Brad Finkel D.O.B.: 12/11/68 Born at: New York Hospital, NYC Grew up: Leonia, NJ Siblings: Twin sister (Brad's 4 minutes older) Started playing bass: 5th grade Why bass? Four strings, no chords - less trouble.

As a boy, Brad sat in his kitchen and stared at the George Washington Bridge. On the other side, less than a mile away, was Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. Mayor Koch's 181st Street subway station (Mayor Koch ties with Fiorello Laguardia for New York City's best mayor, in Brad's humble opinion), could transport him to Times Square. There, the young man would often just linger for hours, watching the human circus which was pre-Giuliani Times Square, and fending off offers of candy and switch blades.

In seventh grade (circa 1982), Brad made the leap from being a mere observer and started up his first band.

Adolescent Rebellion was at the center of the now infamous northeastern Bergen County, New Jersey, classic rock-pop scene. "It was our youth, man," Finkel has rambled. It started as a close-knit circle of bohemian types who loved black Rhythm & Blues combined with the folk movement's harmonies, and a little Bon Scott-era AC/DC thrown in for the greaser types.

It wasn't about money. It was about experimentation. Finkel doesn't think it's possible for today's seventh graders to find that kind of openness and acceptance in today's cutthroat Teen Market. For every Hanson there are a hundred Adolescent Rebellions scattered throughout the littered streets that pass for today's musical landscape. "You know," continued Finkel, "we built this city on rock 'n roll. Now I'd like to repave those same streets and say to all those 12-year-old dreamers, 'Come one, come all, sing your song, dig... dig yourself, don't be frightened, indulge... indulge in the candy and the switch blades.'"