Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Banyan, Dave Navarro Solo and Infectious Grooves complete discography review (work in progress)

Jane’s Addiction

Nothing Shocking (1988)

Genre:  Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal, Funk Metal

It’s incredible that It took me a very long time from me to get around to listening this Jane’s Addiction album, even though I already had their self titled album “Jane’s Addiction”, “Ritual de lo Habitual”, “Strays”, “Kettle Whistle”, both Porno for Pyros Albums and two Banyan albums (Perkins Jazz side project), I never listen to this until very recently, I had issues with my musical priorities.

                       

Vocals and Lyrics: As I’m always going to same about Perry, he’s an acquired taste but the guy is at the top of his dark and twisted song writing. 9

Instrumentation:                    

Guitar: Dave Navarro’s guitar work is outstanding.

Bass: Eric is a formidable bass player; he keeps things interesting during the whole album.

Drums: Perkins playing is the secret behind this bands versatility. 8

Melody and/or Structure: This has an odd mix interesting musical surprises, changes of directions  and a atypical uses of melody that they will perfect in there next album. 8          

Sound, Production and Feeling: This album rocks hard but the mix does fail it a little, it has a 80’s mix in its sound, sapping some of the heaviness. 8

Songs: They are all classics. 11

The Bad:  

                                                                                                                         

Originality: Hey this album is a milestone for alternative music, what else can I say. 12

Overall:  56.1

Jane’s Addiction            

Ritual de lo Habitual (1990)

Genre:  Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal, Funk Metal

This album is part of the alternative rock/metal holy trinity with “Angel Dust” of Faith No More and “Blood Sugar Sex Magic” of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Standing here at the end of 2015 it really astounding to see how many mind blowing albums came out between 1990 to 1995 it was is incredible, and it freaking terrifying to compare what’s happing to music now a days that with luck you get one or two good albums a year.

                       

Vocals and Lyrics: Perry has the uncanny ability to pump into one album dark and edgy songs that can sit next to up tempo alternative pop song with catchy lyrics and make it sound like a cohesive production. 10

Instrumentation:                    

Guitar: Dave’s master guitar work on this album, it’s a guitar lovers album.          

Bass: Eric is a solid and interesting bass player.

Drums: Perkins manages mood and energy perfectly 8.75

Melody and/or Structure: “Three Days” is there magnum opus; there is a perfect equilibrium between melody and structure, in this lord of the rings of sex songs.   12

Sound, Production and Feeling:  Even though the production isn’t anything out of the ordinary, the band’s sound much better and manage mood very well during the whole album.  10

Songs: They are all classic 9

The Bad:  

                                                                                                                         

Originality: The album rewrote what a mainstream band could do, opening the door alternative bands to radio and TV. 12

Overall: 61.75  



 

Infectious Grooves 

The Plague that Makes Your Booty Move... It's the Infectious Grooves (1991)

Genre: Funk Metal, Punk Funk

Here we have Mike Muir's side project with legendary bass player Robert Trujillo, Infectious Groove which is a straight up funk metal band. We find Mike being more light hearted on this project and we have the treat of Ozzy Osborne on one of the tracks. Trujjillo's bass lines are just incredible he slaps like a god and funky bass lines a magnificent, as a base player I admire his digitation and timing playing he's like Flea on anabolics. On guitar we have a series of Suicidal Tendencies player from past and present like Rocky George, Dean Pleasants and Adam Siegel, plus David Kushner future member of Velvet Revolver. On Drums we have Jane's Addiction's  Stephan Perkin just killing it on the drums adding his tradition percussions on the tracks,  very organic and relaxed but is able to pull off the hardcore punk explosions when they come around.

The album sounds very 80's in a good way with the use of keyboards here and there, give it a Fisbone feel at moments, but this production is very well recorded and surprisingly aged well. The Punk Funk aspect takes where the Chili Peppers left it on  Mothers Milk and they run with it take the style to the extremes.

 
Overall: 58.8

Porno for Pyros

Porno for Pyros (1993)

Genre: Alternative Rock, Alternative Pop, Alternative Metal, Funk Metal

Ok here’s my brief Review on Porno for Pyros, self titled album. This spinoff band that formed after Jane’s Addiction demise is very interesting experiment, to bad this group didn’t last too long, they could have done some really cool stuff.

I discovered this band when I purchased the Woodstock 1994 album for 2 dollars; I was about 16 years old and hungry to find new music.  It was one of my smartest musical investments ever; I discovered a ton of new bands that I had never heard of, like Green Day, Primus, Nine Inch Nails, Live… and this band. But it took awhile to get around to get this bands discography, I started get really interested in them, when Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers Joins the band near there separation.  

Vocals and Lyrics: Perry Farrell’s singing is an acquired taste; he voice is somewhat different from other singers it took me awhile to dig him as vocalist. Now his lyrics are pretty interesting, he has a dark and messed up obsession with sex and he gets really creative in how he expresses this artistically. 8

Instrumentation:

Guitar: Peter Di Stefano, is about as far as you can get from Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction’s Guitar player), he doesn’t use riffs as much and prefers to work with open chords, accenting more on texture and mood. His solo work is pretty good; he tends to use a lot Wah Wah, using it in creative ways, like in “Cursed Male”.  

Bass: Flea plays great on this album, ups I mean Martyn Le Noble. Le Noble’s slap style is very similar to Flea’s, so I’m pretty happy with the bass playing on this album.  

