An open letter to Jane's Addiction: you've come too far to turn back now.
No surprise, the volatile alt-era icons have just pulled the plug on their ill-fated reunion. But they can still work through it, especially with a new album nearly finished.
The beauty of our own words is that we get to savor how they taste when we have to eat them. Just days after posting a YouTube short titled Jane’s Addiction need to stay dead, I’m now calling on the band to fight for its life as its future hangs in the balance.
As you read this, there’s a fairly good chance that Jane’s Addiction have already breathed their last breath as a creative entity going forward. At this point, it’s impossible to forecast how things will shake out, especially since the band just released a new single — fittingly enough, titled “True Love.” The new song emerges amidst a swirl of chaos and uncertainty, released barely 48 hours after the band pulled out of its latest reunion tour with 15 dates still left to go, leaving co-headliners Love And Rockets stranded. (Demand for tickets, it should be noted, was brisk enough that six additional shows had been added.)
The tour cancellation seemed inevitable after a much-publicized onstage altercation prematurely halted a show in Boston on September 13th. If the timing of the single seems confusing, it’s more or less on-brand for a group that's teetered on the brink for pretty much its entire lifespan. Frontman Perry Farrell, we should remember, planned the first Jane’s breakup prior to the band headlining the inaugural Lollapalooza festival in 1991 — their most enduring contribution to the cultural landscape (besides the music, of course).
As Jane’s Addiction fans know all too well, chronic dysfunction just comes with the territory in this case. By the height of their popularity in 1990-91, substance abuse and intra-band friction had reached absurd, even dangerous levels. And yet Jane’s Addiction managed to leave a footprint on-par with — if not greater than — Nirvana as the ultimate paragons of the alternative zeitgeist. But their legend is effectively synonymous with a sense of unfinished business, having left the world with two era-defining classics and nagging questions about what could have been.
This latest implosion marks the second reunion of the classic lineup to go off the rails. A previous attempt at reconvening with co-founding bassist Eric Avery may have lasted longer — from 2008 to 2010 — but that reunion also fizzled with the promise of new material left unfulfilled. And if you count 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking and 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual as formative touchstones in your life as a listener, then you’ve probably accepted that we’ll never know what Jane’s Addiction could have accomplished had they been able to keep their momentum going.
To be blunt, “True Love” sheds little, if any light on what Jane’s Addiction might still have left in the tank. A barebones, melodramatic ballad, “True Love” would probably have been better suited as a rough demo by the likes of theatrical tejano-influenced folk/indie outfits like Calexico and Murder By Death. “True Love,” in fact, lacks all the familiar Jane’s hallmarks — the reverb-soaked swells of Dave Navarro’s guitarwork, the shamanic pulse of Stephen Perkins’ drums, Avery’s earworm bass hooks and, of course, Farrell’s ability to reach for the sublime despite the limitations of his warbly voice.
Here’s the catch, though: it’s unfair to try and gauge “True Love” outside the context of a whole album. And, unlike their last dalliance with Avery, this time Jane’s Addiction are reportedly sitting on an album that’s “mostly completed,” according to an NBC News article on the tour cancellation. (A request for an official update was not answered by the band’s publicist.) Further, the first offering of new material that we got from this reunion, a track titled “Imminent Redemption” that surfaced in July, lands far closer to that old Jane’s magic — tantalizingly close.
If you were lucky enough to catch Jane’s Addiction in concert during their heyday, then you’re aware of the mystifying power they once generated onstage. Undoubtedly, the ineffable alchemy that’s unique to these four players has faded somewhat. Still, it would be a shame if “True Love” were the last thing we ever heard from them, particularly since new music has already come into being. If, say, these new recordings don’t do justice to the Jane’s legacy, the band has simply come too far to turn back now.
And even if these people can’t reconcile their relationships on a personal level, they owe it to themselves to finish what they started and follow-through on seeing this album to term. If we’re being honest, the album is unlikely to match the sheer epic majesty they captured on Ritual de lo Habitual’s. 34 years is a long time for a band’s creative chemistry to erode. But we might as well be privvy to whatever’s left of the spark they once shared. Why not?
Jimi Hazel, guitarist and leader of the band 24-Spyz — a Bronx-based outfit that surfed the same genre-bending wave as their peers in bands like Primus, Living Colour, Urban Dance Squad, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, and Jane’s — perhaps put it best. In a Facebook post accompanied by an old photo of him and his bandmate Rick Skatore smiling and cavorting with Perkins and Farrell, Hazel was more empathetic to the human side of the equation.
“At the end of the day,” Hazel wrote, “all I want is for my friends to either shit or get off the pot. If what's broken cannot be fixed, go forth and live your lives as best as humanly possible.”
Fair enough — Hazel’s perspective is certainly understandable considering he’s endured his share of career shakeups in his own right. He can look at situations like this as more than just a fan who’s hungry for music. But on the flipside, if what’s broken was never fixed to begin with, then that broken-ness never stopped this band from creating great art. And if there’s any inspiration left in Jane’s Addiction’s tired old bones, then it’s only right that the inspiration should see the light of day. Why not?
Either way, if the past is any indication, we’re probably in for more of the “high stakes and high drama” that Farrell sings about on “Imminent Redemption.” Let’s see how it goes.
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This piece appeared, in slightly different form, on PopMatters. Check out my complete PopMatters archive here.