Chris Martins[2] of Spin magazine online wrote, "If Pixies were Los Angeles surf punks instead of Boston smartypantses, they might've sounded a lot like the Lovely Bad Things.
"[3] The band's personal influences include Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse, Dinosaur Jr, the B-52's, The Wipers, and Redd Kross.
Camron Ward explains in a 2011 OC Weekly interview with Taylor Hamby:[5] I was at Borders (Books), rest in peace, and I walked over to the children's section.
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[6] 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[7] and would eventually end up on their first cassette offering entitled Shark Week which was first released (Dec. 2010) on the now defunct UVR label[8] and then later picked up by Burger Records.
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[17] and Los Campesinos.
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.”[21] On April 17, 2013, the band opened up for the legendary Dinosaur Jr,[22] fulfilling a dream of Camron Ward's, stating on stage,[23] "I don't mean to get all mushy or anything... (but) 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 Diarrhea Planet and Best Coast.