Off To A Bad Start
Personal Perspective On The Popsicko Re-Issue Project
Keith Brown profoundly changed my life twice.
The first time was when we met during a high school English class in Manhattan Beach, CA. We immediately bonded over music and started The Hoods, our First Serious High School Band™, with Greg McIlvaine and Dan Kern. Those two remain lifelong friends of mine, but I originally met them through Keith.
That band fizzled out senior year. Keith went on to briefly front Hermosa Beach hardcore heroes Pennywise. The Hoods reformed as The Wonderfuls during college in Santa Barbara, made a demo tape, and mostly played keg parties. It was fun, but nothing too serious—which is probably why we broke up again, this time for good.
Keith’s ambition to pursue music professionally was stronger than ours back then, but it opened my eyes to the possibilities. We all remained close as we went on separate musical journeys, although our creative paths would cross at various times in the future. I’ve never experienced bonds quite like the ones I made in that first band.
Keith eventually formed the alternative rock/power pop band Popsicko with three talented Santa Barbara natives in 1992—Tim Cullen (guitar/vocals), Marko DeSantis (bass), and Mick Flowers (drums). They built a solid fanbase around California through DIY shows, sharing stages with future stars like Green Day, Weezer and Dishwalla.
Their only album, Off to a Bad Start, was self-funded and originally self-released in 1994. The high-energy guitar pop collection was produced by Adam Mitchell, former frontman for Canadian pop group The Paupers who went on to work with Linda Ronstadt in the ‘70s and KISS in the ‘80s, among others.
“Living up to its name and then some, these Santa Barbara pop rockers evoke memories of the late great Plimsouls, except with more (and better) guitars,” the LA Times wrote in a capsule review.
It was obvious to anybody paying attention back then that Popsicko was destined for the world stage, but Keith’s growing drug addiction derailed their momentum. The rest of the band staged an intervention which resulted in Popsicko going on hiatus.
Then tragedy struck.
The second time Keith Brown profoundly changed my life was when he died in a car crash on November 7, 1995.
Losing a friend that young, especially somebody so talented and with such a bright future ahead, still seems unfathomable to me. Like many people who knew and loved Keith, I was utterly heartbroken, confused, totally lost…and angry.
I’m not proud to admit it, but for a long time I was mad at Keith for letting his drug use get out of control; and mad at myself for the reckless partying we did together. It wasn’t until I got sober in the early 2000s that I truly made peace with all of it. I now understand that addiction is an illness and we were both sick in our own ways.
These days I mostly think about our many adventures, the laughter, and all the music we listened to, went to see live, and made together.
It took time, but we all started to heal in our own ways. Moment by moment, day by day, life went on.
The surviving members of Popsicko embarked on new musical adventures: Cullen’s band Summercamp signed with Maverick Records; Flowers played drums for The Lapdancers and The Rentals, among others; DeSantis became the lead guitarist for Sugarcult, and bassist for Bad Astronaut.
My mid-’90s band Ridel High recorded some of our earliest demos with Keith Brown in his downtown Santa Barbara apartment. That trio later made an album for My Records that was re-released by A&M Records. I left Ridel High to join the glam punk group Tsar, featuring Dan Kern from our high school band on lead guitar.
We made albums, toured, and heard our songs on the radio. Commercial success eluded my bands, but the chance to glimpse the life we had dreamed about as teens was magical. For me those dreams were born in the early years playing with Keith.
The 2000s presented different life stages—non-music careers, marriage, children. There have been countless moments when I wondered what Keith would have thought about how our lives turned out, or who he would have become.
And many more when I simply wished he was here.
Through it all we all did our best to keep his memory and music alive, but as the years went by I could feel him slipping into oblivion. So, starting in 2021, I worked with the surviving members of Popsicko and Big Stir Records to do something about it.
It began with a few texts between DeSantis and I, but soon blossomed into something much bigger and more beautiful.
My simple interview request led to publishing an oral history of Popsicko—featuring quotes from members of Foo Fighters, Pennywise, Baby Lemonade, Nerf Herder, Lagwagon and many others—in the Santa Barbara Independent.
As that came together, DeSantis, Cullen and Flowers realized that Popsicko’s music hadn’t been re-issued in 20+ years. So, Big Stir Records released a digital single (“Nastassja”/“Gettin’ Used To You”) to accompany the SB Independent oral history.
That partnership sparked conversations between Popsicko, Big Stir and me about releasing OtaBS on vinyl for the first time ever, along with To Would Have Beens—an expanded oral history book including a new foreword by DeSantis, an afterword by me, plus rare band photos, flyers, lyric sheets, and more.
It’s bittersweet, to say the least, but we’re happy to share this project with the world.
The Popsicko re-issue project is a labor of love involving many talented people.
Big thanks to Keith Brown’s family for their support; Tyson Cornell at Rare Bird Lit for his guidance with book layout and printing; John Lathrop for album design, and Eric Beetner for book design; David Garonzik for Popsicko concert footage; Paul Covington for editing the “Nastassja” video; everybody who contributed to the oral history; Marko, Tim and Mick for their dedication and partnership; and Christina Bulbenko and Rex Broome at Big Stir Records for their patience & support.
Wow, dude! This was written from the heart, and I FEEL that.
On behalf of Geoff and myself, I am so happy to be a tiny part of helping spread the word on Popsicko on our podcast.
Listening to the album, speaking with you and Marko, reading the oral history, and this piece helps me understand what a force Keith Brown was. The world missed out on him, but I am thankful to you and all the folks you listed above for pushing this project forward and ensuring that even though Keith's physical presence is absent, his music and spirit are very much alive.
A heartfelt thank you, Steve - Keith
If I may, I would include your 2021 piece on the band as further reading. I get a LOT of submissions as an editor. Very few stop me in my tracks. This one did.
https://medium.com/the-riff/having-fun-or-dying-young-46b3fd363f6f