The Leopards -

The Leopards were an American music-hall band that released the album Kansas City Slickers on Moon Records in 1977. Ten years later, a revised lineup released Magic Still Exists on Voxx Records.

Members: Dennis Pash (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion, harmonica), Kevin Sanders (vocals, guitar, 1975-87), James Bordy (guitar, vocals, 1987-present), Dennis Bouch (drums, percussion, 1987-present), Ross Inden (bass, guitar, 1987-present), Roy McDonald (drums, percussion, 1987-present), Ray Symzcyk (lead guitar, 1987-present)

Background

The Leopards formed in Kansas City, Kansas, as a duo project in 1975.

Multi-instrumentalist Dennis Pash (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion, harmonica) and guitarist/vocalist Kevin Sanders met through local rock circles and bonded over 1960s British Invasion sounds. Pash drew from ragtime piano training in his youth and prior work with the Ragtime Skedaddlers; Sanders contributed guitar skills honed in garage bands. They recorded demos in Pash’s childhood home basement and self-released the debut album Kansas City Slickers on their Moon Records label in 1977, pressing 1,000 copies.

Kansas City Slickers

The Leopards released their debut album, Kansas City Slickers, in 1977 on Moon Records.

Pash and Sanders deliver power pop with music hall flourishes through layered guitars and piano runs. Pash’s vocals adopt clipped English phrasing over Sanders’ rhythmic strums, while harmonica accents punctuate mid-tempo paces. Dennis Pash wrote eight songs; Kevin Sanders composed three.

Tracks divide into quirky openers with faux accents and wistful ballads laced with power pop drive. “Road To Jamaica” kicks off with Pash’s nasal delivery twisting over sparse guitar plucks, evoking a telephone booth echo. “Mind Of My Own” bounces on music hall piano and clipped choruses that circle back to verse refrains. “Dancing In The Snow” sways in a wintry shuffle where guitars mimic frost patterns against steady drum taps. “57 Chevy” crafts a car ode with Sanders’ strums accelerating into bridge bursts. “I Wonder If I’ll Ever See You Again” glistens as a power pop lament, harmonies swelling over keyboard swells. “Recess” captures teen angst in mid-tempo riffs that lock into persistent guitar runs. “It Must Be Love” charms with goofy vaudeville skips and humming refrains. “Raggedy Andy Raggedy Ann” blends bluegrass picks with pop melodies in country-tinged verses.

A1. “Road to Jamaica” (3:17) – Pash. Opening with clipped rhythm guitar and a brisk pace, the song sketches an escapist vision where the destination feels more like a daydream than a journey. Pash’s arch vocal delivery and compressed sound lend the piece an offbeat, homespun immediacy.

A2. “Mind of My Own” (2:48) – Sanders. A brisk, music-hall-inspired number about asserting independence amid conformity, its sharp rhythmic turns mirror the singer’s resolve. Vocal harmonies double back on themselves, reinforcing the theme of personal defiance.

A3. “Dancing in the Snow” (3:12) – Pash. A portrait of winter solitude expressed through bright chordal motion and clipped phrasing. Its brisk rhythm contrasts the lyric’s quiet longing, evoking warmth found in memory rather than place.

A4. “57 Chevy” (2:23) – Pash. A nostalgic vignette where affection is bound to an old car, treated less as an object than as a symbol of youth and persistence. The song moves at highway pace, with brisk percussion accenting each turn like passing scenery.

A5. “Bugle Boy” (1:53) – Sanders. Built around march-time rhythm and chiming guitars, the track plays with military imagery as shorthand for youthful bravado. Its clipped verses and abrupt close keep the humor tight and dry.

A6. “I Wonder If I’ll Ever See You Again” (2:28) – Pash. A wistful letter set to steady rhythm guitar and close harmonies, the lyric turns loss into routine recollection. Originally issued as a single in 1976, it distills longing into a short, symmetrical refrain.

B1. “Recess” (2:58) – Pash. A mid-tempo reflection on adolescence where bright guitar figures circle around the tension between play and duty. The lyrics compress the restlessness of youth into a few plainspoken images.

B2. “It Must Be Love” (2:33) – Pash. Playful and arch, the song toys with the banal phrase of its title by setting it against clipped rhythms and parlor-piano turns. Its charm lies in the self-awareness that affection can sound absurd when spoken aloud.

B3. “I’m on My Way” (2:06) – Pash. Driven by taut rhythm guitar, the lyric frames pursuit as both romantic and irrational, an unplanned journey toward someone barely known. Its pace captures impulse more than destination.

B4. “Raggedy Andy Raggedy Ann” (3:16) – Pash. Folk and country inflections color this fable of mismatched lovers, where handcrafted imagery mirrors the song’s handmade texture. The gentle lilt disguises its bittersweet message of impermanence.

B5. “Summer’s Gone” (2:25) – Sanders. A concise farewell to the season and its fleeting joys, the track measures change through rhythm’s deceleration. Its intertwined voices turn the closing moments into quiet acceptance rather than lament.

Sessions occurred in the basement of Dennis Pash’s boyhood home in Kansas City with Pash and Sanders handling production and engineering.

Moon Records issued “I Wonder If I’ll Ever See You Again” (b/w “It Must Be Love,” catalog number 102 A/B) as a 1976 single.

