The Quickening

Infobox Album |
Name = The Quickening
Type = Album
Artist = The Vandals


Released = July 15, 1996
Recorded = 1996
Genre = Punk rock
Length = 28:36
Label = Nitro
Producer = Warren Fitzgerald
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:z9eb97rkkr5t link] |
Last album = "Live Fast, Diarrhea" (1995)
This album = "The Quickening" (1996)
Next album = "" (1996)

"The Quickening" is the fifth studio album by the southern California punk rock band The Vandals, released in 1996 by Nitro Records. Much of the album is characterized by themes of nihilism and anarchism, but presented with the tongue-in-cheek humor for which the band is known.

Both the band and the album attracted increased attention due to their involvement with the film "Glory Daze". The Vandals recorded several songs for the film's soundtrack, including the main theme, and the soundtrack album was released on their Kung Fu Records label that had been started by guitarist Warren Fitzgerald and bassist Joe Escalante earlieer that year. An independent music video was filmed for the song "It's a Fact" and two versions were released: one with clips from the movie and one without. Because drummer Josh Freese was not available due to other commitments, regular substitute Brooks Wackerman appears in the video as the band's drummer.

Track listing

#"Stop Smiling" (Fitzgerald)
#"It's a Fact" (Fitzgerald)
#"Marry Me" (Freese/Quackenbush)
#"Allah" (Fitzgerald/Quackenbush)
#"Tastes Like Chicken" (Fitzgerald/Quackenbush)
#"(But Then) She Spoke" (Fitzgerald)
#"How (Did This Loser Get This Job?)" (Fitzgerald/Escalante)
#"Hungry for You" (Quackenbush/Chris Lagerborg)
#"Failure is the Best Revenge" (Fitzgerald)
#"Aging Orange" (Fitzgerald/Escalante)
#"Canine Euthanasia" (Fitzgerald)
#"Moving Up" (Fitzgerald)
#"(I'll Make You) Love Me" (Fitzgerald)
#"Choosing Your Masters" (Escalante)
#"I Believe" (Fitzgerald/Quackenbush)

Performers

*Dave Quackenbush - vocals
*Warren Fitzgerald - guitar, vocals on "Hungry for You"
*Joe Escalante - bass, backing vocals
*Josh Freese - drums
*Chris Lagerborg - backing vocals on "Allah"

Album information

*Record label: Nitro Records
*Recorded winter of 1996 at Front Page Studios, Paramount Studios, Formula One Studios, and Planet of the Tapes Studios.
*All songs copyright and published 1996 by Puppety Frenchman Music, BMI.
*Engineered by Warren Fitzgerald and Mon Agronot.
*Mastered at Futuredisc by Tom Baker.
*Produced by Warren Fitzgerald
*Tracks 1, 2, 6, 9, & 11-13 written by Warren Fitzgerald. Track 3 written by Josh Freese and Dave Quackenbush. Tracks 4, 5 & 15 written by Warren Fitzgerald and Dave Quackenbush. Tracks 7 & 10 written by Warren Fitzgerald and Joe Escalante. Track 8 written by Dave Quackenbush and Chris Lagerborg. Track 14 written by Joe Escalante.
*Graphics by Mackie Osborne.
*Cover photo by Joe Escalante.

ong information

All information listed here is derived from song lyrics, album liner notes, and band member interviews and commentary (particularly those in the Vandals DVD "Live at the House of Blues").

*"Stop Smiling" (Warren Fitzgerald)This song is a tirade against groups of people who believe that everything in life is positive and uplifting. Specifically mentioned in the song are hippies and the extremely religious.

*"It's a Fact" (Warren Fitzgerald)A nihilistic song that claims that if something can possibly go wrong, it will, therefore it is better to simply not try to accomplish anything.

*"Marry Me" (Josh Freese & Dave Quackenbush)The song rails against the institution of marriage and warns listeners not to get married.

*"Allah" (Warren Fitzgerald & Dave Quackenbush)This song deals with the subject of Islamic fundamentalism. The singer is a fundamentalist who believes his is the true path to heaven, and that he can get there by martyring himself in a jihad.

*"Tastes Like Chicken" (Warren Fitzgerald & Dave Quackenbush)The song states that eating chicken is immoral because a single chicken produces only enough meat for a single meal. The song does not promote vegetarianism, but rather says that vegetables are filthy and that meat makes one strong. Instead it focuses on the fact that taking a chicken's life to produce only one meal is wrong, whereas killing a cow that produces 50 or more servings of meat is much more efficient and therefore less immoral.

*"(But Then) She Spoke" (Warren Fitzgerald)This song describes a girl that the singer finds very attractive, but upon speaking to her he finds her to be vapid and very distasteful.

*"How (Did This Loser Get This Job?)" (Warren Fitzgerald & Joe Escalante)This song rants against bad teachers who have their job only so they can leave work at 3:00pm and molest the children under their care.

*"Hungry for You" (Dave Quackenbush & Chris Lagerborg)A love song that takes a metaphor of food to an extreme. The singer has no job and is dependent on his girlfriend to buy him food.

*"Failure is the Best Revenge" (Warren Fitzgerald)A play on the saying "living well is the best revenge." In this song it is the failures who will have their revenge, as the people who are popular, successful and athletic will eventually fail and it will be the downtrodden losers who will rise in their place. It also calls for all failures and losers to band together.

*"Aging Orange" (Warren Fitzgerald & Joe Escalante)This song is a jab at the Fullerton, California punk band Agent Orange, who had a minor hit on local rock radio in the early 1980s with the song "Bloodstains." Although the band still perform together, they have not had a significant hit since that song. "Aging Orange" parodies frontman Mike Palm, who claimed in interviews in the 1990s that Agent Orange had inspired many of the newer bands becoming popular at the time. A request had been filed in 1994 by Robbie Fields, owner of Posh Boy Records who controlled rights to the album on which "Bloodstains" appeared, claiming that the Offspring had lifted a riff in their hit song "Come Out and Play" from "Bloodstains" and that he should be paid royalties for its use. Although a lawsuit was never formally filed, Palm had stated that the claims were valid and that the riff had been stolen from Agent Orange. In "Aging Orange" the Vandals break into this riff and the song's chorus mocks Palm's claims, making him sound like a whining child crying "I invented socks/and I invented gravy/I made up the cotton gin/but no one ever paid me." It goes on to call him names such as "palm palm/ape drape/poodle head."

*"Canine Euthanasia" (Warren Fitzgerald)An ode to a beloved pet that had to be put down, dedicated "to Arfy R.I.P.".

*"Moving Up" (Warren Fitzgerald)The story of a young man who gets kicked out of his parents' house and gets a minimum-wage job at a fast food franchise and lives in a run-down squat, but believes he is doing well and rubs his "success" in his parents' faces.

*"(I'll Make You) Love Me" (Warren Fitzgerald)In this song, the singer is infatuated with a girl and becomes so obsessed with her that he begins to stalk her and threatens that he will harm her unless she agrees to love him in return.

*"Choosing Your Masters" (Joe Escalante)This song is directed against the MTV "Rock the Vote" campaign of the mid-1990s that was designed to encourage youths to vote. The song claims that artists on MTV and their audiences are unintelligent and should not be allowed to vote.

*"I Believe" (Warren Fitzgerald & Dave Quackenbush)A sarcastic song directed against people who blindly believe in clichéd ideas such as "the chilren are the future," "miracles and dreams can come true" and that the written word is always true.