Chuck E. doesn’t need to get lucky, cause he’s cool. More than cool, he’s L.A. cool, which is higher on the totem pool.
His second release on 17 years is a culmination of lurking in the barrooms, backrooms and iffy hotels of LA for longer than most stomachs could survive. Course, while he’s still scruffy, now he plays Johnny Depp’s Viper Room regularly.
Produced by Tom Waits (who also plays on a few tracks) and Kathleen Brennan, the album has a bluesy, rock a billy, at times jazzy feel to it. You also get the sense that until you see Weiss onstage you’re only getting half the story.
"Oh Marcy" has a French Cajun feel, while "It Rains on Me" is brimming with playful pity. "Jimmy Would" and "Roll On Jordan" are throwbacks to another era, and "Extremely Cool" speaks for itself. "Horseface" is a lovely requiem for the ugly, and Weiss ends it with an anthem for those hepcat Jews in "Rocking in the Kibbutz Room." Weiss IS cool.
Chuck E Weiss Extremely Cool
