The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Pol-Pots Pleasure Penthouse

 

Unreleased demos 1991 / Burger Records 2012 / A Records 2017

01 Fingertips

02 E To G

03 Phone Song

04 Thoughts Of You Too

05 Chameleons

06 Evergreen

07 Fade

08 Space

09 Psychedelic Sunday

10 Jazzy Song

11 That Quiet Song

12 Only Trying To Help You

13 Don't Leave Me Here

14 Fade II

15 Memphis Sound

16 Remember Yesterday

17 Fade III

18 The Cure

19 Fade IV

20 The Cure II

21 Fade V

This BJM demo cassette comes from 1991, which pre-dates debut album 'Methodrone' by a couple of years. Information comes from the original owner from a post on the Keep Music Evil forum:

"in the early days, i think there were many bjm cassettes made for friends, venues, radio stations, record labels, etc. that's just how things were done. in light of his story, i do think alan herrick's tape is the first. the 1990 demo is older and a little different from pol pots. some of the songs have different vocal takes, like psychedelic sunday. all songs on the 1990 demo are on pol pots except for a long fade. pol pots has an additional 16 or so songs. anton worked then just like he does now, writing and recording all the time, always bubbling over with ideas, everything a work in progress, little to no second guessing. it was just like you see him work in his berlin studio, except he did it on a fourtrack, a friend's tascam 424.

the collection of music known as pol pot's pleasure penthouse is from a cassette anton gave me around 1991. it's hard for me to remember the date exactly. i had been living in victoria, bc and was passing through san francisco on my way back to costa mesa when i saw anton on haight street and pulled over. it was good to catch up and find out what he was doing. i went inside his flat and met a guy with a big pompadour and heavy makeup, wearing a thrift store cardigan and playing guitar on an empress couch in front of a bay window. that was jeff davies. as anton walked with me back to the car he gave me a tape. i was like, ok, thanks!

the cassette was a tdk, type 1. anton wrote "the brian jonestown massacer" on one side, misspelling massacre, and "untitled - 1991" on the other. he crammed as much music as would fit on a 90 minute cassette. the second the music fades out, the tape ends. i played it hundreds of times on my crappy car stereo in the early 90s. left it in the hot sun, etc. then the tape sat in a shoebox for 15 years, moving with me from place to place. in 2006, i had the cassette transferred to digital at mr. toads in san francisco. the guy who runs the studio, tardon feathered, did the transfer on march 3. i think it sounds pretty good for all the cassette went through, even with the 'lower' sound quality, drop outs, etc.

i gave the original cassette, a roughly eq'd version of the transfer on two cds, and a 88.2Khz .wav version on dvd to anton at the little radio show in los angeles april 21, 2006. we had not seen each other for years. i remember him saying to me, 'looking like a man' and 'thanks, i owe you one.' i also mailed a copy to pierre priot at dead bees records in france a few weeks before, but didn't hear anything. i'm not sure what happened after that, but before long the songs were shared online.

i didn't ask tardon to 'master' the songs because i didn't think it was my place to do so. now, i kind of wish i did. i thought it was going to be this huge discovery and have a proper release and so forth. over the years i've read a lot of comments saying how much people like it, and even though i had absolutly nothing to do with the music, it makes me happy that so many people have been able to enjoy it. it's funny to me to remember how i used to agonize over this in the early 90s, thinking nobody would ever hear these awesome songs. looks like i had nothing to worry about."

The demo was released on cassette through Burger Records in 2012 and as a double vinyl for Record Store Day in 2017.