Smokey Robinson

Friday Night: Smokey Robinson at Jones Hall

Smokey Robinson Jones Hall February 1, 2013 "You short circuit all my nerves/ Promising electric things/ You touch me, and suddenly there's rainbow rings/ Quiet storm" -- Smokey Robinson, "Quiet Storm" Legends do it better. Only Smokey Robinson -- singer, septuagenarian, shaper of the equally lege ... More >>

Upcoming: Maroon 5, Jamey Johnson, Smokey Robinson, FallCore, Reagan Youth, Etc.

10th Annual Christmas Bash With The Handsomes, Thunderado: Tue., Dec. 25, 9 p.m. Continental Club, 3700 Main, Houston. Adventure Club, Fredster, Pharmer: Sat., Nov. 10, 8 p.m., $15-$25. Stereo Live, 6400 Richmond, Houston. B.J. Thomas: Sat., Feb. 9, 5:30 & 9:30 p.m., $78-$118. Dosey Doe, 25911 I-4 ... More >>

A Soulful Christmas In July

I didn't think I would succumb to sharing with the world how freaking hot I think it is because every time I see one of you complaining about it on Facebook, I envision your head between a Foreman grill. That might be pregnancy hormones speaking, but seriously; it's July, we're in Houston, it's ou ... More >>

Cracker Barrel Is iTunes For Old People

If you have been paying attention to obscure press releases, you would know by now that Cracker Barrel, that folksy restaurant chain with all the rocking chairs out front that your grandparents love, is now a music retailer to boot. Yes, in addition to all those cool wooden toys and puppets, you c ... More >>

Support Staff: 10 Of Pop History's Greatest Backing Bands

Being behind the scenes is what most musicians who don't write songs or sing expect of their lives once they start seriously playing. A career backing someone up can be extremely rewarding, particularly if you are part of a transcendent group of musicians that goes from simply backing up an artist i ... More >>

Top 10 Carole King Songs Written for Other Artists

Carole King is a woman who has played a major part in creating numerous classic hit songs. She has helped to shape popular music since she and then-husband Gerry Goffin (they divorced in 1968) wrote "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" in 1961. Her songs have been covered by such diverse artists as Smokey Ro ... More >>

Christmas Crunch Time: Five (Kind Of) Shopping (And Thieving) Related Songs

​So, did you get all your Christmas shopping done? Oh, uhh...you haven't started? You're not alone. Tons of us procrastinate and leave it all until the last possible weekend (or if you're really ballsy, Christmas Eve) and then we're super screwed, forced to brave Memorial City, Katy Mills or e ... More >>

Baron Wolman: A Bounty Of Iconic Rock Photography

Photos by Baron WolmanIke & Tina Turner​Every Picture Tells a Story - Baron Wolman: The Rolling Stone Years Omnibus Press, 176 pp., $37.50 If you could point to one thing that makes today's music journalists most jealous, it would probably be the music journalists of the '60s and '70s. Back t ... More >>

Father Figures: 100 Famous Musicians' Paternal Professions

If you're a Texan of a certain age, this week you've probably spent some time mourning the death of Jerry Haynes, the children's TV host better known as Mr. Peppermint. Haynes' show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Peppermint Place, ran from the '60s to the '90s and was widely syndicated across the state, incl ... More >>

Saturday Night: Sade & John Legend At Toyota Center

Photos by Groovehouse​Sade, John Legend Toyota Center July 23, 2011 See more smooth operation from Sade & John Legend in our slideshow. As word of Amy Winehouse's death spread across the Internet Saturday, another British soul singer was preparing to perform in Houston for the first time in ... More >>

Friday Night: Smokey Robinson At Arena Theatre

Photos by Rizoh​Smokey Robinson Arena Theatre May 13, 2011 If William "Smokey" Robinson wasn't America's poet laureate of love, he would have thrived in a number of other fields. Smokey would make a solid con man, for instance. Friday night at Arena Theatre, he kicked off his show with a dec ... More >>

