[Today: Switchblades and guitars...]
“Alternative” has always struck me as a ridiculous genre heading – alternative to what? Same goes for ‘Indie’. These latter-day genre labels are more industry-focused than old-school labels like rock or blues or jazz – words that attempted to describe the music they were categorizing. But ‘Alternative’ music really was different once upon a time. It came creeping out of the work of independent, mid-80′s bands like Husker Du, Minutemen and Sonic Youth, who blazed a viable new trail outside the music industry. By the mid-90′s, every popular band would be flown under the oxymoronically profitable title of Alternative, but one group that crystallized the notion of a truly alternative sound was Jane’s Addiction, circa Nothing’s Shocking.
Released in 1988, this album has some obvious influences, but still sounds completely different from everything else on the market. Nothing’s Shocking is a buffet of sex, violence, nature and nostalgia that’s served up behind music from a hard rock opium dream. Perry Ferrell’s nasal lead vocals drift between a whisper and a scream, and he spends a good portion of the record literally wailing and moaning. The album also plays host to some interesting characters and offbeat musical flourishes. ‘Jane Says’ – a Velvet Underground-style ballad about a junkie hooker who’s trying to get herself straight – features a haunting steel drum. ‘Summertime Rolls’ is a pressurized ode to the solstice that captures the same sense of a fleeting season as the early Beach Boys singles.
But the album’s highpoint is ‘Ted, Just Admit It…’ – a creepy piece of social commentary, and one of the most powerful songs of the 80′s. The title refers to serial killer Ted Bundy, who vigorously (and, in the face of massive evidence, tiresomely) insisted his innocence until days before his execution. The song features a snippet of Bundy speaking, but it isn’t about him as much as it’s about the thorough desensitization of America. “Show me everybody/Naked and disfigured/Nothing’s shocking…” Farrell sings, sounding every bit like someone who’s seen it all and has an appetite for much more.
The irony of course, is that Nothing’s Shocking is wired at such a high voltage that it can still provide a spark for even the most jaded listener. This is a musical telegram from America’s insane unconscious, a place where switchblades make music like guitars, and vice versa.
Listen: Ted, Just Admit It…
Listen: Jane Says
Listen: Summertime Rolls
Tags: Husker Du, Jane's Addiction, Minutemen, Perry Farrell, Sonic Youth, Ted Bundy, The Beach Boys
19 February 2010 at 12:02 pm |
[...] but they helped ignite both goth and industrial music, and bands from Nine Inch Nails to Tool to Jane’s Addiction have cited them as essential [...]