Whitney Houston

Saturday Night: The Band Perry at Reliant Stadium

The Band Perry Reliant Stadium March 13, 2013 Was anyone else as confused as I was on Saturday night with the Band Perry's concert at RodeoHouston? On paper, the Band Perry should be a fantastic live act to see. They're a wholesome, family-friendly group, perfect for what the rodeo tries to achie ... More >>

The New Crusaders

TSU restarts its jazz program, tapping into the talents of the fabled Joe Sample and kids looking for a place to play.

Beyonce vs. Whitney: Battle of the "Banner"

"The Star-Spangled Banner," our nation's national anthem, is a notoriously difficult song to sing. Often arranged in an unforgiving key for vocalists, composer Francis Scott Key's melody is full of tricky intervals that make it even more precarious. This is a major reason most of the people around y ... More >>

Those Are People Who Died, Died: Musical Passings of 2012

Rocks Off put it off as long as we could, because December has been a pretty rough month. It always is for music. (Hollywood, too.) But it's time to call the roll of people who played or sang their last note in 2012, plus a few who were just as instrumental offstage. Precious few corners of the mus ... More >>

What Was Your Favorite Concert at The Summit?

It must be music-venue day today. Rocks Off would like to thank Jon Harvey of Houston (@oompahead) for alerting us via Twitter to the fact that on this day in 1975, when I was a few weeks away from turning one year old, the sports and entertainment arena then known as the Summit opened in Greenway P ... More >>

Whitney Houston, Actress

Surveying the great diva's checkered film career.

7 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Susan Alcorn, Steel Lounge Underground, Etc.

This ain't honky-tonk: Presented by They, Who Sound and Signal To Noise, Baltimore-based composer and avant-garde steel guitarist Susan Alcorn performs three sets starting 8 p.m. tonight at 14 Pews (800 Aurora): One solo, and two in trios with David Dove (trombone) and Damon Smith (bass), and Jo Bir ... More >>

Top 10 Musical Moments on The Arsenio Hall Show

One of the greatest late-night talk show hosts of all time was Arsenio Hall. He was the quintessential Ed Sullivan for the '80s and early '90s. He featured all kinds of musical artists, but most importantly, he helped introduce rap music into the mainstream. Hall, who won Donald Trump's most recent ... More >>

5 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Umbrella Man, Robert Cray, Etc.

A short one this week, for the long holiday weekend. But worthwhile. Outside-the-Loop gig of the weekend: The Mighty Orq at Main Street Crossing in Tomball tonight at 8 p.m.. Ask Orq about the band's European tour last month. Soulful Space City spokesman Nick Gaitan celebrates the release of his ... More >>

Ask A Rapper: Jack Freeman Nerds Out With R&B Hits

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -- lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good -- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? E-mail sheaserrano@gmail.com. ... More >>

10 Things Musicians Have Been Buried With

Everyone dies eventually, even rock stars, and when they go it's not uncommon for them to take beloved personal items with them, or to have such things placed there by grieving friends and family. That is of course unless they're cremated and have their ashes snorted or smoked. For those who went th ... More >>

Top 10 Most Outrageous Onstage Incidents, Antics & Meltdowns

Everyone has their meltdown moments, no doubt about it. We make mistakes and, most of the time, we try to correct them. We have them because we are all human. Unfortunately, though, when you are in the spotlight, your hurts, tantrums, mistakes and meltdowns are all magnified for all the world to se ... More >>

Coroner: Drowning, Drugs Killed Whitney Houston

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office has finally released the toxicology report in Whitney Houston's death shortly before the Grammys last month, and it both is and is not a surprise. According to Yahoo, the coroner says Houston, who was found in the bathtub of her fourth-floor room in the Bever ... More >>

Rocks Off's Ultra-Hip Rodeo Concert Guide: Blake Shelton

Date: March 7 Name: Blake Shelton AKA: "Mr. Miranda Lambert" Genre: Cheatin' country

Bingo and Booze at Double Trouble

Chuck Cook PhotographyLooking out onto the patio, where the bingo happens.​"G 48, G 48. Gee, I can't believe Whitney Houston was only 48." The basic requirements of bingo-calling are so undemanding that an illiterate person could fulfill them. Doing it well, though, takes wit, and often the w ... More >>

Whitney & Me: One Fan's Recollections

Saturday I got a text from a close friend saying that Whitney Houston had passed away. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked. I honestly thought she would be around for years to come so that she could could keep blessing us all with her terrific voice.. I grew up listening to Contemporary Christian ... More >>

Local R&B Singer Talks Opening Whitney Houston's Final Tour

It's not every day that someone calls our office claiming to being the opening act for Whitney Houston's final tour. But it did Monday morning, when Azaryah Davidson, a Houston R&B singer who goes by Azaryah, rang up and said just that. He's legit; we checked. Azaryah, 36, is a smooth crooner simi ... More >>

Whitney Houston In Houston: A Brief Retrospective

All morning, the world woke up to the shocking, but not altogether surprising, news that troubled pop/R&B superstar Whitney Houston died Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles. Houston, 48, was pronounced dead at around 3:55 p.m. at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, according to Reuters. No cause of ... More >>

