Material
The Complete Demos 1980–1986 consists mainly of material recorded between March and July 1980. [1] 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, guitarists Frank Agnew and John O'Donovan, and a drummer who used the stage name Peter Pan. [2] [3] [4] 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, recorded March 14, 1980 in Brandenburg's mother's garage in Anaheim, California using a Toshiba Reflexon cassette deck, and were never re-recorded for later releases. [1] [3] [5] "I think we last played some of those songs...they left our set in about April or May of 1980", recalled Brandenburg in 2005. [5]
Anthony Brandenburg is an American musician best known as the lead singer for the punk rock band the Adolescents. He has used the pseudonyms Tony Cadena, Tony Montana, and Tony Adolescent, and since 1992 has most consistently credited himself as Tony Reflex. Active in music since 1980, he has fronted several bands in addition to the Adolescents—including the Abandoned, the Flower Leperds, ADZ, and Sister Goddamn—and has performed on over 20 studio albums.
A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers, such as actors, comedians, singers and musicians. Such titles are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and may be similar or nearly identical to an individual's birth name. In some situations, a performer will eventually adopt his or her title as a legal name, although this is often not the case. It should be noted that Personal names or Nicknames that make up the professional name should not necessarily be considered as a "fake name" like Lady Gaga : for example: Miley Cyrus: born Destiny Hope Cyrus, uses her personal nickname "Miley" and her maiden name "Cyrus" as her professional name, in 2018 she legally changed to Miley Ray Hemsworth.
Steve Soto was an American musician. Soto was a multi-talented instrumentalist, a founding member of California punk rock band Agent Orange in 1979, and a founding member of Adolescents in 1980 performing on bass guitar in both bands. Soto was also a member of Legal Weapon, Joyride, Manic Hispanic and the punk supergroup 22 Jacks. Soto fronted his own band, Steve Soto and the Twisted Hearts and he also became a member of Punk Rock Karaoke in 2001.
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 with audio engineer Richard Freund. [3] The recordings of "Who Is Who" and "Wrecking Crew" from this tape were released two years later on BYO Records' 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. [5] [6]
Midway City is a census-designated place in the United States that forms part of the county land controlled by Orange County, California. The only area in Orange County that incorporates its chamber of commerce and homeowners association to act in concert like a city council, the area mostly is surrounded by Westminster with Huntington Beach bordering its southwest boundary. Midway City was so named because it is horizontally midway between Seal Beach, to the west, and Santa Ana, to the east. The 2010 census listed the population as 8,485.
An audio engineer helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, and reinforcement of sound. Audio engineers work on the "...technical aspect of recording—the placing of microphones, pre-amp knobs, the setting of levels. The physical recording of any project is done by an engineer ... the nuts and bolts." It's a creative hobby and profession where musical instruments and technology are used to produce sound for film, radio, television, music, and video games. Audio engineers also set up, sound check and do live sound mixing using a mixing console and a sound reinforcement system for music concerts, theatre, sports games and corporate events.
BYO Records is a 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.
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, who brought with them several songs written for their prior group, the Detours. [2] [3] [4] [7] [8] Encouraged by having their May 1980 demo tape played on the radio by KROQ-FM disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer on his "Rodney on the ROQ" program, the new lineup recorded a third demo tape that July at the Casbah in Fullerton, California, with Chaz Ramirez and Eddie Joseph of local band Eddie and the Subtitles engineering the session. [3] The five tracks from this demo—"Wrecking Crew", "Creatures", "Amoeba", "Self Destruct", and "Do the Eddie"—comprise tracks 9–13 of The Complete Demos. [3] "Do the Eddie" was a joke song written about Eddie Joseph, who subsequently became the band's manager. [3]
Casey A. Royer,, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. In a music career spanning more than 30 years, Royer is best known as the lead vocalist for Southern Californian punk rock band D.I. and as a drummer for the Adolescents.
Richard Francis "Rikk" Agnew, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and visual artist.
KROQ-FM is a radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles Area. Owned by Entercom, it broadcasts an alternative rock format, branding itself as The World Famous KROQ.
