Change Your Name To A Symbol" & Other Dumb Ways To Derail Your Music Career

brightestyoungthings.comThe sign officially known as "Love Symbol #2"​Sunday marked the 18th anniversary of the date Prince changed his name to that confounded "Love Symbol", and we can't help but wonder if he would have had more success had he waited a decade or two. Like it or not, in toda ... More >>

Debt Ceiling: The 10 Worst Tweets From the Texas GOP Congressional Delegation

Tweets don't fail me now​As the GOP debates whether it wants the Tea Party to drive it (and the country) off a cliff by playing games with the debt ceiling, we looked to Twitter for the updates from our state's congresssional delegation. Oddly, the Republicans didn't tweet anything like "Yes, ... More >>

Too Much Pavement

Houston's strip malls increase heat, pollution.

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm... What Does It Mean?

Happy Birthday to Brad Roberts, lead singer of Canadian folk-pop group Crash Test Dummies, who turns 47 years old today. If you were alive in late 1993 and early 1994, you no doubt remember humming along to the Dummies' hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" from second album, God Shuffled His Feet. Roberts has ... More >>

Ten Bizarro Christmas-Carol Covers

​Thanks to holiday-themed compilations like A Very Special Christmas and Little Steven's Christmas A Go-Go, we often hear our favorite modern artists putting their spin on holiday classics. But for those who are tired of forcing Mariah Carey's eight-octave "All I Want For Christmas" on their f ... More >>

Sleigh Bells: Not Just For Christmas Anymore

​Christmastime: A time for family, for giving, and much to the displeasure of many, a time for incessantly grating holiday music. Christmas spirit frozen in cheesy songs monopolizes radio stations and relentlessly stalks our every step. A key component of much holiday music is often the percu ... More >>

Shock Therapy: Would Sinead O'Connor Still Cause An Uproar?

​Sunday night is a special night. It's the 18th anniversary of Sinead O'Connor's infamous Pope-a-ripping on Saturday Night Live. For the extremely small number of you who somehow have the Internet but not VH1, the facts are these: O'Connor, always the most peaceable and least controversial of ... More >>

The Top Five Saturday Night Live Musician Impressions

​In the wake of the recent news that feted comedian/actor/YouTube sensation Jay Pharoah - above, known for his spoofs of A-list bait like Drake, Chris Tucker, 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Eddie Murphy, and President Obama - will join the cast of Saturday Night Live when its 36th season premieres September ... More >>

Top Eight Weirdest Saturday Night Live Musical Moments

​This past Saturday was Steve Martin's birthday and, if you're old enough, you may remember back to a time when the snow-capped comedian/actor/musician was more than just a comedy archaeologist, exhuming the corpses of classic comic franchises and defiling the shit out of them. No, he actually ... More >>

ZZ Top Opening Tom Petty's Texas Dates

Rocks Off has been sitting on this information pretty much all day, and after teasing you on Twitter all day, it feels so good to finally get it off our chests. That's it right up there in the headline, more or less - Houston's hometown boyz ZZ Top have been tapped "by special arrangement" (your gu ... More >>

Free Passes To The MacGruber Preview, And How Will It Stack Up Against All The SNL Movie Bombs?

We know we're not supposed to admit this -- "Saturday Night Live sucks!!!" and all that -- but we kinda like the MacGruber sketches. They're short, unlike too many SNL skits dragged out beyond all point, and -- what can we say? -- they're usually funny.Now, however, we are dealing with MacGruber th ... More >>

Which Actors Can Hack It As Musicians?

​Hollywood Shuffle got word Thursday that Blues Brother and Saturday Night Live alumnus Dan Aykroyd will be at the downtown Spec's this afternoon from 3-7 p.m. to sign bottles of his new vodka, Conehead Crystal Head. Aykroyd is in town to act as Grand Marshal for Saturday's Art Car Parade. Sat ... More >>

The Week In TV: Lost Takes A Break, South Park Takes A Dive

​The sun chased the rain, I can feel summer coming, and I was greeted at the door by a rabbi that looks like Joaquin Phoenix. This was the week in TV Land: • So, this is dumb: South Park has been forced by Viacom to bend to the will of Muslim extremists. The show's 200th episode was a two- ... More >>

The Week In TV: NBC Comedies Are Finally Back

We've missed you.​My parking lot's flooded, I had my first crawfish on Friday, and I feel like funkin' it up. This was the week in TV Land: • Ah, the joys and frustrations of the endless news cycle: Not a couple hours after last week's round-up column went live -- in which I ruminated on C ... More >>

The Week In TV: So Long, Julia Sugarbaker

Even with my dependable shows in reruns, it feels good to be back in the stern embrace of David Simon. This was the week in TV Land: • Thank God for Hulu, you know? The video site is the only reason I actually keep up with Saturday Night Live most weeks. The show's had a real hard-on for tweens ... More >>

He Said She Said: Our 10 Favorite Fictional Bands

​ It's a sad state of affairs when a parody band ends up being funnier/better/more entertaining that the original (we're lookin' at you, The Beatles). She Said started thinking of this list last week after making one in a million lifetime references to the fake band Blues Hammer from the movie Gho ... More >>

The Lonely Island: Incredibad

T.I.

Malt Shop Burger at Cheeburger Cheeburger

Slideshow: Snakes on an Album

One of the songs slithering around Rocks Off's head lately is "Snake Farm," the title track to grizzled Hill Country troubador Ray Wylie Hubbard's 2006 album, where the singer and a comely employee of the ramshackle reptile house between San Marcos and New Braunfels get it on amongst the other&n ... More >>

Single File

These Dogs Still Hunt

Our top DVD picks for the week of May 23

Now Dirtier than Ever

Fringe Benefits

Main Street Theater revives the precursor to Python

Mr. Saturday Night

Darrell Hammond makes a good impression at the Laff Stop

Teenage Anarchy

How The Nightfly learned to stop worrying and love Ashlee Simpson

Hail to the King

SNL writer-comedian T. Sean Shannon pays tribute to a local comic legend: his brother

The Joy of Cooking

Las Nuevas Tamaleras is a corny kitchen comedy

What Was That?

Horton hears a Who in Seussical

Free Will

Another SNL vet may be the next Bill Murray. Seriously.

Main Street Improv

8 p.m. Thursdays

The Shannon Brothers Family Christmas

Thursday, December 19 through Sunday, December 23

Fallon Fast

Saturday Night Live's prime player is rapidly outgrowing television's small screen

All in the Family

The Shannon Brothers reunite in the name of comedy

I'm Crushing Your Head!

The Kids in the Hall

Geek Orthodox

Superstar's Shannon makes a strangely affecting nerd

Weekend Update

Comedian Colin Quinn