Balloons for the Dog - 2026 - Wicked Forms of Old Snow

(73:28; Cuneiform Records)

I was searching through a folder on my Mac the other day and came across a press release from last July which should not have been there so I did some checking and discovered I had totally misfiled a promo and hadn’t even listened to it when it should have been reviewed aeons ago. The easy thing would have been to smartly pass it by, but that is not how I operate so instead I corrected the error and started listening to Balloons For The Dog, and my only thought was “how were this band not huge?”. In the booklet, which contains writings from all the band members plus photos is this great quote from Marc Farre, “They were too weird for punk, too raw for art rock, too theatrical for pop, too melodic for noise. Balloons for the Dog emerged from the humid chaos of suburban Maryland, outside Washington DC, in the late 1970s - part band, part brotherhood, part Dada experiment in the shell of a rock group. No one quite knew what to do with them. Least of all themselves.”

This 18-track collection brings together their only single plus unreleased tracks to provide us with an album which is 74 minutes long, and although the recording quality is a little up and down it is a very enjoyable jaunt indeed. The main influence is obviously Zappa, although the Bonzo’s were probably involved as well, plus possibly Skyhooks, with the core line-up being Bill ‘Kitsoulis’ Longhorse (guitars, background vocals), Leo ‘Steele’ Stalin (lead & background vocals, chainsaw), George ‘Georgy Jet’ Liebensfeld (lead & background vocals), and Eric Bindman (electric & acoustic violins). Dr. Brian Bennett provided bass, keyboards, background vocals (1977-80), Henry Cross was on bass between 1980 and 1982 while the drummers were Al Williams (1977) and Don ‘DXR Mavro’ Fontaine (1978-81). There are details against each song saying who was involved, but no details of when they were recorded or where they have been sourced from.

The band were probably too out of time for their own good, as if they had been around 10 years earlier then I am sure we will all very aware of who they were and what they were doing, but this is way too clever for the independent and punk crowd while also too jagged and way out for the art rock scene, too theatrical for RIO and post-rock, even though it obviously brings in elements of all of these. Listening to this in 2026, more than 40 years since the band broke up, it feels both dated and incredibly current, and I can see fans of bands such as Cardiacs getting a great deal from this. There is a feeling that everything and anything is possible at all times and there are no constraints whatsoever so if they want to throw in some shirking guitar riffs then that is fine, as is performing a theatrical number, while the bass is often a hugely important melodic element. All power to Cuneiform for making this available as I have thoroughly enjoyed this, and one can only hope there may be even more music to be released from the vaults? Superb. 

Kev Rowland, June 2026

Links:
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/