The Quick - International Thing (1984)

Straddling the line between arty British Invasion songcraft, flashy glam rock hooks, and a slightly twisted lyrical sensibility, L.A. quintet the Quick had a very short career in the mid-'70s that saw them release only one album, 1977's Mondo Deco, and a 1978 EP culled from a failed demo session. Their output may have been slight, but their music was very influential to groups like Redd Kross and the Dickies, who followed closely in their wake, and to bands all the way up to the 2010s, including large chunks of the Burger Records stable.

The band was formed in late 1974 when guitarist Steven Hufsteter and drummer Danny Benair, who had spent years writing and recording songs together with little return, added bassist Ian Ainsworth to the lineup, then poached singer Danny Wilde from the band he was in with future members of the Dickies. Influenced by the louder, more exciting side of the British Invasion as exemplified by the Who and the Move, the bandmembers did their best to carve out a small space for themselves among the cover bands that ran the L.A. scene in the aftermath of glam rock. One night, Hufsteter ran into Kim Fowley, who had just seen his band the Runaways sign to Mercury Records, and sold him on the Quick without Fowley having heard a single note. At this point their friend Billy Bizeau was able to join the group when Fowley sprang for a keyboard. Thanks to Fowley's connections at Mercury, the Quick cut a demo for the label in April of 1976, were signed in June, then were rushed into the studio in July to start recording their debut album.

Working at the Beach Boys' Brother Studios with producer Earle Mankey, who had been a guitarist in Sparks, another group the members of the Quick were notably influenced by, the band bashed out an album, titled Mondo Deco, in three weeks' time. It was an eventful session, punctuated by awkward meetings with members of the Beach Boys and a run-in with Fowley that basically ruined the group's career. He wanted them to embrace the "boogie" sound that many rock bands of the time were doing, but the Quick held fast to their decidedly different vision. This meant that Fowley backed away from the group and did nothing to help promote the record. The label also lost faith in them, and both Mondo Deco and the "Rag Doll" single sank without a trace.

The Quick split from Fowley completely and went to work changing up their sound and approach into something harder and less Sparks-influenced. In early 1977, they tore up their Mercury contract and started looking for a new label. Soon after, Elektra reached out and asked for a demo. The band spent time in the studio with producer David Campbell (Beck's father) and came up with a strong set of songs, but the label passed. The Quick self-released some of the tracks in 1978 on a 10" EP titled Tune in with Our Times; one of them, "Pretty Please," was covered years later by Redd Kross. The EP got them some airplay on influential L.A. radio station KROQ, but their career had mostly stalled. Their last live show took place in early 1978; the bandmembers weren't really on speaking terms and, without many prospects, they called it a day.

The members of the Quick were very busy following the band's breakup. Benair was a member of the Three O'Clock, then joined the business side of music as a publisher and marketer; Ainsworth and Wilde started the power pop group Great Buildings; then Wilde formed the Rembrandts, who anyone with a working television set knows from the Friends theme song. Bizeau wrote songs for the Runaways, including their epic "Queens of Noise." Hufsteter played in the Cruzados and Dickies, contributed to the Repo Man soundtrack, and joined Tito & Tarantula in the 2000s.

The Quick's career went by in a flash, but their music wasn't forgotten. Rev-Ola released Untold Rock Stories in 2003, a collection that included both of the band's demos plus a few live songs. Burger Records issued a single, On Holiday with Earle Mankey, in 2013 and also reissued Untold Rock Stories twice, on cassette in 2010 and on LP in 2016. The band's only album, Mondo Deco, was put back into print by Real Gone Music in 2018 in a deluxe edition that also included the Mercury demo and a previously unreleased outtake. ~ Tim Sendra