This Is Spinal Tap

Bon Iver, Hipster Doofus

R.I.P. John Bonham: Top 5 Ways to Avoid Death by Misadventure

This week back in 1980, the rock world lost a good one. John Bonham, the fantastic, heavy-footed drummer for Led Zeppelin was found dead in bed in Jimmy Page's Windsor manor house. It was an ugly end for Bonzo. A longtime heavy drinker -- particularly when separated from his family -- Bonham had ... More >>

(UPDATED) Incubus' Brandon Boyd Played Dallas, Um, Houston Last Night

Look, I am sure it happens. You are in a touring rock band -- a major one at that -- and the days they run together. Hours pass by and the next thing you know it's two months later, and you have maybe changed your pants twice, plus you are somehow divorced. Last night during his band's opening set ... More >>

50 Rad Things Now on the Sig's Lagoon Walls

Within the past month, the walls of Sig's Lagoon have been transformed into a sprawling pop-culture collage of posters, photos, newspaper clippings, magazine covers, picture discs and cardboard cutouts courtesy of former Sundance Records owner Bobby Barnard. Since the longtime San Marcos music stor ... More >>

Life Out Loud: Remembering Jim Marshall's Amplifier Legacy

I was about 12 years old and in the hallway outside the gymnasium of my school when I heard it. Someone had a guitar and he was playing it LOUD. I knocked open the double doors and a friend was wailing on a beautiful cherry sunburst Les Paul and it was so damn LOUD. I got a little closer and there ... More >>

Five Jobs Even Riskier Than Texans' QB, Such As Spinal Tap Drummer

If you didn't read our Texans' game wrap -- and you should, it offers positive thoughts for the team's future this season -- you might not know that Matt Leinart, the backup quarterback playing his first game as a Texan because starter Matt Schaub had a season-ending injury, suffered his own season ... 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 >>

Last Night: Sting At Verizon Wireless Theater

Sting Verizon Wireless Theater November 17, 2011 Photos by Jason Wolter​Sting gets a lot of shit that Rocks Off has frankly never really understood. Is it the myriad social causes? The way he expected you to know who Chaucer was? The tantric sex thing? We're not going to sit here and defend a ... More >>

You're a Naughty One, Saucy Jack: A Playlist for Jack the Ripper

​Today marks the last known murder by the infamous Jack the Ripper, that of a prostitute named Mary Jane Kelly the Ripper brutally mutilated in 1888. What happened to Jack after the death of Kelly has never been discovered, whether he died, emigrated out of England, or was imprisoned on other ... More >>

Awesomeness and Hearing Loss at the 2011 Texas BigBeat

How do a crapload of drums sound when playing in unison in an airplane hangar? Pretty freaking awesome. ​In the Cameron Crowe-directed documentary Pearl Jam Twenty, lead singer Eddie Vedder discusses the detrimental impact of the band's Spinal Tap-like replacement of drummers, equating each ch ... More >>

Tony Iommi: Music's Other Man In Black Proves His Heavy Mettle

​Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath By Toni Iommi with T.J. Lammers Da Capo Press, 416 pp., $26. Imagine this passage being read in your best "Behind the Music" narration: It was in the center of a dirty, grimy sheet-metal factory in Birmingham, England, when a 1 ... More >>

Oh Lawd: New Phone App to Tell You If Your Son Is Gay

This week a new app hit the Android market, aimed at helping families figure out once and for all if their sons are homosexual or not. The app, costing $1.99 on my phone, opens with a stark black and white photo of a worried mother, looking into the middle distance at a future filled with wedding ca ... More >>

Idol Beat: Paul McDonald Got Voted Off, E-I-E-I-O

Idol's beard levels have now dropped by 50 percent.​I realized last night I've been writing about this damn show for nigh on three months now without making the obligatory comment about the size of Jennifer Lopez's ass. So here it is: During the introductions to this week's elimination show, I ... More >>

Spinal Tap's Harry Shearer Bringing His Katrina Documentary to Houston

Harry Shearer: Bringing the Katrina story to the Alamo Drafthouse​Harry Shearer, known for being one-third of Spinal Tap, one-half (it seems) of The Simpsons and just about all of the syndicated radio program Le Show, has adopted New Orleans as home. He's become wrapped up in the city's recov ... More >>

Duran Duran

10 Sexually Suggestive, Food-Related Album Covers

​ If there are three things we report on quite well here at Houston Press Blog Central, it's food, sex and music. So, hell, let's merge 'em! Here is a rundown of ten of the most sexually suggestive, food- related album covers that caught our eye and gave us the craziest cravings. 10. Katy Pe ... More >>

Five More Heavy Metal Christmas Carols

​Last year's unholy Christmas metal list was so popular, we decided to reach back into our quasi-Santanic bag and find five more songs for you to blare while trimming the tree and wrapping presents. We made our list too late to catch Rob Halford's Christmas album, Winter Songs. Otherwise it ... More >>

Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel's 11 Loudest Quotes

​Today, 11/11/10, we honor a man willing to lay down his life for rock and roll, master of the saddest of all keys, Spinal Tap lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel. (It seems like today is also some sort of other holiday/observance. Right?) Much more than just a six-string genius, Tufnel is also a hum ... More >>

Eight Songs That Make Us Want To Go Back To School

​Last week, when Rocks Off was editing our former intern Matthew Keever's article about the worst back-to-school soundtracks when Jerry Lee Lewis' "High School Confidential" popped into our head out of the blue. Not really out of the blue, we guess, but the next thing we knew we were thinking, ... More >>

When Sharks Attack Album Covers (Partially NSFW)

​As Rocks Off reminded you Tuesday via a rather egotistical video - and as you no doubt already know if you've been within 50 feet of a working television set - this week is Shark Week, the Discovery Channel's annual feeding frenzy of programming about the undersea alpha predators. People take ... More >>

Blogging Bonnaroo: Meghan Hendley's Top 5 Festival Memories

Photo by Amber Roussell/See the slideshowTyagaraja performs at the Bonnaroo Music Festival​Houston artist Tyagaraja recently won the Ford Fiesta Team Houston Battle of The Bands, the grand prize of which was a trip to perform at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee. Meghan Hendley, keyboar ... More >>

Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Apatow

Crude on the outside, sweet in the middle: Get Him to the Greek.

For Memorial Day: Five Best Graveside Scenes

Memoral Day is the time we honor those who gave their lives for their country, and families everywhere will be going to graves to leave something for the young boys who "never saw gray hair."Hollywood has always been fond of graveside scenes, of course, especially for war movies. The web is full of ... More >>

The Rise and Fall of Bangkokheimer

Thai Bistro's new location is changing the game on the west end of Westheimer.

Rocks Off's Picks for This Weekend's Fun Fun Fun Festival

You can think of this weekend's Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin as the indie, metal, and hip-hop little brother of the more staid Austin City Limits Music Festival. The fourth edition of the two-day event held in Waterloo Park in Austin starts tomorrow afternoon. Per our stated life path, Rocks Off will ... More >>

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Combat Rock

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