I wrote a long piece about their third album, Ritual De Lo Habitual for Nude as the News.Jane's Addiction had amazing spirit. As a band, they challenged musical genres, sexual roles, the concert experience, album cover art, and what was possible with young music in the late 1980s.
This is a web site about a band I like, called Jane's Addiction.
Any of their albums is a driving force - it cannot help but stir you. In this way, some people are turned off by the "artiness" or they find the music ponderous. You have to be willing to go along with the flights of fancy, the soaring guitar solos, the pitched religio-intoxicated media criticism of the lead singer Perry Farrell. But along the way, you'll be guided by some seriously skillful and intelligent musicians. The drummer Stephen Perkins wages wicked funk through most of their songs, and at other times, brings a welcome sense of play to the music. There's something deeply tribal about much of his work. Eric Avery is too funky, and also classical - pulling the strings of his bass into intricate and still tight patterns beneath all the songs. And Dave Navarro, the guitarist brings heavy metal, blues and funk sensibilities to his guitar work - sometimes playing high into transcendant hard rock, at times playing a low down groove.
Perry Farrell's charisma and wild consciousness are a challenge and an inspiration - whether or not you agree with his notions of personal freedom and exhibitionism, you will likely feel yourself motivated by the spirit invested in his works.
Jane's Addiction transitioned rock in America from Guns and Roses to Nirvana. They took a big sound (and big hair), and made it more powerful by combining a sense of the sacred with otherwise meaningless hedonism. This is romantic music.
They became popular in the late eighties, they headlined the first Lollapalooza tour, they broke up.I was a latecomer to the affair, but feel no less affected;
so now the members have gone their ways,sophomore year, Jane's Addiction's funky, pained, unforgiving, kick ass tunes inspired me as they helped me access my rage. I was listening to nothing's shocking when I shaved my head, and during Lollapalooza '91 I was restrained by security guards.
it's a lot about moral anarchy.
sort of like after any relationship,
they stay in occasional contact, work on occasional projects.
like a recent ('98) reunionlapse, minus eric.
The intensity with which I followed this band at one time reminds me of my fourteen year old passion for Led Zeppelin. I think Jane's Addiction is a bit smarter than that - you'd certainly never catch Robert Plant appearing on stage naked.
For example, Led Zeppelin they covered a ton of blues tunes. But as a rabid fan of Led Zeppelin, I never knew which musicians to track down for the source of their rock.
whatever influences you hear in jane's addiction are apparent in a myriad of projects - visual art, other bands, collaborations, festivals
these folks, Perry and the others alike are responsbile for a broad swath of creative.so I think, as I've been in the midst of intense heat for their beat and cooler distance of age and appreciation,
that generation has not done much better.if we have, let me know.
this shit is deep, it's fun. it's thoughtful, it's visceral. it's drugs and it's school and sometimes it might even be church.
The energy of the original band members has been dispersed. Since Jane's ended,
Stephen and Perry formedThere's some other fantastic Jane's related sites:; they're engaging. not so much scrapping, but definitely funky. And I think they're defunct.
Dave Navarro and Eric Avery, the guitarist and bassist joined up with another bloke to create Deconstruction, soon defunct.
Dave is the guitartist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Eric has been sighted with Polar Bear.
Perry released a greatest hits album "Rev" in 1999. He's working on new music, and it seems he's aging better than sting at least.
if you like this music, here's music that another fan of this music gets off on.One Percent -the Jane's Addiction news source with a very solid boot/discography some diver's whistle - so much info, and up the latest news on all side projects.
Phil Hayes is working on a Jane's Addiction book: Jane Said
Some other older links
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justin's links by justin hall: contact