CHUCK E. WEISS
''RED BEAMS AND WEISS''
APRIL 14 2014
48:39
1 Tupelo Joe
Chuck E. Weiss 3:15
2 Shushie
Will MacGregor / Chuck E. Weiss 3:36
3 Boston Blackie
J.J. Holiday / Chuck E. Weiss 3:50
4 That Knucklehead Stuff
Chuck E. Weiss 3:24
5 Bomb the Tracks
Tony Gilkyson / Chuck E. Weiss 4:26
6 Exile on Main Street Blues
Mick Jagger / Keith Richards 4:54
7 Kokamo (Boy Bruce)
Chuck E. Weiss 3:27
8 Hey Pendejo
Chuck E. Weiss 2:45
9 Dead Man's Shoes
Tony Gilkyson / Chuck E. Weiss 4:16
10 Old New Song
Chuck E. Weiss 3:53
11 The Hink-a-Dink
Chuck E. Weiss 4:50
12 Oo Poo Pa Do in the Rebop
Chuck E. Weiss 2:44
13 Willy's in the Pee Pee House
Michael Murphy / Chuck E. Weiss 3:19
Mike Bolger /Trumpet
Boo /Vocals (Background)
Judy Brown /Vocals (Background)
Jack Depp /Vocals (Background)
Johnny Depp /Bass, Drums, Executive Producer, Guitar, Vocals (Background)
Tony Gilkyson /Composer, Guitar, Title
Carlos Guitarlos /Vocals (Background)
Bill "Beano" Hanti /Drums, Vocals (Background)
Rachel Hathaway /Vocals (Background)
Don Heffington /Drums, Percussion, Producer, Vocals (Background)
J.J. Holiday /Composer, Guitar
Nathan Holmes /Vocals (Background)
Starling Jenkins /Vocals (Background)
Will MacGregor /Bass, Composer
Joey Malone /Vocals (Background)
Janice Markham /Violin
Michael Murphy /Composer, Piano
Steve Nelson /Bass
Rip Rense /Poetry
Jimmy Roberts /Saxophone
Nick Vincent /Drums
Chuck E. Weiss /Composer, Drums, Percussion, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocals
Bruce Witkin /Bass, Mixing, Vocals (Background)
CeCe Worrall /Clarinet, Saxophone
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
It's been seven years since Chuck E. Weiss released 23rd & Stout, a set that drunk-walked between roots rock, vintage R&B, jump blues, zany experimentation, and post-Beat humor. Red Beans and Weiss marks the songwriter's first album for Anti. It was self-produced, though it lists Tom Waits and Johnny Depp as executive producers. Guitarist Tony Gilkyson, drummer Don Heffington, and pianist Michael Murphy all return. The personnel is fleshed out with bassist Will MacGregor and saxophonists Jimmy Roberts and CeCe Worrall-Rubin. For anyone who's heard Weiss' Rykodisc albums Extremely Cool and Old Souls & Wolf Tickets, there will be much to enjoy here. Opener "Tupelo Joe" may have throwaway lyrics, but the scorching modern rockabilly slashed and burned through by Gilkyson's guitar playing makes it more than worthwhile. The moderately funky hipster rap that is "That Knucklehead Stuff," with its alternating honking sax and zinging guitar lines, is catchy as hell, as is its strutting counterpart, "Kokamo (Boy Bruce)." "Exile on Main Street Blues" is done in swaggering 1950s Chicago style. "Hey Pendejo" walks the line between bumping polka, East L.A. backyard mariachi, and a Catskills comedy routine. What works best here are the cuts where electric blues-boogie is the M.O. This band is tight and nasty, no matter how spaced out and loopy Weiss' groove is. Check the strutting boogie in "Boston Blackie," "Bomb the Tracks," and "Dead Man's Shoes"; they are electrified and worth the price of admission alone. The syncopated blues-jazz in "Oo Poo Pa Do in the Rebop" is complete with lyrics seemingly drawn from the world of an Iceberg Slim novel and a rhythm section that can't be shaken. "The Hink-a-Dink" is a sinister moaning blues with Gypsy violin, Judy Brown's wailing wordless soul backing vocal, and a moody male chorus moan all tossed in, but it works! Not everything does, however. "Shushie" is a noir-ish hepcat jazz number whose lyrics make a feral cat Weiss rescued into a terminal hipster. (The smoky saxophone solo is nice, though.) Closer "Willy's in the Pee Pee House" is so dumb it could have just been left off altogether. That said, none of this is contrived -- it's all Chuck E. Weiss. Zany, unrepentantly retro, and drenched in an era that revivalists can't touch, Red Beans and Weiss is a greasy, gritty report from one of L.A.'s last original rock & roll street denizens. It has a grimy charm all its own.
