XXX
The title suggests good beer and unwholesome entertainment, copious amounts of which have accompanied ZZ Top's music for the past 30 years. A decade--or two--removed from their arena-rock prime and cartoonish MTV reincarnation, ZZ Top's music has mellowed like a case of three-dollar rotgut, which is how the bluesshouldage. Pared down, raw, and rough-edged, the Gibbons, Beard, and Hill ofXXX's eight studio cuts sound increasingly like their grizzled Texas, Delta, and Southside blues heroes. The beats are tricked-up funky, Gibbons's growl and guitar are lugubrious, and the trio overall is lusty and unafraid to slow the tempo to a dirty dirge. Coupled with the band's loopy sense of subject matter and style--which ranges here from automotive theology ("Crucifixx-A-Flatt") to more prosaic concerns of boogie and t&a--are; four live cuts that are often just as quirky, from Dusty Hill's slick lampoon croon ofElvis's "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" to a rave-up version of "Hey Mr. Millionaire" that features another inspired bit of ZZ goofiness--having guitar-godJeff Beckguest . . . on vocals!--Jerry McCulley