As long as Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill keep growing those beards and making new music, Texas rock will never die.
ZZ Top is finally readying their first release of new music in nine years. Four-song EP Texicali will be available online June 5, and RollingStone.com will offer free streaming of the new tracks on June 4 before EP is available for purchase.
Texicali is a preview of a full-length, as-yet-untitled album set for late summer or early fall and will include tracks "I Gotsta Get Paid," “Chartreuse,” “Over You” and “Consumption," all produced by Gibbons and rock svengali Rick Rubin.
"We were itching to get some new music out before the full album release; making available these four tracks seems like a good way to accomplish that most expeditiously," Gibbons said via press release. "Dusty, Frank and I are happy with what’s been accomplished in the studio so we figured we’d provide some hot and tasty ‘hors d’oeuvres’ before the main course is served this fall.”
If you missed their RodeoHouston performance, ZZ Top was originally scheduled for a show at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillon on June 23, but the Houston Press notes that the concert has been quietly canceled and the band's publicist said a show is tentatively planned for early fall to correspond with the album release.
Can't wait til Monday for some new ZZ Top? If you haven't seen it already, "I Gotsta Get Paid" is featured in the ad for ZZ Top's tour sponsor, Jeremiah Weed malt liquor, above.
Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice.
Before he was elected president, Donald Trump was a New York businessman who transitioned into a reality TV show host that played upon his bombastic personality. His effect on American politics over the past eight years would not have been possible without his early experiences, some of which are explored in the new film whose title cheekily references that reality show, The Apprentice.
It introduces viewers who may not know the entire history of Trump (Sebastian Stan) to his relationship with lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who was known for using all sorts of sleazy tactics to win cases. The film shows Trump meeting Cohn in the early 1970s, right when the Trump Corporation, then led by Donald's father Fred Trump (Martin Donovan), was being sued for violating the Fair Housing Act for not renting to Black people.
Cohn’s success at limiting the damage in that case leads Trump to fall in love with the way Cohn approaches life, and he proceeds to call upon him for advice and help in many aspects of his own life. These include trying to strong-arm New York City officials into giving Trump a big tax break on his first hotel, setting up an odious prenuptial agreement with Trump’s soon-to-be bride, Ivana (Maria Bakalova), and more.
Directed by Ali Abbasi and written by Gabriel Sherman, the film is both crystal clear in how it wants Trump to be portrayed and yet somewhat subtle in the way it goes about it. Opening with Richard Nixon’s infamous “I am not a crook” speech, the parallels between that fallen president and one who would go on to be indicted for many crimes while president aren’t at all difficult to parse. And yet, the filmmakers do a good job of methodically building their case for how Trump became the person he is today.
This includes showing the young(er) Trump as somewhat awkward and out of his depth, literally going door-to-door to collect rent at Trump Village apartments and still having family dinner with the whole Trump clan. Learning at the heels of Cohn builds his confidence, especially after Cohn reveals three rules that he lives by: 1) Attack, attack, attack, 2) Admit nothing, deny everything, and 3) Claim victory, and never admit defeat.
Because it’s a two-hour film, the truth of what it’s depicting likely falls somewhere on the spectrum of another thing Cohn tells Trump: “There is no truth.” Still, there are factual bases for much of what the film dramatizes, and even the sequences that might be made up completely fall right in line with the type of man who still refuses to admit that he lost the 2020 election. When Trump and Cohn essentially switch roles as the bully and the wimp when the film moves from the ‘70s to the ‘80s, it comes as no surprise.
Stan, in his second starring role in two weeks, does a fantastic job of evolving the character of Trump. He eases into the verbal and physical traits for which Trump is now known, and the slow build helps him tremendously. Cohn is easy to hate as a real person, but love as a movie character, and Strong bursts off the screen with his performance. He is an early favorite for Best Supporting Actor, utterly transforming into a despicable person from which you want to hear every horrible syllable.
Because of Trump’s overwhelming recent influence on American society, The Apprentice is next-to-impossible to view in an unbiased manner. And the filmmakers likely don’t want you to, as they are obviously trying to demonstrate how Trump has long been this way, and it took him becoming president for the whole world to see it.