Houston Music Blog

Right now Rocks Off HQ looks more like a MASH unit as we slowly recover from this weekend's Westheimer Block Party. We won't be on the shelf for long - not with the Marleys, Dwight Yoakam, Neko Case and lots more coming up soon - but while we take a day or two to recover, we hope you enjoy these videos shot by intrepid lensmen Marc Brubaker and Craig Hlavaty, who in some cases risked life and limb to get their footage. It's almost like being in the mosh pit all over again.

After the jump (and Little Joe), a spastic dancer at the KTRU Stage, Hula Hoop war, raging pit at Female Demand, prime rump shaking, very dark Benjamin Wesley and more. Boy, do we need a nap.

Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Elmo and Grover have something to celebrate. Sesame Street, their fictional New York borough, and the television show probably responsible for everything you knew as a kid, turns 40 today.

Created in 1969 from the psychedelic mind of puppeteer Jim Henson (back in the freewheelin' '60s, when puppeteering could actually be a career), Sesame Street is now the longest-running children's television program in history, broadcast in more than 20 other countries and several different language. In the United States, it's still funded by the non-profit organization Sesame Workshop, formerly the Children's Television Workshop.

​The show's creators always viewed the program as an experiment, which allowed them to push the envelope by bringing actors and musical guests well-known by parents into the world of their fans' children. Musical director Joe Raposo, reportedly the inspiration for Cookie Monster, used his connections on Broadway to encourage musical guests to participate in the show.

Sesame Street was one of the first programs to combine research with television production and as a result, was the first children's program with a set educational curriculum. The creators discovered that children learn better when their lessons are paired with music.

What followed was a rich tradition of serious artists toning down their message for children; everyone from Johnny Cash to James Blunt has sung with the Muppets. Executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente told the Ottawa Citizen that guest stars from pop culture help the show stay current.

After the jump, ten of Rocks Off's favorite musical performances from the land where the air is always sweet.

Marc Brubaker

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This weekend Rocks Off also brought along our littlest member, our Flip camera, to Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin. It proved to be indispensable in tight places where a regular still camera may not be as useful. Here's a smattering of what we captured through it's tiny lense. We are sure you will be seeing ol' girl at this weekends Westheimer Block Party as well.

Enjoy the videos after the jump, with much more Fun Fun Fun coverage to come.

This has been making us laugh since 1992. Enjoy... and remember, God loves 'em, so you should too!

Rocks Off loves songs about Houston. Here's a pretty good new one by a rapper called Young Twinn.

While the video doesn't offer much we haven't seen before - please, one shot of the skyline as seen from the Interstate is enough - we do really like some of the words, especially the lines toward the end about Hurricane Ike. The beat is well above-average too.

Houston's own Boss of All Bosses, Slim Thug, got six minutes of face time on The Daily Show Wednesday night, in correspondent Wyatt Cenac's report on how the recession is affecting the economics of making it rain and other perks of the baller lifestyle. Some of the things Thugga has had to adjust to, he says, are downsizing from a tour bus to a van, eating in strip clubs in place of making it rain, and not only a reduction in the number of "video hos" on hand at shoots, but said hos' children running around on the set and taking all the food from craft services. The segment concludes with an Apprentice-style boardroom meeting where Slim has to serve walking papers to one of his entourage. Rappers: They're just like us!

Tune in to TDS tonight for the premiere of Slim's new video, "Still a Boss," featuring recession-conscious lyrics like "messin' mothafuckas up with my credit score."

​Most people in the world of music videos may not recognize the name Nahala Johnson, but lately, they've recognized his nom de film: Mr. Boomtown. The Port Arthur native (he now splits his time between Houston and Dallas) is a nominee for the BET Hip Hop Awards' Director of the Year. The show will be held October 10th in Atlanta.

He's nominated for his work on two videos that really couldn't be any more different from each other -- Slim Thug's "I Run," with its breathtaking night-time aerial views of Houston, underground clubs, bling, and wads of cash; and Mike Jones's "Next to You," which features the aforementioned Mr. Jones and his sweetie shopping at Greenspoint Mall and eating Corn Flakes in unbridled domestic bliss.

