IN: ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The band has, since 1970, consisted of bassist and lead vocalist Dusty Hill, guitarist and lead vocalist Billy Gibbons (the band's leader, main lyricist and musical arranger), and drummer Frank Beard. "As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers", according to former musician, critic and collector Michael "Cub" Koda. "Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom [...] while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support."

ZZ Top's next album was even more successful. Eliminator, released in March 1983, featured two top 40 singles ("Gimme All Your Lovin'" and "Legs"), and two additional Top Rock hits ("Got Me Under Pressure" and "Sharp Dressed Man"), with "Legs" peaking at no. 13 on the Club Play Singles chart. Eliminator was a critical and commercial success, selling more than 10 million copies, and several music videos were in regular rotation on MTV. The band also won their first MTV Video Music Awards in the categories of Best Group Video for "Legs", and Best Direction for "Sharp Dressed Man". The music videos were included in their Greatest Hits video, which was later released on DVD and quickly went multiple-platinum. However, the Eliminator album was not without controversy. According to former stage manager David Blayney in his book "Sharp Dressed Men", sound engineer Linden Hudson co-wrote much of the material on the album while serving as a live-in high-tech music teacher to Beard and Gibbons. Despite continued denials by the band, it settled a five-year legal battle with Hudson, paying him $600,000 after he proved he held the copyright to the song "Thug". Despite not selling as many copies as Eliminator, 1985's Afterburner became the band's highest-charting album, racking up sales of five million units. All of the singles from Afterburner were Top 40 hits, with two ("Sleeping Bag" and "Stages") hitting no. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The music video for "Velcro Fly" was choreographed by pop singer Paula Abdul. ZZ Top's grueling Afterburner World Tour lasted well into 1987, which also saw the release of The ZZ Top Sixpack, a three-disc collection of ZZ Top's albums from 1970 to 1981, with the exception of Deguello. The albums ZZ Top's First Album, Rio Grande Mud, Tres Hombres, Fandango, and Tejas were remixed to have a more contemporary sound. Recycler, released in 1990, was ZZ Top's last studio album under contract with Warner Records. Recycler was also the last of a distinct sonic trilogy in the ZZ Top catalogue, marking a return towards a simpler guitar-driven blues sound with less synthesizer and pop bounce than the previous two albums. This move did not entirely suit the fan base that Eliminator and Afterburner had built up, and while Recycler did achieve platinum status, it never matched the sales of those albums.
QUESTION: when was the synthesizer period?
IN: Mayday Parade is an American rock band from Tallahassee, Florida. Their debut EP Tales Told by Dead Friends was released in 2006, and sold over 50,000 copies without any label support. In July 2007, Mayday Parade released their debut album A Lesson in Romantics.

In 2011, the band released an EP, entitled Valdosta (named after Valdosta, GA) that contained six tracks, including 2 brand new tracks titled "Amber Lynn" and "Terrible Things". The EP contained acoustic versions of "Kids in Love" and "Bruised and Scarred" from their second full-length studio album Anywhere But Here, "Your Song" from their Tales Told by Dead Friends and "Jamie All Over" from A Lesson in Romantics. Valdosta was released through Atlantic and Fearless Records on March 8, 2011. On March 10, Songkick recognized Mayday Parade as the hardest-working band of 2010, with 194 bookings and 74,000 miles logged in the entire year, with Willie Nelson and Lady Gaga ranking No. 7 and No. 8 in comparison. Mayday Parade played all the dates on the Australian 2009 Soundwave Festival. The band also played Slam Dunk Festival (both North and South) in Leeds and Hatfield (UK) on 28 and 29 May 2009, coinciding with their UK tour with A Rocket to the Moon and We Are the In Crowd. Written by the band in a beach house in Panacea, Florida, the self-titled album was produced by Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount, who also produced A Lesson in Romantics. Kenneth Mount tweeted a picture of the album's tentative track list on April 13, 2011. Lead singer Derek Sanders also stated that "Oh Well, Oh Well" would likely be the first track. Four days later, Jake Bundrick, the drummer of Mayday Parade, tweeted to confirm that their third full-length album had been completed. On July 6, 2011, Mayday Parade announced that they would be releasing their new self-titled album on October 4, 2011. They also released the track listing, revealing that the album had 12 songs. On July 27, Mayday Parade premiered the track "Oh Well, Oh Well" for the first time online at Alternative Press. On September 4, it was posted on Mayday Parade's Facebook page that they would be releasing a song from the new album, called "When You See My Friends" via iTunes on September 9. This was posted followed by a series of pictures of the band captioned with lyrics from the song. On October 4, 2011 Mayday Parade released their new self-titled album, which quickly reached No. 5 on the iTunes albums list. Also on October 5, 2011 Mayday Parade released their new music video for "Oh Well, Oh Well" Directed by Thunder Down Country. The animated video won the IndieStar TV award for Best Music Video of 2011. On April 4, 2012, the band released the music video for the single "Stay". On May 1, 2012, the debut album "A Lesson In Romantics" was released on vinyl. There was a set of 1500 "First Edition" album sets that featured the vinyl in red rather than the traditional black. On July 22, 2012, on a video post via Alternative Press lead singer Derek Sanders said the band would start writing a new album in December or January. Together with Californian Rock musician Vic Fuentes they charted with a cover of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know", which is on the fifth album of the "Punk Goes Pop..." series in the US-Rockcharts.
QUESTION:
Who produced the EP?