Houston Music - Rocks Off - "Art Rock" Archives

Art Rock: The Jerry Lightfoot Festival, In Memory of Rory Miggins, at the Continental Club

Friday, Nov. 20 2009 @ 4:30PM

"Buddha Bubba": Billy Gibbons and Bill Narum's Fellow Artists Comment on the ZZ Top Graphic Designer's Passing

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Miles-tones, Texas Me, This Just In

Thursday, Nov. 19 2009 @ 3:38PM

When Rocks Off learned that Texas countercultural icon and longtime ZZ Top graphic designer Bill Narum passed away Wednesday night, one of the first things we did was reach out to the ZZ camp for a statement. The Lil' Ol' Band from Tejas' publicist just got back to us with a message from the Rev. Billy F. Gibbons himself. Here it is verbatim - we just love the way he talks:

"Bill Narum... Man of many talents as a gifted artist, designer and persistent protagonist on many fronts. As the designer and creator of each and every early ZZ TOP cover, his hand forged the perception of the artist essence of ZZ TOP... Cactus, desert sand, rattlesnakes and javalenas, jalapenos, hot sauce and hot bluesrock imagery from way deep down in Texas.
"Scribble on, Bro Bill. You were the best!"

After the jump, a few of Narum's fellow artists remember their friend and colleague. Thanks to Margaret Moser at the Austin Chronicle and South Austin Museum of Popular Culture for her help.

Continue reading " "Buddha Bubba": Billy Gibbons and"...

R.I.P. Bill Narum, KLOL Co-Founder, Leading Texas Counterculture Artist and ZZ Top Stage Designer

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Miles-tones, Texas Me

Thursday, Nov. 19 2009 @ 11:52AM

Bill Narum, a key figure in Houston's counterculture in the late 1960s and early '70s, passed away Wednesday night at his home in Austin. The cause of death was an "apparent heart attack or something that took him quickly while sitting in his studio at the art table in his chair," said Narum's close friend Margaret Moser, who profiled him for the Austin Chronicle in 2005.

Austin native Narum, who was in his early 60s, grew up in Houston and discovered his talent for graphic design early on. "In the fifth grade, I'd been drawing girlie cartoons from Playboy in a notebook, and I left it in my desk after class," he told the Chronicle. "The next day I was reprimanded for disrupting class because they were passing around my notebook."

In the late '60s, Narum co-founded Houston free-form FM rock station KLOL and worked as an illustrator for underground newspaper Space City News. He struck up a long-lasting friendship with a band then just starting out, which had recently rechristened itself ZZ Top. Narum would go on to become ZZ's house graphic artist, moving from posters and album covers such as 1976's Tejas to epic murals for the band's fleet of semis and the famous cactus-and-cattle-skull stage design for the trio's legendary 1975-76 "Worldwide Texas" tour.

Continue reading " R.I.P. Bill Narum, KLOL Co-Founder,"...

Art Rock: Recess at Boondocks

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Playbill

Thursday, Nov. 19 2009 @ 10:52AM

Uncle Charlie, In Considerably Fewer Words Than We Expended

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, This Just In

Tuesday, Nov. 17 2009 @ 3:33PM

www.unclecharlieart.com

This is not the Uncle Charlie art illustrating the artist's "Six Word Tale." This is.

They say less is more, and in this case they're probably right. Houston poster artist Uncle Charlie, the subject of one of Rocks Off's recent columns in his ink-and-paper Noise persona, is currently the featured yarn-spinner on the L.A.-based blog Six-Word Tales. Charlie's old friend Stiles White, who co-wrote the Nicolas Cage film Knowing with wife Juliet, normally asks various visual artists to illustrate one of his (extremely) short stories, which he appropriately calls "microfiction."

Seems White read Rocks Off/Noise's article on Charlie and asked his old friend to do one of said illustrations. Except Charlie and wife Stephanie decided to come up with their own half-dozen words - "Blind artist perennially focuses. Infinite spectrum" - and White happily yielded the floor. You'll have to go to White's blog to see the art... Rocks Off doesn't want to spoil it any further.

