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.
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 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. 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.
Koncek died in 2001 in Las Vegas, Nevada from liver failure.