"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 (also known as The Blue Album), released in March 1981 on Frontier Records. [1] [2] Rikk Agnew left the band a few months after its release. [3] [8] With new guitarist Steve Roberts, the Adolescents recorded an EP, Welcome to Reality , in July 1981 at Perspective Sound in Sun Valley, Los Angeles with Thom Wilson as engineer and record producer. [3] 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. [3] The Adolescents broke up in August 1981, two months before the EP's release on Frontier Records. [2] [3] "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. [5] [9]
Adolescents, also known as The Blue Album due to its cover design, is the debut studio album by American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in April 1981 on Frontier Records. Recorded after guitarist Rikk Agnew and drummer Casey Royer joined the band, it features several songs written for their prior group, the Detours, including "Kids of the Black Hole" and "Amoeba", which became two of the Adolescents' most well-known songs. Adolescents was one of the first hardcore punk albums to be widely distributed throughout the United States, and became one of the best-selling California hardcore albums of its time. The band never toured in support of it, and broke up four months after its release. The Blue Album lineup of Agnew, Royer, guitarist Frank Agnew, bassist Steve Soto and singer Tony Brandenburg reunited several times in subsequent years, but only for brief periods.
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.
An extended play record, often referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single, but is usually unqualified as an album or LP. EPs generally contain a minimum of four tracks and maximum of six tracks, and are considered "less expensive and time-consuming" for an artist to produce than an album. An EP originally referred to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play (SP) and LP, but it is now applied to mid-length CDs and downloads as well.
The Adolescents' Blue Album lineup reunited in April 1986 and began working on new material. [2] [3] 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. [3] 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 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". [2] [3] [4] [10] After further lineup changes the Adolescents issued one more album, 1988's Balboa Fun*Zone , before disbanding. [2]
Alfonso F. "Alfie" Agnew, Ph.D is an American mathematician, singer, musician and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Agnew is best known for being a member of the punk bands the Adolescents and D.I.. Alfie's brothers Rikk Agnew and Frank Agnew are also former Adolescents guitarists.
The Mechanics (1977–1981) are considered to be the first punk band to come out of Fullerton, California.
Brats in Battalions is the second studio album by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in August 1987 on SOS Records, the band's independent record label. It followed a reunion of the band after a five-year breakup, and subsequent lineup changes which saw drummer Casey Royer and original guitarist Frank Agnew replaced, respectively, by Sandy Hanson of the Mechanics and by Agnew's younger brother, Alfie Agnew. Brats in Battalions explores several styles of punk rock and features new recordings of all three songs from 1981's Welcome to Reality EP, as well as cover versions of the traditional folk song "The House of the Rising Sun" and the Stooges' "I Got a Right". Singer Tony Brandenburg left the band after this album, and the Adolescents recorded one more album without him, 1988's Balboa Fun*Zone, before breaking up for another 12 years.
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. [8] 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." [5]
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. [3] Frank Agnew had saved the master tape from the May 1980 session, allowing for its inclusion. [3] The original master tapes from the July 1980 session were lost, so the recordings on The Complete Demos were "mastered from nth generation collector tapes" located by Rodney Bingenheimer, Mike Calacion, and Katz Seki. [3] "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. [5] The recording of "Richard Hung Himself" was remixed by Paul DuGre for inclusion on the album. [3] The original tapes of the April 1986 demos were also lost. [3] "Lisa had actually forgotten that she had [them]," said Brandenburg, "but I told her, 'Look, you've got to go find those tapes. It's on there.'" [5] Ultimately the recordings of these two songs were mastered from a Chrome Maxell cassette tape found in Brandenburg's garage. [3]
Once the material was compiled, the album was mastered by Paul DuGre in Burbank, California. [3] For the liner notes, Brandenburg, Soto, and Frank Agnew each wrote pieces describing their recollections of and reflections on the band's early years. [3] Agnew designed the album cover, which bears the subtitle "Naughty Women in Black Sweaters". [3] Brandenburg explained that this was an in-joke 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 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. [5]