But after ten years of producing videos for the likes of Scarface, Bun B, Paul Wall, and Mya, Mr. Boomtown is ready for just about anything. We caught up with him this week, but only for a brief phone chat -- as you can imagine, a fellow with the name of "Mr. Boomtown" has quite the busy schedule.

We started by asking him what Slim and Mike differed in their approaches to making videos.

Dig on these video of Israeli titans Monotonix playing last night at Super Happy Fun Land. We followed the band from the floor of the venue, to the bathroom of the venue, to the dumpsters, and all the way out damn near the train tracks off Polk. We have a harrowing sweat-drenched slideshow coming tomorrow morning, along with a review. But hell, with footage like this and the video below, anything we say won't really do this video justice.

Monotonix at Super Happy Fun Land in Houston (Full Tilt Boogie, Ya'll)

​This evening, Rocks Off embarks on a solo assignment that many of our friends and family have begged and pleaded with us not to undertake. "Don't go! What if you get hurt? What if you end up liking it? Why don't you love us?"

There have been tears, screaming arguments, broken bottles, and quiet nights spent alone in front of YouTube, watching the "With Arms Wide Open" video for the tenth time. The only words that have comforted us have been the eloquent tones of our late President Kennedy, speaking above at Rice Stadium on the future space endeavors of NASA. OK, well Rocks Off ain't quite rocket surgeons, but we sure can type gooder than most.

We collected a handful of videos detailing Creed's rise to fame, from their humble beginnings fumbling on national TV, being in league with Satan and shredding to their heart's content all along the way. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll wonder why you spent $15 on My Own Prison in 1997.

Tonight, Rocks Off presents Fight Club in all its full-blown quasi-fascist glory, upstairs at the Mink, where the movies are always free, the company is forever warm and the front room is always spinning George Strait (really).

​In the fall of 1999, the advance buzz running rampant about Fight Club was that it was a misogynistic, violent piece of tripe from a director who should have known better, starring actors who were dreadfully miscast. As always happens in Hollywood, what is their offensive, politically incorrect trash becomes a cult in some parts of the world. Fight Club became sort of two-hour shorthand for all the social ills and mental hunger pangs that were prevalent at the end of the 20th century.

Based on Chuck Palahniuk's stellar novel, Fight Club ended up speaking for a broad section of society, and the film pointed out things that most of us had gone decades noticing but not intimating. It took the keen insanity of director David Fincher and screenwriter Jim Uhls to help convey all the devastating irony in Palahniuk's text. The film's cast, just arriving at the meaty part of their careers, expertly dug into their characters like vultures into a carcass.

Goddammit. Rocks Off has all kinds of work to get done today, but of course we happened to glance over at our handy (or not so much, really) Rhino Records "Year of the Rhino" wall calendar and notice that today is Joan Jett's birthday. So naturally, we haven't been doing a whole lot for the past half hour except watching Joan videos on YouTube and ROCKING OUT ACCORDINGLY!

Rocks Off isn't sure what "state" he will be in twelve hours from now. We sure as hell won't be able to legally operate heavy machinery, that's for damned sure. We plan on staying in Texas, but shit, who knows what could happen after tonight's Motorhead show at Warehouse Live. We may join the Bandidos and move to New Mexico and start our own biker-music blog. Baby, we just don't know, and you ain't gonna tie us down.

Craig Hlavaty

​ Tomorrow night Lemmy Kilmister and Motorhead hit the stage at Warehouse Live, and Rocks Off will be there, at least physically. We don't plan on remembering the show so we have diligently trolling YouTube for videos to fill in any memory lapses we may have from heavy indulgence and fanboy euphoria.

The band is synonymous with danger and disarray. Their logo the "Snaggletooth" and all its interpretations denote something frightening and alternately free at the same time. Lemmy's distinctive facial features and grizzled contentment are pure rock 'n roll, even if both are subject to ridicule from their detractors. The band isn't metal and they aren't punk, but they contributed to both genres' disparate lineages and became the one group that each sub-culture could share a beer over.

