Blog: 30 Days Out

Our buddy from L.A., singer/actor Michael Des Barres, has had a great year. First he put out a new rockin' album, Carnaby Street , he's been on TV (most recently on the crime drama "NCIS") and he recently played at the "Right To Rock" event in NYC alongside Steve Van Zandt, Elvis Costello, Tom Morello and Bruce Springsteen. Now he has a Christmas song, "Rock n' Roll Santa," where the man in red slims down so he can fit down the chimney and set a good example for all the girls and [...]

Every year we look up from our daily routines and say "Wow, is Coldplay still here?" Well, not really - but this band has produced five studio albums since 1999 and has pretty much toured constantly since then. Touring after their 2011 monster Mylo Xyloto , the band hit a peak of sorts. Now they reside in that small fraternity of rock acts who are known and embraced worldwide. So, just in time for Christmas, the band has released a live DVD appropriately titled Live 2012 . Here's "Paradise" from the new DVD.

Jimi Hendrix would have been 70 years old today. A few weeks ago, during his concert in Houston Paul McCartney paid tribute to his friend Jimi Hendrix. At the end of "Let Me Roll It," McCartney's churning rocker, he appended some surprising lead guitar work in the form of "Foxey Lady." How awesome is a musician who has earned a tribute even from a Beatle? When Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood toured together, the finale of their show was a fiery guitar duel on Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons [...]

Yep, the Rolling Stones are back. They played the first of their 50th anniversary shows in London last night, and the grizzled Stones were joined onstage by former band members Mick Taylor and Bill Wyman, along with the ubiquitous Jeff Beck. Save your pennies - the Stones are threatening to tour. Meanwhile you can amuse yourself with the official video for "Doom and Gloom," featuring Swedish actress Noomi Rapace ( Prometheus , the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ). By the way, there's some nudity in here, so its not safe for work! [...]

Rockin' Houston is one of the best rock photography web sites ever. You probably have a favorite place where you have seen many or most of your rock shows - a venue, or even a city. We were lucky to grown up in or near Houston - ever since the 1960s, the city has been a host for the greatest acts in rock history. For example: when Paul McCartney played in Houston's Minute Maid Park last week, he did not mention the times he's played Houston before. It was his sixth visit to the [...]

Armadillo World HQ poster by Jim Franklin Editor's Note: This is a blog post that originally appeared in 2010, repeated here in case you can't get home to the Armadillo this holiday season. Long as I can remember, the corner of Riverside Drive and Barton Springs Road in Austin, Texas,  has been a Thanksgiving Day oasis.  Today of course that's the location of Threadgill's World Headquarters , a down-home restaurant with killer chicken-fried steak and the best tattooed waitresses in town.  [...]

Editor's Note: From a blog post appearing originally in 2010. This is a classic! The album, not the blog post. We have dusted off some of our own all-time favorite albums from our own collection, and today we want to share one that’s perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday – Alice’s Restaurant , from Arlo Guthrie. The title song is of course an American classic – and a song played by many radio stations on Thanksgiving Day.  It’s a true story about a 1965 Thanksgiving when Arlo, the son of legendary songwriter [...]

This weekend, tune into the music series "Austin City Limits" for a rollicking episode featuring Flogging Molly and Mumford and Sons. The 60-minute show airs on PBS stations nationwide (check your local listings). Flogging Molly are the Celtic punk rockers from Los Angeles led by singer Dave King, who also writes or co-writes much of the material with other band members. Mumford & Sons is of course the Grammy-nominated British folk rockers whose second studio album Babel is currently atop the Billboard charts. Here's "The Cave" from this weekend's "Austin City Limits." [...]

Paul McCartney's stage filled the outfield of Minute Maid Park in Houston. Paul McCartney’s recent set of concerts on his current “On The Run” tour are epic, full of breathtaking  singing and playing on faithful renditions of some of the greatest songs in the rock and roll canon. His show last night (11/14) at Houston’s Minute Maid Park was exactly that. But there’s also a sense – certainly fleeting – of wistfulness and summing up of a brilliant, unparalleled career belonging to one of the greatest entertainers of all time. At one point of [...]

