Yoko Ono

Back In the U.S.S.R.: The Obsolete Beatles

The next time someone who's too "cool" to "get" the Beatles asks what makes them so important, ask that person what's so great about his or her nose. First, if you're lucky, you'll be treated to an entertaining look of befuddlement. Then, when you're done being amused by that, avoid launching into a ... More >>

Molly Flogs Houston

Flogging Molly makes the walls sweat at the House of Blues.

Yoko Ono Turns 80, Still Weird as Hell

Yoko Ono, never one to bend to the rules of societal convention, has got this old-age shit down to a science. Screw bridge club and Metamucil; this soon-to-be octogenarian is putting your grandma's ideas about the twilight years to shame. True to form, the famed conceptual artist/musician/fashion- ... More >>

The Top 25 Music Videos of 2012, Nos. 10-6

Now we're getting into the real works of incredible genius that hit the Web this year, including one of the few major acts I deign to include on these lists (The art of mainstream music video production being all but dead after all). It's a distinctly sexier set of selections than yesterday, so you ... More >>

Dum Dum Girls "Coming Down," Out of Their Clothes

I have a deep place in my heart for Dum Dum Girls. Their music is a kind of aching, empty light that is like being shot with some sort of experimental anesthesia before a doctor restructures a deformation. Think of it as Adele, but produced in an alley where crime and art are not mutually exclusive ... More >>

Frog Eyes! The 10 Greatest Glasses-Wearing Musicians

If you were like me growing up, you had glasses. You got ridiculed for it with names like "frog eyes," "nerd" (sadly children didn't equate that with smart, just weird), "ugly" and "geek." Even worse was the fact that, as a result of my wearing glasses, I couldn't wear sunglasses because the good o ... More >>

10 Things That Have Happened To Rock Stars' Ashes

Recently, I explored some of the strange things that musicians have been buried with. In the course of researching that article, I came across a lot of tales about the cremated remains of rock stars. Some very odd things have occurred with famous ashes, so being the resident morbid person on staff, ... More >>

Flaming Lips And Their Fwends Set To Weird Up Record Store Day

In a few weeks on April 21, Record Store Day is yet again set to obliterate the wallets of record collectors around the country, and the Flaming Lips will have quite a release for fans on that day. What would you think if I said that they have been recording with none other than Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Nic ... More >>

Who Is Paul McCartney?!: Rocks Off Tells You

So, it's the day after the Grammys, and you may still be wondering who that "hella old" man with the droopy eyes playing the weird left-handed bass was on the telecast last night. You know, the guy next to the guy from Foo Fighters and that one other ancient-looking man in the tight jeans who looks ... More >>

Lord Lordy, Look Who's Forty: The Best Albums Of 1972

Last week I told you about the best debut albums of 1992, making a lot of us feel old in the process. Hell, I was only nine when those came out and I felt feeble making the list. This week we look at the best albums of 1972, now four decades in the hole, but no less fulfilling and influential. Wha ... More >>

A Single Plum, Floating in Perfume, Served in a Men's Hat: Fake Yoko Ono Tweets

We've razzed Yoko Ono on Rocks Off a bit this past year. This week we poked fun at her Facebook presence, and we even did an analysis of how some feel she continues to matter in the art and pop worlds. We made the argument that she helped usher in the avant-garde into the mainstream, but her treatme ... More >>

2011 Rewind: Concert Tickets From An Alternate Universe

This originally ran on June 8, but seeing that the year is coming to an end, we are looking back at some of our favorite blogs we gave to you these past 12 months. One of the best dreams we ever had was of covering a Clash show for Rocks Off. Yeah, dreaming about work isn't something to brag about ... More >>

Yoko Ono Just Wants to Be Liked...on Facebook

​OK, Facebook finally went too far last night when it casually offered me a chance to "like" Yoko Ono. Six others I'm somehow connected with via F-book (and I'm starting to wonder why I'm connected to them at all) "like" the 78-year old Mrs. Lennon. So when does an "artist" of Yoko's fame and ... More >>

John Lennon's Imagine Turns 40: Ten Facts About The Album

​Forty years ago this past week, John Lennon's second solo LP away from the Beatles, Imagine, hit number one on the UK album charts. The album was released on October 8, 1971 in England and September 9, 1971 here in the States. The album was seen as a commercial answer to his previous outing ... More >>

Purple, Possessed & Pervy: Rock's Top 10 Houses

harleyslist.blogspot.comJohn Lennon and Yoko Ono in a happy pose in front of their home (and future site of Lennon's assassination).​Celebrity homes will always be a source of fascination, offering a glimpse at the intimate, private side of those who live their lives in the public eye. And it' ... More >>

10 Songs For Pissed-Off Travelers

This spring, Austin honky-tonker and Pasadena native Dale Watson had some dates in Australia and made the mistake of booking a flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Singapore-based budget carrier Tiger Airways. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, not only did the airline charge Watson a $500 exce ... More >>

Fush Yu Mang: Future Charity Stunts By '90s Has-Beens

Smash Mouth: "Nobody can eat 50 eggs!"​Today, we learned that Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell will eat 24 eggs, in any style he wants, for a $10,000 donation to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. That's a pretty sweet deal, because we like scrambled eggs with cheese and deviled eggs. And om ... More >>

Four Musicians Roth Vs. U.S. Would Have Jailed (NSFW)

AP/Life.comSamuel Roth​Standing up for the First Amendement is a hard row to hoe sometimes. Sure, it's fun when you can defend someone like Marilyn Manson, but it's a lot less fun when you realize you also have to defend people like the Westboro Baptist Church. Thems the breaks, though. If you ... More >>

