Jane’s Addiction Reunited

Lovers of fine rock music REJOICE! The reunion of Jane’s Addiction is at hand! All hail the God of Thunderous rock ‘n’ roll! After their formation in 1985, the band enjoyed a great amount of success. For six wondrous years, the music never stopped.

Jane’s Addiction current members are Perry Farrell (lead vocals), Dave Navarro (lead guitar), Eric Avery (bass) and Steve Perkins (drums/percussion). Together, these four wizards of the music world cast a mighty spell. Generally classified as alternative rock/funk rock/alternative metal, Jane’s Addiction never shrinks away from crossing genre lines and is influenced by punk, gothic rock and metal.

Around 1985, Farrell was looking for a new bassist for his band Psi-com when he met Avery. Eric was never officially “in” the doomed Psi-com, but was instrumental in forming the new band. The name Jane’s Addiction was in honor of a drug addicted friend of Farrell named Jane Bainter.

The new band went through guitarists like a hot knife through butter. Drummer Matt Chaikin missed several rehearsals and was “drummed” out of the band. A while later, Perkins was hired in as a friend of Avery’s sister, Rebecca. After this, another friend of Rebecca, Dave Navarro was brought in and the line up was set.

Now the band was moving forward and gaining notoriety along with a LOT of notice from several record labels. JA was the hot act to see on the Los Angeles club scene, with an almost regular gig at The Scream. AS they had decided to sign on with Warner Brothers Records, the members insisted on releasing their first album on independent label Triple X.

January 1988 saw the release of Nothing’s Shocking. Despite an internal dispute over royalties distribution, the band followed the release with a supporting tour with Iggy Pop and The Ramones. By the end of the tour, Jane’s Addiction was a headliner and was nominated for a Grammy the following year for the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance.

In 1989, the band returned to the studio to record Ritualo de lo Habitual. Due to the rift during recording of the first album, Farrell and Avery had to agree to come to the studio at different times. Things were not looking good for the group as a whole, but the album got recorded nevertheless. It was released in 1990 followed by a 13 month tour that tore the band apart for good.

Actually, that tour as a band resulted in the first Lollapalooza Festival in 1990. Ironically, the event was SUPPOSED to be a farewell concert. As they say, “The show went on” and Jane’s Addiction broke up in 1991. Jane’s Addiction became iconic with Lollapalooza in what Perry Farrell dubbed an “Alternative nation.”

Solo careers followed for all the members and several “superbands” were bred out of the demise of JA. Farrell and Perkins fired up Porno for Pyros and recorded two albums in 1993 & 1996. Navarro and Avery formed Deconstruction and released one recording in 1994. Navarro had joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers earlier in 1993 and Perkins went on to form Banyan.

Then in 2001, Jane’s Addiction reunited and released Strays. The reunion lasted about two years ending in a second breakup due to “the same old reasons” as stated by Navarro. The breakup occurred in 2004 and spawned the formation of The Panic Channel (Navarro, Avery and Chris Chaney) and The Satellite Party with Farrell and guitarist Nuno Bettencourt (formerly of Extreme). Avery released a solo work, Help Wanted, in 2008. Along the way, a greatest hits album called Up From The Catacombs, found it’s way into record stores in 2006.

Presently, the band is back together and has released a box set, A Cabinet of Curiosities, in April 2009. There are rumors of new material in collaboration with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails but the band says there’s no hurry to produce anything new. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens….