The Complete Demos 1980–1986
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''The Complete Demos 1980–1986'' is a compilation album of demo recordings by the American
punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...
band the
Adolescents Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with ...
, released in March 2005 on
Frontier Records Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Sun Valley, Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of BOMP! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways. History Frontier Records first ...
. It includes the band's first three demo tapes, recorded between March and July 1980; one outtake from the recording sessions for their 1981 EP '' Welcome to Reality''; and two songs recorded during their 1986 reunion as demos for their second album, '' Brats in Battalions'' (1987). The first eight tracks are the only material recorded by the Adolescents' original lineup, which included guitarist John O'Donovan and drummer Peter Pan. The remaining tracks include their replacements
Rikk Agnew Richard Francis "Rikk" Agnew Jr. (born December 9, 1958) is an American musician with a career spanning more than 40 years. A multi-instrumentalist, he has previously been a member of some of the most influential bands of the Orange County ...
and Casey Royer.


Material

''The Complete Demos 1980–1986'' consists mainly of material recorded between March and July 1980. The Adolescents had formed in January 1980 with an initial lineup of singer Tony Brandenburg (credited on ''The Complete Demos'' by the stage name Tony Reflex), bassist
Steve Soto Steve Soto (August 23, 1963 – June 27, 2018) was an American musician. Soto was the founding bassist of California punk rock bands Agent Orange and the Adolescents. Soto was also a member of Legal Weapon, Joyride, Manic Hispanic, Punk Rock ...
, guitarists Frank Agnew and John O'Donovan, and a drummer who used the stage name Peter Pan. The first four tracks on ''The Complete Demos''— "We Can't Change the World", "Black Sheep", "Growing Up Today", and "We Rule and You Don't"—comprise the band's first
demo tape A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed for ...
, recorded March 14, 1980 in Brandenburg's mother's garage in
Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orang ...
using a
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Reflexon
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, and were never re-recorded for later releases. "I think we last played some of those songs...they left our set in about April or May of 1980", recalled Brandenburg in 2005. The next four tracks—" I Hate Children", "No Friends", "Who Is Who", and "Wrecking Crew"—comprise the band's second demo tape, recorded in May 1980 at Phantom Studios in
Midway City, California Midway City is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) that forms part of the county land controlled by Orange County, California. The only area in Orange County that Municipal corporation ...
with
audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...
Richard Freund. The recordings of "Who Is Who" and "Wrecking Crew" from this tape were released two years later on
BYO Records Better Youth Organization Records (BYO) is a defunct Los Angeles, California based independent punk rock record label created by Shawn and Mark Stern, two of the three brothers of the California punk rock band Youth Brigade (the third being Adam ...
' inaugural release, the compilation album ''Someone Got Their Head Kicked In!''; these were the only recordings released by the Adolescents' original lineup until ''The Complete Demos''. O'Donovan and Pan both left the band in June 1980 and were replaced by drummer Casey Royer and by Frank Agnew's older brother, guitarist
