ZZ Top: C/D

Yeah, I've heard bands mixing "1950s Latin" with ZZ, Zep---can imagine Gibbons' crew doing it better, or at least as well. Looking fwd to this, thanks.

so what's worth hearing that came out between Eliminator and La Futura

never listened to El Loco before, what an odd record - kinda spacey and laid back, almost gentle

Rhythmeen from '96 is worth looking into.

still rockin that clean+chorused guitar sound, tons of processed vocals, there's just a lot of space in the mix, odd rhythms

xp

Afterburner - This one isn't as fat and dry sounding production wise as Eliminator. It's kinda like Genesis when you get to Invisible Touch, synth technology is heading out of the warm old analog into colder sounding samples and way too much digital reverb. The songs are not quite as good either.

Recycler- The album title is pretty honest. The songs are a bit more bluesy. "My Head's in Mississippi" is a good tune. It's sill way too shiny production wise.

Antenna- Sounds weak, there may be a song I missed, but I didn't like it enough after a couple of listens to even bother it again.

Rhythmeen- CD length kinda kills most of their records. I'd think it would work pretty good as a 35 minute album. They get back to basics but there is still scifi in the production.

XXX- Kinda weak. Better production than Antenna

Mescalero- This one is the one I would say to check if you dug La Futura. This thing is dirty and nasty, probably one of their rawest albums. There are some good tunes on this one and again would have been better at LP length.

I feel like a single or even a double disc compilation of their RCA years (Antenna through Mescalero) could be pretty good. But I've never been able to get all the way through the albums to really know what would go on it.

OK, I actually checked the albums out on Spotify and came up with a 20-song playlist that covers just the RCA albums; here it is:

https://open.spotify.com/user/burningambulance/playlist/3yVE9fSnWQTVTUf486n4qq

1. Breakaway (from Antenna)
2. Fuzzbox Voodoo (from Antenna)
3. Girl In A T-Shirt (from Antenna)
4. PCH (from Antenna)
5. Deal Goin’ Down (from Antenna)
6. Black Fly (from Rhythmeen)
7. What’s Up With That (from Rhythmeen)
8. Vincent Price Blues (from Rhythmeen)
9. She’s Just Killing Me (from Rhythmeen)
10. Poke Chop Sandwich (from XXX)
11. Fearless Boogie (from XXX)
12. 36-22-36 (from XXX)
13. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear (from XXX)
14. Belt Buckle (from XXX)
15. Two Ways To Play (from Mescalero)
16. Alley-Gator (from Mescalero)
17. Piece (from Mescalero)
18. What Would You Do (from Mescalero)
19. What It Is Kid (from Mescalero)
20. Que Lastima (from Mescalero)

while freaking out about how bad the new Danzig covers album is I started A/B'ing his versions with the originals to highlight the contrast and man, "Rough Boy" is such a beautiful record. Every aspect of it is just lovingly tailored the goal of establishing this gorgeous wistful head-rush groove. Incredible.

Danzig's version must be heard to be believed. A/B just the opening drum figures and then tell me that's not Glenn himself on the skins, there's no way a real drummer would suffer that to survive the mix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9haef8Wlcg

U dont say

tyvm for the spotify list!!

Mescalero- This one is the one I would say to check if you dug La Futura. This thing is dirty and nasty, probably one of their rawest albums.

agreed.
been playing the hell out of this in the last few weeks.

some time long long ago i briefly mixed up zz top and steely dan, and the result is that still now i can't quite shake the notion that zz are secretly boho hipster intellectuals

i can't quite shake the notion that zz are secretly boho hipster intellectuals

Reading interviews with Billy Gibbons will only make this feeling stronger.

Good interview here---wish there were a bit more music, but it's live in the studio, results mixed yet tantalizing (gotta get off my ass, check album:
http://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2015/11/26/457294147/latin-roots-billy-gibbons-adds-a-cubano-twist-to-the-blues

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/zz_top_fan_recreates_the_tres_hombres_gatefold_meal_and_then_eats_it

Bill Ham, the band's manager from their earliest days till 2006, dead at 79.

Hill said he couldn’t recall how the band got started: “It was the ’60s, man.”

