Группа начала карьеру в 1970 когда Maels были в UCLA студентами факультета visual arts (Расс учился на том же факультете, что и Джим Моррисон). При разделении духа с FRANK ZAPPA AND THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION, CAPTAIN BEEFHEART и FIRESIGN THEATRE, они сформировали свою группу.

Оцененные в Европе и забытые дома экстраординарные новаторы Спаркс продолжают развивать свой театральный стиль и вводить все новые и новые артистические новшества к песням, достойным Бродвея, шокируя Л.А., город, где James Taylor управлял радиоэфиром. Если бы мир был справедлив, Спаркс бы уважались более чем исполнители зажигательных танцевальных мелодий. Но в том-то и суть нашей эпохи, что мы живем в ужасно несправедливом мире… Вот тогда и появляется этот экстравагантный жизненный стиль братьев Мэл, именуемый не иначе как «городской постмодернистский нарцистизм».
Securing their place in music history nearly everywhere except at home, Sparks continue to develop theatrical style with new artistic innovations to the eccentric power pop songs and Russell''s Broadway musical-worthy voice, shocking Los Angeles where James Taylor operated airwaves. If the world was fair, Sparks would be respected more than creators of dancing melodies. But we live in the awfully unfair world … And there is born the Maels’vital style what called as « the city’ postmodernistic narcissism”.

Whiskey a go go (Sunset strip) "Early on," Russell says, "when we listened to the early Who or Rolling Stones, we thought that we were like those bands. And then we''d get on stage and discover that we weren''t, because the audience were kind of staring at us with their jaws hanging. We would have loved to be one of those mainstream bands, but due to something in ourselves we found that we couldn''t fit in. It''s like when the Rolling Stones played the Whiskey-A-Go-Go back in 1972, and then we played at the same time, and I was wheeled on stage in a little ocean liner, like something from the Rose Parade, waving to the crowd. That''s when we thought, ''Maybe this is why people aren''t accepting us as being like the Rolling Stones.'' Sparks had established itself in Los Angeles in the very early 1970s as a club act based on their deep appreciation for the early sixties Britpop acts, and in particular the Kinks. They had developed a following at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go, they had released two effective albums with their fellow bandmates the Mankey brothers (yes, the producer and later the Concrete Blonde member), they had had a very minor hit with "Wonder Girl", and they had made some initial media breakthroughs."

Key Club, 1998