Rikk Agnew Richard Francis "Rikk" Agnew Jr. (born December 9, 1958) is an American musician with a career spanning more than 40 years. A multi-instrumentalist, he has previously been a member of some of the most influential bands of the Orange County ...
, who brought with them several songs written for their prior group, the Detours. Encouraged by having their May 1980 demo tape played on the radio by
KROQ-FM KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The sta ...
disc jockey
Rodney Bingenheimer Rodney Bingenheimer (born December 15, 1946) is an American radio disc jockey who is best known as the host of ''Rodney on the ROQ'', a radio program that ran on the Los Angeles rock station KROQ-FM from 1976 to 2017. In the early 1970s, he als ...
on his "Rodney on the ROQ" program, the new lineup recorded a third demo tape that July at the Casbah in
Fullerton, California Fullerton ( ) is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 143,617. Fullerton was founded in 1887. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and S ...
, with Chaz Ramirez and Eddie Joseph of local band Eddie and the Subtitles engineering the session. The five tracks from this demo—"Wrecking Crew", "Creatures", "
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", "Self Destruct", and "Do the Eddie"—comprise tracks 9–13 of ''The Complete Demos''. "Do the Eddie" was a joke song written about Eddie Joseph, who subsequently became the band's manager. "I Hate Children", "No Friends", "Who Is Who", "Wrecking Crew", "Creatures", "Amoeba", and "Self Destruct" were all re-recorded for the band's first studio album, ''
Adolescents Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with ...
'' (also known as ''The Blue Album''), released in March 1981 on
Frontier Records Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Sun Valley, Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of BOMP! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways. History Frontier Records first ...
. Rikk Agnew left the band a few months after its release. With new guitarist Steve Roberts, the Adolescents recorded an EP, '' Welcome to Reality'', in July 1981 at Perspective Sound in
Sun Valley, Los Angeles Sun Valley is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California in the San Fernando Valley region. The neighborhood is known for its younger population. There are three recreation centers in Sun Valley, one of which is a historic site. The neighborhood ...
with
Thom Wilson Thom Wilson (died February 8, 2015) was an American punk rock record producer and engineer. Career Wilson began his musical career in the mid-1970s, engineering recordings by soft rock artists Burton Cummings and Seals & Crofts. He began worki ...
as engineer and record producer. The fourteenth track on ''The Complete Demos'', "Richard Hung Himself", was recorded during this session and intended to be the fourth song on ''Welcome to Reality'', but was left off of the EP before its release. The Adolescents broke up in August 1981, two months before the EP's release on Frontier Records. "Richard Hung Himself" was rewritten by Royer for his subsequent group, D.I., appearing on 1983's ''D.I.'' EP with Royer singing, Rikk Agnew on drums, and Steve Roberts on guitar. The Adolescents' ''Blue Album'' lineup reunited in April 1986 and began working on new material. The final two tracks on ''The Complete Demos''—"The Liar" and "Peasant Song"—were recorded that month at the Casbah in Fullerton with Chaz Ramirez engineering. Frank Agnew and Royer both left the band after a few months, and were replaced by the youngest Agnew brother, Alfie, and by former
Mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...
drummer Sandy Hanson for the band's second album, '' Brats in Battalions'' (1987), which included new recordings of "The Liar" and "Peasant Song" and a new version of "Do the Eddie" retitled "Do the Freddie". After further lineup changes the Adolescents issued one more album, 1988's '' Balboa Fun*Zone'', before disbanding.


