Lawndale is an

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

surf rock Surf music (or surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a Music genre, genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is in ...

instrumental band from Lawndale. The band was started in 1984 by guitar players and bassmen Rick Waddell, AKA Rick Lawndale and Jack Skelley and released two records on

SST Records SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was formed in 1966 by Ginn at age 12 as Solid State Tuners, a small business through which he sold electronics equipm ...

and some tracks on compilations. They split in 1987 but Rick Lawndale started up again in 1997 under the moniker Rick Lawndale Band with other musicians. Now, Lawndale (minus Waddell) and the Rick Lawndale band are both back together and playing shows. The

L.A. Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

described Lawndale as "

The Ventures The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the ...

meet

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

Don Knotts Jesse Donald Knotts (July 21, 1924February 24, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He is widely known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife on ''The Andy Griffith Show'', a 1960s sitcom for which he earned five Emmy Awards. He also ...

' living room"

History

Guitar player, songwriter and vocalist Rick Waddell started his career as a solo acoustic performer in the 1980s and formed the psychedelic all instrumental surf rock band Lawndale in 1984 with guitar/bass players Jack Skelley and Steve Housden as well as drummer Dave Childs. They named the band Lawndale after the Californian city in which they lived, which Waddell also used as a last name instead of his real last name. They played original compositions as well as some instrumental covers to which they added modern tones, like "

Take Five "Take Five" is a jazz standard composed by saxophonist Paul Desmond and originally recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet for their album ''Time Out'' at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studios in New York City on July 1, 1959. Two years later it b ...

" from the

Dave Brubeck Quartet David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

including the bridge for "

Whole Lotta Love "Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is the opening track on the band's second album, ''Led Zeppelin II'', and was released as a single in 1969 in several countries; as with other Led Zeppelin songs, no single was r ...

" or

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

's "

Caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals *Convoy, a group of veh ...

" mixed with

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

's "

Interstellar Overdrive "Interstellar Overdrive" is an instrumental composition written and performed by Pink Floyd. The song was written in 1966 and is on their 1967 debut album, ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'', clocking in at almost ten minutes in length. The son ...

". They were soon signed by

Greg Ginn Gregory Regis Ginn (born June 8, 1954) is an American guitarist, bassist, singer and songwriter, best known for being the leader, primary songwriter, and the only continuous member of the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led ...

, which headquarters were in Lawndale. The signing was part of SST's efforts to expand its scope beyond punk rock and

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

. They released two albums, ''Beyond Barbecue'' (which was first planned for release on Iridescence Records) in 1986 and ''Sasquatch Rock'' in 1987, which featured Ginn on the song "March of the Melted Army Men. They also appeared on three SST Records compilations during that period and two

New Alliance Records New Alliance Records was an independent record label founded by American musicians D. Boon and Mike Watt (of The Minutemen) and longtime friend and associate Martin Tamburovich. They were inspired by the example of their friends in southern Califo ...

compilations after they split in 1987. The band split in 1988 and sporadically reunited to play some shows and write new material that was never released. In 1997, Waddell decided he still wanted to make music and started The Rick Lawndale Band with guitar player Ricky Sepulveda (from the band

Nervous Gender Nervous Gender is an American punk rock electronic band formed in Los Angeles in 1978 by Gerardo Velazquez, Edward Stapleton, Phranc and Michael Ochoa. Their use of heavily distorted keyboards and synthesizers made them, along with The Scr ...

, bass player Richard Derrick and drummer Paul Smith. The band was no longer all instrumental as Rick sang besides playing guitar. In 1998, Smith and Derrick quit to be replaced by Dave Rodriguez from The Surf Raiders and The Sultans of Surf on drums and Rommel Dones from No Dice and Whiskey Imperials on bass and vocals. The band started to record demos with that line-up. Dones also quit in 2001 to be replaced by bass player

Marcel Loera Marcel may refer to: People * Marcel (given name), people with the given name Marcel * Marcel (footballer, born August 1981), Marcel Silva Andrade, Brazilian midfielder * Marcel (footballer, born November 1981), Marcel Augusto Ortolan, Brazilian s ...

