Thursday, January 21, 2010

Oh Great, Yet Another Deliberately Obscurantist Early Clue to the New Direction

From 1976, please enjoy Bowery faves The Laughing Dogs and their winningly winsome powerpop confection "It Feels Alright Tonight."




This is from the "Live at CBGBS" double album, and it has been a source of wonderment to me for all the years since it came out that the Laughing Dogs ever got tagged as punk or underground. Jeebus, this could pass for Todd Rundgren or maybe Supertramp for heaven's sake, and that organ solo in the middle wouldn't be mistaken for amateurish or avant-garde by anybody with functioning ears.

The group went on to make two studio albums for Columbia; they're apparently very nice, although I've never heard them (neither has ever been on CD, but I seem to recall they're available on a free download site somewhere). Incidentally, the second one -- The Laughing Dogs Meet Their Makers-- has one of the great album covers of all time. A photo of the band being pummelled by their actual moms. Heh heh.

In any case, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded to the first reader who gleans its relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Listomania.

15 comments:

goomba said...

Songs with "Mother" in the title??

Gummo said...

Songs that reference a time of day?

Or did you do that already?

steve simels said...

No and no.
:-)

FD13NYC said...

Obscure bands performing on Live LP's that music clubs released?

TMink said...

Bands with Martin Short in them?

Great lounge bands?

Best electronic organ solos?

Bands that were totaly mislabled by the critics?

Most mind numbingly repetitive choruses?

Trey

FD13NYC said...

The little guy with the cigar looks like a young Keith Moon.

Wendy said...

Yeah, he does, although I think it's a hot dog ... you've already done one about food, right?

TMink said...

Keif Moon? I thought it was Martin Short.

Trey

midnight caller said...

Song titles with two or more words that rhyme?

steve simels said...

Nope.
:-)

Michael said...

There's not much power in their pop.
Songs with tonight in the title.

dave™© said...

Groups that sound like Supertramp?

dave™© said...

Actually, going left to right, that looks like Paul McCartney, Michael McDonald, Martin Short, and Lou Reed...

dave™© said...

Oh, let me take another shot at the wheel, Gene - songs that were supposedly "punk" that really weren't?

Anonymous said...

actually, the 2 albums have been re-released on CD and I saw them in the Collectors Choice catalog.