Looking Back at A Very Special Christmas Track by Track

In the late 1980's, music empresario Jimmy Iovine cobbled together quite a collection of pop and rock artists to record songs for a Christmas album benefitting the Special Olympics. In 1987, A Very Special Christmas was released and rapidly became an instant holiday classic thanks to the star powere ... More >>

Keisha Hunt

The X Factor: Learning To Let Go

Photo by FOX​Wednesday night The X Factor extended its two-hour format to two and a half hours, allowing us to see each team - Boys, Girls, Over 30s, and Groups - perform, as well as the judges' elimination decisions. While 2.5 hours is quite long, the fact that the show didn't get crazy and m ... More >>

The X Factor: Boot Camp, Minus Sgt. Hartman

The pace of the audition rounds was so fast, I didn't realize the judges put through 162 people in the first two weeks of The X Factor. When the field arrives in Los Angeles for "boot camp," they are informed that they will be shaved down to a field of 100, which will ultimately be reduced by two-th ... More >>

Top 10 Songs About Other Musicians

When you make music your life, it's only natural that you'd look at the people around you doing the same and find someone who just moistens the muse's panties. What we've tried to put together here is a list of those best efforts. Bear in mind, with one notable exception we've steered clear of fell ... 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 >>

Five Questionable Musical Tributes To Nelson Mandela

White House Photographic Office, Clinton Administration​As recognized by the United Nations, today is Mandela Day, honoring the birthday of the beloved South African president, humanitarian, and all-around badass Nelson Mandela, who turns 93. Mandela is a living legend, leader, hero and inspir ... More >>

1986: Best Musical Year Ever?

​For almost two weeks now, Rocks Off has been obsessed with the year exactly 25 flips of the calendar backward from this one. It started when Steve Earle did one of his "Time Machine" shows, where the singer-songwriter who plays House of Blues Wednesday spotlights a dozen or so of his favorite ... More >>

Bin Laden's Favorite Performers -- Whitney Houston, MacGyver Dude, Etc. -- Offer Twitter Silence On His Death

Losing a big fan is apparently hard on Richard Dean Anderson​When you're no longer in the absolute prime of your career, it can be disheartening to lose a hardcore fan. That's the only reason we can think of that several specific stars haven't tweeted their thoughts on the death of Osama Bin ... More >>

We Get The Celebrity Offspring We Deserve

​You always want to be careful when writing about children. Not only because they're the future, as Whitney Houston and Bill Hicks once told us, but because it isn't exactly sporting to use your big person vocabulary and rhetorical arsenal to tee off on someone who hasn't yet been beaten into ... More >>

Top Ten Celebrities This Decade Who Crashed and Burned with Video Evidence

And a partridge in a pear tree...​Last week, we gave you our list of celebrities who manage to save their careers after difficult times. This week, we go a different direction. If we have learned anything from TMZ, it's that people love celebrity scandals and the more salacious it is, the more ... More >>

Our Annual Hour In Sunny 99.1's Holiday Hell

​The day before Thanksgiving, Sunny 99.1, "Houston's Official At-Work Station" did its yearly change-over to all holiday music. It's now a Houston tradition to turn over the dial at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Eve to snort your first line of Burl Ives or Brenda Lee of the season, before you have ev ... More >>

Artist of the Week: Benjamin

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. It didn't strike us u ... More >>

Idol Beat: Wild Card Wildout

Frank Micelotta/ Fox Lucky 13: the American Idol season 8 finalistsFirst off, I'd like to extend a hearty Idol Beat way-to-go to the Fox minion or technological gremlin responsible for causing last night's episode of American Idol to cut out while Simon Cowell and Tatiana Del Toro were quibb ... More >>

"I Do Solemnly Swear": Five Best Swearing-In Scenes

Our 44th (and first African-American) President will be sworn into office today, and we at Hair Balls felt the best way to honor such a solemn and historical occasion would be to show some examples of other great Americans swearing similar oaths.5. Jimmy Malone and Eliot Ness (The Untouchables) It ... More >>

A Few Rejected Inaugural Ball Theme Songs

Eminem feat. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent, "Crack A Bottle" The Good: Many bottles will be popped during tonight's festivities, we imagine, if not quite as many models. Also, the ongoing partnerships between this trio of rap titans says something about the present state of race relations in this country, ... More >>

Do We Have to Play the National Anthem Before Every Single Sporting Event?

Another Bump

Ten of the best coke anthems, plus a shortlist for the Cocaine Hall of Fame

Björk

Middle-aged pixie

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

The Essence of Gordon Chambers

From journalist to songwriter to singer

Puff, Puff, Pass

Whitney's Dookie Bubble

Being Bobby Brown is not all fun and games

Where's the Beef? Right here in H-town

T.I. and Lil' Flip rumble in Cloverland, bringing one of the great rap feuds of recent years to a head

Pop-Up Pop Stars

With the help of city government, Matthew Knowles hopes to find the next Destiny's Child. You got a problem with that?

Stoot Session

Corey Stoot's jazz guitar brings live music back to the club scene

Lucky Star

The brass ring fell in Kirk Whalum's lap. He's kept it in his pocket ever since.

Where Will They Be?

A look at the rock scene in 2020

Press Picks

Oh, God

The Preacher's Wife is a tepid remake of a tepid original

All the Colors of Jazz

Kirk Whalum's sax paints with a broad palette of sounds

Hot Sounds in the City

The 5th Annual Houston Press Music Awards