Smokey Robinson

Detroit Leanin': Who Is The Best Motor City Artist Ever?

detroitrockcity.altervista.org​Some places breed music. Due to sheer size, any big city will produce its fair share of talented musicians, and some - Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago - seem to have music in the water supply. But none, arguably, more than Detroit: John Lee Hooker, the Motown dias ... More >>

Last Night: Fitz & The Tantrums At House Of Blues

Photos by Jason Wolter​Fitz & the Tantrums House of Blues Bronze Peacock Room April 18, 2011 Soul music is about power, yoking that gospel id to the pursuit of more worldly affairs, but it's also about subtlety. Grunt all you want, but smooth and steady wins the race (and wins over the ladies ... More >>

Gladys Knight

Listening Back: KTSU DJ Marks 30 Years On The Air

Photos courtesy of Myron Anderson/KTSU​Friday marks Houston radio personality Myron Anderson's 30th anniversary at KTSU (90.9 FM). Best known for his Friday-morning show, "Listening Back With Myron Anderson," Anderson joined the Texas Southern University station as a student in 1981. That sam ... More >>

Upcoming: Bon Jovi, Dipset, JSBX, Smokey Robinson, Etc.

​Bare Wires: Thu., March 10. Fitzgerald's. Basshunter: Fri., Feb. 25. Stereo Live. Bon Jovi: Tue., May 17. Toyota Center. Dipset: Thu., April 7. Numbers. A Dream Asleep, Born Again Virgins, Cavernous, Commie Hilfiger: Thu., Feb. 24. Abbey Pub. Drowning Pool, Trust Company, Static Cycle: ... More >>

New On DVD: This Is A Radio Clash, From Pirate Satellite

​Out on DVD today is Pirate Radio, staring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy. So, walk right by Woody Harrelson's Defendor, Lauren Holly's The Final Storm and unless you're just a die-hard fan, Robert Englund's Nightmare on Elm Street collection. If you've got kids (or fond childhood memories) ... More >>

Aftermath: Black Joe Lewis And Little Joe Washington Steam Up Walter's

Photos by Brittanie Shey​ Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears played Walter's Friday night, fresh off half a dozen gigs at SXSW last month, including a high-profile show with soul father Smokey Robinson. The Houston gig was smoky in its own way, with Lewis and band debuting a few new songs and open ... More >>

Can't Forget The Motor City: Our Favorite Motown Jams

​ She Said has always been a fan of Stax Records, the gritty Southern label started by a white brother-sister team in a movie theater in Memphis. Something about Stax' organic sound and integrated musical influences (this is the same city that gave us Sun Records) had always felt so raw and real. ... More >>

Can't Forget The Motor City: Our Favorite Motown Jams, Part 2

​ Rocks Off - sorry, He Said; we're still getting used to this whole identity-shift thing - is sure some of our readers think we do nothing except sit around and listen to the Drive-By Truckers all day. To which we say: Have you heard Bettye LaVette's The Scene of the Crime or Booker T's Potato Ho ... More >>

New On DVD: The Blind Side And Oh-So-Classic James Brown

​Well, everyone survived the frenzy of last Friday's release of The Twilight Saga: New Moon pretty much unscathed (the second installment of the Twilight series earned a cool $295.6 million at the box office and will no doubt earn another huge heap of money of DVD sales).If you're still in the moo ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Get In The Groove

South by Scorsese: The festival in a single 6th St. tracking shot. Video by Craig Hlavaty It didn't take long for Aftermath to remember you don't have to look very hard at all for music at SXSW; in fact, we were barely even awake when it happened. After arriving in Austin late, late Thursday night, ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: Black Joe Lewis, Raphael Saadiq and Smokey Robinson

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttBlack Joe Lewis and the Honeybears​Joe Lewis alternated between sweating profusely into his harmonica and howling into the microphone, doubled over on the stage with the pain and joy of their fourth show of SXSW, as the white-shirted Honeybears -- minus keyboardist ... More >>

