ZZ Top has signed with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings.  Their hope is to get back to their roots (La Grange) instead of their ’80s period (Legs).

I haven’t heard happier news in years.  Starting with the MTV Revolution, the Top went to hell.  They lost their boogie, their soul, their blues.  First with the synth nonsense and videos, then more recently to the detuned grunge and Funny Hat Period.

All the while I kept playing their First Album and learning the early tunes that continue to rock my world.  They’re the consummate live act, having honed their chops all over the southwest.  I have a bunch (a passel?) of concert video that never fails to please, even during the bad periods.

Make no mistake, ZZ live is something to behold, eight to eighty.  The intricacies of the guitar work and tones on the CDs tend to go out the window live, at which point it’s Full Boogie, set the custom axes to Stun, and check out the moving sidewalk effects (Billy Gibbons’ early band was the Moving Sidewalks).  As any reader of this blog knows, I’m not big on prettiness and visuals but ZZ Top puts on a show.

The Top also released a live DVD earlier this year (I tend to miss these things) which should prove interesting, as there’s no official live video available.

If you only know the band from Legs and Tush, get your backside to the CD store.  It’s almost criminal to miss out on the lowdown blues of ‘Fool for Your Stockings’ (although it’s even better live),  the bizarre syncopation of ‘Heard it on the X’ or ‘Manic Mechanic,’ the instrumental ‘Apologies to Pearly,’ and the gospel-tinged ‘Have You Heard?’