"American Vandals, Where Are You?"

Talk about a blast from the past...tonight I was performing random stream-of-conscious Googling (also known as Googlemancy) when the name "American Vandals" popped into my head.

The American Vandals. There's a name I hadn't spoken aloud in - oh, nearly 15 years? They were a late-Eighties "indie-rock" band from Rochester, New York whose lead vocalist, Tom Peter, was attending SUNY Plattsburgh. Like me, Tom Peter had a radio show on WPLT 93.9 FM (the SUNY Plattsburgh college station). I can't recall the name or even what he used to play on his show, but he was one of the people we regularly hung out with at the station in Yokum Hall...talking music, the music biz, life...you know, college daze.

Well, one February long, long ago Tom Peter brought his compatriots Doug Harradine, Rob Filardo and Lou Rossi to SUNY Plattsburgh to play a gig at the student union hall. That show was a lot of fun. Good raucous, energetic and crunchy music that made you proud to be 20 or so. Somewhere in my archives, I have a cassette tape of that show recorded off the band's mixing console, and a photo of Tom sitting at the WPLT board. I'll have to dig it up and show you sometime.

What information did I find Googling the American Vandals? Well, they apparently disbanded around 1990 and morphed into other Rochester bands like one named Zezozose. Sounds like they had a brief reunion in '99, and went the way of garage-band legend. They released an album called "History Skid" (I have a 12" copy autographed by all four Vandals).

Hey guys, if you're out there...remember "Queen Anne"?

I do. Hope you're still rockin' wherever you are.

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