Drums: Stephan Perkins, I love his work with this particular album, he pushes his drumming in a very creative direction, adding some nice changes to his drum kit, going full on ethnic percussion at moments. 7.8

Melody and Structure: These are not your normal pop songs, even “Pets” which is a radio friendly single has a really weird time signature. These guys manage melodies in a unorthodox way. Structure wise most songs have a basic pop structure but they have some interesting surprises. 7

Sound, Production and Feeling: This Album sounds Ok; there are some nice production FX and details. What is relevant with this album is this dark and melancholy mood that they get across, it take you for really messed up trip into Perry’s brain.  8

Songs: This album has no fillers; it’s good from start to finish. 11

The Bad: Nothing.

Originality: This band is a weird hippied out version of Jane’s Addiction, but they make a great effort in breaking new ground. Here’s a link to a part of their Woodstock performance enjoy Woodstock 1994 10

Overall: 51.8

Porno for Pyros

Good God’s Urge (1996)

Genre: Alternative Rock, Acoustic Rock

Porno for Pyros really hippie out in this album, its mostly composed of super laid back acoustic tracks, and a couple of super alternative rockers. Personally when I listen to this album it reminds me visualy  the art work of a good friend of mine Gustavo Bergoglio, it’s every bit as trippy as this album (check his blog it’s worth the view bergoglio-arte). Now getting back to the album here we go with my review:

Vocals and Lyrics: Perry singing is more relaxed and his lyrics are not as dark as the previous album. Acoustic song put Farrell’s voice in a different and interesting light, he almost sound happy and content at moments. 8  

Instrumentation:

Guitar: There are very few songs that are driven by electric guitar, Di Stefano play mostly acoustic guitars,  and puts a strong accent on atmospherics. His solos are really good the fit perfectly the context of the songs.

Bass: No slapping on this album, the bass is much more relaxed. Martyn Le Noble actually leaves the band during the recording of the album and is replaced by Mike Watt from the Minutemen, but he’s only on two tracks.  

Drums: Perkins goes deeper into his ethnic drumming; accompany perfectly these more acoustic tracks. 7.5     

Melody and Structure: The album is more song oriented, melody reins king in this ethereal world. 10

Sound, Production and Feeling: There’s this weird ethereal feeling in the whole album, the band transports you to an odd but intimate place. 10

Songs: This album has to grow on you; I didn’t like it immediately, it took time for me to love this production from start to finish. Tahitian Moon is my favorite track here’s  the official video of the song Tahitian Moon Video.  10

The Bad: Nothing.

Originality: The band explores what they started in there last album, really pushing the limits of what a rock band can do. Also I have to mention that Flea and Dave Navarro are on the album cementing the inevitable Jane’s Addiction reunion and demise of Porno for Pyros. 10

 

Overall: 55.5

Note the two pictures other than the album cover are paintings of my friend Gustavo Bergoglio.    

Banyan ( Jane's Addiction-Porno For Pyros Side prject)

Anytime at All (1999)

Genre: Jazz Rock, Funk Jazz, Instrumental, Fusion

 Banyan is pretty much a forgotten side project of the Stephen Perkin drummer from Jane's Addiction and Porno For Pyros, and I'm going to review their second album and it's a parade of all-star guest musicians: On guitar you have names like John Fruciante ( Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Mars Volta),  the mythical Buckethead  (Praxis and Guns and Roses) and Nels Cline. On Bass you have Flea ( Red Hot Chili Peppers), Mike Watt ( Minutemen ), Martyn LeNoble (Porno for Pyros) and Willie Waldman. Perkins obviously plays the drums and percussion on every track and finally there are a couple of unknown guest vocalist that do a decent job. I recently rediscovered this album on a road trip to Uruguay, this gem was on the playlist on my pendrive, so my drilled my family with super cool instrumental music most of the trip, my wife who's super  into crappy electronic music wasn't to happy with this jajajajaja.

Musically this album is composed of about 13 tracks of pretty entertaining Jazz with a heavy influence from rock music, especial in composition and execution, the song are chucked full of energy. It's a great album to take your first steps into instrumental and Jazz music.

Overall: 58 




Dave Navarro

Trust No One (2001)

Genre: Alternative Rock

This is a interesting album, Dave does some cool stuff on the guitars from awsome use of pedals too old school solos, the songs are good and have some fantastic ideas that need to be little more fleshed out, the production flounders a little at moments, lyrical David struggles. The album has a industrial and glitchy undertone that sets it apart from anything that Jane's Addiction or the Chili Peppers have ever done. Some cool guest are on the album like band mate Stephen Perkins, Twiggy Ramirez (Marilyn Manson, A Perfect Circle) and  Rory Mayorga  ( Stone Sour, Soulfly).

Overall: 49.1

Jane's Addiction

The Great Escape Artist (2011)

Genre: Alternative Rock, Art Rock, Hard rock

This album caught me off  guard, it's a  beautiful masterpiece, being a  very focused production. Perry explores no lyrical terrains getting a little more personal at moments and always finding different melodic angels for his voice. Now Dave is on top of his game his guitar  playing   really elevates the songs, and he use some very interesting effect on  guitar that just blows my mind. Now there are two people credited for recording the bass on this album, you have David Sitek and Chris Chaney and their playing is pretty functional and basic to the songs. Perkins playing never lets you down, he's my favorite rock drummer with Chad Smith.

This album is  well written the songs  sound fresh, and it's good from front to back, and   I must note Duff McKagan  collaborated with the composition of a couple of the tracks. Its production heavy in a really good way catering to the songs and to the band not getting in the way of the art.

So to conclude I'm happy to see these back on a creative high,  and let's hope they don't take forever to put out their next album.

Overall: 59.1