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More Beatles for you (and more to come). While researching the group's Texas history, Rocks Off stumbled across this gem: a live recording of the Beatles' one and only Houston appearance - though they played a matinee and evening show - at the Sam Houston Coliseum on August 19, 1965. Listen to those screams...

Find links to parts 1, 3 and 4 of this recording here.

Chicks, man. Can't live with them, can't play music that objectifies them while in the car on the first date. What's up with that? You play one song with the queen mother c-word in it and she leaves the car before we get our complimentary paper crowns.

We compiled a list of songs guaranteed to offend the lady in your life, especially if she's a prude or, ya know, has a degree in something or other. We never asked what it was in because right before we were going to, the DJ started playing "Warm Leatherette" and we got distracted.

GG Allin, "Bite It You Scum": There's pretty much not a single song in this crooner's canon that doesn't offend someone. We were going to use "I'm Going To Rape You" but we couldn't find a suitable video that wasn't just a slideshow of 14-year old scene chicks making MySpace faces. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Plus this song is catchier than "Cornhole Lust." This song also has a Houston connection, seeing that 10th Grade Cutie covers it acoustically from time to time.

By now, the news about former Sugar Land Congressman Tom DeLay's impending appearance on ABC's Dancing with the Stars has had time to sink in, and the long-term ramifications of this colossal melding of two of our greatest loves (reality television and the suffering of others) are starting to become clearer. To say mankind is doomed would be putting it mildly.

But there'll be plenty of time to mourn the collapse of civilization later. Now is the time to concern ourselves with serious issues; specifically, what songs will DeLay actually dance to?

M.C. Hammer, "Here Comes the Hammer" An obvious choice, perhaps, but DeLay and the former Stanley Burrell could swap a few stories about the fleeting nature of success as well as the importance of sound financial and legal advice. Still, it's hard to imagine anything more horrifyingly awesome that DeLay making his entrance on the show to this song, while wearing his own pair of 'Hammer pants.' Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh indeed.

Aaron Sprecher

​Future Hall Of Fame catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, signed to a quick one-year contract by the dis-Astros at the end of spring training in April, was dealt to the Texas Rangers yesterday for two mid-level minor leaguers. The Rangers are deep into a playoff race (remember those?) and were looking to bolster their depth at the backstop position. Rodriguez will actually be the back-up catcher on the roster, behind daintily named UT ex Taylor Teagarden. Seriously, open up a bed and breakfast in the Hill Country why don't you?

The Astros, on the other hand, were looking to shit the bed by taking away one of Rocks Off's favorite catchers ever from Houstonians' loving arms. Each game we watched with Pudge starting behind the plate was a gift. It was a pleasure to see him bring some class to a team that could blow eight-run leads regularly and lose masterfully against an autistic tee-ball team. While in an Astros uniform, he also surpassed Carlton Fisk as the all-time leader in games caught by a major league catcher.

We had to post this. Video by our own Mark C. Austin.

Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He's lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood - which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. Though we're picking up midway through Season 2, from here on out as each new episode airs, Rocks Off will bring you a short report on the featured music.

Episode 2.8, "Timebomb"

​Usually we begin this column with a little bit about the artist whose song was featured in the episode, but Rocks Off assumes that our readership is fairly familiar with Beck and his work. Personally, the last time we checked in on Mr. Hansen was after his October 2006 appearance on Saturday Night Live that featured a stellar, puppet-filled rendition of "Clap Hands" that was easily the best performance on the show in years.

Since then, Beck has continued to do weird in a mainstream way. (Or vice versa). Currently, his passion is a project called Record Club, a group of musicians whose goal is to record covers of entire albums in one day. They've already completed The Velvet Underground & Nico, and some of the recordings can be heard on www.Beck.com.

Like the man himself said, easy come, easy go. Happy as we are that it's Friday, and almost quitting time to boot, Rocks Off a little sad too, because that means George Strait Week is almost over. But not quite. We're putting it to bed the only way we know how - with the King's five best Texas songs.

