Billy Gibbons Plans New Moving Sidewalks Album
Billy Gibbons doesn't sound like he intends to end his recent busy streak anytime soon. The ZZ Top frontman is back on the road with the band this spring, shortly after concluding a solo tour in support of his Perfectamundo LP — and after that's all out of the way, Gibbons says he intends to enter the studio with his pre-ZZ band, Moving Sidewalks.
As Gibbons told ABC News Radio, the roots of the new record go back to the band's reunion gigs in 2013, which marked their first performances since splitting up in 1969. After the shows, Gibbons recalled getting together with the other members of the band and asking, "Why not? Let's bring it up to date."
Although it's still too early to talk details, Gibbons teased a sound that blurs the lines between eras in his career. "Once we lit the fuse then it became a game of lighting a fire, which brought us back into the studio ... And there is a bona fide studio revisitation of some ZZ Top-inspired Moving Sidewalks numbers," he said, adding that the band's chemistry makes this more than a reunion for nostalgia's sake. "Talk about players — those guys are fierce. They are not afraid of getting down with it."
Whenever it arrives, the new LP will serve as the first bit of Moving Sidewalks-related product since the band's belated compilation, The Complete Moving Sidewalks, arrived in 2013. ZZ Top's most recent studio release, La Futura, came out in 2012.
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