By all accounts, the recent Jane’s Addiction tour has been canceled after Perry Farrell attacked Dave Navarro in the middle of a song, and had to be dragged off the stage. Reading some first-hand accounts from fans who posted video of that show, the consensus is that the band sounded fantastic but he sounded like shit, was drinking heavily through the whole show, and was dropping verses in the middle of songs. His wife immediately went on social media to attack the band, and today they announced the tour was dead.
Having read about him and his treatment of the rest of the band I can’t say I’m surprised, but I’m bummed out for them. I would love nothing more than (and would, frankly, be more interested in) the three musicians touring together with a guest vocalist, just to hear them play live together.
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I’ve had the groove from Ocean Size by Jane’s Addiction stuck in my head for several days now.
I like watching this video and remembering how weird and exciting they looked and sounded in ’88, when I showed this to some of my high school friends. This album got me out of hair metal and into a whole new world.
Apparently Jane’s Addiction is touring with the Smashing Pumpkins this year into the next, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Eric Avery is back with the band; apparently they worked out their differences again, and providing everyone doesn’t turn into a dick they can continue to make music together. The bad news is that Dave Navarro has long COVID and isn’t touring with them, thus negating any reason to see them. This would have been a dream tour up until about fifteen years ago but I have no desire to see Smashing Pumpkins anymore—I’ll hang on to my memories of seeing them in their prime, thanks—but it would be cool to see JA live before they have to detune the songs another full step to account for Perry’s aging vocal cords.
Apparently Jane’s Addiction is putting out a retrospective video to celebrate Ritual De Lo Habitual sometime this year. Two years ago, on the actual anniversary, Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro did a track by track run through of the album, which was interesting from their perspective, and another take from the producer, who has a different view on how things happened.
I stumbled on this by accident earlier today, and it’s been interesting listening: Eric Avery (of Jane’s Addiction) talks about the reunion and subsequent dissolution of the band last year. I get a personable, honest vibe from Avery, so I’m inclined to believe him: sounds like Perry is still pretty much a dick.
In related news, it was sad to hear about the bassist from Alice In Chains this morning.
new I think it may be time for some of our elected legislators to roll up their sleeves and get some of the kinks of the intellectual property and copyright laws sorted out before our economy goes down the toilet.
The new Jane’s Addiction album is a mixed bag. There are some songs that really rock, and there are some that merely move. I don’t know what exactly I was hoping for, considering the fact that the band was so strung out recording Ritual they don’t remember it, but this album is pretty good. I suppose it will be one of those albums I have to listen to a few times to get into (see: Songs for the Deaf, Turn On The Bright Lights, Vespertine) but overall it’s not too bad.
Slashdot had an entry on the art of Machinima, where you take the in-game engine of your favorite first-person shooter and “film” a script or some other story. Apparently there’s now a contest for the best of this year’s clips; that link took me to the Red vs. Blue site, where a couple of guys have taken the familiar Capture the Flag scenario and asked the question: If the bots in the game were real people, what would they talk about? This is a distinctly Kevin Smith/Quentin Tarantino approach to the subject, and howlingly funny for anybody who’s been in the military, played a lot of FPS style games, or just likes offbeat game humor. Worth a look, guys.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any funnier. The Scout’s ignition module burned out at work today, so the juice won’t get from the battery to the starter motor. It doesn’t click, grind, or catch. Not a thing. I caught a ride with Nate into town to pick up Jen (remember, the Scout is the one running vehicle we have) and then to Jen’s house to where the Tortoise is parked. We say good-bye to Nate (he doesn’t need to get involved in this insanity, and it would be our luck for his car to break down too) and hop in the Tortoise to try to make it down to the mechanic’s. About a quarter of the way there, she gives up the ghost—there’s a hole in the return line from the radiator about the size of a dime that I didn’t see when I looked over the engine. We get a tow from a nice young guy and drop it off with my mechanic, who so far has saved us roughly $500 by proving that the Saturn’s alternator wasn’t dead, just the battery. So that car isn’t heading back to the dealership anytime soon.
Still waiting. It’s hard to concentrate.
Looking at the garden this morning, I’m amazed at how everything is coming along. The portulaca Jen planted in the front bed is growing like wildfire, blooming on just about every new shoot. The sage that overwintered in the beds is now about three feet tall, and desperately in need of some tiebacks. The lantana is now beginning to show signs of health—it overwintered and almost died at work, then got plagued by aphids, and then got shocked when we put it outside. It’s hearty stuff and seems to be blooming slowly. The lavender is about a foot tall, and the tarragon that poked its head through the snow is now about the same height.
ThinkSecret has an article on the new Panther upgrade for OSX, and it looks like there’s a bunch of new functionality included. One of my main gripes is that they have decided to use the brushed aluminum for all windows including the Finder. Yuck. One of the positive notes is that my Powerbook is supported, so there’s no worry about getting left behind.
www.donotcall.gov. Sign up now! Tell your friends! Put telemarketers out of business! Just remember—the service expires in five years so you have to re-register in 2008. Now we have to start lobbying Congress to pass some kind of anti email-spam bill. And an anti text-message-spam bill.
In other-other news, Spin magazine has a cover feature on Jane’s Addiction that I will have to read. Lots of info on the beginnings of the band, stuff I never knew about. I’m curious to learn about the early days.
So this morning in the car I heard the new Jane’s Addiction single from the forthcoming album, and *ahem* found it online for further listening. At first I was not impressed, but after some time with it, I’m very excited about the new album. I should insert a little personal history here—I saw a freaky video on 120 Minutes for Had a Dad way back in ’88 or so, during the Hair Metal days, and bought Nothing’s Shocking the next day. It was like nothing I’d heard before, and it was great. All my hair-metal loving friends thought I was smoking dope when they saw the cover of the album—remember, these are folks who thought Yngwie Malmsteen was the Second Coming of Christ. When Ritual came out, I played it constantly (Ritual, Zeppelin III and I Against I were the Holy Triumvirate) through my sophomore year of college. When the band busted up after the first year of Lollopalooza, I was pissed off because I wasn’t able to see them live.
The later incarnations of the band were always off, even though I was happy to see them recording together again (don’t get me started on Porno for Pyros); the addition of Flea on bass was cool from a hey-let’s-jam-together standpoint, but his style did not complement the rest of the Jane’s sound—his frantic melodic style doesn’t dovetail with Dave Navarro’s soaring guitar work (see One Hot Minute). I don’t know this new bass player from Adam, but his style seems to fit in the old Eric Avery mold quite well—propulsive, melodic, but not battling the guitar for dominance. It sounds like an updated, logical progression from the ’91 sound. I’m excited to hear the rest of the album, and I hope that Perry Farrell’s proto-new age-shoegazing tendencies lose out to the Rock.
Right on. Seen in the back window of a midsize pickup this morning, under a faded Gore/Lieberman 2000 campaign sticker: a hand-lettered sign reading, “Don’t You Wish?”