Background

The ''Blue Album'' lineup reunited in 2001, though Royer soon left and was replaced by Derek O'Brien. The band worked on new material, but Rikk Agnew left by the end of 2003. Continuing without him, the Adolescents worked on material for their reunion album, '' OC Confidential'' (2005). On the occasion of Frontier Records' 25th anniversary in 2005, which also coincided with the Adolescents' 25th anniversary, Brandenburg suggested to the label's founder, Lisa Fancher, that they release a collection of the band's demos: "Lisa’s got this 25-year anniversary thing going on with her label (Frontier), and so I talked to her and I said, 'Hey, I've got some old material. Why don't we do a collection of these demos that I've got sitting here?' And because it's her 25 years and our 25 years, it worked out pretty nice." Compiling the album involved tracking down several of the original recording tapes. O'Brien digitally repaired the March 1980 demo tape at his recording studio, DOB Sound. Frank Agnew had saved the master tape from the May 1980 session, allowing for its inclusion. The original master tapes from the July 1980 session were lost, so the recordings on ''The Complete Demos'' were "
mastered Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source from which all copies will be ...
from ''n''th generation collector tapes" located by Rodney Bingenheimer, Mike Calacion, and Katz Seki. "The source tapes for that were lost but a collector happened to have four of the five songs on a pretty raw cassette", said Brandenburg. The recording of "Richard Hung Himself" was
remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...
ed by Paul DuGre for inclusion on the album. The original tapes of the April 1986 demos were also lost. "Lisa had actually forgotten that she had
hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...
" said Brandenburg, "but I told her, 'Look, you've got to go find those tapes. It's on there. Ultimately the recordings of these two songs were mastered from a Chrome
Maxell , commonly known as Maxell, is a Japanese company (law), company that manufactures consumer electronics. The company's name is a contraction of "Maximum capacity dry cell". Its main products are Battery (electricity), batteries, wireless chargi ...
cassette tape found in Brandenburg's garage. Once the material was compiled, the album was mastered by Paul DuGre in
Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...
. For the
liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...
, Brandenburg, Soto, and Frank Agnew each wrote pieces describing their recollections of and reflections on the band's early years. Agnew designed the album cover, which bears the
subtitle Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, caption ...
"Naughty Women in Black Sweaters". Brandenburg explained that this was an
in-joke An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke with humour that is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are ''in'' a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest ...
relating to the late-1970s/early-1980s Fullerton punk scene:
It's kind of a funny little title. And again, you have to kind of know the history of Fullerton music and the Adolescents in particular. There's an intentional inside joke there. The Naughty Women were a
transvestite Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...
punk rock band from Fullerton who we all loved dearly, just a great rock band. Very, very punk rock, very, very fun. And they're a very funny bunch of guys. And the Black Sweaters were a group of girls that used to always hang around the scene, they were kind of the resident groupies of the early Fullerton scene. So we have Naughty Women in Black Sweaters. You can kind of put it all together and it has a whole new meaning. But even without that insight, the title's kind of funny on any level. But for us, when we did it we were all chuckling. They said, "Do you have an album title?" I said, "Yeah, how about this one?" And I threw that one out and they all just started to laugh.


Release and reception

''The Complete Demos 1980–1986'' was released March 22, 2005 on Frontier Records. Richie Unterberger of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
rated the album 3 stars out of 5, saying that "Although the speed and energy jumps off the
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, fans can't get too over the moon, as the fidelity is often pretty mediocre. True, that's not something that matters to punk listeners as much as it does to followers of many other styles of music. But be warned that, although this will certainly be of interest to Adolescents devotees, the sound is quite substandard on about half of this material, the vocals suffering the most."


Track listing

Writing credits adapted from the album's liner notes.


Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. ;Band * Tony Reflex – lead vocals * Frank Agnew – guitar, cover design *
Steve Soto Steve Soto (August 23, 1963 – June 27, 2018) was an American musician. Soto was the founding bassist of California punk rock bands Agent Orange and the Adolescents. Soto was also a member of Legal Weapon, Joyride, Manic Hispanic, Punk Rock ...
– bass guitar *John O'Donovan – guitar (tracks 1–8) *Peter Pan – drums (tracks 1–8) *
Rikk Agnew Richard Francis "Rikk" Agnew Jr. (born December 9, 1958) is an American musician with a career spanning more than 40 years. A multi-instrumentalist, he has previously been a member of some of the most influential bands of the Orange County ...
– guitar (tracks 9–13, 15, and 16) * Casey Royer – drums (tracks 9–16) ;Production * Derek O'Brien – digital repair (tracks 1–4) *Chaz Ramirez –
audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...
(tracks 9–13,15, and 16) *Eddie Joseph – audio engineer (tracks 9–13) *
Thom Wilson Thom Wilson (died February 8, 2015) was an American punk rock record producer and engineer. Career Wilson began his musical career in the mid-1970s, engineering recordings by soft rock artists Burton Cummings and Seals & Crofts. He began worki ...
– audio engineer (track 14) *Paul DuGre –
remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...
ing (track 14),
audio mastering Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source from which all copies will ...
(all tracks)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Complete Demos 1980-1986 Adolescents (band) albums 2005 compilation albums