However indirectly (White notes he had Charlie in mind for a tale long before the article came out), Rocks Off is thrilled to have played a small part in this story. Charlie will be showing his work at this weekend's Art Crawl at Hardy Street Studios if you missed the Sig's Lagoon poster show a couple weeks back. And if you missed his interview on Fox 26 News (like we did), here it is.

Art Rock: Crank! (Not the Drug) at the Mink

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Playbill

Saturday, Nov. 7 2009 @ 10:00AM

Art Rock: An Albatross at Mango's

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Playbill

Friday, Nov. 6 2009 @ 6:30PM

Art Rock: The "Shred 'Til You're Dead" Tour at Meridian

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Playbill

Wednesday, Nov. 4 2009 @ 3:30PM

6:30 p.m. tonight at Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717 or www.meridianhouston.com.

Enjoy This Fine Selection of Uncle Charlie Posters - and Buy One Saturday

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Playbill

Wednesday, Nov. 4 2009 @ 1:00PM

All artwork by Uncle Charlie

In our alter ego as a print journalist, this week Rocks Off sits down with Uncle Charlie, whose vibrant posters have been adorning Houston concert halls and living-room walls (like ours, for example) since the Vatican and Unicorn days when Charlie did gig flyers for his own band, Houston hardcore legends Dresden 45.

Since last June, Uncle Charlie has also been officially legally blind. As you can read here, that slowed him down for a little while, but hasn't stopped him one bit. Charlie was nice enough to send us several recent examples of his work. His posters and prints are on display and for sale at Sig's Lagoon; Charlie hosts an exhibition at Midtown's only record store this Saturday starting at 6 p.m.

Continue reading " Enjoy This Fine Selection of"...

A Few of Our Favorite Disturbing Album Covers - Tell Us Yours and Win Tickets to Our Halloween Party

By John Seaborn Gray in Art Rock, Miles-tones

Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 4:30PM

Halloween is Friday, so to help you get into the proper spirit, Rocks Off has selected some of our favorite creepy, disturbing album covers. We decided to go for a more "unsettling" vibe rather than "disgusting," because we didn't want this thing to turn into a Cannibal Corpse slide show, and because the most horrifyingly gross album covers contain images we'd never publish on this site - and we're morally blank heathens, so you can imagine how awful those must be. Just relax and enjoy our selection of album covers that manage to be haunting without a bunch of over-the-top gore.

What else should be in here? Leave your suggestions - and email address - in the comments. Best one gets a pair of tickets to the Houston Press Halloween Party Friday night at House of Blues with the Flamin' Hellcats. And that's no trick, tricks.

Continue reading " A Few of Our Favorite"...

Art Rock: Robert Ellis and the Boys at Mango's

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Hillbilly Highway, Only In Houston, Playbill

Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 1:30PM

Art Rock: Rocks Off's "Helter Skelter Halloween" at Coffee Groundz

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Playbill

Monday, Oct. 26 2009 @ 5:00PM

Come play with us... absolutely, totally, 100 percent free. Happy Halloween!

Art Rock: Rocks Off's "Helter Skelter Halloween" at Coffee Groundz

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Playbill

Thursday, Oct. 22 2009 @ 9:00AM

Just a reminder, y'all. It's free... starts at 6 p.m.

Art Rock: Adios, Danseparc...

By Chris Gray in Art Rock, Playbill

Saturday, Oct. 10 2009 @ 10:00AM

9 p.m. at Numbers, 300 Westheimer, 713-526-6551 or www.numbersnightclub.com.

ACL Just Keeps on Giving: Welcome to the "Poopshow"

By John Seaborn Gray in ACL Fest, Art Rock, Slide Show

Thursday, Oct. 8 2009 @ 3:00PM

As you may already know if you followed Rocks Off's copious ACL coverage, Austin's Zilker Park is a muddy ruin. We use the term "muddy" loosely, as much of the turf churned into muck by dancing festival-goers was a substance called "Dillo Dirt," which is part recycled sewage. As a salute to the brown soup created by the City of Austin's efforts to go green, we've put together a slideshow of album covers featuring dirt, mud and, of course, poop. Enjoy!