Ditch your razor blades and don a pair of cheap sunglasses to celebrate the news that blues rock royalty ZZ Top's much delayed new studio album, entitled 'La Futura', will hit record stores on September 11th.
The eternally cool three piece Texan boogie merchants teamed up with legendary producer and fellow bearded icon Rick Rubin for the belated follow-up to 2003's 'Mescalero', intent on giving their fans a classic sounding ZZ Top record imbued with a modern edge. Frontman, guitar god and co-producer Billy Gibbons claims “We thought long and hard about what this album should be. We wanted to recall the directness of our early stuff but not turn our backs on contemporary technology. The result of this melding of the past and the present is, of course, ‘La Futura.’” The storming first single, 'I Gotsa Get Paid', embodies Gibbons' description of the album's modus operandi. Somewhat shockingly the track is based on a song called '25 Lighters,’ a late '90s hit for local Houston hip-hop artists DJ DMD, Lil Keke, and MC Fat Pat. ZZ Top reworking a rap song and turning it in a down n' dirty, barrel scraping, blues baked anthem? It's good to have them back.
Last month four songs from 'La Futura', including 'Gotsa Get Paid, debuted as an i-tunes only EP entitled 'Texicali', meeting with glowing reviews and healthy sales figures. Whilst a fifth unfinished cut, 'Flying High' was premièred on board the Soyuz spacecraft during its launch to the International Space Station thirteen months ago at the request of NASA Astronaut Mike Fossum, a long-time ZZ Top fan and friend who had heard about it in talking with the band's bassist Dusty Hill.
Now in their fifth decade with an unchanged line-up, completed by drummer Frank Beard (Ironically, he's the one who isn't allergic to shaving. Go figure), the almost mythic rockers are currently on the road across Europe, visiting Russia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, France and anywhere else that isn't called the United Kingdom, before returning to the states for a full North American tour. A live date at New York's Beacon Theatre on September 12th will also coincide with the release of 'La Futura,'
ZZ Top ‘La Futura’ tracklisting is as follows:
1. I Gotsta Get Paid
2. Chartreuse
3. Consumption
4. Over You
5. Heartache in Blue
6. I Don’t Wanna Lose, Lose, You
7. Flyin’ High
8. It’s Too Easy Manana
9. Big Shiny Nine
10. Have a Little Mercy’
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The eternally cool three piece Texan boogie merchants teamed up with legendary producer and fellow bearded icon Rick Rubin for the belated follow-up to 2003's 'Mescalero', intent on giving their fans a classic sounding ZZ Top record imbued with a modern edge. Frontman, guitar god and co-producer Billy Gibbons claims “We thought long and hard about what this album should be. We wanted to recall the directness of our early stuff but not turn our backs on contemporary technology. The result of this melding of the past and the present is, of course, ‘La Futura.’” The storming first single, 'I Gotsa Get Paid', embodies Gibbons' description of the album's modus operandi. Somewhat shockingly the track is based on a song called '25 Lighters,’ a late '90s hit for local Houston hip-hop artists DJ DMD, Lil Keke, and MC Fat Pat. ZZ Top reworking a rap song and turning it in a down n' dirty, barrel scraping, blues baked anthem? It's good to have them back.
