Old Enough to Forget

After All was a band that seemed so full of promise. The band was based in Vancouver, and the members were Scott Acomba on vocals, Jordy Birch on bass and backing vocals, Todd Simko guitar and backing vocals, and Leigh Grant on drums. The band was signed to Capitol, and I'm guessing they were licensed from Nettwork but that's just a guess on my part.  I did buy the CD when it came out in '88, and even saw them open for Bruce Hornsby at the old Expo Theatre - a great venue, now gone. It was an odd pairing, but they gave it a good go, and I remember rooting for them as I'd just picked up the album and it was cool to see them run through their short set. "Bullets" was getting a little bit of airplay here at home, and I suspect it was a regional thing, but for me it counted. I can't remember if they got a little pop when they played it. I like to think they did. It was an unexpected pleasure to find the record. I didn't need it. I wanted it. This was a bit...

Idles Eyes released their debut in 1985, and there were two songs that got a fair bit of airplay back in the day. "Tokyo Rose" was pure '80s awesomeness, and "All Day" a song that at the time I didn't really think was all that special. However, those songs helped earn the band a Most Promising Group Juno Award in 1985, beating out Rational Youth and The Arrows among others. The award is a bit of a curse as much as anything, as generally it was like getting a kiss from Judas. I bought the album for "Tokyo Rose" and gave the album a couple of cursory spins then filed it. My general recollection when thinking about this album was that it was one killer and the rest filler. Yeah, I was pretty merciless back in the day. I used to have a pretty long commute and I often tapes entire albums for the car ride, but most of the time it was mix tapes. I don't think I ever taped the album - once I passed judgment I moved on pretty quickly to the next shiny t...