BIOGRAPHY
by Cub Koda
The ultimate scene-maker, Chuck E. Weiss has spent a career hobnobbing with the cool and famous in rock's hierarchy while barely pursuing a career of his own. Born in Denver, Weiss was originally a drummer, touring with bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins. By the late '60s, Weiss had performed and/or recorded with Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Roger Miller, and others. While still living in Denver, he struck up a friendship with singer/songwriter Tom Waits, later writing songs like "Spare Parts" with him and moving to Los Angeles. Living at West Hollywood's infamous Tropicana Motel with Waits and singer Rickie Lee Jones, Weiss became the subject of Jones' hit "Chuck E.'s in Love." Weiss' career finally stumbled off the launching pad with the 1981 release of The Other Side of Town, a collection of demo tapes released on Select Records. Rather than follow this up with a proper release, Weiss instead put together a band called the G-d Damn Liars and spent the next 11 years performing a weekly gig at the L.A. nightclub the Central and later partnered with friend Johnny Depp to convert the club into the Viper Room. After a 18-year hiatus from recording, Weiss' second album, Extremely Cool, was released on a Rykodisc subsidiary, Slow River, in 1999. Old Souls & Wolf Tickets appeared in 2001, followed by 23rd & Stout in 2007.
Weiss spent the next six years performing in and around Los Angeles, occasionally touring. He re-entered the studio in late 2013 and emerged with the self-produced Red Beans & Weiss on Anti. The album's executive producers were actor Johnny Depp and singer/songwriter Tom Waits.
''RED BEAMS AND WEISS''
APRIL 14 2014
48:39
1 Tupelo Joe
Chuck E. Weiss 3:15
2 Shushie
Will MacGregor / Chuck E. Weiss 3:36
3 Boston Blackie
J.J. Holiday / Chuck E. Weiss 3:50
4 That Knucklehead Stuff
Chuck E. Weiss 3:24
5 Bomb the Tracks
Tony Gilkyson / Chuck E. Weiss 4:26
6 Exile on Main Street Blues
Mick Jagger / Keith Richards 4:54
7 Kokamo (Boy Bruce)
Chuck E. Weiss 3:27
8 Hey Pendejo
Chuck E. Weiss 2:45
9 Dead Man's Shoes
Tony Gilkyson / Chuck E. Weiss 4:16
10 Old New Song
Chuck E. Weiss 3:53
11 The Hink-a-Dink
Chuck E. Weiss 4:50
12 Oo Poo Pa Do in the Rebop
Chuck E. Weiss 2:44
13 Willy's in the Pee Pee House
Michael Murphy / Chuck E. Weiss 3:19
Mike Bolger /Trumpet
Boo /Vocals (Background)
Judy Brown /Vocals (Background)
Jack Depp /Vocals (Background)
Johnny Depp /Bass, Drums, Executive Producer, Guitar, Vocals (Background)
Tony Gilkyson /Composer, Guitar, Title
Carlos Guitarlos /Vocals (Background)
Bill "Beano" Hanti /Drums, Vocals (Background)
Rachel Hathaway /Vocals (Background)
Don Heffington /Drums, Percussion, Producer, Vocals (Background)
J.J. Holiday /Composer, Guitar
Nathan Holmes /Vocals (Background)
Starling Jenkins /Vocals (Background)
Will MacGregor /Bass, Composer
Joey Malone /Vocals (Background)
Janice Markham /Violin
Michael Murphy /Composer, Piano
Steve Nelson /Bass
Rip Rense /Poetry
Jimmy Roberts /Saxophone
Nick Vincent /Drums
Chuck E. Weiss /Composer, Drums, Percussion, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocals
Bruce Witkin /Bass, Mixing, Vocals (Background)
CeCe Worrall /Clarinet, Saxophone
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
