Next Tuesday, the night of June 24th, The Laughing Dogs will reunite to play their first gig in some 25 years at the Village Underground. Veterans of the late ‘70s music scene here in New York City will undoubtedly remember them as one of the bands who played CBGB and other venues alongside Blondie, The Ramones, Talking Heads and other legendary acts. The Dogs may not have become as famous as those bands, but they were arguably just as good. And they released two major label albums, in 1979 and 1980, the first of which got substantial radio play.

The Laughing Dogs were Jimmi Accardi (aka James Leonard) on lead guitar, Ronny Carle on bass, Carter Cathcart on keyboards and guitar and Moe Potts on drums. They had an advantage from the start in that all of them except Potts wrote and sang. They drew off many genres on their two albums, almost as if they had digested the entire history of popular music up until that point. Their first, self-titled album included the opening rocker “Get ‘in Outa Town,” the Beatlesque “Reason for Love” (both minor hits) and a full-on blast of punk called “I Need a Million.” The second album, The Laughing Dogs Meet Their Makers, was less successful commercially, which is mystifying as the production is better and the material is, if anything, more diverse. Highlights of that disc include the opening track “Zombies,” a warped paean to pop culture and the walking dead, a cover of The Animals’ “Don’t Bring Me Down,” the power-pop nugget “Not What I Used to Be” and “Two Who Are Willing,” the sentimental, change-of-pace ballad that closes the album.

The gig on the 24th will be an opportunity for old friends and fans from back in the day to take a walk down Memory Lane by seeing a talented band that hasn’t played together in a long time. But for people like myself – I was slightly too young and living in Nowheresville, Connecticut when the Dogs were around – it’s a chance to check out what I missed out on the first time around.

I recently got a chance to talk to Ronny Carle about the past and the present of The Laughing Dogs. Here’s what he had to say:


BR: This is going to be The Laughing Dogs' first gig in some 25 years. Why now?

RC: We have all been off doing things across the country and though some of us have managed to hook up, it has not been possible for all of us to be in one place long enough for something like this to get done. Barry Gruber, a fan of ours, called me sometime in April and said he wanted to have the Laughing Dogs play at his "Annulment Party." So I made the calls and fortunately we were all free and the venue we wanted was free and it came together.

BR: What have you and Carter and Jimmi been up to for the last 25 years or so?

RC: Carter is writing scripts and doing voice-overs for Pokemon. Yes, the cartoon show. He recently released a CD of Beach Boy tunes called Do it Again, an amazing record, and [he has] another CD coming out this summer of original songs on Wild Twin Records. Plus he is raising two children. He is a single Dad.

Jimmi lives in California. He has his own recording studio, his own radio program and produces all kinds of stuff. He maintains and runs his own record label called Molehill Music. And he is the keeper of all things Laughing Dogs.

I’m living in Pennsylvania with me wench and three kids. I’ve done a few records under various AKA’s and [am] just watching it all go by.

BR: Tell me a little about the late '70s music scene that the Dogs came out of in NYC. Was it as exciting as it seems?

RC: It was a wonderful time from ‘74 to ‘79 before the scene got corrupt. If you were an artist, musician, writer or someone with a knack for the camera... It was young and innocent, a brotherhood of sorts… Tuff Darts, Richard Hell, Television, Dead Boys, Lenny Kaye, Patti Smith Talking Heads, Willie Deville, David Jo. I could name at least 50 more… Eddie Dixon, The Shirts, The Miamis , mag writers Legs McNeil and others.. Everything was being created and all in a great frictional harmony... There was room for all kinds of talent.

Rock and Roll had been getting predictable with the labels putting out more and more formula music and T&A rock. Arena bands like Kiss and and others were turning rock into comic entertainment with more regard for stunts than music. It was big business.

England was getting out major talent on Indie labels just like the U.S. and it was great. Everyone called it "punk" though it was more of an attitude than a particular sound. The major labels put a new name to the scene; they [called] it New Wave [and] from there it went down hill.

BR: What can fans expect at the gig on June 24th?

RC: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue... and more honest fun than anyone’s had in a long time.

- Dave Steinfeld