Van Halen

"New" Albums Composed of Old Music: Good or Bad?

It's 2013, and we've all pretty much finished our end-of-the-year lists. Now we look to the future. What albums are we looking forward to this year? If I had to guess, at least some of the best releases of the year will consist of music out of a vault or reissues of old albums. But is that a good th ... More >>

Radioactive Duo

Classic-rock station 93.7 The Arrow yanks controversial morning DJs Walton and Johnson off the air.

Rocks Off's 10 Biggest Musical Disappointments of 2012

Everyone's mother once told them, or should have, that life is not always going to be a puppy mill full of unicorns and rainbows. Remember why all those puppies are there. Sometimes life -- and especially pop music -- doesn't turn out like you were expecting, so now we present Rocks Off's Biggest Mu ... More >>

Squeezing the Lemon: Led Zeppelin & the 10 Most Shocking Rock and Roll Reunions

Five years ago this week, Led Zeppelin fans young and old squeezed their pants full of lemon juice when the band's three surviving golden gods -- Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones - announced that they'd be reuniting for a one-off concert in London. John Bonham's son Jason would man the s ... More >>

Last Night: Van Halen and Kool & the Gang at Toyota Center

Van Halen, Kool & the Gang Toyota Center June 24, 2012 We're two songs into last night's sold-out Van Halen show at the Toyota Center when lead singer David Lee Roth spots three comely ladies in the front row of the house with cameras. In the span of three seconds, he turns into the Diamond Dave we ... More >>

Kool & the Gang: "Houston Better Be Ready"

With more than 70 million records sold, the men of Kool and the Gang stand as some of the most commercially successful funksters of all time. Born in Jersey City, N.J., the band was essentially just a group of friends with a jones for Miles Davis and James Brown. But they hit the big time in 1973 wi ... More >>

Van Halen

Great GIFs of Van Halen & David Lee Roth

Van Halen's first new set of material in 14 years, A Different Kind of Truth, is better than it should be. The guys could have slacked off on this and coasted on their legend -- however tarnished it may be in the eyes of fair-weather fans -- but Truth is no cash-in lightweight or mere excuse to sell ... More >>

Years of Refusal: 8 More '80s Icons Who Should Follow Morrissey Into Retirement

Morrissey announced this week that he plans to retire in two years. That's tragic news in some circles, but we think it's a good move. In 2014, he'll turn 55, and the Smiths thing is never happening. How much longer is he supposed to do this? Another ten years 'til he's 65? He's Morrissey, not a Chi ... More >>

Why Taking The Piss Out Of Your Most Beloved Musicians Is Healthy

A few days back I wrote a less-than-excited review of Bruce Springsteen's latest album, Wrecking Ball. The Boss' official Twitter account has been retweeting every hyperbolic 140-character superfan review of the new disc. One guy claimed that Wrecking Ball made him sob on the side of the highway for ... More >>

Why Do We Always Expect Our Favorite Bands To Reunite?

John Hammond, the billionaire CEO of InGen and the curator of Jurassic Park found out the hard way that sometimes things from another time and place don't mesh well with different surroundings. A guy even got eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex while he was taking a dump, and one of those spitting dinosaur ... More >>

The Top 10 Laziest Music Videos Ever

We're obsessed with music videos lately, and have spent almost the whole of the weekend seeking new and brilliant ones in order to feature in our weekly column. We're just so impressed with the capabilities open to modern artists at all strata of stardom, and how brilliant a piece of work can come o ... More >>

Tickets For Van Halen's Houston Date Go On Sale Next Saturday

You have all been asking, and now LiveNation is telling. Tickets for Van Halen's June 24th gig at Toyota Center go on sale next Saturday, January 289, and 10 a.m. Tickets will be available online at LiveNation.com or toyotacentertix.com. You know the ticketing drill. A few weeks back LiveNation to ... More >>

Van Halen Set To Hit Houston's Toyota Center June 24

blabbermouth.netDavid Lee Roth and Wolfgang Van Halen on Thursday night at NYC's Cafe Wha​Just minutes after pictures from Van Halen's Cafe Wha? club show in New York City hit rock blog Blabbermouth, industry site Pollstar added a June 24 date at the Toyota Center for the band. Kool & The Gang ... More >>

Van Halen, the New Walter's and Radiohead: Things We're Looking Forward to in 2012

Photo by Mark C. AustinRadiohead returns and we're stoked. Do people say "stoked" anymore?​There was a lot to be thankful for in 2011 in the world of music, but, in some ways, it was also a pretty tough year. We lost some great people and almost lost one of our own. It's a crazy, topsy turvy w ... More >>

Eruption: Our Dream Van Halen Concert Setlist

I gave you all fair warning - pardon the pun - on Monday morning when the Van Halen concert announcement went out that Rocks Off wouldn't be quiet when it came to Van Halen. In the next few weeks we will be getting word of the Houston date, so until then all we can do is speculate when and where. Y ... More >>

10 Lesser Known Pre-Sammy Van Halen Songs to Prepare for the Tour

When I was a kid, the first record (or cassette in this case) I wore out was the first album from Van Halen. I played the cassette so many times, the tape started squealing. I got another copy and did the same thing. It along with KISS' Alive II re-enforced the hard rock tendencies that simmered ben ... More >>

Van Halen Announces 2012 Tour On Twitter, Official Site

Here it is folks, your first stirrings of Van Halen's 2012 tour, long rumored, but now a sweet reality. OK, we won't believe it until we have a tour tee in our hands outside Toyota Center and a sweaty, torn ticket stub in our wallet. Late Sunday night on Twitter, David Lee Roth tweeted a Vimeo and ... More >>

