ZZ Top: C/D

I've seen ZZ Top twice in the last 10 years, and they delivered live. But I don't think that intensity is on the more recent albums.

yeah, based on that alone I'm stoked to hear a Rick Rubin-produced ZZ Top record.

The last revolution in tone they went through came with Eliminator when Billy started playing through Rockman equipment, Frank Beard was laced to sequencing and a click track and gated reverb was used on all the drums.

Among drummers, Frank Beard is a Stepford Wife.

I like to watch drummers doing little domestic chores. ;)

Pleasepleaseplease call it Licensed to Ill.

The only album I ever thought about pitching to 33 1/3 series, the only thing I could even fathom listening to 10000x times, was Tres Hombres.

I just saw that ZZ Top is opening for Aerosmith this summer. High potential for the headliner getting blown off the stage.

so fucking awesome

Amen. I am looking forward to their demolition of Aerosmith.

http://whatimg.com/images/2hf8qhi89ed02dlnixdw.jpg

http://www.1077thebone.com/Portals/2/Bone%20Bash%2010/zzTop2.jpg

SO FUCKING AWESOME

been going through all the VH1 Storytellers: ZZ Top stuff on Comcast - there's 90 minutes of some recent live show in Texas that is great

I think they just released that on DVD. With the clever title "Live in Texas".

Yeah, that DVD's great. Exact same set list I saw them play at the Beacon Theatre (at ferocious volume). Also available on CD, well worth picking up.

Found this cool thread with alot of comments by Terry Manning from Argent Studios on working on all of the ZZ Top albums they recorded (which is really most of the really good ones).

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/mv/msg/3849/0/0/0/

cool, fun to read about that stuff!

I could be on that thread for days.

wow I had never made the Ardent connection before

Are we hearing mostly fender tweed amps on this record?

Some, but some are also from BG's customised Marshall heads, which he renamed "Rio Grande" brand. The controls were all labelled in Spanish, and the logo was palm trees.

There is some cool stuff later on doing the drums for Eliminator. It's pretty much drum machine with some live percussion overdubbed to match on top.

Was just listening to Fandango and got to wondering what happened to the rest of the kickin' live show that made up the original a-side? The remaster has some live bounus tracks, but liner notes say they are from four years later.

Also: Dubya Tee Efff?

1. Sharp Dressed Man - Steven Tyler, Mick Fleetwood, Jonny Lang, and John McVie (The M.O.B)
2. Gimme All Your Lovin' - Filter*
3. Tush - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
4. Legs - Nickelback
5. Cheap Sunglasses - Wolfmother
6. Got Me Under Pressure - Duff McKagan's Loaded
7. Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers - Coheed & Cambria
8. Just Got Paid - Mastodon
9. Rough Boy - Wyclef Jean
10. Waitin' for the Bus / Jesus Just Left Chicago - Daughtry
11. La Grange - Jamey Johnson

I'm already hearing the Coheed lead vocal in my mind.

I foresee a "least appitizing performance" poll...

holy shit "Gimme All Your Lovin'" by Filter

I just picked up Afterburner and Recycler on vinyl for a dollar each this weekend. \o/

A couple of years ago I interviewed the singer from Coheed and he was talking about how their then-current album finished the multi-album sci-fi saga he'd been writing, and I asked him if he ever just wanted to sing songs about cars and girls - "you know, like ZZ Top," and he laughed and said no. Liar.

whatever happened to the new record produced by rick rubin?

they were on tour this summer in europe BTW iirc

Rough Boy - Wyclef Jean

NIIIICE

The Mastodon Just Got Paid has been around forever, is this a new version?

Good news, ZZ Top has actually put out a live CD from the good ole' days. It is mastered really hot, but overall the production quality is pretty good.

Live in Germany 1980

It is taken from a Rockpalast show from back before the wall fell. I guess you can get the DVD of the show too.

Now if the boys would just get with it and remaster the rest of their catalog, which I sadly think might not happen anytime soon.

Listening to the new album, La Futura, now. The first four songs were released as the Texicali EP earlier this year - the other six are just as noisy 'n' nasty. Sure, it took almost a decade to get here, but they really do sound energized and raucous. Gibbons' guitar work is disgusting in the best way, and it sounds like Frank Beard is actually playing drums on this album.

it's a fantastic record, isn't it?

my buddy had an extra ticket to see ZZ last night so I went, it was good if not great. short smart focused set, hits and early stuff with the 80s video songs all in a row. highlights included "beer drinking and hell raising" and the new song "25 lighters" which was the best thing all night, gibbons guitar playing on that was absolutely sick and the chorus sounds like vintage top "25 lighters on my dresser yessir I GOTS TO GET PAID"

only quibble is w/the drummer, the rhythms plodded imo but that may be inevitable (age) and the rhythm section was certainly tight & precise

'25 Lighters' original fyi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPtFb77Gmtk

what i think is brilliant about zz top's cover is how it works both ways, you hear the cadence of hiphop AND blues in the chorus

yeah i knew it wasn't their song but many of my whiteguy geezer brethren in the audience may not have realized

New video. They look like the revenant versions of their '80s selves.

Can any ZZ heads ID the track at 1:30 in this vid? The bass line sounds like "Is Chicago" by Soul Coughing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCgibhGRw38

Never thought you'd get to see Billy Gibbons' band before ZZ Top? Well guess what...

last ZZ Top album was excellent fwiw

Just got a press release from Rhino: On June 10/11, ZZ Top will be releasing The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1990, a 10-CD box containing all original mixes of everything from ZZ Top's First Album through Recycler for $60.

Hallelujah, it's about time they finally got those early ZZ Top albums fixed.

I thought they already dd?

They only remastered a couple and some tracks for a boxset.

Digital versions are all over the fucking place, too. The version of I'm Bad on the iTunes Deguello is a fucking duet with Dwight Yoakam.

this is excellent news.

Are these gonna be mini-lps like the Joni Mitchell box? Hopefully if so, they'll be able to carry over the inner sleeves this time. They had some cool ones. Take Deguello for instance:

http://www.vinylrecords.ch/Z/ZZ_Top/Deguello/zz-top-deguello-72.jpg

Tejas sleeve is dope

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJ_vNPmfPONGekSWTcau7jzIzuw2Ekusqzaiw1P8LaHXO0BfKW5w

Tejas inner sleeve:

http://www.vinylrecords.ch/Z/ZZ_Top/Tejas/IMG_9156.jpg

I miss these:

http://vinylrecords.ch/Z/ZZ_Top/Eliminator/zz-top-eliminator-127080.jpg