Adjust Your Antenna to the ZZ Top!

January 18, 2025
11:27 am

31 years ago today, ZZ Top dropped their 11th studio album, Antenna (1994). If you don’t know ZZ Top, they’re tres hombres 🧔🧔🧔 from Houston, TX—three guitar heroes with matching beards, sunglasses, and hats. They’re known for their bluesy southern rock and their knack for clever, often cheeky lyrics full of double entendres and innuendos.

Antenna wasn’t their most commercially successful album, especially compared to hitmakers like Eliminator, Tres Hombres, and Deguello, but I love that it brought back their gritty, raw roots after the more polished Recycler. This was also their first album with RCA Records, and it has that signature ZZ Top vibe—if you’re a fan of Eliminator, you’ll definitely dig Antenna. But if you’re new to ZZ Top and craving some great true blues rock, this one’s for you.

I’ll be honest—Antenna isn’t my top pick, but “Pincushion”? That track hits just right. It spent 4 weeks at the top of the US Billboard Rock Tracks chart.

I’m a pincushion, gotta face the facts. I’m just a pincushion, do everything she asks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqi__IhuBEY

So, what’s on the album?

1. Pincushion

2. Breakaway

3. World of Swirl

4. Fuzzbox Voodoo

5. Girl in a T-Shirt

6. Antenna Head

7. PCH

8. Cherry Red

9. Cover Your Rig

10. Lizard Life

11. Deal Goin’ Down

Did you know…The band wrote these tracks as a three-piece, not a four-piece with a synthesizer, which kept things nice and raw.

I’ve been a fan of that little ol’ band from Texas for years, and I remember grabbing Antenna CD when it came out in ‘94. While Pincushion is my jam, Fuzzbox Voodoo and Cherry Red definitely deserve a listen. Today’s anniversary announcement has me cranking up the album again, and I’m sharing it with my wife like we did back in the day.

What about you? Do you like this album? Adjust your Antenna and tune in with this tee.

Fear the beards!

Rock on,

Sam 🤘