ZZ Top

Double Down Live is a 2 DVD set from ZZ Top combining shows from 1980 and 2008. Disc one was filmed at the Grugahalle in Essen, Germany for the Rockpalast TV series. Hot on the heels of their classic "Deguello" album (it features 9 of the 10 songs from it) the show finds ZZ Top before sequencers and synthesizers epitomizing their "lil' ol' blues band from Texas" nickname…

ZZ Top had reached the top of the charts before, but that didn't make their sudden popularity in 1983 any more predictable. It wasn't that they were just popular – they were hip, for God's sake, since they were one of the only AOR favorites to figure out to harness the stylish, synthesized grooves of new wave, and then figure out how to sell it on MTV…

They're all here! ZZ Top's greatest videos, a groundbreaking collection from the band that made chopped cars, great-looking girls, and fur-covered guitars an art form all their own. Right from the start, with "Gimme All Your Lovin'" and the rest of the Eliminator trilogy - "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs" - ZZ Top has pioneered the high-concept video. And they're still doing it today with "Viva Las Vegas," shot on the strip.From the deep-space weirdness of "Rough Boy" to the chain gang blues of "My Head's in Mississippi"; from the in-concert electricity of "Stages" to the Paula Abdul-choreographed "Velcro Fly," ZZ Top has always been in video's vanguard. In fact, they performed at the first-ever MTV Awards, where the radio city music hall audience seemed to spontaneously sprout chin whiskers.

On Tejas, ZZ Top countrified the bluesy posture of their previous albums, resulting in a slight detour between the madcap spirit of Fandango and the psychedelic strut of Deguello. While the album lacks any singles as strong as "Tush" or "La Grange," "Arrested for Driving While Blind" is one of ZZ's classic anthems, capturing the group's wacky humor and jaunty good-time boogie…

ZZ Top closed out their tenure with London Records in late 1977 with The Best of ZZ Top, a basic but terrific ten-song retrospective of highlights from their first five albums (well, four, actually, since the underwhelming Tejas is ignored). There are no surprises here, just album rock favorites, which means it does draw heavily on Tres Hombres (four songs, total), adds Fandango's "Tush," "Blue Jean Blues," and "Heard It on the X" for good measure, then rounds it out with two songs from Rio Grande Mud and a selection from the debut. Yeah, there are a couple good album tracks missing, but as a ten-song summary of their early years, this can't be beat.

ZZ Top's First Album may not be perfectly polished, but it does establish their sound, attitude, and quirks. Simply put, it's a dirty little blues-rock record, filled with fuzzy guitars, barrelhouse rhythms, dirty jokes, and Texan slang. They have a good, ballsy sound that hits at gut level, and if the record's not entirely satisfying, it's because they're still learning how to craft records – which means that they're still learning pacing as much as they're learning how to assemble a set of indelible material. Too much of this record glides by on its sound, without offering any true substance, but the tracks that really work – "(Somebody Else Been) Shaking Your Tree," "Backdoor Love Affair," "Brown Sugar," and "Goin' Down to Mexico," among them – show that from their very first record on, ZZ Top was that lil' ol' blues band from Texas.

ZZ Top's First Album may not be perfectly polished, but it does establish their sound, attitude, and quirks. Simply put, it's a dirty little blues-rock record, filled with fuzzy guitars, barrelhouse rhythms, dirty jokes, and Texan slang…

ZZ Top closed out their tenure with London Records in late 1977 with The Best of ZZ Top, a basic but terrific ten-song retrospective of highlights from their first five albums (well, four, actually, since the underwhelming Tejas is ignored). There are no surprises here, just album rock favorites, which means it does draw heavily on Tres Hombres (four songs, total), adds Fandango's "Tush," "Blue Jean Blues," and "Heard It on the X" for good measure, then rounds it out with two songs from Rio Grande Mud and a selection from the debut. Yeah, there are a couple good album tracks missing, but as a ten-song summary of their early years, this can't be beat.

Interestingly, while always priding themselves on being a kick-ass live band, ZZ Top never got around to issuing a full-length live album during their 1970s/1980s peak. But as they say, it's better late than never, and 2011 finally saw the arrival of an archival live ZZ Top recording, Live in Germany 1980. Featuring half of the audio portion of their 2009 Double Down Live DVD, Live in Germany 1980 does a fantastic…