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IVH: The Neurotic Sounds of Possum Dixon [1]

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Date: 2023-08-24

Tonight’s selections from Possum Dixon’s 1993 self-titled debut album. There was a fair amount on ink spilled on them in the 90s, not much seems to made it online though. I first heard the band via MTV; the Nerves video. The surf guitar, angst-y vocals and atonal keyboard banging grabbed my attention. “What a weird pop song” I thought.

Possum Dixon started out jumping from coffeehouse to coffeehouse in Southern California. The band began as a four-piece and managed to get the attention of Interscope Records. Interscope liked what it heard and booked the band on a nine-month-long tour of the United States as the opener for fellow irreverent Californians [Aldo: nah, they are from Philly] The Dead Milkmen. The group’s self-titled debut, Possum Dixon, sports an assortment of abstract lyrics and jittery energy. The neurotic tension of “Nerves” sets the scene for the rest of the album. Key switches between minor and major and a healthy dose of trebly surf guitar drive the song forward, and “She Drives” showcases Celso Chavez’ charged guitar playing. — Badger Herald

Nerves

x YouTube Video

“In Buildings” is the CD’s real standout. Rob Zabrecky begins by describing the object of his obsession as “an actress who’s late for an audition.” Later he asks, “Is she Catholic / or Jewish / or the devil?” Zabrecky’s desperation has an adolescent edge to it; it is a kind of comic-book love. The single from Possum Dixon, “Watch the Girl Destroy Me,” drew moderate college-radio play, especially on the West Coast, but it failed to produce a follow-up single. The most likely reason was probably that the majority of Possum Dixon wouldn’t have met well with the FCC. Some songs seem almost consumed by teenage antics. — Badger Herald

In Buildings



Watch the Girl Destroy Me was the hit single. Despite releasing two additional albums, the band remained a 90s alternative rock one-hit wonder.

Watch the Girl Destroy Me

x YouTube Video

Formed around 1990 and named after a suspected murderer mentioned on America’s Most Wanted, this Los Angeles quartet chronicles slacker life in its hometown with driving, edgy pop-rock that updates new wave bands like the Attractions, Yachts and Wall of Voodoo. [...] Co-produced by Earle Mankey, Possum Dixon doesn’t stretch any musical boundaries, but the band’s songwriting skill and raw energy make up for that. Against the tight playing of drummer Richard Treuel and guitarists Robert O’Sullivan and Celso Chavez, Zabrecky projects both frustration and an odd sort of vulnerability when singing irresistible songs like “Watch the Girl Destroy Me.” And though he sometimes takes his twentysomething angst too seriously, “Nerves” and other numbers do a fair job of capturing what it’s like to be young, poor and alienated in the City of Angels. — Trouser Press

Invisible



I had the good fortune of seeing Possum Dixon live once. They were opening for label mate the Reverend Horton Heat. My DJ friend at out college radio station got the tickets. After the show we went to the world famous (not really) Alley Cat Lounge where cheap beers were a buck-fifty. Then we crashed at my parents house.

Today, singer Rob Zabrecky is a world famous (really) magician and author (and he still releases the occasional record).

She Drives

WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?

All repeats

LAST WEEK’S POLL: IF YOU HAD 5 CHILDREN, WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE ALL BOYS OR ALL GIRLS

Boys 22%

Girls 33%

π 46%

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