"All My Exes Live In Texas" (Ocean Front Property, 1987): A masterpiece of whimsical honky-tonk with the dark implication that sooner or later, Strait's playboy lifestyle is going to place him at the wrong end of a .45. No wonder he resides in Tennessee. Strangely enough, the names of all his former flames rhyme with their hometowns. "Dimples," notably, was sufficiently wounded by whatever Strait did to her that she's called out every law enforcement agency in Bell County to track him down - and probably the Texas Rangers too.

​As our George Strait week comes to an end before the big show Saturday night at Reliant Stadium, Rocks Off takes a look back at his first and sadly only lead-acting role, 1992's Pure Country. The film is pure cornball cinema gold. We had the pleasure of re-watching it a few months back on CMT overnight and couldn't turn away. Each time we wanted to change the channel we resisted the urge. In the end, we loved every minute of it.

The story is actually kind of intricate as far as most countrified flicks go. Strait's massive country star, Dusty Chandler, tires of the road grind and goes MIA to find himself. In the interim, his manager played by Lesley Ann Warren (rrowr!) tries to replace him with some young bastard roadie who thinks he is a superstar himself.

Dusty shaves off his beard and hooks up with a hot number named Harley at the beer hall and they fall in love, naturally. Just as predictably, Dusty and Harley have a grave misunderstanding that sends Dusty back into music. There's a really odd scene where the real Dusty tells off the fake Dusty; it's strange seeing Strait have to get cross with someone.

Nothing epitomized the human and suburban experience better than the films of director John Hughes in mid-80s. Hughes, 59, passed away yesterday of a heart attack while visiting family in New York City.

The writer/director had been largely inactive since the late '90s, only occasionally producing the random feature or receiving a story credit. The last movie he directed was 1991's Curly Sue.

​To read Hughes' filmography is to take a stroll through the psyche of the American teenager in the "Me" decade. The characters in The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles and Weird Science were flawed yet golden young people who we could all relate to, whether brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses, criminals or all of the above.

Popular music played a ridicously intricate role in all of Hughes' films. Each song he used was masterfully chosen for its maximum emotional leverage. Bands like Simple Minds, the Thompson Twins, Yello, Simply Red and the enigmatic Oingo Boingo are all inexorably linked to the movies they were used in, and can owe a great deal of their subsequent success to their inclusion in Hughes' flicks.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you are such a wonderful crowd, we'd like to play a little tune for you. It's one of my personal favorites and I'd like to dedicate it to a young man who doesn't think he's seen anything good today - Cameron Frye, this one's for you."

Well shake it up baby...

Note: All this week, Rocks Off is previewing George Strait's first Houston show in several years by looking at different aspects of King Cowboy's catalog.

A few months back, when Morrissey played Jones Hall, we were asking ourselves if there was an artist out there - a Texas artist, namely - who trafficked in the same torment and heartbreak as Mozz. Not in the same grandly emotional ornate way, but in a more sober and uniquely stoic Texas fashion. The way our fathers would deal with the heartbreaking machinations of a Texas girl or ex-wife.

Interestingly enough, we had also been nursing a severe '90s country fetish since Rocks Off's grandfather passed away last summer. He left us a treasure trove of the last 60 years in country music in his office. One of his favorite artists was George Strait, and we even used "The Best Day" in a slideshow we played during his funeral. We found that after Grandpa Rocks Off's death and all its subsequent emotional turmoil, Strait seemed to be the only artist that soothed us.

Even better, when we later went through a crazy breakup, every single Strait song seemed to echo the feelings in our brain, for better or worse.

This weekend at the Woodlands comes one of the most prolific trios of artists to ever appear on the same bill. Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp converge on the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion for what looks to be one of those landmark shows people brag about catching, kind of like the Dylan/Paul Simon gig out there about a decade ago.

Nelson is so ingrained into the state psyche that if we ever decided to make our own musical Mount Rushmore in West Texas, he would be on it. Along with Frank, Billy and Dusty of course. And maybe Townes and Doug Sahm.

Between building a prodigious recording catalog, ranging from gritty country to, er, elevated reggae fusion, the Red Headed Stranger has been no stranger to the silver screen. The 76-year-old's music is a soundtrack staple, ranging from Bush-baiting Oliver Stone tale W. to the Oscar-winning bromance Brokeback Mountain.

