It's Friday, it's time to party, but in case you're futzing around the Internet this weekend sometime, here's Rocks Off's week in one easy post.
NEWS
We don't know how you could have missed this one, but almost exactly one week ago, Willie Nelson got busted. (Since he wrote "Me & Paul," we figured he'd know better by now.) Could his arrest be a wake-up call for Texas to get serious about marijuana? Probably not if you're Rick Perry, but 35,000 Teapot Partiers (and counting) may be all stoned, but they can't be all wrong.
Arguably Houston's hottest band right now, Roky Moon & BOLT announced a free show December 18 at Fitzgerald's to make up for the blown PA at last Saturday's CD release at tthe Mink. So far Indian Jewelry, Woozy Helmet, Leg Sweeper, Benjamin Wesley, Generation landslide, DJ Meshak and some of the musicians from Catastrophic Theatre's hit musical Bluefinger are also on the bill. Happy birthday to us.
Rocks Off needs us some interns. Real bad.
The loudest icehouse Houston has ever known, Pik N Pak (above), is at the center of a three-day reunion at Rudyard's and Groundhall next weekend. Some bands playing, like Poor Dumb Bastards and the Hates, actually played Pik N Pak and are somehow still around.
SXSW announced another round of additions to next year's music festival, but nobody from Houston yet. For some reason, nobody around here seems to be all that upset.
The Grammy Award nominations were announced Wednesday night, with Texas artists seemed to have fewer than usual this year. And WTF is Katy Perry's Teenage Dream doing nominated for Album of the Year?
The Houston Dynamo is about an eyelash away from building a new stadium near downtown, and the team's president says concert-promoter owner AEG plans to have concerts there too. The question is, will there be anyone to play it?
REVIEWS
Wondering why the PA at the Mink was blown at Roky Moon's show? Look no further than Fat Tony and B L A C K I E the night before.
And here's that Roky Moon review.
Graying alt-rockers got all nostalgic with the Posies and Brendan Benson at Groundhall.
Feeling a little nostalgic ourselves, we joined in the chant with Nitzer Ebb at Numbers last Friday.
Blonde Redhead (above) was all beauty and mystery at Warehouse Live Monday.
Slim Thug released latest album Tha Thug Show at House of Blues Tuesday. Did Bun B show up? Are you high?
Justin Townes Earle had all the ladies (and some of the guys) swooning at Fitzgerald's Thursday.
ETC.
Somehow, Rocks Off survived another year and another hour of Sunny 99.1's holiday programming.
We hope our list of the ten hottest Jewish musicians made your Hanukkah a little brighter. Susanna Hoffs... rrrowr.
Now that Lightnin' Hopkins has his own historical marker, we figured it was about time to review Dallas author Alan Govenar's Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues, the most complete biography of the late Houston bluesman to date.
Is it time to start calling "classic rock" something else? Or just start listening to something else?
We spent far too much time staring at Mariah Carey after our list of the 12 sexiest Christmas-album covers. Oh, Santa is right.
Take heart, all you aspiring musicians out there: You could not possibly be any worse than this band covering Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."
And with that, Rocks Off is signing off. Have a nice weekend, and we'll see you Monday.
