Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs
Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs were an American rock and rhythm and blues band, that emerged from the Los Angeles punk/roots music scene of the late 1970s and early-mid 1980s. This scene also produced bands such as The Blasters, X, Los Lobos, The Gun Club, The Knitters, and The Plugz.[1]
History
Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs had a residency playing "Blue Mondays" every Monday night at the Cathay de Grande nightclub at the corner of Argyle and Selma in Hollywood, California for three years, and was an important part of the Los Angeles rock scene. Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs concerts often featured guest appearances by such artists as Tom Waits, David Lee Roth, Stevie Ray Vaughan, members of X, The Blasters, The Gun Club, The Circle Jerks, The Plugz, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and many more.[2] D.J. Bonebrake, who appeared on Pigus Drunkus Maximus, was a member of X. The band was saluted in the Van Halen song "Top Jimmy", and mentioned in "The Call of the Wreckin' Ball," on The Knitters album, Poor Little Critter on the Road and the X album, Live at the Whisky a Go-Go.
Live, Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs usually consisted of Top Jimmy (James Paul Koncek): vocals, Carlos Guitarlos: guitar and vocals, Gil T.: bass and vocals, Dig The Pig: guitar, Joey Morales: drums and either Tom Fabre or Steve Berlin on saxophone. On their only record, Pigus Drunkus Maximus, released in 1987 (Down There Records, distributed by Restless), D.J. Bonebrake and Tony Morales contributed drum parts, while Gene Taylor added piano.
Top Jimmy got his nickname because he at one point worked at a fast-food stand called "Top Taco", located across the street from the A&M Records studios in Hollywood.[3] At some point, he got a job working as a roadie for X. At the end of a soundcheck, he sang a version of the Doors "Roadhouse Blues", which garnered the attention of the band and Doors member Ray Manzarek, and led to Top Jimmy performing an encore version of the song with X and Manzarek, during a May 1980 X show at the Whisky-A-Go-Go.[4]
Koncek died in 2001 in Las Vegas, Nevada from liver failure .
Discography
- Pigus Drunkus Maximus (1987) - Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs (only actual TJ & Rhythm Pigs release)
- Long Distance Call (1994) - Top Jimmy Lineup
- The Good Times Are Killing Me (1996) - Top Jimmy solo
References
- ↑ We Got The Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk, Mark Spitz & Brendan Mullen, Three Rivers Press, 2001.
- ↑ Make The Music Go Bang!: The Early L.A. Punk Scene, Don Snowden, ed., St. Martin's Griffin, 1997.
- ↑ Cosmik.com
- ↑ Db.etree.org
External links
- Home page for Carlos Guitarlos and his solo projects
- Los Angeles Times article, outlining history of Rhythm Pigs from Carlos' perspective