The man has also had his time in front of the camera, mainly playing wise old men not unlike himself and stoner seniors also not unlike himself. Willie may not have much range, but it's always a treat to see him on the big or small screen. We're also pretty sure his on-set trailer is the coolest place to be on the planet. Probably just looking at it from afar would give you a contact high of the utmost order.

In 2006, Million Year Dance won the award for Best New Band in our annual Houston Press Music Awards, and followed the next year by winning Album Of The Year for Liberation. It seemed that the band and their enigmatic leader Tyagaraja (a.k.a. Jonathan Welch) would be Houston's next hope for national notoriety. MYD was awarded a Guitar Hero package for winning the latter award, standing in stark incongruence with the band's space-y blues elevated by Tyagaraja's soaring and reedy Thom Yorke-style wail.

But somewhere along the line, Million Year Dance disbanded due to creative differences , and by early 2008 Tyagaraja was recording solo demos and following a spiritual leader across the world and doing some big-time introspection.

No, the Beastie Boys didn't play Houston over the weekend, and they won't be in the forseeable future either. No sooner had C3 Entertainment announced that the Boys would take the 8:15-9:30 p.m. spot on the Austin City Limits Music Festival's AMD stage Friday, October 2 - see the full schedule here, now - than the NYC rappers' PR firm countered with the news that the Boys had canceled all tour dates and postponed the release of this fall's album Hot Sauce Committee, Volume 1 to allow Adam "MCA" Yauch to recuperate from surgery removing a just-discovered tumor from one of his salivary glands. Get well soon, dude. This is not what'cha wanted at all, we're sure.

Not one but two gentlemen with long beards may be sneaking down your chimney today. They will leave memorabilia such as guitar picks and signed drumsticks, and if you've been a good boy or girl all year, may even give you a free guitar lesson. Instead of milk and cookies we're told they prefer Lone Star and funky fine Texas barbecue, and we would advise against sitting on anyone's lap unless you've really given it some serious thought.

Someone, somewhere, is convinced that there is money to be made by hoarding the videos for "Legs" and "Gimme All Your Lovin'," and consequently there are now great big holes in our collective memory (which is what we've taken to calling the Internet). Sigh. Fortunately there's still a lot of quality ZZ Top footage to comb through, so here are the best ZZ Top videos not currently being sat on like a basket of golden eggs by greedy corporate bastards.

[Note: Now with added Ministry.]

Counting down to Friday's ZZ Top/Aerosmith show in The Woodlands is starting to feel like the week Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers played there last year: a steady build of anticipation and antsiness, until Friday we're flat-out squirming to get out of the office. By the way, if all you think Rocks Off does is sit around listening to classic rock, we'll have you know that Monday we blasted brand-new albums by the Dead Weather - that's yet another Jack White project, featuring Allison Mosshart of the Kills - and former Band Drummer Levon Helm's Electric Dirt, and plan on doing so many, many more times. Jack's album, Horehound (out today, pictured) especially, because guess who it reminds Rocks Off of a little bit?

But Horehound will keep until next Monday. This week, as far as we're concerned, is all about ZZ Top. Judging by the amount of YouTube results that were self-recorded footage of amateur guitarists teaching themselves "Tush" or "La Grange," Billy Gibbons is probably due another billion or so bucks in lesson fees. But plenty of performers and groups with actual recording contracts have also covered the Lil' Ol' Band from Texas. A few might surprise you, but if you're as big a fan of ZZ (and rock and roll) as Rocks Off, they probably won't. (Thanks to The Covers Project for helping us track a few of these down.) But click anyway.

You may have noticed there was a lot of live-music activity in town over the weekend. But even Rocks Off couldn't get to it all, so we decided to root around on YouTube for a bit. There's an important lesson here; namely that if you're at a concert and happen to have a video-recording device handy, we'll probably post it. Just keep that in mind. (And if you happened to shoot something our YouTube search somehow missed, by all means email us.)

This week we'll start with a ringer: Houston's own Benjamin Wesley bringing down the house with a new song at Cactus Music Saturday afternoon.