Celso Chavez, the guitarist-keyboardist in local '90s alt-rock band Possum Dixon, died Wednesday night after complications from a staph infection led to pneumonia, former bandmate Rob Zabrecky has confirmed to Pop & Hiss. He was 44.
"He had been doing a lot of harm to his body for a really long time," Zabrecky said. "It finally took its unfortunate toll."
Possum Dixon, which played some of its earliest shows at the long-since departed Bebop Records and Fine Art in Reseda, had moderate success in the post-Nirvana alt-rock era. The quartet, along with the likes of Beck and Weezer, was one of a number of local rock acts that jumped to a major label in the early '90s.
Possum Dixon put a pop spin on late '70s punk and new-wave influences and garnered radio play for frenzied singles such as "Watch the Girl Destroy Me." The band was known for its hectic live shows.
A 1994 review in The Times wrote that Zabrecky, Chavez and guitarist Robert O'Sullivan "were all from the bowling-pin school of rock stagecraft, repeatedly flopping to the floor and rolling about while attempting to extract something more or less (usually less) coherent from their instruments."
In an interview with The Times in 1993, Chavez said the band approached its live shows as "a big celebration, chaos, just having to release a lot of tension."
Possum Dixon signed to Interscope and released its self-titled debut for the label in 1993. Prior to inking with Interscope, the band released numerous singles for the tiny Pronto Records label, which had also issued music from acts such as Spindle and Sugar Plastic. Possum Dixon ultimately recorded three albums for Interscope, culminating in the Ric Ocasek-produced "New Sheets" in 1998.
Song topics, especially early, were heavily focused on dead-end jobs, girls and illicit substances. Zabrecky said he and Chavez regularly over-indulged.
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