Popsicko

Off to a Bad Start

Big Stir Records

Just before this album was released in 1994, tragedy stuck the band. Their lead singer/guitarist Keith Brown was killed in a car crash. The band was gaining notice at the time, playing sold out shows, talking to major labels about being signed, opening shows for Green Day, among others. The Santa Barbara scene they came out of was hot at the time, the most famous band from it being Toad The Wet Sprocket.

Popsicko was an alternative, a real alternative, every bit as real as Nirvana. They didn’t sound quite like anyone else at the time. Take the best parts from early Green Day, Weezer, and Nirvana, and others like Cheap Trick and the Replacements, put them together, and this is the band you get.

A great example of their sound is their current single, “Some Mothers Son”/“Hard To Tell”--heartfelt love and life songs, great rocking guitar playing from Brown and second guitarist Tim Cullen, rounded out by Marko DeSantis on bass and Mick Flowers on drums. It's just all around good in a mid-90s kind of way.

If you want to hear a great band who should’ve made it, that’s Popsicko. If you miss the 90s, this album is a good way to relive that time, without nostalgia, and wonder what could’ve been. 

Andrea Weiss