Originally issued in 1981, The Other Side of Town is terminal L.A. hipster Chuck E. Weiss' debut album on the Select imprint. He's claimed on at least a couple of occasions in print that it was a demo and issued without his permission. OK. Weiss' biography reads a little like Neal Cassady's, whose fictional incarnation was the hero of Jack Kerouac's -On the Road. Weiss, who hails from Denver, was the son of parents who owned a record store. He was originally a drummer who played with Lightnin' Hopkins and gigged with Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, and Roger Miller, to mention a few. He has been immortalized in song by his old running mates Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones -- right, that Chuck E. -- and had characters loosely based on him show up in Sam Shepard's plays; what these three all have in common with Weiss is that they all lived in the Tropicana Motor Hotel in Los Angeles at the same time. While the rest have all gone on to various forms of legend, Weiss is still hanging out in Los Angeles, talking to anyone who will listen about the old days and banging about on countertops in coffee shops and the like. He's a rascal and proud of it, and he's recorded three more albums between 1999 and 2007. There isn't anything particularly special about The Other Side of Town other than the fact that it goes back to an earlier time in much the same way the Red Devils and the Blasters did with the blues and rockabilly. Some guy named Mac Rebennack (aka Dr. John) plays piano like a firehouse burning down, and Jones in her beat angel voice sings a duet on the track Sidekick. Larry Taylor plays bass, Alvin Shine Robinson wails a pretty mean guitar, and Freddie Stahle plays drums -- Weiss sings and plays percussion. It sounds like a demo, but it's full of great wit, charm, and an utter carelessness that makes it feel dangerous in a time when music is anything but. It is reminiscent of old rock & roll, blues, and raggedy R&B because to Weiss it's not remotely revival music. He's actually playing that stuff because that's who he is -- he was a relic even then.

1		Luigi's Starlite Lounge
2		Saturday Night Fish Fry
3		Sidekick
4		Gina
5		Tropicana
6		Sparky
7		Juvenile Delinquent
8		The Other Side of Town
9		Down the Road a Piece