ZZ TOP'S TEXICALI MAKING BIG, BIG NOISE, GOES TOP 3 ON iTUNES
Tuesday, June 5 was the official release day for TEXICALI, the four song ZZ Top collection that presages the band's long-awaited (and, currently, title-less) full album, expected out from American Recordings late this summer or early this fall. The tracks that comprise TEXICALI are meeting with a groundswell of enthusiasm from consumers and critics alike. It's among iTunes' Top 3 rock best sellers on its day of release and has attracted some effusive consumer comments including "Listening to this EP is like biting into the best FAT-BURGER you can find. It's meaty, and it's greasy, just he way it should be." Another TEXICALI buyer wrote "They're back... and it's amazing. The best ZZ in over 30 years hands down. Speechless."
The first new studio recordings released by Billy F Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard, a/k/a ZZ Top, in nine years, TEXICALI includes "I Gotsta Get Paid," the ZZ song that's heard in the current video campaign for the Jeremiah Weed line of flavored malt adult beverages. It made its full-length debut on SiriusXM's Outlaw Country channel this past weekend, underscoring the band's cross-genre appeal. Andrew Dansby, writing in The Houston Chronicle, the band's hometown daily paper, noted of the track that it "uses some lines and a general H-town swagger from DJ DMD, Fat Pat & Lil Keke's late-'90s Screwed Up Click staple "25 Lighters." That fact is both incredibly cool and totally inconsequential, because the song is 100 percent Billy Gibbons grind all the way, with Dusty Hill chiming in 'I gotsta get paid" like a high-pitched exclamation point.'
It's joined on TEXICALI by "Consumption," a rough-hewn, bottom heavy rocker. Joe Bosso, in MusicRadar, noted "The groove is fat, crunchy and full of swagger... This is ZZ Top crankin' up some fresh, vital roadhouse blues."
Craig Hlavaty, in the Houston Press wrote of TEXICALI, "Everything about this effortless effort is pitch-perfect." He went cite "Over You," the set's only downtempo track, "..Lyrically Gibbons is slaying it. There is a touch of Sam Cooke to it, without getting schmaltzy. Digging the torchy guitar attached on the end too." His piece included the lament, "The only tragedy here seems to be that I cannot physically make this any louder inside my earholes right now without causing permanent damage."
Rolling Stone offered an audio stream of "Chartreuse," calling the ode to a certain color and intoxicating beverage that share the name "a chunky track fit for any summer beer-b-que." The piece also suggests that "Lyrically, Gibbons growls out the sort of old-school blues nastiness the band has served for more than 40 years."
ZZ TOP/Gang of Outlaws Tour dates
June 6 - Simpsonville, SC - Charter Amphitheatre at Heritage Park*
8 - St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheatre*
*9 - Atmore, AL – Wind Creek Hotel & Casino Amphitheater**
10 - Alpharetta, GA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre*
12 - Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel**
15 - Estero, FL - Germain Arena*
16 - Orlando, FL - Universal Orlando Resort Music Plaza Stage**
17 - Clearwater, FL - Tropicana Field*
19 - Southaven, MS - Snowden Grove Park & Amphitheater*
20 - Nashville, TN- Bridgestone Arena*
22 - Baton Rouge, LA – Baton Rouge River Center*
24 - Dallas, TX - Gexa Energy Pavilion*
26 - Des Moines, IA - Wells Fargo Arena*
27 - Clarkston, MI - DTE Energy Music Theatre*
29 - Hinckley, MN - Grand Casino Amphitheatre*
*ZZ Top, 3 Doors Down, Gretchen Wilson
**ZZ Top, 3 Doors Down
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