The Lovely Bad Things


The Lovely Bad Things are an American indie rock band from La Mirada, California. Formed in 2009, the group consists of brothers Camron and Brayden Ward, Tim Hatch and Lauren Curtius. All members are multi-instrumentalists and play guitar, bass and drums. They are known for switching between instruments often during live performances. Their garage rock sound has been called everything from proto-punk to surf punk. Because of the boy-girl vocals, music writers oftentimes bring up the Pixies. Chris Martins of Spinonline wrote, "If Pixies were Los Angeles surf punks instead of Boston smartypantses, they might've sounded a lot like the Lovely Bad Things." The band's personal influences include Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse, Dinosaur Jr, the B-52's, The Wipers, and Redd Kross.

History

The Lovely Bad Things formed in October 2009 after Camron and Brayden Ward's band had broken up. They paired up with longtime friends Lauren Curtius and Tim Hatch who were also between bands. The band's name was derived from the Mary Downing Hahn book "All The Lovely Bad Ones" and a computer glitch or typo. Camron Ward explains in a 2011 OC Weekly interview with Taylor Hamby: I was at Borders,rest in peace,and I walked over to the children's section. There were all these Halloween books out, and there was one called All the Lovely Bad Ones. It's about ghosts -we all really should read it at some point— and we were all sitting on the porch, and we were like, "We need to think of a name," and I said, "Well, I really liked this book. It might be a good band name." They were like, "Yeah, that's cool." All of our old recordings were done on a video camera, and we just ripped the audio off the video. , the folder on the computer was titled Lovely Bad Things.
Deeply involved in the DIY music movement, the group has played in small and large venues and when no gigs were available created house shows at their rehearsal garage space they named The Lovely Bad Pad. The first songs, all reflecting a raw surf punk / punk sound, like Kevin, Cocaine Werewolf Super Awesome Fun Time, Ugly Kids and Cult Life, were written quickly and would eventually end up on their first cassette offering entitled Shark Week which was first released on the now defunct UVR label and then later picked up by Burger Records. That same year they would share the stage with bands such as Screaming Females, , The So So Glos, The Garden, La Sera, and Ty Segall and lent tour support for Peter Bjorn and John.
In July 2011, their EP New Ghost / Old Waves was released on Cassette though Burger Records and on November 18, 2011 the band signed with Volcom Entertainment who released New Ghost / Old Waves digitally and on Vinyl March 9, 2012. The 7 song EP is described as diverse "jangly beach- pop", "surf, Riot Grrrl, punk and indie" with harmonies and fast past guitar driven songs. Lyrically, songs like "I Just Want You to Go Away" and "You Done Messed Up" are steeped in youthful angst. On Jan 3rd of 2012, Kai Flanders of the LA Weekly names New Ghost / Old Waves in the Top 5 L.A. Punk Albums of 2011. and the same year, their track "I Just Want You to Go Away" was featured on MTV's Awkward.
On April 27, 2012, the band was added to the roster of artists playing the prestigious Primavera SoundMusic Festival in Barcelona, Spain. Unable to afford to go, the band took to crowd funding through Indiegogo as well as playing fund raising shows. 2012 had the band share stages with the likes of King Tuff, Zig Zags, Shannon and the Clams, TRMRS, The Summer Twins and lent tour support for The Cribs and Los Campesinos.
The band started recording the songs for their 3rd release and first label released full length in mid 2012 at Jonny Bell's studio in Long Beach, California. The album was engineered and produced by "Sloppy" Jon B. Gilberts who also produced and engineered New Ghosts / Old Waves. "The Late Great Whatever" was released on Feb. 26, 2013 through Volcom Entertainment. From the first song, Hear or Anywhere with its prog punk aesthetic and pop heart to the final 12th song Styx and Branches it is considered to be a furious and infectious garage rock album that draws inspiration from psychedelic surf and punk. The album is also decidedly more heavy and hardcore than New Ghost / Old waves says Brayden Ward, “When people listened to it, we wanted it to feel like how it felt when we were writing it and what it felt like when we were writing it was that it was just a little bit dark, and not brooding, black and noir, just a little darker than New Ghost/Old Waves.”
On April 17, 2013, the band opened up for the legendary Dinosaur Jr, fulfilling a dream of Camron Ward's, stating on stage, "I don't mean to get all mushy or anything... when I was 13 I set the goal, the only thing I ever wanted to do was play with Dinosaur Jr." The Lovely Bad Things finished out the year on tour with and Best Coast.

Releases