West Texas

The 30 Essential Texas Restaurants: The List Is Live

Sorry about that teaser earlier this week. No fooling around this time, though: Our list is live. Go check out this week's feature -- "Eat Here: 30 Essential Texas Restaurants to Visit Before You Die" -- before reading on. We don't want to spoil any surprises for you. *** Read it yet? Are you sure ... More >>

Fiona Apple Arrested In West Texas For Hash Possession (UPDATED)

Sierra Blanca, Texas -- that wonderful city in far West Texas that loves to pinch leaf-loving musicians like Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg Lion -- has claimed another trophy, arresting singer Fiona Apple Wednesday night for pot possession. According to TMZ, the singer-songwriter was arrested for po ... More >>

The First Alt-Country Record? Flatlanders Rediscover The Odessa Tapes

A lot of stellar music came out of that flat land known as West Texas. Bob Wills, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Terry Allen, Guy Clark, and the Sparkles are just a few artists who found something in the wind, the dust, the heat, the cactus, the mesquite, the sandstorms, the blizzards, t ... More >>

The Flatlanders

Cover Story: Preppers Ready Themselves for When the Shit Hits the Fan

Preparing for Doomsday is as venerably American as cherry pie. Mormonism, America's most successful homegrown religion, even has hoarding food as one of its tenets. Some prep for a biblical Armageddon, while others do so for secular reasons. Maybe they just want to get out of the rat race and off t ... More >>

Friday Night: Mountain Goats at Fitzgerald's

Let us be clear from the very beginning -- this member of the Rocks Off Aftermath team isn't the most storied fan of The Mountain Goats. Though we'd heard of the legendary John Darnielle before, out first actual exposure to his music was in 2007 with Heretic Pride, and we were so struck by the power ... More >>

Eight Very Strange PSAs From The `70s, Featuring Terrible Sideburns And A War On Condiments

Fashion advice from the government​In the course of our assiduous research into strange and ineffective anti-drug PSAs (public service announcements), we got somewhat immersed in the whole 1970's PSA world. It's a world in which you want to tread lightly. The PSAs can be creepy, ill-lit grai ... More >>

The Five Best (& Five Worst) Stretches of Texas Highway

Scenic routes, and others​Texas has some beautiful stretches of highway, and it has some where you just want to pluck out your eyeballs. Truth be told -- if you take out the urban panoramas of strip malls and national franchises -- there's probably more of the former than the latter. Let's l ... More >>

Top 10 Texas Movie Soundtracks

​This weekend, as the rest of the world catches Harry Potter mania for (perhaps) the final time, Houston gets a serious dose of Urban Cowboy nostalgia. Theater Under the Stars' production of the Tony-nominated 2003 musical - which The New York Times called "a conclusive demonstration that it's ... More >>

Texas School Buying "Smurf Turf" Football Field; Superintendent Speaks To Criticisms

"Smurf turf" is coming to Canutillo High. ​West Texas' Canutillo Independent School District hasn't been bringing in much green of late so they've decided to sing the $350,000 blues. Last week, CISD board of trustees approved the installation of a "smurf turf" field that will replace, for "s ... More >>

75 MPH Speed Limit Passes: Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

The Texas Senate has sent to the governor's desk a bill allowing 75 mph speed limits in semi-deserted parts of Texas. Assuming that the Tea Party is not against, Rick Perry is expected to sign it. So get ready to put the pedal to the metal, Texas, and try to imagine what it must have been like in t ... More >>

Possum Kingdom On Fire: The Official Video

Possum Kingdom, the beloved state park west of Fort Worth -- celebrated in song by The Toadies -- has been very unlucky when it comes to the wildfires hitting west and north Texas. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has released some official video of the event, including interviews with firefig ... More >>

West Texas is Burning: Maybe the Worst Wildfires in State's History

Tough times in the vast stretches of West Texas​Massive drought conditions have turned West Texas and the Panhandle into a tinderbox, and the spark has been lit. This weekend saw what might develop into the worst wildfire days in the state's history, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and ... More >>

85 MPH on Texas Highways: Why the Hell Not? (Five Houston-Area Spots That Should Be Considered)

We can all indulge our inner Racer X​The Dallas Morning News (behind a paywall but AP report is here) noted a small clause in a transportation bill passed by the House in Austin this week -- if approved by the Senate, it allows speed limits to be raised on some Texas highways to 85 mph, the hi ... More >>

No Mexico? No Problem! Five (Very Lame) Spring Break Alternatives

The Texas Department of Public Safety has strongly warned Spring Breakers from going to Mexico. whether it's one of the famous tourist cities or the border towns that for years have attracted college students. What's a person to do with their free time if they can't cross over to a magical land whe ... More >>

Championship BBQ Cook-Off

Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock

SUMMER GUIDE: (100) Days of Summer Movies

Enjoy the great indoors!