Moon Records released additional singles in 1978: “Don’t Go Away” (b/w “The Only Girl For Me,” catalog number 100) and “They All Play Loud” (b/w “I’m Living In A Jungle,” catalog number 101).

The band attempted a Los Angeles relocation in 1977 but returned to Kansas City after limited gigs. Early shows included a 1979 support slot for Talking Heads in Kansas City. A second California move in the early 1980s faltered amid new wave shifts, prompting Pash to stay in Los Angeles and assemble a new lineup by 1985. Demos aired on Rodney Bingenheimer’s KROQ show led to a Voxx Records single and the 1987 album Magic Still Exists.

Magic Still Exists

The Leopards released their second album, Magic Still Exists, in 1987 on Voxx Records.

The album sustains power pop drive with garage edges through Ray Symzcyk’s lead guitar bites and Ross Inden’s bass lines. Dennis Pash centers vocals and multi-instrumental textures, backed by James Bordy’s guitar fills, Dennis Bouch’s drum snaps, and Roy McDonald’s percussion support; Richie Rubini adds drum takes on select tracks. Pash wrote ten songs; Inden composed one.

Tracks range from punk-tinged rockers to jangle pop nods with new wave contours. “Block Party” surges with snarling riffs grafting surf moves onto punk paces. “Back On The Track” trots in bouncy steps, Pash’s Davies-like phrasing underscoring career vignettes over killer refrains. “Last Night” jangles in rock roots, harmonies churning through moderated bursts. “Harlean’s House” layers Kinks echoes with Paisley Underground washes in vocal stacks. “Psychedelic Boy” vaudevilles in McCartney-styled arcs, melody dipping into goofy turns. “Chief Red Scar’s World Famous Herbal Cure Show” blasts jangle guitars across odd-titled paces from start to end. “It Can Happen To You” straightens into Merseybeat lines, pop efforts glistening in straightforward hooks. “I’m Drowning” hints at unique strains in hysterical lyrics, harmonica solo cutting through.

A1. “Block Party” (2:26) – Opening with sharp, overdriven guitars and brisk percussion, the song portrays street life as both spectacle and routine. Its call-and-response phrasing captures the press of people and sound in motion, turning a neighborhood gathering into urban theater.

A2. “Back on the Track” (2:41) – Wry self-portrait of artistic return, built on bright chord changes and clipped phrasing. The lyric balances humor with persistence, treating the act of starting over as a kind of practiced ritual.

A3. “Empty People” (2:24) – Taut rhythmic pattern underlines an observation on emotional vacancy, where the cheerful tone of the music offsets the social unease of the lyric. Ray Symzcyk’s lead guitar traces fine, angular accents through the refrain.

A4. “Last Night” (2:40) – Brisk, chiming meditation on missed connection, propelled by a tight rhythmic pulse. The interplay of vocal parts turns recollection into repetition, echoing how memory loops through desire.

A5. “Harlean’s House” (3:00) – Evokes the image of a decaying residence as metaphor for fame fading into myth. The lyric’s measured cadence and layered harmonies lend the scene a haunted theatricality.

A6. “Psychedelic Boy” (3:06) – Written by Dennis Pash. A tongue-in-cheek character sketch that reflects on the passing of 1960s idealism through vaudevillian pacing and bright, clipped rhythm guitar. Its cheer conceals a note of irony toward nostalgia itself.

B1. “Chief Red Scar’s World Famous Herbal Cure Show” (2:48) – Structured as a carnival pitch with tight jangle guitar figures, the song conjures itinerant Americana filtered through comic exaggeration. The fast tempo mimics the patter of a sideshow barker.

B2. “It Can Happen to You” (2:40) – With crisp, even pacing and interlocking vocal lines, the song reframes romantic hope as inevitability rather than chance. Its symmetrical phrasing underscores the lyric’s sense of calm certainty.

B3. “I’m Drowning” (2:40) – One of the few tracks where humor and tension align, the lyric uses water imagery to express exhaustion under constant strain. Harmonica and clipped guitar accents punctuate each surge like brief gasps for air.

B4. “Waiting” (2:40) – Ross Inden. Mid-tempo reflection on suspended time, its rhythm marked by restraint. The lyric’s stillness and spare vocal delivery turn inaction into the song’s quiet subject.

B5. “Crying” (2:40) – Pared-down ballad in 4/4 time, tracing grief through repetition rather than flourish. Its plain chord sequence reflects emotional fatigue more than heartbreak.

B6. “Dusty Treasures” (1:40) – Wordless interlude built on steady percussion and descending guitar lines, suggesting unearthed memories through recurring motifs that fade before full resolution.

B7. “Maggie Lane” (2:40) – Closing piece that revisits themes of nostalgia and displacement, its clipped rhythm and circular melody framing England-imagined-from-afar. The final cadence lands softly, as if the curtain falls mid-refrain.

Dennis Pash and Ross Inden produced and mixed sessions at Westbeach Recorders in Hollywood with engineer Brett Gurewitz; “Psychedelic Boy” sessions occurred at Fast Forward Studio in Hollywood.

Magic Still Exists features photography by Dominic Priore, whose images capture the band lineup from left to right: Ross Inden, Dennis Pash, Dennis Bouch, and Ray Symzcyk.

Voxx Records issued “Psychedelic Boy” (b/w “If You Come Back,” catalog number 16) as a 1987 single.

Discography: