introduction!

Porno for Pyros
Porno for Pyros: Sadness ep
Porno for Pyros: Good God's Urge

Deconstruction

Red Hot Chili Peppers: One Hot Minute

a brief intro to Polar Bear
Polar Bear (aka: The Chewing Gum ep)
Polar Bear: Why Something Instead of Nothing?

Banyan
Banyan: Anytime at All

Perry Farrell: Rev
Perry Farrell: Song Yet to Be Sung

Dave Navarro: Trust No One

Let's face it, Jane's Addiction was the shit. Nothing these guys have done seperate from each other looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or (most importantly) feels like that which they accomplished as a creative unit. However, each member has carried on in their own way. Some contributing to or remixing the works of others, one joining an existing project, and all forming new bands at one time or another. Though Farrell, Perkins and Navarro have relapsed Jane's in 1997 (and again in 2001), here is an overview of what each member has been doing since the first demise of the original Jane's Addiction:

Perry Farrell: After Jane's, Perry grabbed Stephen Perkins and jumped right into Porno for Pyros. He also was the on-again/off-again president-type-person of the annual Lollapalooza summer spectacle until it crashed and burned in the mid '90s. He disolved P4P in 1998. He became a born-again Jewish person soon after. Then he again grabbed Stephen Perkins and formed the spiritually-focused Gobilee. Perkins split from this project early on and Farrell disolved that band as well. Farrell DJ'd for awhile (probably still does...), then–in time for X-mas 1999–he released the "solo" album Rev. In 2001 his long-anticipated real solo album debuted.

Stephen Perkins: As mentioned above, Perkins hung out with Perry for most of the '90s performing with Farrell's Porno for Pyros and Gobilee. Also throughout the '90s, Perkins contributed his talents to side projects (Class of '99, Infectious Grooves, Electric Love Hogs), worked on the albums of other famous types (No Doubt, NIN) and not-so-famous types (Ugly Kid Joe, Methods of Mayhem). In 1997 he formed Banyan, an on-going low stress, jazzy, sometimes rock and hiphoppy, free form jam out project with a rotating membership of southern California musicians.

Eric Avery: In the aftermath of Jane's Addiction, bassist Eric Avery has kept the lowest public profile focusing his energy on creating great music on his terms and happily ignoring all the things he hated about the Jane's Addiction experience (corporate labels, managers, mtv, etc). He did Deconstruction, a one-album-no-tour project with Dave Navarro which, for my dollar, was one of the best albums of 1994. A year later, he hooked up with Harold Sanders (of Ethyl Meatplow) to form Polar Bear. Avery shunned the Jane's Addiction "Relapse" tour of 1997 forcing the other three members to draft Flea (of RHCP) for bass duties. Polar Bear broke up in 2000.

Dave Navarro: Shortly after Jane's, Navarro teamed with Avery for Deconstruction. He then did a five year stint as the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist. He also loaned his guitar and studio talents to the work of others: he remixed Tracy Lords and Janet Jackson; he played on some NIN and Marilyn Manson songs; he formed a side project (Honeymoon Stitch) with Chad, the RHCP drummer. Since then, all I know of Navarro's activities is he has produced a self-titled solo project, did a guitar solo for Guns N' Axel Roses, and published a book collecting photo booth pictures of his fans.

The first of the post-Jane's releases had quite a legacy to live up to. I don't think anyone was surprised when it didn't. Unless said anyone for some reason believed Perry Farrell was Jane's addiction. If so, I bet they were disappointed. Even with Stephen Perkins along for the ride, there's hardly any there on this material. I used to fantasize about how much better these songs would sound with Navarro on guitar and Avery on bass.

However lately I instead pretend I've never heard Jane's Addiction and take this album at face value. You know what? I kinda like it. 'Sadness', 'Meija', and 'Packin' .25' are great songs with cool sounds and engaging transitions. 'Cursed Female' has a scary dark edge to it while 'Cursed Male' is comedic with its lyrics "All the guys that really have the money / Are too old to have a good time with it". Though I'm sick of hearing the song, the concept behind 'Pets' (someday humans will make great pets) is funny and right on the money.

But just when Porno for Pyros gets you interested, the damned thing is over. Thirty-seven minutes? Hell , the Ritual song 'Three Days' is longer than this album! Perry, Porno for Pyros is practically an ep, bro! What about dollar value?

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Really it's an extended single for 'Sadness' but since it has five tracks, four of them non-album, I thought it warranted mentioning here. 'A Little Sadness' is a studio remix. The other three tracks 'Cook the Rice', 'Pets', and 'Pete's Dad' are typical live b-sides.

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So this is the clean Perry Farrell, is it? Very new age. I listen to this cd when the outside world gets too stressful and I need to mellow out and daydream. It's an excellent recording for that purpose.

Lots of guest musicians here, including Dave Navarro and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers and a couple of dudes from Love and Rockets. Sadly, the songs are too short to notice the contributions of these talented outsiders and the album ends too quickly. Perry is a great producer and lyricist, but he needs Navarro's guitar-easel more than he'll ever know. The P4P sound is indistinct because the guitars are weak, and the drumming is underemphasized... very UNlike Jane's Addiction. However, where Jane's was hypnoticly self-assured music, P4P tunes are mildly confident with rich texture and interesting transitions. The bass lines are vastly improved from Porno for Pyros thanks mainly to the addition of Mike Watt's expertise in that area.

My major complaint with Good God's Urge is the same one I had with P4P: The length. Thirty-eight minutes is far too short for a full-priced cd, especially when the band took almost three years to put the damned thing out.

Reader Comments

Steve.uhlmansiek@stls.frb.org. (Steve Uhlmansiek)
I don't know how old you are but I'm assuming your in your twenties. What the fuck. Thiry minutes, forty minutes, those sound like good running times for rock albums in my opinion. Thinking like yours has caused every fucking band in the world to think they need to cram music on every fucking inch of a cd just because they can. What do we get? Shit, filler shit. Songs that have no business being on a record. Some of the worst offenders of this (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins and Marilyn Manson) have all ruined good rock and roll records with filler shit to pad out the length of their cds. Quit worrying about how long a cd has to be to "justify" the cost. It's either good or not. Length is irrelevant in music.

P.S. Cd's suck

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You're more than welcome to disagree, but this is my favorite collection of songs from the post-Jane's era. Of the Jane's Addiction releases, only Nothing's Shocking tops Deconstruction in my mind, based on my tastes (yes, that means I like Deconstruction just a tad better than Ritual which is a phenomenal album in its own right).

Deconstruction shines on tracks like the opener, 'L.A. Song', one of the best indictments of La-La Land ever penned by a local with some beautifully interwoven sounds (particularly in the third part). Dave Navarro really shreds on 'Get At 'Em', a fast paced number with punch and swirl. 'Iris' is a gorgeous instrumental that Dave and Eric used to perform during soundchecks in their Jane's Addiction days. 'Fire in the Hole' is a plodding, grinding track with guest vocals by Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers. 'America' is an outstanding song with epic navarro guitar. From it we get a sense that Eric Avery is also a gifted lyricist: "I was America this morning / Driving just to drive / No destination in mind / Just spinning my wheels". Civilization crumbles in 'Wait for History' a song that lumbers along then finally pounds you in the head with falling bricks and debris. The album closes with a cool heavy metal-ish instrumental called 'Kilo'.

Those are just my favorites and they're scattered throughout the album. In between them, there's not a bad song to mention. The most touching song on the record is 'Son', a stripped down acoustic piece about the fragile relationship between a junky and his long-suffering but always loving mother: "I promise I'll feel better when I see you again / I'll be right back with my medicine". Knowing that Eric and Dave were kicking heroin while making Deconstruction makes 'Son' all the more poignant.

Some people have confessed to me that they have a tough time adjusting to Eric Avery's vocal style which is reminiscent of deep-voiced Peter Murphy. All I can say is... get past it. If this style of singing/talking must grow on you, then by all means, let it! Otherwise you'll miss some great music supporting some excellent poetry. I find on Deconstruction (as on the Polar Bear stuff to follow) Avery's voice fits the music perfectly.

Reader Comments

FABEGG@frankabeggconsult.es (Susana)
Thanks for the web page, I'm a great fan from Deconstruction and I was wondering what had happened to Avery. PS: I'll try to get the records...

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Elsewhere on the interplanetarily famous Prindle Review site this disc is reviewed by Zach English. I'm going to review One Hot Minute as a Dave Navarro project since, during his brief tour of duty, he undeniably put his hard rock stamp on the Peppers... a band that is otherwise three parts funk-rocky (yay!) / and one part tender ballady (boo!) when that other guitarist is on their role call.

Let it be said that the Chilis aren't one of my favorite bands. I don't hate them, in fact I generally enjoy their albums the first few times I hear them. But eventually every RHCP disc I've owned has found itself in my "CDs for sale" pile. This with the exception of OHM which I kept due to Navarro's involvement. The best tracks are those where he is allowed to flex his rock god: the opening track 'Warped' about addiction; the Amsterdam inspired 'Coffee Shop'; for a guy who hates funk, Navarro gets quite funky on 'One Big Mob'; 'One Hot Minute' is ballsy and crunchy; 'Shallow be Thy Game' is fun but would have been a better instrumental; even the mellower 'My Friends' and 'Walkabout' have some great guitar licks happening in them. This is classic Navarro material!

I realize most Chili fans hate this album. It's far too different for them. The funk is almost totally gone and RHCP sounds like a heavy metal act on some tracks, a psychedelic band on others. But it's their best release in my book. As a Pepper's album, OHM rates an 8 from me. In the post-Jane's scheme, however, this disc pales in comparison to Deconstruction and anything by Polar Bear... hence the 6.

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Intro to Polar Bear

Polar Bear is a lot like Jane's Addiction but only in regards to band chemistry and intensity. Just as when you first heard Jane's, listening to Polar Bear you realize this shit is unique, intense and (most importantly) FOR REAL! This music wasn't created in a marketing laboratory like, say, Creed. No, this music is the high quality organic potent shit that only comes about when true artists combine their real talents and that leads to the natural creation of genuine chemistry. The result is the exact opposite of that market-driven mtv drivel that passes for rock music nowadays (again, Creed... but also those patented "angry but I don't know at what" white boy rap metal bands). What's been lacking from all of the post-Jane's projects (except Deconstruction), and music in general in the post-Jane's world, is exactly this chemistry and intensity. Porno for Pyros didn't have it. The Chilis didn't have it for much of the '90s. So, knowing Jane's Addiction, Deconstruction and P.Bear DO have it, we must ask, what is the common ingredient in all three of those bands? Exactly. Eric Avery. Hell, even the Avery-less tracks on Jane's Kettle Whistle sound like P4P songs. Which leads me to wonder who had the lion's share of heart and soul in Jane's anyway? Now there's a subject for debate.

But this is about Polar Bear... what does the music sound like? Polar Bear takes those things you like best about techno, electronica, jungle (or whatever the hell you want to call it) and gives it cool guitar harmonies, smooth sensible transitions, and beautiful words. They weave together intriguing basslines, lively drums, heavy (yet minimal) guitars and unique samples. The songs can be spacey and hypnotic or funky and rhythmic often in the same track. There are transitions galore here... no riff gets over used. Avery sings in P. Bear, as he did on Deconstruction. His voice is reminiscent of Peter Murphy's but without the put on. Avery's lyrics are personal, poetic and strikingly visual. Unfortunately, neither release includes a lyric sheet so you have to figure out what he's singing about on your own.

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"The Chewing Gum ep" contains five excellent tracks. The fascinating 'Monkey' is about working stiffs. It starts with a lazy (deliberately bored?) guitar hook that is soon joined by a techno-tribal drumbeat, samples and, finally, the vocals. 'Monkey' meanders along in a haze before erupting into a densely packed guitar crunch. 'Water' is a heavy grinding track that stops and goes. I love the opening verse on this song:

Cool imagery. 'Face' is my favorite Polar Bear track. It opens with a great tribal/industrial beat and breaks into a cool disjointed guitar riff that seems to eminate itself in waves. The music on this track is gloriously hypnotic forcing your booty to shake. Lyrically 'Face' is interesting as a short story about young girls using their budding sexuality as a "clumsy weapon" causing the narrator to declare them "unseasonably hot"... or maybe he's talking about the sudden change in the temperature when these young ladies are near? Works either way. 'Gimmee' is about gods as monsters:

Chewing Gum ends with 'Leader' the heaviest track on the ep with the most Navarro-esque guitar riffing you'll find of any Polar Bear track. This song has an excellent bass-sustained groove to it.

In terms of Polar Bear, Chewing Gum is their 10. A high 9 in the post-Jane's pantheon.

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Why Something Instead of Nothing? came out two years after Chewing Gum with a slightly altered line up. Avery and Sanders are still the rock but here they are joined by Dani Tull and Andy Troy. Overall, the album is more versatile than its predecessor, opting for texture rather than crunch, but the band chemistry is very strong and the tunes are tight. New to the mix are female supporting vocals on several tracks, strings, and a much more playfully experimental approach to the samples used.

'Lick' kicks off the album and it has an almost 'Mountain Song' edge to it. It riffs zombie heavy and contains yet another great Avery lyrical moment, this one summing up his aversion to selling out:

"I'd put you to sleep, you know I would
to the shit they play on the radio
where everybody thinks they're fly
has anybody even left the ground?"

Other stand out tracks include 'Friday'; the gorgeous 'Shark Eye'; 'Flyer' a Lennon-esque tune about free spirited people who "always seem to be leaving"; the moody 'Bodybag' with it's beautiful guitarwork and eery background sounds; the groovy 'Farm' and the closer 'Zulu'.

Recently this album has become very hard to find. But if you manage to track down a copy, you have yourself some treasure, my friend!

Reader Comments

erice@bvk.com. (ERIC ENDICOTT)
Thanks for the great site... lots of post-Janes info. I agree completely with you that both Deconstruction & Polar Bear are two monumental works of powerful, artistically genius music. Nothing else that has been released, well, ever, is as cutting edge or progressive. I also was blew away when I emailed Eric Avery looking for Why something, and he wrote back and ended up sending me their new, hard to find disc for "nothing". Pretty fucking cool gesture considering the amounts of crap and pompous attitudes that can be generated by the industry. EA just seems like a artist who cares in a very genuine way about his medium, and those of us (though we may be few) who really appreciate his efforts.

AngryK9@aol.com
It's a sad commentary about the state of the music industry, when the best album of the last ten years, fails to find distribution. Eric Avery GAVE AWAY the last case of Why Something CD's for $2 shipping through the Polar Bear website. Yet Songs Yet To Be Sung, an utter piece of garbage, gets Major label distribution. You only need to listen to Deconstruction, and Polar Bear, and consider that the only "New" Jane's material for the last decade was some of Eric's first songs. If you ever get a chance to get 1/10/86 Jane's Addiction recording from The Black Radio club, before Dave Navarro, or any drummer at all was in the band, it will all become perfectly clear that Eric did 98% of Jane's music writing.

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This is solely a Stephen Perkins' project (no other Jane's folk involved) and it's just okay. Banyan is musical experimentation similar to Zappa's Jazz from Hell only more organic and with more instrumentations. It goes all over the place and rarely sounds cohesive. Call it Jazz From Pot if you must.

Basically, a bunch of Perkins' rock musician buddies got together and improvised some funky background jazz. Background, I say, because this music is unlistenable in any other way than in the background of whatever else you are doing: socializing with friends, working on the car, ignoring your kids, watching a movie with the sound off stoned out of your mind, whatever...

Other than Perkins, Mike Watt is involved as well as Nels Cline and someone called the Freeway Keyboardist. I can't tell you which of these songs are my favorites because these aren't really songs at all, though track seven is kinda cool. It's called 'The Roots of Banyan'.

Banyan rates a five because, like most jazz stuff, I can't tell if I like it or not nor why on Earth I should.

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Much more user-friendly than Banyan. There are more musicians involved with Anytime at All allowing for all kinds of horns and programming to find their way into the mix. Vocalists are even heard in the fray on three of the tracks. The music is groovier than on Banyan with more cohesion and slightly less of the improv that disc had (though there is plenty of jazz guitar noodling and piano plinking to please improv fans).

Perkins is the only player who shows up on all 13 tracks. Some of the other 21 players on the disc are: Martyn LeNoble (Porno for Pyros), Flea (RHCP and the Jane's Addiction relapse), John Frusciante (RHCP), Mike Watt, Buckethead, trumpeteer Willie Waldman, and guitarist Nels Cline. Vocalists are Cindy Juarez, Bad Azz, and Joey Klaparda.

Two of my favorite tracks have John Frusciante playing on them: 'Grease the System' (penned by him, Perkins and Flea) and 'La Sirena' which has a distinct RHCP flow to it. I also like 'Cactus Soil' (credited solely to Perkins) which is a brief bit of psychedelic percussion. 'Sputnik' is a grand instrumental with great guitar work by Buckethead and 'The Apple and the Seed' is fifteen minutes of pure cool.

Anytime at All is about 90% instrumental. Of all the post-Jane's Addiction projects on this page, AaA and Banyan are the furthest departure from rock-like things happening on P4P, Deconstruction, Polar Bear, etc. If you're into groovy "dinner music", so-to-speak, or are in the mood for something unique... then you will enjoy the heck out of AaA. Mostly, you should checkout Anytime at All just to hear Perkins' phenomenal percussion.

