courtesy of Carolyn Farb

Little Jewford, Kinky Friedman, Ted Swindley plotting "Becoming Kinky: The World According To Kinky Friedman"

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The one-liners come out of Kinky Friedman's mouth so fast you need a protective shield.

"The only thing Rick Perry managed to do with his Presidential campaign was to make George W. look like Thomas 'Fucking' Jefferson."

"Real people don't get into politics. The only people who get into politics today are the bad people, the ones who were hall monitors in school."

"Choosing between the Democrats and the Republicans is like choosing between the Bloods and the Crips."

And on and on it goes at warp speed.

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We all hate the trope "Houston, we have a problem," but we do have a problem in Houston with talkative, inattentive crowds at live shows. Scanning back over reviews from the past two years, at least 20 percent of them mention crowd noise.

So what do the musicians think and, more importantly, what do they do? The last time we saw Steve Earle he pulled out Doc Watson's famous one-liner to silence a request screamer: "I remember my first beer, too, buddy." We've also seen Earle quiet two talkative ladies with the sarcastic, "Am I botherin' y'all?"

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​I recently spoke to local show promoter, Eric Dean, who you may remember from the much maligned Montrose Winter Social or may already know him as he has tackled multi-venue events such as Main Street Block Party, Prideapolooza, and his July 4th party at Numbers with success. He's gearing up for this weekend's event, the second installment of the Main Street Block Party, which promises to top last year's incredible throwdown.

Dean started on this path when he became the doorman at then newly opened Boondocks. He began paying attention to the way the shows were booked and who the bands were and continued his observations when he made the move over to Walter's. It was at Walter's that he was given an opportunity to book his first show which opened the door to getting control over more of the off nights.

Applying business ethics he picked up watching promoters like Ryan Chavez of Super Unison. "I would always try to pay...If I promise something I'm going to do it," Dean told Rocks Off. With his initial success fostering bands just starting out, he made the move into bigger all day events and booking the glorious Punk Night's at Mango's.

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Through a tenuous link across a magical force that some people call "the Internet" we connected with Wayne Static of Static X, now out promoting his awesome new solo album Pighammer, to see what we could learn of the man in 30 seconds.

​Rocks Off: What is worst song in the world?

Wayne Static: I have no idea. I don't make a habit of remembering the names of songs I hate. In fact, I try not to think about the billions of crappy songs that make me angry inside.

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​Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks are married both to each other and their musical careers. She with a busy solo schedule, and he with full-time gigs fronting the Derek Trucks Band, playing guitar with the Allman Brothers Band [Derek's uncle is founding member Butch Trucks], and minor side-jobs with the likes of, oh, some guy named Clapton.

So in a bid for a bit more harmony professionally and personally - and so their two children could see them at the same time - they put together the 11-member Tedeschi Trucks Band. Their debut CD, Revelator, is a tasty gumbo of rock, blues, world/Eastern music, and torchy ballads.

Tedeschi spoke with Rocks Off about the band's formation, taking the kids on the road, and how--even while loaded--Buddy Guy can still rip up a stage.

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​Rocks Off is fascinated by Tim Tebow for the simple fact that he is one of the most divisive figures we have seen in the last decade. He parts the Red Sea of public opinion, like Obama does the U.S. House of Representatives. 

One doesn't need to live in Denver to understand this.

Simply, scroll a Facebook feed on Sunday, or watch ESPN analysts lose their composure over a debate on whether he belongs under center on any given Sunday. Football purists and those inspired by his blatant defiance of the conventional quarterback will fight to the death over whether Tebow deserves the attention he's getting.

To not help matters any, "Tebowing" is inspiring the same fanaticism that came with "planking" and "owling." So it was a matter of time before a rap song about Tebow would take center stage.

This week, ESPN's Scoop Jackson http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/index?id=7388166">wrote about Brinson, a Christian rapper from Jacksonville, FL regarding his tribute track, "Tebowin.'"

Rocks Off talked to the spitter about "Tebow hating" and having faith, and that inspired some thought.

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Having seen Better Than Ezra live, we can tell you that no band in all of America is enjoying their career more. Seriously, they are like the happiest people on the planet. We sat down with Kevin Griffin, who we will always love for singing "The Killer Inside" to see what we could learn about him in 30 seconds.

​Rocks Off: What is worst song in the world?

Kevin Griffin: "Cotton Eyed Joe" by Swedish Techno/Folk/Bluegrass band, Rednex. Need I say more?

RO: Nope, that is indeed a crap song. What is the best lyric in the world?

KG: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) by John Lennon.

RO: Someone throws a beer bottle at you onstage. What do you do?

KG: Play "Cotton Eyed Joe."

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​For most musicians who aren't playing in orchestras or as session musicians, a musicians' union is about as useful a roadie who can't lift anything over 20 pounds on doctor's orders. But, for the thousands of musicians who do work in the film, television and recording studio industry, they rely on unions to help them get a fair wage.

American Federation of Musicians (AFM) president Ray Hair (yes, the president of a musicians' union has the last name Hair) is clearly trying to earn his paycheck after taking to YouTube to blast Lionsgate, the film company making the movie adaptation of the insanely popular (and damn disturbing) adolescent book series Hunger Games.

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​One of our favorite albums of the year is Fred Eaglesmith's 6 Volts. Like the Le Noise project from Neil Young and producer Daniel Lanois, 6 Volts is decidedly lo-fi. The main technical challenge for Eaglesmith and producer Scott Merritt, who goes back with Eaglesmith virtually to his recorded beginnings, was how to record the songs as a band with a single microphone in monophonic.

We recently emailed with the noted Canadian producer to delve into the technique and art of lo-fi recording and the recording of 6 Volts in particular.

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Our apologies to Dani Filth for any inconsistency as the voice recorder app we downloaded specifically for this interview and spent an hour practicing with to make sure it worked perfectly buggered off. Thus we recreated our conversation from memory and learned a valuable lesson about over-reliance on technology.

​Rocks Off: Hey, Dani! Good to talk to you again.

Dani Filth: Good to hear from you again, too, Jef.

RO: How's the family? Last time we talked on the phone you were in the middle of moving.

DF: Yeah, that was a mess. We still have whole rooms in the new house that are more or less barren.

RO: We just got done listening to Evermore Darkly. Do you consider it an epilogue to the Lilith story in Darkly, Darkly, Venus, Aversa?

DF: Mostly it was something to put out on Halloween. We always like to have something if possible for the fans around the holiday. It gave us a chance to do a few things differently, to play around with it. There was stuff there wasn't room for on Darkly without turning the thing into a double album.

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