It's been seven years since Chuck E. Weiss released 23rd & Stout, a set that drunk-walked between roots rock, vintage R&B, jump blues, zany experimentation, and post-Beat humor. Red Beans and Weiss marks the songwriter's first album for Anti. It was self-produced, though it lists Tom Waits and Johnny Depp as executive producers. Guitarist Tony Gilkyson, drummer Don Heffington, and pianist Michael Murphy all return. The personnel is fleshed out with bassist Will MacGregor and saxophonists Jimmy Roberts and CeCe Worrall-Rubin. For anyone who's heard Weiss' Rykodisc albums Extremely Cool and Old Souls & Wolf Tickets, there will be much to enjoy here. Opener "Tupelo Joe" may have throwaway lyrics, but the scorching modern rockabilly slashed and burned through by Gilkyson's guitar playing makes it more than worthwhile. The moderately funky hipster rap that is "That Knucklehead Stuff," with its alternating honking sax and zinging guitar lines, is catchy as hell, as is its strutting counterpart, "Kokamo (Boy Bruce)." "Exile on Main Street Blues" is done in swaggering 1950s Chicago style. "Hey Pendejo" walks the line between bumping polka, East L.A. backyard mariachi, and a Catskills comedy routine. What works best here are the cuts where electric blues-boogie is the M.O. This band is tight and nasty, no matter how spaced out and loopy Weiss' groove is. Check the strutting boogie in "Boston Blackie," "Bomb the Tracks," and "Dead Man's Shoes"; they are electrified and worth the price of admission alone. The syncopated blues-jazz in "Oo Poo Pa Do in the Rebop" is complete with lyrics seemingly drawn from the world of an Iceberg Slim novel and a rhythm section that can't be shaken. "The Hink-a-Dink" is a sinister moaning blues with Gypsy violin, Judy Brown's wailing wordless soul backing vocal, and a moody male chorus moan all tossed in, but it works! Not everything does, however. "Shushie" is a noir-ish hepcat jazz number whose lyrics make a feral cat Weiss rescued into a terminal hipster. (The smoky saxophone solo is nice, though.) Closer "Willy's in the Pee Pee House" is so dumb it could have just been left off altogether. That said, none of this is contrived -- it's all Chuck E. Weiss. Zany, unrepentantly retro, and drenched in an era that revivalists can't touch, Red Beans and Weiss is a greasy, gritty report from one of L.A.'s last original rock & roll street denizens. It has a grimy charm all its own.
BIOGRAPHY
by Cub Koda
The ultimate scene-maker, Chuck E. Weiss has spent a career hobnobbing with the cool and famous in rock's hierarchy while barely pursuing a career of his own. Born in Denver, Weiss was originally a drummer, touring with bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins. By the late '60s, Weiss had performed and/or recorded with Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Roger Miller, and others. While still living in Denver, he struck up a friendship with singer/songwriter Tom Waits, later writing songs like "Spare Parts" with him and moving to Los Angeles. Living at West Hollywood's infamous Tropicana Motel with Waits and singer Rickie Lee Jones, Weiss became the subject of Jones' hit "Chuck E.'s in Love." Weiss' career finally stumbled off the launching pad with the 1981 release of The Other Side of Town, a collection of demo tapes released on Select Records. Rather than follow this up with a proper release, Weiss instead put together a band called the G-d Damn Liars and spent the next 11 years performing a weekly gig at the L.A. nightclub the Central and later partnered with friend Johnny Depp to convert the club into the Viper Room. After a 18-year hiatus from recording, Weiss' second album, Extremely Cool, was released on a Rykodisc subsidiary, Slow River, in 1999. Old Souls & Wolf Tickets appeared in 2001, followed by 23rd & Stout in 2007.
Weiss spent the next six years performing in and around Los Angeles, occasionally touring. He re-entered the studio in late 2013 and emerged with the self-produced Red Beans & Weiss on Anti. The album's executive producers were actor Johnny Depp and singer/songwriter Tom Waits.
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