Welcome to The Rocks Off 200, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See previous entries in the Rocks Off 100 at this link.

Who? Regular readers will recognize Joshua Allan Vargas as the visionary filmmaker bringing the story of Houston's greatest monster, Dean Corll, to the silver screen in the upcoming In a Madman's World. Making movies has been his dream since he was a kid, and one of the best ways to stay in shape and generate revenue is to make music videos.

Vargas has become a highly on demand hand on the camera for some pretty big names. He's worked with Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals, Down, Soil, Oceans of Slumber and God's of Death Screw, among others. He's a master of capturing a band's performance energy, whether onstage or on location. Vargas is a huge supporter of both the local and national metal scenes, and sees crafting music videos as a way to be involved that doesn't come with the hassle of having a band himself.

Currently, he's gearing up to work with ERASETHEVIRUS and the one and only Marzi Montazeri's band Heavy as Texas. Vargas and ERASETHEVIRUS bass player Mangy James go way back -- ask James about the stack of porno magazines in the woods if you want to hear a good story, says Vargas.

Home Base: Well, Vargas goes where the bands go, so the point is kind of moot. From a shooting standpoint, most Houston venues are the same to him: they have walls, and the lighting is always so bad you have to fix it in post-production. Still, his favorite place both to shoot and to see a concert is Warehouse Live. He gets miffed about their confiscating lighters at the door now, but other than that he's had the most fun there.

Good War Story: "Shooting a video for Down at Philip Anselmo's house was easily one of the most fun shoots I have ever been on," he says.

I was only a cinematographer on that one, so my only job was to smoke the copious amount of pot that was floating around make it look cool. That, and Down is comprised of members of bands that I really love, so it was really cool working with them.

Philip is also one of the most naturally hilarious people one could hope to work with. He made up a song on the spot about my partner, Chance Allen, called "The Wise Houstonian Metal-Guy" while they were geeking out over all of the old Houston metal bands they loved. 14-year-old me would have been shitting himself.

Story continues on the next page.

Music Scene Pet Peeve: "The term 'support local music' and how it's essentially a way for shitty bands and shitty promoters to guilt-trip people into going to see their band that's completely devoid of any sort of identity or the show that the promoter didn't do anything for besides spam Facebook and expect people's conscience[s] to pick up the slack."

Five Desert Island Discs:

Pantera, Far Beyond Driven

Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti

Steel Panther, Balls Out

Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral

Triptykon, Melana Chasma

Best Show You've Ever Seen: "It's a tie between Rammstein or Pantera, for completely different reasons."

First Song You Ever Fell in Love With: "When I was a toddler, my parents said that I loved 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Highway to Hell' so much that I wouldn't go to sleep without them playing," Vargas says. "So those, I guess. Haha."

Jef has a new story, a tale of headless strippers and The Rolling Stones, available now in Broken Mirrors, Fractured Minds. You can also connect with him on Facebook.

See the rest of the Rocks Off 200, and the Rocks Off 100's 2013 alumni, on the next page.

THE ROCKS OFF 200