The L.A. Weekly described Lawndale as "The Ventures meet Led Zeppelin in Don Knotts' living room" [2][3][4][5] 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.
[4] They played original compositions as well as some instrumental covers to which they added modern tones, like "Take Five" from the Dave Brubeck Quartet including the bridge for "Whole Lotta Love" or Duke Ellington's "Caravan" mixed with Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive".
[4] 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, bass player Richard Derrick and drummer Paul Smith.
Dones also quit in 2001 to be replaced by bass player Marcel Loera of The Vindicators and the band finished working on the demos that eventually became the Surfabilly Rock album, released in 2002 on Sunspot Records.
[2][4][5] Music from Surfabilly Rock was used on The Real World, Road Rules and Extreme Challenge on MTV in 2003.