The Complete Demos 1980–1986 is a compilation album of demo recordings by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in March 2005 on Frontier Records. 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 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, 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, 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. "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 with audio engineer Richard Freund. 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.
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. 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. The five tracks from this demo—"Wrecking Crew", "Creatures", "Amoeba", "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 (also known as The Blue Album), released in March 1981 on Frontier Records. 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 with Thom Wilson 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 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.