Lit

Lit is an American rock band from Fullerton, California, active since 1989. The group’s lineup includes A. Jay Popoff, Jeremy Popoff, Kevin Baldes, Taylor Carroll and Allen Shellenberger. Its sound is associated with alternative rock, pop punk and related rock styles, including alternative metal, grunge, noise rock and post-grunge.

Career

The band develops out of earlier local groups formed by Jeremy Popoff, A. Jay Popoff and Kevin Baldes in the late 1980s. Jeremy Popoff and Baldes begin playing together in 1986. Around 1987, they are part of the pop metal group Razzle, which starts with Kevin Baldes on lead vocals and bass, A. Jay Popoff on drums and Sean Holland on guitar. The lineup changes in 1989, when A. Jay Popoff moves to lead vocals and the band adds Jeremy Popoff on guitar and Allen Shellenberger on drums. Razzle later becomes Stain, then takes the name Lit after discovering that Stain is already in use.

Lit releases a demo tape in 1990 and the EP New Vibe Revolution in 1993. It signs with Malicious Vinyl in 1995 and releases Tripping the Light Fantastic in 1997. The band then signs with RCA Records in 1998.

Breakthrough and major releases

A Place in the Sun appears in 1999 and becomes the band’s best-known album. It includes “My Own Worst Enemy”, which tops the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart for 11 weeks, and also features “Zip-Lock” and “Miserable”. The album becomes Lit’s best-selling release, earns platinum certification in the United States and gold in Canada, and the song “My Own Worst Enemy” later goes double platinum. The track also receives a Billboard Music Award as the biggest modern rock song of 1999.

The band supports A Place in the Sun with extensive touring, including the Vans Warped Tour, Woodstock ’99 and dates with the Offspring, Garbage and No Doubt. Its songs appear in the soundtracks to Ready to Rumble and The Replacements, and also appear in the film Replicate and the television series V.I.P.. The group makes regular television appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Later with Craig Kilborn, MTV Spring Break and Total Request Live. A. Jay Popoff also appears on MTV Cribs.

Lit follows with Atomic in 2001. Its highest-charting single from the album is “Lipstick and Bruises”, which reaches the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. The band later releases a self-titled album on DRT Entertainment in 2004, with “Looks Like They Were Right” reaching the Top 40.

Later albums and activity

After Atomic, Lit continues to tour, appear on television and release music through its own Dirty Martini label, which distributes albums by Handsome Devil and The Color Red through RCA. In 2001, the group appears on an unsold VH1 pilot called Rock Feud, hosted by Johnny A. Sanchez, with Monique Powell and her family as opponents.

Drummer Allen Shellenberger is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2008 and dies in 2009. Nathan Walker, who had filled in earlier that year, becomes the band’s drummer after Shellenberger’s death. Lit plays its first concert after his death later in 2009 and continues work on new material.

The band works with producer Marti Frederiksen and later with Butch Walker on its next album. The View from the Bottom is released in 2012 on Megaforce Records. “You Tonight”, “The Broken” and “Miss You Gone” are issued from that period. In 2014, the band performs a full-anniversary show of A Place in the Sun at the House of Blues in Anaheim.

Lit later records in Nashville and releases “Fast” and “Back with You” in 2016, showing a more country-influenced direction. These Are the Days follows in 2017. The band releases the live album Live in NY, 99 in 2020, taken from its Woodstock ’99 performance, and issues the rare track “Get Back” from 2004. “Yeah Yeah Yeah” appears in 2021, and Tastes Like Gold follows in 2022 on Round Hill Records, alongside the song “Kicked Off the Plane”.

Lit also tours with Bowling for Soup on the Crowd Surf the UK Tour and the Lovin’ The Sun Tour.