The Big Bopper

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 >>

Houston Scores Big-Time In Latest Edition Of Encyclopedia Of Country Music: Part 6

Mickey Newbury paved the road from Houston to Nashville for a Hells Angels-ish, hard-drinking, hard-drugging gaggle of songwriters who, like Newbury, would go on to make a serious mark on Music City. Ornery, belligerent, cocky, literary, opinionated, and super-talented, this group of Houston transp ... More >>

Houston Scores Big-Time In Latest Encyclopedia Of Country Music

With 53 related entries, Houston fared well in the second edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Music (Oxford University Press, $65), released last month, the first revision of the 600-page volume since its initial printing in 1998. Michael McCall, Country Music Hall of Fame archivist and one of t ... More >>

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

Controversial Producer Huey Meaux Dead At 82

​Huey P. Meaux, the onetime studio and record-label owner and chart-topping producer who helped define the Gulf Coast sound through hits by the Sir Douglas Quintet, Freddy Fender and Barbara Lynn, died this morning at age 82. Known as the "Crazy Cajun," Meaux died at his home in Winnie, his n ... More >>

Houston's Best Gifts To The Music World

Ed. Note: Rocks Off is still in a holiday frame of mind... actually we meant to post this before Christmas, but they're just as true now. No refunds, no exchanges. ​Here is Craig's Hlist point of view: Houston has given so much to the world, from ZZ Top, Jandek, Beyonce Knowles, and everythin ... 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 Rock Stars"

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

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 >>

Hitsville, Texas

A new book documents the shady past and solid-gold singles of Houston's SugarHill Studios.

Sarah Vowell Comes To Beaumont (Of All Places)

​Something about the idea of Sarah Vowell, that This American Life star, regular NPR contributor, droll historian, frequent Jon Stewart foil, voice of Violet of The Incredibles and all around Person Who White People Like coming to Beaumont was utterly irresistible.It seemed like the exact inverse ... More >>

SugarHill (Actually Gold Star) In the '50s, The Decade It Became A House Of Hits

[Ed Note: All this week, to celebrate the release of Dr. Roger Wood and Andy Bradley's new book House of Hits: The Story of Houston's Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios and preview this weekend's related festivities at Sig's Lagoon and the Continental Club, Rocks Off and Lonesome Onry and Mean ar ... 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 >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: Houston and "Brazoria"

The final installment of our Five States of Texas project brings it all back home, to the new state of Brazoria, encompassing all of Southeast Texas from the Brazos Valley to Sabine Pass. ​Patron Saint: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. A master of rock and roll, country, Cajun/Creole, blues and jazz, n ... 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 >>

Will the Texan 30 Rock Writer Please Get in Touch?

This is starting to mess with Rocks Off's head just a little. Last week's Janis-Joplin-movie subplot made him wonder, because it was hardly the first time Southeast Texas was used as a punchline, but now he's sure there's some sort of subversive Lone Star conspiracy afoot behind the scenes&nbs ... 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 >>

My Field Trip to Sugar Hill

SugarHill Studios Moves to Caroline Collective

The Return of Cactus Music and Video

A beloved local institution returns from the grave

The Scene Is Dead. Long Live the Scene!

Ideas toward a Houston-style musical Day of the Dead

The Houston 100: The Master List

The Houston 100: From Harry Choates to Johnny Preston

Exhumin' to the Oldies

Johnny Winter

Johnny Winter performs Sunday, November 19, at Fitgerald's, 2706 White Oak, 713-862-3838.

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Kenny G.'s Revenge

Smooth-jazz fans blast Racket

Not Fade Away

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

Hi Del-Fi

New sounds from famed label

1998 Houston Press Music Awards Winners

Vainglorious

Unforgettable?

The new Bobby Fuller retrospective salutes a questionable legacy

Spanish Rocks

Static

Static

Static

Same Old Waylon

The most rebellious thing Waylon Jennings has done is not change