Hello again! Welcome back to the scene, and especially, welcome to October's edition of "When You Were Young". I have WONDERFUL news this month's reviews are SPECTACULAR albums. If you don't believe me, read on, and when you're done reading, go check them out you won't be disappointed. Wait, did you say October? Damn, I was thinking April Fool! Seriously, though, there are the usual two albums, and the reviews are positive! For those of you who think I'm picking favorites, though, have no fear, November is shaping up to be a BAD month for music. And who knows what Christmas will bring? It will certainly bring us presents and maybe they will all suck worse than the socks and underwear Aunt Libby bought you!
October Reviews:
This month's reviews have been culled from two separate periods: 1985 and 1998. October brought us two particularly good albums in these two years, almost fifteen years apart, so why not review both? Good question. I won't bother to answer it. Let us get on to the music!
It's the month of October, which means that Halloween is just around the corner. Here's a little trick-or-treat list of modern contemporary artists celebrating birthdays on the day that Charlie Brown is getting all those rocks:
1945 - Russ Ballard, who played guitar & sang for the band Argent
1949 - Bob Seibenberg, Supertramp's original drummer
1952 - Bernard Edwards, bassist for the disco/dance band Chic (passed away 1996)
1957 - Robert Pollard, notorious drinker and singer/songwriter for Guided By Voices
1961 - Larry Mullen, drummer for U2
1963 - Mikkey Dee, drummer, formerly for the scary King Diamond and currently with Motorhead
1963 - Johnny Marr, guitarist and songwriter with both the acclaimed British group The Smiths and Modest Mouse
1964 - Colm O Ciosoig, drummer for seminal shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine; also played with Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
1966 - Adam Horovitz, otherwise known as Adrock, from the Beastie Boys
1966 - Annabella Lwin, singer for Bow Wow Wow
1967 - Robert Van Winkle, A.K.A everyone's favorite white rapper, Vanilla Ice
1970 - Rogers Stevens, guitarist for Blind Melon
1970 - Mitch Harris, metal guitarist(most notably Napalm Death)
1970 - Linn Berggren, singer from Ace Of Base
1974 - Roger Manganelli, bassist for Less Than Jake
1974 - Natasja Saad, Danish rapper (passed away 2007)
1981 - Frank Iero, guitarist for My Chemical Romance (the one with the shorter hair)
1981 - Jon Crocker, singer/songwriter
1982 - Gabriela Irmia, Romanian singer and one of the twins who comprise The Cheeky Girls
1982 - Monica Irmia, Romanian sister of the aforementioned Gabriela and singer with The Cheeky Girls
Well, that is just about all we have for this month. A final, brief story: when I lived in Philadelphia I dated a girl from north New Jersey who grew up around Bruce Springsteen's house. Apparently, back then, The Boss used to hire a guy for Halloween to lie in a coffin filled with candy treats, and when the kids would come to get some candy, he would pop up and scare the kids! Now, that is a man with a genuine heart for what kids like (and possibly a slightly sadistic side).
-Stefan Paul