Jake Silverstein: Nothing Happened and Then It Did

Fact meets fiction today with Texas Monthly Editor Jake Silverstein

Texas Traveler: Terlingua to the Park

Photos by Brittanie SheyFire at La Kiva​Ed. Note: This is the fourth part in a series of posts on traveling to Big Bend and back. Let me start off by saying that if you are a Big Bend virgin and you have the opportunity to visit the park for the first time with a seasoned veteran, jump on that ch ... More >>

Road Trippin': A West Texas/Big Bend Playlist

​ Right after Christmas, Rocks Off hopped into our car and headed straight for the bowels of West Texas. It's a long drive to Big Bend, mostly through the middle of nowhere, huge swaths of land where even AM radio can't reach. Twelve hours in the car demands a certain kind of playlist that, like a ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Heading West

Photos by Brittanie SheyEd. Note: This the first part of a series on heading west to Big Bend and back. Check back next week for our continuing adventures. The very first thing we have to decide is which way to go. We're meeting friends in Big Bend for a New Year's camping trip, but we have several ... More >>

Amarillo's Big Texan Steak Ranch

Photos by Nikki Metzgar​Having seen the steak challenge at Amarillo's Big Texan on television, I had to drop by the restaurant when I swung through West Texas. For the unacquainted, the challenge touted on billboards hundreds of miles away requires you to eat a 72-ounce steak, a baked potato, ... More >>

In the Little Stalls Behind Canino's: Papalo

Photo by Robb WalshAfter the item about the Mexican herb chepil appeared, Tracy Lee Vaught, of Backstreet Café and Hugo's, emailed me. "Next time you are at the market, pick up some papolo and put it in your tacos. It is quite peppery," she wrote. "Hugo uses the chepil in his rice when he can get ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Hoyle Nix and Big Spring's Stampede Club

Photo courtesy of Jody NixHoyle Nix (left) and Bob Wills, mid-1950sThere's an old saying in West Texas about Midland and Odessa, two oil towns only 20 miles apart in the middle of nowhere: raise your kids in Midland, raise hell in Odessa. True enough, Midland has all the soul of a loaf of Rainbow br ... More >>

The Flatlanders: Hills & Valleys

San Angelo Mayor Springs A Hell Of A Surprise On His Town

Photo courtesy City of San AngeloMayor JW Lown, in the middleOut there in West Texas, they know how to do things right. Like spring surprise mayoral resignations.The mayor of San Angelo, J.W. Lown, abruptly announced his resignation just days before he was to be sworn in for his fourth term as mayor ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Western Swing Royalty at iFest

Looking ahead to the Houston International Festival - never mind the SXSW bollocks - I was pleasantly surprised to see that Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys will be playing on the Texas Stage at 6 p.m. on April 18. Not long ago in these cyberpages, we examined the gloom and doom that surrounds the ... More >>

Aftermath: Heybale! at the Continental Club

Austin City Limits: The Unforeseen

Man vs. nature deep in the heart of Texas

Court of Appeals Rules State Had No Right to Seize FLDS Kids

Mp3: Jon Cartwright's "Plural Girl Blues"

Authorities Raid Polygamist Compound in West Texas

Joe Ely, Ryan Bingham

Last Night: Bukka Allen at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck

Sonic Youth <3s Black Leather Jesus

I Love CFS

Thank goodness it's still popular in the small towns of the Chicken-Fried Steak Belt.

Big Love, Texas-Style

Polygamists live in a compound on our state's dry western plains

Los Lonely Boys

Thursday, November 3, at Verizon Wireless Theater, 520 Texas, 713-225-8551.

Swoopes: Hardwoods Homie

A Comets star helps redefine Houston basketball

O Little Town of West Texas

Lee Friedlander goes to homes for the holidays

Best Road Trip

It's All in the Game

Speaking off the toque: Francis Walters

The Curbside Critique

(Houston Sculpture 2000)

Space Odyssey

Tom Moser wants to put Texas on the map as a commercial launch pad for cargo-carrying rockets

Poindexter's Barbecue

A Houston manufacturing magnate sets West Texas on fire -- and now he's taking the heat

Three from Texas

With a spate of independent movies, the state once again leaves its mark on film

Same Old Waylon

The most rebellious thing Waylon Jennings has done is not change

Postmarked Texas

Joe Ely sends a sad, beautiful Letter to Laredo

Pushing the Artistic Borders

Mexico, America and La Frontera find expression in "Poison Amor"