ZZ Top has signed a new record deal with Rick Rubin's American Recordings imprint through Columbia.

The veteran rock trio is planning to hit the studio, with Rubin producing, for an album more in keeping with "La Grange"-era ZZ Top than its pop-friendly '80s sound, according to manager Carl Stubner.

The band recorded for Warner Bros. for the first 20 years of its career before shifting to RCA in the mid-1990s. ZZ Top's last album, 2003's "Mescalero," has sold 103,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The hope is that with Rubin's guidance, the band can enjoy a commercial and critical revitalization along the lines of prior Rubin clients Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond.

For his part, Stubner, who began managing ZZ Top 18 months ago, has worked to increase the group's visibility via an increased focus on licensing and TV appearances, including the finale of "American Idol" this spring.

"We thought this was a great brand that was kind of dusty," he said. "My goal was to polish it and do certain things they hadn't done before."

To that end, Eagle Rock released the first ZZ Top live DVD, "Live From Texas 2007," which debuts this week at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Music Video chart.

This summer, the band will co-headline 18 North American dates with Brooks & Dunn, including an Aug. 3 show at the Hyundai Pavilion in Devore. In the fall, Stubner said, "our plan is to go do smaller theaters, like 3,000-seaters for a low-dough ticket price. Then we'll go finish the record."

Rage frontman roars forward with Lion EP

Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha is teaming up with former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore under the group name One Day as a Lion. The group's debut EP will arrive in stores July 22.

"It's a sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque fabricated cultural landscape and the brutal socioeconomic realities it attempts to mask," the band says in a statement about the five-track release. De La Rocha plays keyboards throughout.

In the years since Rage Against the Machine's original split in 2000, De La Rocha has recorded material with DJ Shadow, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and the Roots' ?uestlove, but none of these tracks appear on "One Day as a Lion."

One song with Reznor, "We Want It All," appears on the 2004 compilation "Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11."

After reuniting in spring 2007 for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Rage has seven international festival dates on tap this summer, including an Aug. 2 appearance at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.

Here is the track list for "One Day as a Lion": "Wild International," "Ocean View," "Last Letter," "If You Fear Dying" and "One Day as a Lion."

— Billboard