Mephisto Demos

CoverMephisto Demos is a double 12″ bootleg vinyl from Groove Records.  This is a fairly rare and once highly sought after bootleg of Jane’s Addiction due to immense misinformation perpetrated by the bootleg designers.  This bootleg leads you to believe it contains eleven otherwise unavailable Jane’s Addiction demos, including a song that is bundled with the claim that it won Jane’s Addiction a recording contract with Warner Brothers.  This is simply 100% untrue.  The fact is there are only five Jane’s Addiction tracks on this bootleg, and they all appear on Side A of the first record.  These tracks are demos that are extremely common demos that have been commercially released several times and are also included on several other bootleg albums.  The other three sides of this set contain songs by other bands, none of whom have any relation to Jane’s Addiction.

The origins of these other tracks has been traced back to a tape created by a guy named Lob Instagon in the mid 80s.  He had a tape, simply labeled “Jane’s Addiction Demos”, and it included the other songs found on this bootleg.  Lob worked at a record store in Glendale, CA, owned by bootlegger Neil Shustack.  Long story short, Lob’s tape was stolen and turned into this bootleg.  You can read Lob’s recount of this over on SDW.

This bootleg falsely claims the final track on this collection as quote: “All White People Look Alike was the cut that won Jane’s Addiction their current recording contract.”  This myth further grew to be that Warner Brothers thought that, because of this song, record label reps though that Jane’s Addiction was more like the band They Might Be Giants.  Again, this is simply untrue.  This twenty minute long song is actually a song by Brian Woodbury, and was recorded off of the Dr. Demento radio program.  The song was released in 1987 on the label Some Phil.  Furthermore, the band They Might Be Giants was barely known back when Warner Brothers signed Jane’s Addiction.

The song Fighting Back is an early version of a song called Can You Feel. That song, along with Forever or Never and Holding Stare are demos submitted to Triple-X records from a band called CygnetFighting Back would later be updated and released by Cygnet lead singer Allan Aguirre’s band Spy Glass Blue and appears on the band’s album titled Shadows.

The songs Mephisto Waltz Part 1 and Mephisto Waltz Part 2 are tracks believe to be early demos from the band Mephisto Walz.  The actual titles of these two songs is still unknown.

The songs Pissed off Krishnas From Hell Part 1 and Pissed Off Krishnas From Hell Part 2 are demos from the one-off Los Angeles based band Pissed off Krishnas From Hell, whom Lob Instagon was a member of.  These two songs likely furthered the rumor that these were Jane’s Addiction demos, as one of the many stories about the dissolution of Psi Com was due to members leaving the band to become Hare Krishnas.

The song Minglewood Blues is a cover of a Grateful Dead song performed also performed by Pissed off Krishnas From Hell.  The remaining tracks are also performed by bands with Lob on vocals.

Thanks go out to SDW for the assistance uncovering the origin of the non-JA tracks.

Track Origins:

Record 1, Side A:  Jane’s Addiction – 03/??/1986 – Radio Tokyo, Venice, CA
Record 1 Side B & Record 2:  Non-Jane’s Tracks from Multiple Sources

Track Listings:

Record 1 – Side A:

  1. Jane Says
  2. Pigs In Zen
  3. Mountain Song
  4. Had A Dad
  5. I Would For You

Record 1 – Side B:

  1. Fighting Back
  2. Forever Or Never
  3. Holding Stare
  4. Mephisto Waltz, Pt. 1
  5. Mephisto Waltz, Pt. 2

Record 2 – Side A:

  1. Pissed Off Krishnas From Hell, Pt. 1
  2. Pissed Off Krishnas From Hell, Pt. 2
  3. All New Pasturized
  4. Unknown

Record 2 – Side B:

  1. Minglewood Blues
  2. All White People Look Alike

Released By: Groove Records
ID Number: JANAD-01
Medium: Double 12″ Vinyl
Quality: Good (JA demos), Mixed (other)
Source: Studio (JA demos), Mixed (other)
Time: 81:57

Artwork:

 

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