Old Enough to Forget

Tonio K. is one of those artists you need to spend a little time with before you get to the payoff. I'll freely admit I came to Tonio K. through iDEoLA - more specifically because of the connection to WHAT? Records that was distributed by A&M. For whatever reason I still tend to think of Romeo Unchained and Tribal Opera as musical bookends. Which of course if pure unadulterated nonsense. Other than a heavy dose of '80s production the album's are nothing alike. Romeo Unchained was an album I didn't give much more than a cursory listen to when I first got it. There were some catchy songs here and there and musically this was a mid '80s mix of alternative and techno - it was very '80s, with all of the trimmings. It was sparkly and new. I'm not sure what I was expecting but after a couple of cursory spins it got shelved.  Which was a shame and frankly my loss. A couple years ago I found a copy of Life in the Food Chain , and I took the time to listen, I m...

It was 1985 and sixteen year old wunderkind Charlie Sexton was making a run for the brass ring. It boggles my mind the level of maturity in his singing and playing that is here at such an early age. I was in my early 20s when this came out and was leaning toward what was going to be affectionately known as "hair metal" but I liked a lot of new wave, Bryan Adams and even Corey Hart (the last one more a guilty pleasure) and here's young Charlie already a seasoned player making it look easy. I remember hearing "Impressed" (written by Steve Krikorian, also known as Tonio K.) on the radio and thinking it was okay, but it didn't inspire me to run out and lay out my cash. I mean, I was buying a lot of stuff, but it's all relative. What you think is a lot, and what I think is a lot, aren't necessarily in the same ball park. We also didn't have MTV, we had Much Music, and while close, weren't the same. Although they both actually played videos all day...