On the heels of releasing
their live DVD for Kung Fu’s ‘The Show Must Go Off!’ series recorded
at The House of Blues (watch it with the commentary – great stuff…!),
The Adolescents, who are celebrating their phenomenal 25th anniversary
this year (they formed in Fullerton, 1980), have a “new” album out,
‘Naughty Women in Black Sweaters – The Complete Demos 1980-1986’.
Fans get ready: out of the 16 tracks presented, 14 are previously
unreleased and there’s some cool liner notes from original members
vocalist Tony Reflex (a.k.a. Cadena), bassist Steve Soto, and
guitarist Frank Agnew. As the title would imply, this isn’t new
material but rather demos from way back when… In fact, the first four
offerings were recorded in 1980 in “Tony’s mom’s garage” (and by the
sound of the production – shoddy and gloriously murky, there’s no
question about the veracity of this claim!) and seem a young band
raucously trying to find their sound, while singing of alienation and
angst. After these few offerings comes fare (with clearer, less muddy
production) that will be familiar to most: songs like “I Hate
Children”, “Creatures”, Amoeba”, and the impeccable “No Friends”,
which all exhibit a young band who at this point have honed their
skills and refined their signature sound, which is punchy, intense,
melodic punk with an undeniable dark edge – and still snotty as hell.
In alternate forms, of course, they'd appear on the band's legendary
1981 self-titled debut LP known ffectionately as “The Blue Album”,
hands-down one of old-school hardcore punk’s finest works.
Other songs included here are the odd “Do the Eddie”, a kind of
freaky, super-fast onslaught (whose origins Steve describes in his
section of the liner notes) and “Richard Hung Himself”, an exceedingly
dark song perhaps more well known via D.I.’s classic version. But
quite possibly the greatest songs on this collection are the final
two, both recorded when the band reunited in ’86, which according to
the liner notes, were salvaged from a tape actually found in Tony’s
garage: “The Liar”, an aggressive and feral rant against Reagan and
“The Peasant Song”, which though a bit catchier and not as heavy, is
still tense. Essentially, this final tune is just a fabulous tour de
force.
