The first drummer was Matt Cameron - he's on their first release, Ankety Low Day recorded in the pre-natal days of the band. That album was nominated to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Recording. Rough mixes got sent out, and Tone Dogs were invited to festivals in Europe in Fall, 1988. They started as a quartet with Henry Franzoni on drums, and Courtney von Drehle on keyboards and saxes. Eventually they regrouped to make a trio, with Will Dowd on drums. They toured Europe 5 times (especially in ex-Yugoslavia, Hungary and Czech, every tour by train), and played on both North American coasts, as well as in Montreal for New Music America.

Their last European tour, Fall 1991, was very difficult, and the band fell apart. Endless succession of strange and challenging situations. For one, Early Middle Years was delayed in release, so once again they were touring with cassettes. A box of T-shirts mysteriously disappeared between the house and Seattle Airport. A friend came along, and had deep troubles. Two nights recording at our favorite club in Budapest, but this time horrific - howling feedback, starting at 2:30am on a Tuesday night, lost key and accomodation confusion (at dawn after horrible show), arriving in Linz we discovered we were a week late (while the taxi radio blared 'always look at the bright side of life') etc. etc. etc.

They thought to make a third and final album, but an earthquake triggered an electrical fire at Dogfish, and the studio burned, along with all the Tone Dogs archives. If you have any archival recordings, please contact Amy Denio at mydenio at earthlink dot net.

Ankety Low Day

The Early Middle Years