SXSW As It Happens: Advice From Smokey Robinson, A Hunch About Surfer Blood, Minor Disagreement Over Antlers And Our First Courtney Love Sighting

Craig Hlavaty2:01 p.m.: "Starting to think Surfer Blood may be this year's Vampire Weekend. Day show line."​ Dan Oko, 2:00 p.m.: As in Las Vegas, at SXSW day and night swirl together as the ever-strong throngs dive in and out of showcases all day and and all night. The gamble is whether you will h ... More >>

Eyeballin: James Brown Cape-Walks Away With The T.A.M.I. Show

Often written about, mythologized, and showing up in clips on rock docs and YouTube, the 1964 concert movie The T.A.M.I. Show has amazingly never been released in uncut format until now. And though it was shot in black and white, the exuberance and energy of the concert overcomes any pigmentation pr ... More >>

They Were Kinky Before Kinky Was Kinky: Musicians Who Have Held Public Office

From Ted Nugent to Bruce Springsteen to those adorable Dixie Chicks, "Masters of War" to "George Bush doesn't care about black people," musicians have never been shy about voicing their political opinions. But when it comes to putting their money where their mouths are and filing the necessary pape ... More >>

Still Not Sold On SXSW? How About Smokey Robinson, High On Fire, She & Him, Band Of Horses, Drive-By Truckers, Deer Tick, Anya Marina, Black Angels, Major Lazer...

Today the organizers of the SXSW Music Festival announced their showcase schedule for the music portion of the industry fest starting on March 17. This is the news Rocks Off has been looking for, so let's get it on. We are now one month away from Sixth Street and one of the world's biggest conglome ... More >>

The Way He Sees It

To Raphael Saadiq, music is music and Yeasayer is all right with him.

Hidden Things

Mercer is an upscale neighborhood nightclub, if you can find it.

Beyonce Scheduled to Perform at Michael Jackson Memorial

Daniel Kramer ABC News is reporting that Beyonce, who sang tributes to Michael Jackson at her Toyota Center concert and at New Orleans' Essence Music Festival over the weekend, will perform at Jackson's funeral in Los Angeles this afternoon. Also expected to attend are Justin Timberlake, P Diddy, Sm ... More >>

Michael Jackson Memorial Underway

The Michael Jackson memorial service is underway at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Although Smokey Robinson has already expressed his condolences to the crowd, so far it's been a lot of talking heads; right now ABC News is discussing the market for MJ memorabilia. Here's a few tweets from our fr ... More >>

Idol Beat: The Top Ten Results

Photos by Frank Micelotta/ Fox Songs in the Key of Idol: Stevie Wonder performs Thursday night.I dare you. I double-dog dare you. Try not to break out into a toothy, mile-wide grin while watching Stevie Wonder command a stage, loop-de-looping through a handful of his zillions of classics in t ... More >>

Idol Beat: The Top Ten

Photos by Michael Becker/ Fox Michael Sarver couldn't patch Motown's soul.Man, Sarvernator! What happened? When first we met, you were so dope, flexing serious white-soul chops - minus a soul patch - and you had the sort of blue-collar backstory that seemed to make you a lock for the Top Seve ... More >>

Selecting The Proper Valentine's Day Soundtrack

A Fine Romance

She & Him: Volume One

Dolly Parton: Backwoods Barbie

Supreme Party

Vagina Music Roundup

A scintillating survey

Fuddy Buddy

Hollywood Homicide tries to mock cop partner flicks, but the joke's on it

What Was Going On

At long last, the spotlight replaces the Shadows that obscured the Funk Brothers

Sound Check

Nails in the Coffin

Five decades of Chess Records lead to a blues stalemate

Jazz Royalty

George's last name may be Duke, but on the keyboards, he's a king

The Song Remains the Same

The Smithereens don't have a hot new angle, only solid old sounds

Sound Check