The Top 10 Hard Rock and Metal Guitarists of the '80s

Yes, yes, shred until you bleed!​Well, it's the day after Christmas and many of you probably have some holiday blues. Maybe you had a rough Christmas. Maybe your family is making you crazy. Maybe you didn't get that brand new navel ring you wanted or perhaps you filled up on so much food and e ... More >>

Baby's Cryin': Rockabye Baby Sends Us Lullaby Renditions of Van Halen

Yep. ​The folks at Rockabye Baby! remake hard rock from the likes of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Tool, and the Smashing Pumpkins into baby-friendly jams with "soothing mellotrons, vibraphones and bells," replacing all the things that made those bands perfect for well, making rock and roll babies. Thi ... More >>

Eat 'Em And Smile: Our Favorite Pictures Of David Lee Roth

Lemmy, Josh Homme, Keith Richards, Marc Bolan, GG Allin, and Billy Fucking Gibbons - that's just a sampling of the rock stars that Rocks Off wishes he could be. The list goes on and on. Today though is the birthday of a one of the most special rockers to ever high-kick on this mud ball called Earth, ... More >>

The Aliens Should Have Kept Sammy Hagar

​Judging by the headline, you already know where Rocks Off stands when it comes to Van Hagar versus a David Lee Roth-fronted Van Halen. We love to hate Sammy Hagar, almost to the point where we actually like him a little bit. We can't even explain that feeling. It's like how when you were yo ... More >>

The 10 Best Rock Samples In Hip-Hop

​Rocks Off just finished reading Ian Christe's 2007 Van Halen biography, Everybody Wants Some, which chronicles the band's history from the Van Halen boys' entry into the U.S., the upbringing of David Lee Roth, and devastating, fatal 1985 crash into Mount Sammy Hagar. Sad stuff if you're a Rot ... More >>

Stryper's Michael Sweet: "God Formed This Band"

Photos by GroovehouseStryper at House of Blues, December 2009​Stryper, the world's coolest and heaviest '80s Christian heavy metal band of the '80s, comes to Scout Bar Monday night, touring behind last month's covers LP, The Covering. It's an appropriately shiny and heavy disc of covers from a ... More >>

25 Famous Bands' Less Famous Previous Names

​As promised, here are the answers to Rocks Off's "Original Band Name" quiz from Tuesday. John St. Lee, if you'd care to email us, we'll see what we can do about getting you a prize. Do you like Devo? 1. Chicago: At about 25 or 6 to 4, the Windy City jazz-rockers realized The Big Thing sucked ... More >>

Match These Bands With Their Awful Original Names

​Provided they didn't take the easy way out and name themselves after a song (Rolling Stones), their hometown (Boston) or each other (Hall & Oates), almost every band that went on to sell millions of records, get tons of radio play and sell out arenas has had some form of the following convers ... More >>

Top 10 Last Words By Famous Musicians

​Musicians tend to be a mouthy lot. It takes a certain kind of soul to want and express your own inner world to the outer world at large. So when the time comes for them to shuffle off this mortal coil, they often have some very interesting exit lines... 10. Ludwig Van Beethoven, "Friends a ... More >>

An Experiment In Terror: One Hour On Chatroulette

We're not sure what this was; we're just glad it wasn't yet another penis.​Since its launch in November of last year, popular video chat site Chatroulette has become a beacon of late-night entertainment for lonely people, drunken college kids, and internet pranksters the world over. It's also spot ... More >>

Eddie Van Halen Can't Drive 55, But He Is 55

Daniel Kramer​Today marks the 55th anniversary of the world receiving the gift of the illustrious finger-tapping stylings of Eddie Van Halen. Hard rock wouldn't be the same without his goofy face on stage wailing away on his "Frankenstrat" and his strong arm tactics behind the scenes. Rocks Off ha ... More >>

Boy, Do We Feel Old: "Hot for Teacher" and Other Back-To-School Songs

Today is the first day of school for almost all the public school districts in the area. Children and teens from Alvin to Alief are trudging into polished halls and sterile classrooms for yet another year of romantic intrigue and bitter class struggle, and impromptu dance routines in the cafeteria, ... More >>

Are You Ready for That Great Atomic Power? Songs That Go Nuclear

This past week marks the 64th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S., on August 6 and 9, respectively, bringing an end to World War II. The subsequent decades have brought us a Cold War, explosive proliferation, and largely fruitless attempts to ... More >>

Houston Teacher May Be Miss Black USA

Enough with the Houston-area teachers and principals and all their dope-smoking and having affairs with kids. What about something good about the teachers around here? Okay -- there's Andrea Hill, a sixth-grade teacher at Patrick Henry Middle School. What's she done lately? Gotten herself ch ... More >>

Last Night: Van Halen at Toyota Center

Reporter’s Notebook: Random Scrawlings from the Van Halen Show

Drenched In Blog: Van Halen in Houston

Get Lit: Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga, by Ian Christe

Open Letter to Messrs. Van Halen, E., and Roth., D.L.

Drenched in Blog: Fair Warning

True Blue Confessions

Let's join Madonna for a friendly round of Celebrity Breach of Confidentiality

Guilty Pleasures, Part II

More music figures confess their deep, dark secrets

Feels Like Old Times

With Sammy Hagar back on stage, Van Halen trudges on

Dark Riders

The good, the bad and the ugly rock-star performance contracts

David Lee's Froth

Diamond Dave rants on fashion, being a digital gigolo, his rival/tourmate Sammy Hagar, a pending lawsuit and a bunch of other stuff

Steady Eddie

Decades of torn-up road behind him, Van Halen's guitar god keeps chugging ahead

Death Camp

Revenge of the Nerds

A Nerf Herder lesson in how to sell yourself as who you are

Thriving -- or Simply Surviving?

After all these years, Alex Van Halen insists his band isn't "D.O.A."

Live Shots