We're taking a brief break from work tonight, to catch Paul McCartney at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Wish you could be here with us - you can celebrate too, by enjoying Sir Paul's greatest interview. Paul McCartney official web site

It's been a busy stretch here, and we're not quite through it yet. So please bear with us - we will post sporadically for the next couple weeks, then we'll be back in the saddle just in time for the holiday season. In the meantime, we'd like to share "Rewrite" by Paul Simon from his latest, Live In New York City . Paul Simon official web site

By now everybody knows the Rolling Stones are back, sort of. They are releasing a greatest hits set, GRRR !, on Nov. 13 and they've booked a few live shows in anticipation of a full-blown tour next year. GRRR! has 50 tracks and features two new songs, the first for the Stones in about seven years. We already covered "Doom and Gloom, " now here's "One More Shot." Rolling Stones official web site

There are most likely many happy people in America this morning, and a lot of disgruntled, disappointed ones. By far, most people seem to be simply relieved it's over. It's been a nasty and brutal year leading up to Election Day, so nasty you'd think the Civil War had started up again. Hell, even the band The Civil Wars broke up. That's how divided everyone is. So it's time to move on. Congratulations to President Obama and Mr. Romney for getting their respective messages out to so many people - let's hope we can find some [...]

You gotta like Mumford & Sons - after taking the world almost literally by storm a few years ago, they recently put out their second album Babel with no real new refinements to their sound. And nobody seems to mind, because Babel is one of the year's breakaway hits. Here's "Lover Of The Light" from that album. They begin a U.S. tour in February 2013, s0 keep an eye out for them. Mumford & Sons official web site

Would Gene Simmons and KISS go disco? You bet! (Photo by Keith Leroux for KISSOnline) A few years ago, while riffling through my closet, I came across my old pea green leisure suit. In one pocket was a ticket stub to a Bee Gees concert, circa 1979 in the Houston Summit. (Yes, that was the one with the guest dancer appearance by one Mr. John Travolta, in town filming Urban Cowboy ). Horrified at this perfect polyester time capsule, I bundled it up and gave it as a Christmas white elephant gift at the office [...]

Some years ago we took a family vacation to California, and I found myself riding on a streetcar in San Francisco. While the rest of the family clung to the sides as the car rolled up and down the hills, I stood on the back platform and talked with the conductor. "Where ya from?" he asked. "Houston," I said. "You got them hurricanes down there?" he asked. "Yeah," I said. "We got them earthquakes here," he said. "At least you can see those hurricanes comin'. We don't get any warning with earthquakes." Okay. He wins the [...]

You think we're in a classic rock rut? Maybe - but that seems to be the best thing goin' in music these days. ZZ Top, our hometown boys, played at a new baseball field just down the road from our house a couple weeks ago. The trio has a new album, La Futura , produced by Rick Rubin, and here's "I Gotsta Get Paid" from it. ZZ Top official web site

Yeah, we know it's Halloween but let us skip ahead in the holiday timeline and present to you the first Christmas song of the season, courtesy of Mr. Rod Stewart. This is much scarier than anything else we could come up with for today! Rod's new album Merry Christmas Baby came out yesterday (Oct. 30), just in time to make everyone's gift-giving lists this year. Lest you think this Christmas album is going to be different from all the others, we present to you "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" [...]

Repost: Why do all this stuff again? Monsters are misunderstood - it's tough to frighten people and terrorize the countryside day in, and day out.  Surely monsters have to unwind; as the magazine cover suggests, they may enjoy a little recreational hula-hoop activity.  Or they may just like to rock out. MP3: "Cha-Cha With The Zombies" by the Upperclassmen MP3: "Zombie Walk" by the Magics MP3: "Do The Zombie" by the [...]

Roy Head, left, with George Kovacik of 30 Days Out. Lunch time in Houston, Texas. It's called "Blues and Burgers" and they have it every Wednesday at this park in downtown Houston, Discovery Green. People stagger out of their skyscrapers for lunch, and local musicians perform for about 90 minutes. Lately the Blues and Burgers shows have been spotlighting music from local record label Duke/Peacock, which was operated by entrepreneur Don Robey in the 1950s and 1960s. And today we were privileged to see a true local legend: [...]