The Vindicators ''The Vindicators'' is an American animated superhero comedy spin-off of the ''Rick and Morty'' franchise, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, whose primary eponymous team consists of Vance Maximus, Alan Rails, Supernova Crocubot, Million Ant ...

and the band finished working on the demos that eventually became the Surfabilly Rock album, released in 2002 on Sunspot Records. In 2006, lead guitar player Ricky Sepulveda was replaced by

Paul Feldman Paul Feldman is the "Bagel Man" mentioned in ''Freakonomics'' by Levitt and Dubner, a man who started his own business selling bagels, instead of pursuing his old occupation as director of non-defense research at the Center for Naval Analyses. He w ...

. Lawndale played an unannounced reunion show with all original members in 2006, with The Rick Lawndale Band and

Saccharine Trust Saccharine Trust is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1980 by singer Jack Brewer and guitarist Joe Baiza. The band would frequently perform with SST labelmates Minutemen and Black Flag. However, Baiza descri ...

also on the bill and the Lawndale guys decided to continue without Waddell after that show, adding Mark Hoeschler (

The Bomboras The Bomboras are an American all-instrumental surf band from Los Angeles, California, United States. The band was formed in the summer of 1994, sharing a love of 1960s surf and garage music such as The Ventures, Booker T, and The Sonics. Donning D ...

, Boardwalkers, Revellators) on guitar and bass. The Rick Lawndale band started working on a new CD in 2008.

Other ventures

Music from ''Surfabilly Rock'' was used on ''

The Real World Real World or The Real World may also refer to: * Real life, a phrase to distinguish between the real world and fictional, virtual or idealized worlds Television * ''The Real World'' (TV series), 1992–2017 * "The Real World" (''Stargate Atla ...

'', ''

Road Rules ''Road Rules'' is an MTV reality show that was a sister show of the network's flagship reality show, ''The Real World''. The series debuted on July 19, 1995, and ended on May 9, 2007. This allowed ''Road Rules'' a total of 14 seasons and 12 year ...

'' and ''

Extreme Challenge ''Real World/Road Rules Extreme Challenge'' is the fourth season of the MTV reality game show, '' The Challenge'' (at the time known as ''Real World/Road Rules Challenge''). The season is directly subsequent to '' Real World/Road Rules Challenge ...

'' on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

in 2003. In 2005, Rick Lawndale did the soundtrack of the film ''A Happy Ending'' with composer Rick Bazilibavo.

Members

Lawndale

*Jack Skelley- Guitar, Bass (1984–1988, 2006–Present) *Philo Van Duyne (2017-Present) - Bass *Joe Baiza (2021-Present) - Guitar *Dave Childs - Drums (1984–1988, 2006–Present) ---Previous Members--- *Steve Housden - Guitar, Bass (1984–1988, 2006–2021) *Mark Hoeschler - Guitar, Bass (2009–2017) *Rick Waddell AKA Rick Lawndale - Guitar, Bass (1984–1988, 2006)

The Rick Lawndale band

*Rick Waddell AKA Rick Lawndale - Guitar, Vocals (1997–Present) *Paul Feldman - Guitar (2006–Present) *Marcel Loera - Bass (2001–Present) *Dave Rodriguez - Drums (1998–Present) *Ricky Sepulveda - Guitar (1997–2006) *Rommel Dones - Bass, Vocals (1998–2001) *Richard Derrick - Bass (1997–1998) *Paul Smith - Drums (1997–1998)

Discography

Lawndale

*Albums **''Beyond Barbecue'' (LP,

, 1986) **''Sasquatch Rock'' (LP,

, 1987) *Compilations **''Lovedolls Superstar'' (LP,

, 1986) - features the track "Wingtips" **''No Age: A compilation of SST Instrumental Music'' (LP,

, 1987) - features the tracks "March of the Melted Army Men" and "Days of Pup and Tacos" **''SST Godhead Storedude In-Store Play Device #3'' (LP,

, 1987) - features the tracks "March of the Melted Army Men" and "Sasquatch Rock" **''Taste Test #1'' (LP,

, 1989) - features the track "Sasquatch Rock"

The Rick Lawndale Band

*Albums **''Surfabilly Rock'' (LP, Sunspot Records, 2002)

External links

Lawndale's official pageLawndale Myspace PageThe Rick Lawndale Band Myspace Page

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawndale Musical groups from California Musical groups established in 1984 SST Records artists