Reader Comments

erice@bvk.com. (ERIC ENDICOTT)
One bit of info for you that may lead you to give Banyan more of a chance... the Freeway keyboardist is Money Mark from the Beastie boys. The 2nd Banyan is better, but first album was a cool effort at the least and must have been a blast to record. I just picture like a camp-out for a few days at the Perkins residence, and lots of jamming amongst very talented friends.

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Perry Farrell: Rev - Warner Bros. 1999

This disc is packaged as a "solo" release, but really it functions as a best of Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros with two new tracks and five rare songs thrown in for convenience and good marketing strategy.

The totally new Perry Farrell tracks are 'Rev' (w/Rage's Tom Morello on guitar) and an all programmed techno version of Zep's 'Whole Lotta Love'.

Of interest to collector types... Rev has five Jane's Addiction and/or P4P tunes that were never available on their respective albums. The 12" remix version of Jane's 'Been Caught Stealing' is on here as well as their cover of 'Ripple' by the Grateful Dead. P4P rarities added here are 'Hard Charger' (w/Flea on bass and Navarro on guitar) plus covers of Lou Reed's 'Satellite of Love' and Leonard Bernstein's 'Tonight' from some famous broadway musical that I cannot recall the name of.

The good news is, if you're a brand new Jane's/P4P collection completist (or if you're curious about these rare tracks), you no longer have to track down the 'Been Caught Stealing' or 'Pets' singles, nor Deadicated, nor the soundtrack to Cable Guy. You can save your money and just pick-up Rev. Unfortunately, you'll still have to pick up Howard Stern's Private Parts if you want the full (and better) version of 'Hard Charger'. The version on here is the lame shortened video version.

The remaining nine tracks are straight off of each bands' albums. From Jane's Addiction: 'Stop'; 'Mountain Song'; 'Summertime Rolls' and 'Jane Says' (the Nothing's Shocking version). From Porno for Pyros: 'Kimberly Austin'; 'Tahitian Moon'; 'Pets'; 'Cursed Male'; and '100 Ways'. Overall, a nice little collection of songs.

I wanted to give Rev a rating of 9. I subtracted two points for Farrell's inclusion of 'Jane Says' instead of something stronger like 'Ocean Size' or 'My Time'. This is now the fourth album the truly dull 'Jane Says' appears on. I know it's their big hit, but enough already.

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Perry Farrell: Song Yet to Be Sung- Virgin 2001

I was going to start out saying something clever like “Farrell’s Song Yet to be Sung does for new agey techno music what Jane’s Nothing’s Shocking did for metal.” But I’m certain I read a review that already said something along those lines so fug that. Instead I’ll say “SY2BS is too rockin’ to be a new age album yet too new agey to be a rock album” which is closer to the truth anyway. I do believe, however, that this album provides some sort of land bridge between the techno and alternative rock continents the same way that Nothing’s Shocking bridged the metal and alternative rock crowds back in the day. And I’m willing to bet Perry Farrell would be the first person to tell you that this is by design. Not that the kids today have any problem being musically diverse what with all the stylistic fusions taking place (Remember when rockers hated punkers hated new wavers, etc.? Ah... the good old days, Now only old folk utter ridiculous phrases like, "I like all music except for RAP").

Re: percussion, It’s too bad that Stephen Perkins opted only to accompany Mr. Farrell down this techno path as a part-timer. SY2BS would benefit greatly from less drum programming and more of the fresh, vibrant organic percussion the talented Mr. Perkins can provide. Nonetheless, there are some tasty dance grooves on SY2BS along with plenty of moody spiritual moments. I like the stoney vibe of ‘King Z’ and the energetic natures of ‘Happy Birthday Jubilee’ and ‘Did You Forget’. ‘Shekina’ is pretty cool. Farrell's forays into neo-tribal rhythms can become tedious ('Nua Nua' comes to mind), but his experiments with neo-reggae ('To Me') and neo-polka ('Admit It') are actually kinda fun.

SY2BS is the best recording Farrell has done since the demise of Jane's Addiction. I like it just a tad better than God's Good Purge which used to hold that mantle.

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Dave Navarro: Trust No One- Capitol 2001

Review coming. Please post your thoughts if you've heard this release...

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Related Links (sweet!):

The Official Dave Navarro site

Some Divers Whistle. Great overall site for info on (and rare mp3s by) Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Deconstruction, Polar Bear and Perry's first band, Psi Com. Here you can also find out how/where to obtain most of the discs mentioned above if you ain't heard 'em yet.

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