Courtesy Jacksboro Highway

L-R: Pete Best, John Lennon, Delbert McClinton, Bruce Chanel, Paul McCartney, George Harrison

​Lonesome, Onry and Mean didn't get in much trouble in school. So his parents were a little disturbed to find the eighth grader in the principal's office on the afternoon of February 10, 1964. He and his best friends, Mike Clowdus, Brad Rutledge, and Larry "Suitcase" Simpson, had been written up and sent to the office by Mr. Stephen Haynes, the eighth grade honors algebra teacher.

The infraction? Combing our hair like the Beatles.

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Courtesy LC Media

​I was living in Holland in 1977 when my younger brother, who had attended Wayland Baptist University on a track scholarship until booze and girls were discovered in his dorm room, came for a visit. While living in Plainview, his stomping grounds had been the gin joints of Lubbock. Upon arrival, he immediately opened his suitcase and pulled out an album he said I had to hear. It was some guy he had seen play in Lubbock who had just put out his first album.

It was what is known as Joe Ely's "white album." Self-titled, it has sometimes been referred to as the "No Loud Talk" album because of the sign on the wall behind the band on the back photo.

Dropping the needle on side one of Joe Ely, my entire musical horizon changed.

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​Satellite radio got some new competition from a little old outfit called NASA when the government agency went live Monday with its new internet radio station, Third Rock.

The station is described in NASA's press release as "crafted specifically to speak the language of tech-savvy young adults." The New Rock/Indie/Alternative format mixes mostly deep tracks from new rock albums with a scant seasoning of recognizable radio hits.

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theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com

"You want me to sing WHAT now?"

​To the right-wing conservatives, religious groups, and self-proclaimed family organizations raising hell over Chaz Bono's "assault on family values" as the first transgender contestant on Dancing With the Stars, Rocks Off asks the question: Would you rather expose your kids to Keith Richards? How about Jim Morrison? Because that's who they were watching 45 years ago, as just a few of many groundbreaking musical acts featured on The Ed Sullivan Show.

On October 4, SOFA Entertainment will release The Ed Sullivan Show Starring The Rolling Stones, a 2-DVD set that includes four episodes. A deluxe edition follows on November 1, featuring all six Stones appearances on the legendary Sunday night variety show - including their legendary performance on January 15, 1967.

The 1967 show was not only significant because it was the band's last with founding member Brian Jones, but also for the now-historic rendition of "Let's Spend the Night Together," the title line delivered as "Let's spend some time together" as Jagger looks directly into the camera and sarcastically rolls his eyes.

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​One of the saddest side effects of the digital music explosion in the late '90s and early '00s was the decline of the made-for-television compilation. Nevertheless, companies like Razor & Tie and Time Life still continue to put out monstrous collections of music for you to order online and by phone, full of pop memories and hidden gems.

In 2011, you are likely to see video compilations for sale, like the Midnight Special box sets than ones filled with music you could just as easily download for cheaper, or - gasp - for free. And once you found those songs, you can burn them to your own disc, and leave out songs you don't want, like possibly John Waite's "Missing You" if it bothers you or reminds you too much of Spring Break '85.

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​How good a musician is Booker T? Along with the rest of the MGs, the house band of seminal soul imprint Stax who had several instrumental hits of their own besides backing Stax's powerhouse roster (Rufus Thomas, Albert King, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding...) throughout the '60s, the Memphis-born master of the Hammond B3 organ was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 at the relatively young age of 48.

The MGs released "Green Onions," possibly the most ubiquitous instrumental of the rock and roll era, in 1962... when Booker T was all of 18 years old. But even such a preternatural talent has people he looks up to, admires and studies. Rocks Off has never met Booker T., and regretfully we've never read Rob Bowman's 1997 book Soulsville USA: The Story of Stax Records (yet), but here are our best guesses for the musical minds who have made Booker T the soul man he is today.

Johann Sebastian Bach/Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: After "Green Onions" was already a hit, Booker T. studied classical composition at Indiana University - commuting back to Memphis from Bloomington to record at Stax on the weekends - so Rocks Off is willing to bet he knows his way around a Bach fugue or Mozart sonata. How cool would it be if he pulled one out at Wired Live Saturday night?

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As the Houston SXSW spillover begins to permeate our bars and clubs, we find ourselves inundated with talent. Sunday, Joe Pug and Horse Feathers set up shop at Mango's for a show that is sure to quench anyone's Americana thirst.

​We first got hipped to Joe Pug while we were interviewing Justin Townes Earle a few weeks back ahead of his Mucky Duck show. We asked Earle to throw out some names that we should be watching and he named the Low Anthem and Joe Pug. As luck would have it, Rocks Off Sr. had Pug's Messenger sitting on the desk in front of us, and it soon made its way to our cubicle. We brought it back, as per request. [Ed. Note: We appreciate that.]

