Classic or dud : Jane's Addiction

superior.

Superiorlol. And I still prefer it.

I was at the show included on Disc 3

Okay so I hate you (I remember being pissed I had to miss that show -- that and the Pet Shop Boys in March 1991 are my two greatest 'argh if only' regrets from UCLA days, I think. I did see Jane's about a month or so later at the Universal with NIN opening, though, so there's that.)

Oh shit, this band.

This band live.

This band dead

rong

LJ catching up on 1991

2009 baby

Every band member still great live except for Brüno

motherfuckin' took the pain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx6691i0KDE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uj4Q4zbtfM&NR=1

yes

How many times is Jane's Addiction going to rise from the dead? (This time, Dave Sitek is the bassist.) New song, "End to the Lies"

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2011/03/30/janes-addiction-end-to-the-lies-stream-great-escape-artists/

Absolute must-read piece from Bill See, who was there, man. (Seriously, he was there, as a singer for his own band; he's also a v. good writer.)

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/144500-janes-affliction/

It is a great read, but also somewhat depressing to think that you really didn't hear the "real" Jane's unless you happened to be in L.A. watching them live before the first album.

Based on the various live cuts I've heard on bootlegs before Nothing's Shocking came out, I suspect he's OTM in the end. (And I say this loving those first three albums and the shows I did see.)

Oh, I'm sure he's 100% right, but as much as I love those first three albums it pains me a little to know even that wasn't the band's peak.

yesterday I turned on alt-radio for the first time in a long long time and heard some moody goth-influenced rock song rolling out of my speakers that fired off every want impulse in my body

it was "Irresistible Force"

the "three days"/"then she did..." one-two.

add on "Of Course" and you have the most devastating 1-2-3 of 1991-1992

The demos he mentions are really good (although not sure if they're so decisively better than the album versions).

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm used to getting grease on my hands, you know, workin' with pizza and all."

JA played a school benefit for my kid's school yesterday, there were about 500 kids/parents there:

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/3168_10151191807078467_1389443676_n.jpg
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404079_10151191806888467_1154366216_n.jpg

I hadn't seen them perform in over 22 years (with Dinosaur Jr. opening up). They still sounded pretty good.

Good times.

"thanks for coming out, this benefit will get these kids the updated math books they need so that they don't end up as... WHORES! *music starts"

"Been Caught Stealin'! Once, in study hall!"

*insert trolling of your own choice here*

http://open.spotify.com/track/13EpmgPUF4KL4TlXOGqUPD
http://open.spotify.com/track/4adGevk93O42gzhGUIjHRa
http://open.spotify.com/track/4FIVO1LXRTjdewCtJv3qzW

that entire sequence is perfection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5NN8eMDir0

the whole 1990 Milan tv broadcast.

Listening to Ritual de lo Habitual for the first time in quite a few years I could really hear how much triggered replacements were used on the drums. It still 'kinda' works on something like "Been Caught Stealing" which had kind of a hypnotic drum feel, but the repetitive each and every snare hit will sound like the other one with no dynamics definitely doesn't work on the track "Obvious".

gonna kick tomorrow ~
Eric A not only wrote Jane says but is also the son of Dustin hoffman’s rival suitor in the graduate !

Nothing's Shocking was a watershed album for me. An extremely important record that came out at just the right time for me to fall in love with. I still play it.

Everything else is meh.

Ritual is their moment of glory for me; NS feels like they were trying to be metal ("Had a Dad," "Mountain Song"), and and to be "alternative" and self-deflating ("Thank You Boys," "Standing in the Shower...Thinking," "Idiots Rule") at the same time. On Ritual they embraced their art-rock insanity. Side 2 > Side 1, but there's really not a bad song on the thing.

trying to wrap my head around liking Jane's Addiction but not Mountain Song

I like "Mountain Song," and "Had a Dad" and "Jane Says" and "Up the Beach" and "Ocean Size" and "Summertime Rolls." That's half or more of a very good album. But everything else on that record is negligible or bad. Ritual has nothing anywhere near as bad as the weak tracks on NS.

I think i first heard them in 1989 at age 15 and for the next 3 years or so, culminating with the first Lolapalooza and stepping out of high school they were a Big Deal to me. By the time they couldn't hold together to follow up Ritual and it came to pass that Porno For Pyros was quite dull, I basically lost all interest and have been to embarassed by my initial fandom to ever revisit them.

Ritual is a masterpiece. Saw the reunited Jane's at Reading in 02 or so and Three Days made it rain. I usually hate "guitar solo" guitar solos, but that guitar solo just sends me.

Dud.

Classic

I think i first heard them in 1989 at age 15 and for the next 3 years or so, culminating with the first Lolapalooza and stepping out of high school they were a Big Deal to me. By the time they couldn't hold together to follow up Ritual and it came to pass that Porno For Pyros was quite dull, I basically lost all interest and have been to embarassed by my initial fandom to ever revisit them.

this, altho contra the last bit I do go back to side 2 of Ritual fairly often, that stretch is incredible

Usually I think of the whole "Classic or Dud" question as just a rhetorical device to talk about the band, not an actual question ("Joy Division: Classic Or Dud?")

But this might be the first time I think the answer is squarely "\Dud".

Back when they became a thing, I assumed I was gonna love this band -- they had the look, the right kind of fans, all the right associations -- but then I listened, and realized the emperor had no clothes.
Jane's Addiction always seemed like they had a lot of cool ideas, but not any truly great music (see also: butthole surfers, dead kennedys).

Their fans, in high school, were genuinely the coolest.

When/where I went to high school, at peak Jane's Addiction, their fans were the worst. I remember when this happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBT8rMv4j3M

Dum dums brought shards of riot souvenirs to school the next day. I'm trying to remember exactly which doofuses I knew went, and I want to say it was the kids who had a cover band that did Hendrix and Chili Peppers. Which is to say, kids that really got into Blood Sugar Sex Magik the next year, but didn't quite get Nevermind. Until, of course, everyone got Nevermind.

there are a number of things i hated when i was younger and have grown to love or maybe like or at least tolerate

jane's addiction is not one of them

Interesting thought here:
Jane's Addiction always seemed like they had a lot of cool ideas, but not any truly great music (see also: butthole surfers, dead kennedys).

I would answer neither classic nor dud. Nowhere near as important as they seemed at the time seems correct though.
These are usually a rhetorical device, with the notable exception of the Doors thread.

they were just sorta there when i was getting into rock music in the mid 90s and treated as received wisdom to an extent; this obscured the fact that aesthetically i just didn't, and don't, really care for their music.

I listened to Ritual a few weeks ago, for the first time in a long time. There is a lot about the record that has not aged well for me—it came out when I was in high school so it has all those intense teen associations, for better or for worse. But all that aside, side two is stil something special.

classic, NS and Ritual still great
It took seeing them live without Eric Avery for me to realize he’s the key to the whole thing. without him they’re pretty much a jim rose sideshow but with more hats.

one of their concerts tops my list for my alltime worst shows i’ve ever seen.
and: one tops my list of alltime best.

that’s how fucked up this stupid/awesome band is

Agree about Eric. Farrell was the fulcrum of the band but E seems to have been the creative force, at least for the songs that I love

She takes a swing man
SHE CAN HIT

wrong lyrix(?)