WHIP YOUR HAIR: Best Singles By The Children Of Rock & Rap Royalty

​Today is Julian Lennon's 48th birthday, born April 8, 1963, just as his father John was beginning the meteoric rise to godhead status with the Beatles. He wouldn't see his dad too terribly much as Beatlemania took over the world, something that both men struggled with as the years went on. ... More >>

Yoko Ono: Five Reasons She Still Matters

​Friday, Yoko Ono Lennon, widow of John Lennon, turns 78 years old. She's still as vibrant and prolific as ever, staying in the spotlight, not only as the keeper of Lennon's flame but also as an influential artist and public figure. Here is where Beatles fans will scoff and say her art was g ... More >>

John Lennon's Top 10 Solo Songs

Cactus Music is hosting a Beatles & John Lennon DJ session featuring DJ Black Slacks from 5-7 p.m. today in the Record Ranch, 2110 Portsmouth. ​Today marks 30 years since humanity lost John Lennon. The man has haunted Craig's Hlist since he was very little, when the man broke out from being t ... More >>

In Case You Missed It...

Marco TorresIt's a bird... it's a plane... it's... Usher!​Rocks Off knows you have had a busy week. So have we. But, we figured, what with Thanksgiving and Black Friday and traveling to and from your various other holiday ports of call, you may not have had as much time in front a computer as ... More >>

Five Great Moments In Indecent Exposure

​Recently, Florida's lame-duck governor Charlie Crist has said he's considering pardoning Jim Morrison for his 1969 indecent exposure charge, stemming from The Doors' notorious Miami concert in which a drunken Lizard King swore numerous times and proceeded to whip it out onstage. Of course, Mo ... More >>

John Lennon Bus: Making Music With Houston Kids And The Black Eyed Peas

Photo by Chasen MarshallThe sidewalk at Discovery Green is currently for bus parking.​The dark blue bus parked on the sidewalk at Discovery Green downtown looks like something that might show up outside House of Blues on the night of a show, but it has more going on then one would think.Beyond bei ... More >>

Musicians Do More In Bed Than Just... Sleep

​Today is the anniversary of one of the most unusual events in a most unusual decade. On May 26, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their "Bed-In for Peace" at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel. It was the second of such boudoir-bound protests (or, if you prefer, media stunts); the couple folded ... More >>

FAIL: Nashville Weather, Liam Gallagher, Meat Loaf, Warrant's Jani Lane

If you're reading this, you're either on the Internet, or else you've mastered multi-dimensional thought-projection processes that would make Michio Kaku cry like a little girl. We'll assume the former, and just in case you don't already know, the Internet has decided that the word "failure" is too ... More >>

More SXSW Speculation: Perhaps a Visit from the Plastic Ono Band?

​We haven't even passed MLK Day, and already Rocks Off is spinning our collective wheels about SXSW. Hell, we haven't even covered RodeoHouston, and we have already begun talking about where we are going to crash every morning at dawn. Rocks Off would like to admit that even on the way home from A ... More >>

Domy Movie Nights: Holy Mountain

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 film never became a cult classic – but it’s hard to see why not

Eyeballin': John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band Live in Toronto '69

It's a story well-told in Beatles lore. Reeling from the Fab Four's unraveling, a bored John Lennon accepted an invitation to perform at the Toronto Rock 'n Roll Revival show in September 1969. He quickly formed an ad hoc group of friends (wife Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Voorman on bass ... More >>

Remembering 1969, Part 3: The Beginning of the End for the Beatles

Note: see Part 1 here and Part 2 here. For most of 1969, the Beatles were pretty much comatose - after the disastrous Get Back sessions (which would later spawn the Phil Spector-produced Let It Be), they reconvened to the studio that spring to record the music for what would become their final reco ... More >>

Post-1990 Holiday Songs That Don't Blow

This list was damn near impossible to compile. The criteria: original holiday songs recorded after 1990. There aren't many tunes that qualify, and of the ones that do, few of them are worth listening to. Like fake marshmallow froth atop a cup of instant cocoa, here's the crème de la crème of the l ... More >>

Eyeballin': A Technicolor Dream

This documentary, originally broadcast on BBC television, traces the coalition of the "underground" movement in swinging '60s London. Beginning with a groundbreaking 1965 gathering/reading of the Beat poets at the Royal Albert Hall and following with the opening of the Indica bookstore and galler ... More >>

Get Lit: The Pitchfork 500

“what we want is too late”

Lawndale’s studio artists explore collaborative efforts separately

Get Lit: Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon, by May Pang

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

David Leaf’s documentary shows the giant steps the feds took against a cultural icon

Various Artists: Disco Not Disco: Post Punk, Electro & Leftfield Disco Classics 1974-1986

Top 10 Most Hated Rappers

Who made the shit list

Text Messages

A Deborah Colton Gallery exhibition plays with words

Tech? No!

An imaginary history of electronic music

Meet the Beatle

John Lennon's other art takes center stage in "When I'm Sixty Four"

Mates of State

Team Boo (Polyvinyl)

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Best Show

"YES YOKO ONO"

Down 'n' Dirty

Wood searches for the naked truth with Suchu Dance

Oh, Yoko!

The "widow of John Lennon" deserves a spotlight of her own

Night & Day

March 25 - 31, 1999

O No, Mr. Lennon

Buff Boys

Celebrity Photographer, Photographer Celebrity

Talking with Annie Leibovitz about the manufacture of cultural identity and the American dream