Good News: At Long Last, Theres Finally A New ZZ Top Album- On 180g 45rpm Vinyl! Produced by Rick Rubin & Billy F. Gibbons!
The first new studio album from ZZ Top in nine years is LA FUTURA on Rick Rubins’American Recordings label. The album harks back to the hallmark raw sound of theband’s formative years and will, inevitably, be considered a return to form onmultiple levels.
LA FUTURA, produced by Rick Rubin and Billy F Gibbons, the bandsguitarist/singer, finds the legendary group infusing the newly recorded workwith the electric blues/roots approach that typified ZZ Top’s earliest workwhile, at the same time, reaching for new sonic horizons. At its fundament, thisis the incarnation of the band whose influence resonates today with such artistsas The Black Keys, Jack White, Queens of the Stone Age and many others.
Now celebrating their 42nd year with the same line-up, Gibbons along withbassist/vocalist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard have come up with ten tracksthat reflect the bands intuitive take on rock brought to new, sometimessurreal, plateaus. We thought long and hard about what this album should be,commented Gibbons. We wanted to recall the directness of our early stuff butnot turn our backs on contemporary technology. The result of this melding of thepast and the present is, of course, LA FUTURA.”
The fact that the albums title is in Spanish is a nod to an early ZZ Toptradition manifested in the titles of some of the bands earliest albumsincluding Tres Hombres, Fandango!, El Loco and Degüello.
Known for decades by the sobriquet That Little Ol Band From Texas, ZZ Top wasinducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Keith Richards in 2004 and hasmaintained a very active international and domestic touring schedule over theintervening years. They signed to American Recordings a few years ago and havebeen working on what would become LA FUTURA in spurts since then. In 2011, theyfinally entered Foam Box Recordings in Houston, working full time to lay downthe tracks that would comprise LA FUTURA. Additional recording for the albumtook place at Shangri La Studios in Malibu, CA.
The four songs that kick off LA FUTURA, I Gotsta Get Paid, Chartreuse,Consumption and Over You debuted in July 2012 as Texicali, a digital previewcollection exclusively available from iTunes that achieved significant criticaland sales success. I Gotsta Get Paid, performed by the band in video spots forthe Jeremiah Weed line of beverages raised awareness of the song that wasinspired by the 1990s underground Houston rap song 25 Lighters by DJ DMD withLil Keke and Fat Pat. USA Today named “I Gotsta Get Paid its top pick of theweek, citing the band for unleashing “its trademark grit and grease in a raw,bluesy rough-and-tumble treatment…” No Depression called “Consumption”“agrinding groove with a bit of Texan funk squeezed into the grooves.” Music Radaranalyzed “Consumption,” noting, “The groove is fat, crunchy and full ofswagger,” summing the effort us as “ZZ Top crankin’ up some fresh, vitalroadhouse blues.”
Also part of LA FUTURA is, fittingly, Flyin High. The track made itsinterstellar debut when it was piped into the Soyuz spacecraft at the time ofits launch to the International Space Station in 2011. Before it was fullycompleted, the song was heard onboard at the request of NASA Astronaut MikeFossum, a long-time ZZ Top fan and intimate who had caught wind of it in anearlier conversation with Dusty Hill.
LA FUTURA also includes I Dont Wanna Lose, Lose, You that has a real garagerock feel while Big Shiny Nine is a double entendre tour de force. Its TooEasy Mañana is a down tempo lament, written by Gillian Welch and DavidRawlings, whose chorus includes the lyric its too easy to feel good.Heartache In Blue includes vocals shared by Gibbons and Hill and can belikened to country blues as reimagined for the 21st Century. The album closeswith Have A Little Mercy, a down and dirty funky tune, complete with temposhift, that should serve to underscore the ZZ Top motto that you just cantlose with the blues.
“ZZ Top is the best power trio of all time” – SPIN.com
“La Futura… takes its place alongside ZZ Top’s greatest achievements – quite a testimony to a remarkable career.” – John Swenson, Stereophile, December 2012
Features:
180g 45rpm Vinyl
Double LP
Mastered by Vlado Meller at Masterdisk
Pressed at URP
Gatefold Jacket
Includes Limited Time MP3 Download of Entire Album
Selections:
LP1 – Side A:
1. I Gotsta Get Paid
2. Chartreuse
3. Consumption
LP1 – Side B:
1. Over You
2. Heartache In Blue
LP2 – Side C:
1. I Don’t Wanna Lose, Lose, You
2. Flyin’ High
3. It’s Too Easy Manana
LP2 – Side D:
1. Big Shiny Nine
2. Have A Little Mercy
