Hello, friends I've found a few flyers and bumperstickers from back in the day. Popskull was an original and twisted cover band in Houston which started out named Scatterbrains. Scatterbrains formed early in 1988 in Houston's industrial parks in the Alief area. With Dave Ramirez, (D Ram) on vocals, Gary DeCuir, (GB) on guitar, Brian Visneau, (Vis) on bass and me, Ian Carroll on drums, we played at nightclubs and private parties in Houston. An especially fond memory is a huge party Dave's brother Tom Hall threw complete with a circus type tent, a stage and multiple kegs. Our buddies in Alief, Headfirst took the stage first. They only got two or three songs out before the cops closed the whole thing down. We had a good time draining those kegs later though!

Recording projects of the band were several. Gary was an audio/video student at HCC and later enrolled in the a/v course at the Art Institute. The band became Gary's project and had several recording sessions. First was the HCC Westwood recordings which gave such songs as Adhesive Philosophy, Jesus is Coming and Cotton Swab. After winning a battle of the bands, Scatterbrains had a session at a Baytown recording studio. The best recordings came from later sessions at the Art Institute's brand new studios, which gave Tiffany, Shun and others.

Scatterbrains onstage at Backstage, Houston, Tx., 1990

 

Backstage, Fitzgeralds and the Axiom were some of the clubs Scatterbrains brought a unique mixture of metal, alternative, funk, country and pure thrash. After replacing original bassist with close friend Ray Griffith, another change was made and Tom Underwood joined the band. Gary ran ads in the musicians looking for work sections, and Tom answered an ad. On the Scatterbrains self release, "No Deposit No Return" (a William S. Burroughs reference), Tom was credited with "sweep sticky thunderbroom and reversible ugly stick". I also answered an ad which Gary said, "Ground pedal band seeks drummer with mousse-free integrity...". I didn't know what the hell that was about but I called. Our first band photo had us reading the music rags and comic books while sitting in an old refrigerator.

Popskull, circa 1991 in Denver, Co.

 

 Photo by Lisa Ramirez shot on the steps of the state's capitol,

one mile above sea level. The band soured on the Houston music scene, and wanted a change. We packed up and moved everything to Denver, Co. We lived together for a month or so until jobs and housing was acquired, and started looking for another bass player as Tom didn't make the trip.

 Mike Brown was an eclectic personality and funky bassist. He undoubtedly answered an ad.

Popskull flyers weren't original artwork, but Gary chose

eccentric images from the likes of

Salvador Dali and Charles Bukowski. 

 

Scatterbrains had to change it's name because a major-label band came out with the name "Scatterbrain" and actually stole our shpiel (as Vis would say). Very similar to our style of wide-ranging rock, thrash, changes of speed, etc., this band recorded a song which we also played, if you saw Scatterbrains do "Earache My Eye" from Cheech and Chong, you'd know the growling vocals over the menacing crunch and slamming rhythm...they stole our shpiel.

 

 

An artist opening on Colfax Ave. in Denver, Co.

This wasn't the original use for the Electra image. Popskull flyers in Colorado were often images we'd used on flyers originally while still in Houston under Scatterbrains

 

Gary DeCuir, created the flyers for all Popskull shows

 

 

"Sweep Sticky Thunderbroom" Tom Underwood

Scatterbrains at a private party 1990?

 Gary, Ian and Lauren, Denver, Co.

 

 

--Katykarter