LA Legends – Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs Blues Rock Single “Dance With Your Baby” Now Available!
4 min read
1987’s Pigus, Drunkus, Maximus to be reissued January 16, 2026 by Blind Owl Records
Prepare to DANCE! Blind Owl Records and East of Lincoln Productions announced last week, the long awaited album from legendary Los Angeles blues rock band Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs lone album, 1987’s Pigus, Drunkus, Maximus is slated for release January 16, 2026. The single “Dance With Your Baby” is now available here. The full album can be pre-ordered and pre-saved on CD (for the first time-ever) and gatefold pig pink colored vinyl LP formats here.
Beloved by celebs and musicians, Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs fans included everyone from incomparable musicians like Tom Waits and David Lee Roth but also bands like X and The Blasters as well as musicians like Maria McKee and Steve Wynn (who released the original LP on his Down There Records). Out of print for nearly 40 years, this new reissue of Pigus, Drunkus, Maximus has been remastered, features a new 16-page booklet of archival photos from noted photographer Gary Leonard, gig flyers and new liner notes from veteran Grammy-nominated L.A. scribe Chris Morris.
“I could not be happier that the Top Jimmy And The Rhythm Pigs record I produced at the dawn of my career is finally getting re-released,” said producer and saxophone player, Steve Berlin. “Forgive any immodesty, but it really sounds pretty much exactly the way we sounded on a particularly good night at one of our innumerable Cathay De Grande Mondays. Beyond the value as a historical snapshot of the era, you’ll hear a band cranking on all cylinders since that’s pretty much all we did then, before any drug/alcohol excess and untreated mental illness fully manifested. All that’s missing is the unique CDG scent of drying sewage (from the constantly backed up toilets) and burning soy sauce. Enjoy!”
“Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs played the dark Chinese basement club in Hollywood called Cathay de Grande with Carlos Guitarlos on lead guitar,” said Tom Waits. “His voice was a drill, a grinder, a plow, a scooper and a plunger. Kathleen and I danced to the jail birds many nights in the ‘80s.”
L.A.’s high priest of booze culture…
“Top Jimmy was a great big noisy presence, transcending even the blues he wrenched from his soul on a nightly basis,” said David Lee Roth. “He was also the best drinking buddy I ever had.”
Spoken about in hushed tones for their incendiary live shows soaked in booze, blues and sweaty, transformative bacchanalian liberation during the oppressive Reagan years, Top Jimmy and The Rhythm Pigs burned brightly in the L.A. music scene of the 1980s. Known as “L.A.’s high priest of booze culture,” the band was led by Falstaffian front man Top Jimmy (aka James Paul Koncek, 1954-2001), a true force of nature full of roadhouse rantings, whisky and yes, the very person referenced in the Diamond Dave track “Top Jimmy” from Van Halen’s breakout 1984 album.
The Rhythm Pigs included Dig The Pig (Richard Aeilts), Gil T (R. Gilbert Isais), Carlos Guitarlos (Carlos Ayala), Joey Morales & Steve Berlin, the band played famed Hollywood clubs like Cathey de Grande, Florentine Gardens and the Whiskey A Go-Go. They played the blues to punk rockers starting in the early eighties until their demise less than a decade later. Famous for their spirited covers of everyone from Howlin’ Wolf to Bob Dylan, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Merle Haggard, nothing was off limits if it shook the walls or got your feet moving.
A rightful place in L.A. music history.
What makes this Pigus, Drunkus, Maximus reissue so important in 2026 is that unless you lived in LA in the eighties, most music fans might have only heard of Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs, or about their legendary output but never actually heard their music or saw them live. So while the band did tour a bit, this was very much a Los Angeles band. But talk to anyone who saw them live, in their element at the Cathay, and their eyes glaze over in a somnambulist-like haze of remembrance. Because for those who did see the band, they never forgot one of the best bands they ever saw.
This lovingly restored reissue of Pigus, Drunkus, Maximus will go a long way to restoring the band’s rightful place in L.A. music history as one of the greatest bands this city ever produced.
Follow Blind Owl Records on Social Media:
Website, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube
*Huge shoutout to Josh at It’s Alive! Media & Management
