{"id":632429,"date":"2026-10-16T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632429\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T13:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T13:00:12","slug":"josh-brolin-is-making-a-documentary-about-his-teenage-punk-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632429\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Brolin is making a documentary about his teenage punk band"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Josh Brolin is currently in the process of making a documentary about his teenage punk band Cito Vice Squad, who went on to become hardcore group Rich Kids On LSD \u2013 check out the full interview above.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to NME about growing up in the Los Angeles punk scene, Brolin said that he used to climb out of his bedroom window at night and drive down to legendary venue Godzilla\u2019s, which he compares to iconic New York gig spot CBGB. \u201cWe\u2019d watch amazing bands like Beer Guts, Circle Jerks and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/black-flag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Black Flag<\/a>,\u201d he said, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/dead-kennedys\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dead Kennedys<\/a> and Wasted Youth also part of the scene.<\/p>\n<p>He also spoke about his time in Cito Vice Squad, who he formed with \u201cbest friend\u201d Jason Sears. \u201cWe were really motivated by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/sex-pistols\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sex Pistols<\/a>. That was probably the band that initiated it all.\u201d Sears and fellow Cito Vice Squad member Richard \u201cBomer\u201d Manzullo went on to form hardcore skatepunk band Rich Kids On LSD.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was in a really bad garage version [of Rich Kids On LSD] called Cito Vice Squad,\u201d said Brolin, who called the band name \u201csuper dumb.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was drums, but I wasn\u2019t a good drummer. And then Bomer came in. He was an amazing, amazing musician. All self-taught and he could play the bass, the guitar, the drums and the piano. He composed later. It was amazing,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe idea of being in a band is always great. You see a lot of actors that try to have that side gig. And I get it. It\u2019s not great for everybody, but I get it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re doing a documentary on those guys right now, and talking to [filmmaker] Amy Berg about the L.A. punk scene,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>In a 2002 interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thrashermagazine.com\/articles\/music-interviews\/rkl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Thrasher<\/a>, Sears said the band\u2019s name came from an early critic who said \u201cthose kids will never be anything, they\u2019re just a bunch of rich kids on LSD.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rich Kids On LSD released their debut EP \u2018It\u2019s A Beautiful Feeling\u2019 in 1984 and their first full-length \u2018Still Laughing\u2019 came the following year. The band broke up in 1989 after the release of second album \u2018Rock \u2018n Roll Nightmare\u2019 before a version of the band reformed in 1992. In 2005, Bomer died from heart failure tied to his battle with drug addiction while Sears passed away two months later due to complications while undergoing detox treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2014\/mar\/13\/josh-brolin-labor-day-interview-heroin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Guardian <\/a>in 2014, Brolin said he was also part of a surf gang called the Cito Rats in his childhood.\u00a0 \u201cIt was Santa Barbara. It was the 80s. It was punk rock. You either had the children of rich, neglectful parents or children of poor, neglectful parents, so it was a mix. But we basically grew up the same way.\u201d \u201cI tried heroin,\u201d he continued. \u201cThat sounds so horrible when you put it like that. But yeah, I tried heroin. I mean, I never got into it and I never died from it, which is a good thing. I\u2019ve had 19 friends who died. Most of those guys I grew up with, they\u2019re all dead now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brolin also spoke to NME about his love of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/david-bowie\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Bowie<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/pearl-jam\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pearl Jam<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders from Mars\u2019 is just so good [and] \u2018Ten\u2019 changed my life. I heard it when I was in my early 20s and it changed my whole trajectory,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing when music changes the trajectory of how you see everything. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/bob-dylan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Dylan<\/a> did that. My son\u2019s 38 now but his introduction to language was Dylan. Before he could speak, he probably learned 30 Dylan songs and knew the lyrics by heart. He started having conversations after that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Josh Brolin\u2019s latest movie \u2018Whalefall\u2019 is out in UK cinemas from today (Friday October 16)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Brolin is currently in the process of making a documentary about his teenage punk band Cito Vice&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69,62122],"class_list":["post-632429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-punk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}