ZZ Top: Rhythmeen : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

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"How much blues do you use before you use it up?" queries singer and guitarist Billy Gibbons in "What's Up With That," the first single from ZZ Top's new album, Rhythmeen. But the real question posed by Rhythmeen – and by the latest blast from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Now I Got Worry – is: Whose music is it anyway? If anything, these albums revive the age-old dispute: What right do white boys, young and middle-aged, have to play the blues?

For one thing, it ain't exactly blues that either of these bands peddles, as both ZZ Top and the Blues Explosion turn tradition on its head in their respective ways. ZZ Top milk a conventional blues progression for all its worth on "Prettyhead" and add honking harmonica to "What's Up With That." But the booming volume and Gibbons' feed-back-drenched guitar breaks betray ZZ's grounding in '60s garage rock and psychedelia and '70s arena rock. Likewise, the Blues Explosion hot-wire their manic deconstructions of blues and rockabilly with New York art-punk noise – which is no great surprise, considering that singer and guitarist Jon Spencer was a founding member of the seminal, cacophonous, '80s scum-rock band Pussy Galore.

Touted by ZZ Top as a return to roots, Rhythmeen finds the power trio ditching the synth-pop thud of their '80s hits "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man." Instead, Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard evoke the roadhouse boogie of the earlier '70s stompers – "La Grange," "Tush" – that first brought them fame. Now I Got Worry finds the Blues Explosion also stripping down to basics. Spencer and the band eschew the hip-hop influences that came to a head on 1994's Orange, opting instead for a more gutbucket approach (although as the Minor Threat-style "Identify" proves, these guys are young enough to consider punk rock to be roots music). Ironically, ZZ Top offer a nod in the other direction. "Rhythmeen" features head-bobbing beats a la Dr. Dre, while the droning intro of "My Mind Is Gone" echoes Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise."

If there is any controversy worth arguing about in ZZ's or the Blues Explosion's appropriation of African-American musical forms, it is in each band's sometimes questionable irreverence. Spencer's faux backwoods drawl verges on minstrel-show insult. Gibbons has his own vocal affectations, turning his "things" into "thangs." As for ZZ Top's lyrical concerns, bad-hair days ("Hairdresser") and sex changes ("Zipper Job") might not be considered respectable topics in a music born of hard times and suffering.

But to their credit, neither ZZ Top nor the Blues Explosion sands down the rough edges in their blues; instead, both groups add a few jagged touches of their own. Spencer in particular works up a lunatic energy usually associated with the best rock & roll. Spencer also has the balls to bring in Stax-Volt soul legend Rufus Thomas and Mississippi blues master R.L. Burnside for guest appearances on Now I Got Worry. Thomas and Burnside actually blow the youngster away in terms of performance. But at least Spencer is willing to acknowledge his sources.