THE QUICK
Untold Rock Stories (Rev-Ola)
Reviewed by Alan Wright

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Here's a great retrospective by this cool '70s powerpop band. The Quick's story is not one of success, but still worthy of attention. Originally formed as the Young Republicans, they were "discovered" by Kim Fowley, and along with a name change, he started shopping their quirky but energetic powerpop music to labels. The material on this CD comes from demos recorded for both Mercury and Elektra in 1976 and 77, as well as three live tracks. The band did make one LP in 1976 for Mercury called Mondo Deco, which didn't sell and got them dropped from the label. Mondo Deco has yet to be reissued, so this CD will do fine. With strong songs and catchy melodies, the band fused elements of the Who, Cheap Trick, etc. and concocted some excellent and fun music. One of their best-known tunes was "Pretty Please Me," a song later covered by the Dickies and Redd Kross, both of whom were big Quick fans.

All of this is real good, though, and well worth investigating.

The band themselves pressed up some limited EPs of some of the Elektra demos in '78, just before they broke up. As a sidenote, I should mention that singer Danny Wilde then formed Great Buildings, but found success much later on as a member of the Rembrandts and composer of "I'll Be There For You," the hit theme song to "Friends." Guitarist Steve Hufsteter went on to The Cruzados, and Danny Benair joined the Weirdos and then the Three 0'Clock.

© 2003 - Alan Wright