The True Story of the Fake Zombies

Did anybody here know ZZ Top are putting out a live album next month? It's called Greatest Hits From Around The World, and here's the tracklisting:

1. Got Me Under Pressure – New York
2. Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers – Las Vegas
3. Cheap Sunglasses – Paris
4. Waitin' For The Bus – Chicago
5. Jesus Just Left Chicago – Chicago
6. Legs – São Paulo
7. Sharp Dressed Man – Los Angeles
8. Rough Boy (with Jeff Beck) – London
9. Pincushion – Berlin
10. La Grange – Dallas
11. I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide – Vancouver
12. Tube Snake Boogie – Rome
13. Gimme All Your Lovin' – Houston
14. Tush – Nashville
15. Sixteen Tons (with Jeff Beck) – London

Yeah, Amazon recommended it to me (alongside every other new classic rock album). My question is, where's the rest of the Fandango! concert?

Cool. Wonder if that will show up on my Release Radar.

Yeah, special guest: Jeff Beck, among other possible high points---
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7503736/zz-top-live-greatest-hits?utm_source=twitter

Oh yeah, and Billy F. Gibbons wrote the intro to new edition of Ed Ward's Mike Bloomfield bio (w much input from ilm's own Edd Hurt, as Ward emphasizes in acknowledgements).

Live album is solid. They're playing LA next month - think I should go.

BG on his favourite records: http://thequietus.com/articles/20920-billy-gibbons-zz-top-favourite-albums-interview he's friends with Keb Darge apparently!

That's a pretty cool article. Good for him to keep looking for new records.

The official video for "Rough Boy" is...strange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_4ULKpkLNc

I only bring it up because I'd somehow never seen it before last weekend.

My question is, where's the rest of the Fandango! concert?

― a full playlist of presidential sex jams (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, August 23, 2016 10:48 PM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V9m_sEDzJw

been a 'top day today, and have loved every minute of it.
mescalero is such a good album.
shivers all over the place when the guitars let loose at the end of 'tramp'.

tejas is a fun album

to be fair ..all of their albums are fun.
that's kind of the 'top way and why i have enjoyed today so much.

ten dollar man is my favorite song about paying someone to kill your wife. the riffs are pretty good too

i think that's what it's about? idk

blimey.
i guess i should pay more attention.
for me its the riffs and grooves.

that song is 100% groove

"breakaway" on antenna still probably my platonic ideal of the zz top track

"A Fool For Your Stockings" just came up on Pandora, one of their best Blues.

tejas is excellent

They're on tour with John Fogerty this summer - really want to go see them.

Fuck, I forgot to post this here...

In 2010, a dude with a web site questioned whether ZZ Top actually had cattle, buzzards, and snakes on stage during the ’76 Worldwide Texas Tour. The followups are the best…
https://t.co/aFf5v9BrCe pic.twitter.com/4dC8WRl3vK

— Chris Barrus (@quartzcity) May 2, 2018

FB post from Ralph Fisher about the ZZ Top tour and more photos https://t.co/MqPUXxq7m7 pic.twitter.com/ouoTKHO94H

— Chris Barrus (@quartzcity) May 2, 2018

That's fascinating stuff. I too remain skeptical. As the mod puts it, lots of proof of ZZ Top, and proof of animals, but no picture of ZZ Top and wild animals together on stage.

ZZ Top seems like a band, like the Replacements, that got little to no traction outside of America.

http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/20857/zz-top/

I assume that was during the MTV era right?

How could it be that "Master of Sparks" wasn't an international hit.

One day a couple of years ago I was listening to the radio and they played "Just Got Paid" by Johnny Kemp. When it was over I stitched the channel to classic rock, and they were playing "Just Got Paid" by ZZ Top. True story.

I so want a photo.

True story: went deep-sea fishing out of Biloxi about 20 years ago. The boat captain told us he’d taken ZZ Top out the week before. Asked how they kept the beards out of the fishing lines, he replied “Chip Clips!”

Said they told him he’d be thrown overboard if he took a picture.

— Will Collier (@willcollier) January 9, 2019

ZZ Top seems like a band, like the Replacements, that got little to no traction outside of America.

Some of that was due to the band not touring outside North America until 1979-'80.