The Chicago native dishes out sturdy acoustic tunes with sometimes abrasive lyrics, like on Messenger's "Not So Sure" where laments how he ""undressed somebody's daughter, and then complained about her looks." It's some rough stuff at times, but he makes up for it with his gentle side. Messenger should be a lock for a few Best Of 2010 lists, and Pug is set to play quite a few gigs during SXSW this next week.

We picked five artists who helped Pug evolve his sound, along with the newer Low Anthem who also share his same lineage. It seems silly to put Dylan on here, but Pug is own of the rare cats who actually carries on part of Zimmy's persona. And it's always a good time for some Jim Croce.

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metal-archives.com

A hometown D.R.I. gig, 1982

​Tonight at Wired Live, formerly the Meridian - or still the Meridian, just not for much longer; we don't even know at this point - you can watch part of punk and hardcore history duke it out with some of the new wave. Legendary crossover thrash band and Houston natives D.R.I. headline with support from politi-punks Room 101, Cancer and Sinister Minister.

Three years into their existence, D.R.I. booked it out of Houston for San Francisco in 1983, but they are still firmly entrenched in local punk history, even when touring with the likes of the Dead Kennedys and Austin prodigal sons MDC (or Millions of Dead Cops). Now D.R.I and MDC are a part of a proud Texas punk lineage along with Austin's Big Boys and The Dicks, and H-Town's own Really Red and The Hates.

In 2008, lead singer Kurt Brecht formed Pasadena Napalm Division with three-quarters of Houston metal heroes deadhorse. The thrash-metal band only played a handful of shows in Texas but was very well-received, with the band even playing Brecht's track from the Dave Grohl project Probot.

We compiled some of the bands that helped foster the crossover thrash sound and vision of D.R.I., from the Krishna-core of Summerfest artists the Cro-Mags to the big daddies in Black Flag. You can still hear echoes of D.R.I in bands like Municipal Waste (also Summerfest) and Houston's own modern grindcore scene of bands like Chocolate Crucifix and H.R.A. The sound lives on.

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This Sunday, Valentine's Day if you nasty, Warehouse Live gets a two-tone shot of ska history when the English Beat and Fishbone hit the stage. The two bands tour together quite a bit and have become the sort of elder ambassadors of the genre while bands like the Specials mull over extensive touring plans.

The English Beat is best known for the tracks "Mirror In The Bathroom" and "Save It For Later." Both songs are heavily trafficked on various '80s compilations, so you no doubt at least own a track or two from the Beat, as they are known in England. The band is buoyed by leader Dave Wakeling, who worked with General Public after the Beat's first break-up in 1983. If you ever see Reverberation DJ and local garage maven Jason Puffer around town, ask to see the Rude Girl tattoo on his arm. It's from one the Beat's album covers.

Fishbone never really went away, and with a lead singer like Angelo Moore, it would be nearly impossible. He also runs by the name of Dr. Madd Vibe, and for awhile you could see him touring the country in the early '00s with Neville Staples. This included a peculiar Friday-night gig at Fitzgerald's and something involving a chair. The band was on the forefront of the early-'80s punk scene in Southern California, helping birth fellow funk-punkers the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction. The self-processed "disparate, all-black oddball crew" has been jamming since 1979. The above 1985 video scared the ever-loving shit out of us when we were little.

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Brooklyn indie-rock duo the Fiery Furnaces comes to Walter's on Washington tonight behind last year's I'm Going Away and it's quasi-remix album Take Me Round Again. The brother and sister team of Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger come from a long lineage of likeminded indie skronkers. Being a related twosome doesn't hurt either when it comes to shorthand comparisons, even if it is a little limiting. It's hard for most people to not lump them in with those two-tone kids from Detroit.

The band has released their Rough Trade debut, Gallowsbird's Bark, in 2003 and immediately found themselves as that year's indie-darlings. By the next year they were holding down stages at Coachella and most of the bigger destination festivals. Blueberry Boat came in 2004 and the concept album was met with praise and a few perplexed looks from the bloggerati who weren't prepared for such a thing from the Friedbergers.

2006's Bitter Tea was a Suicide and Devo-steeped set of creepy electronics beds and Eleanor singing like a crazed Nico on speed. To this day it is a expert example of indie headphone rock. The more straightforward Widow City came out the next fall on Thrill Jockey and live the tracks reached nearly cock-rock heights with the album's guitar lines getting magnified dramatically. It got loud. Very loud for an album referencing a holy city in Northern India.

A biopsy of the Furnaces' sound brings takes you through a Who's Who of the past forty years of fantastic freaks who didn't cotton to industry ways. What can you really say about the Captain that hasn't been said before?

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