The first thing I thought of when I saw the cover of Jane’s Addiction’s new album, The Great Escape Artist, was the cover of Jane’s Addiction’s old album, Ritual de lo Habitual. Of course, there are some very obvious differences between the two; in fact, all they really have in common is that they’re both still photographs of sculptures. (The Ritual art is by vocalist Perry Farrell; I’m not sure if he’s also responsible for the Escape art or not.)

But the mere fact that the band went back to that well twenty-odd years later strikes me as being fishy, kinda like when Metallica suddenly reverted to their old logo on the cover of Death Magnetic after fifteen years of not using it for the Load or St. Anger releases (to say nothing of various compilations and live recordings, VHS and DVD releases, and merchandise). It seems like a ploy to invoke nostalgia in fans and reassure them that, “Hey, we know we fucked up, but look! We’re back to being the band you knew and loved!”

Check out both album covers below, and then tell me if I’m being too cynical or not in the comments section. The Great Escape Artist comes out October 18 on Capitol.

The Great Escape Artist:

Ritual de lo Habitual:

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The most recent album by Jane’s Addiction, 2003′s Strays, was a big-budget, big-production heavy rock record that kinda flopped despite its awesomeness. Since those distant days, Jane’s members have flirted with a full reunion (momentarily counting longtime hold-out Eric Avery as a returned member), with ex-Guns N’ Roses/current Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagen (he came and went within weeks), and with total futility (via singer Perry Farrell’s lame project The Satellite Party, featuring his wife and Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt).

So, along with my fandom, Jane’s has my curiosity about their new stuff — not just for the abovementioned travails, but also ’cause the album is a Rich Costey production (Mastodon, Muse, Cave In) and is the beneficiary of creative goosings by TV On The Radio dude Dave Sitek. I don’t care about TVOTR, but I’ve surmised that a dose of noisy post-rock might be good medicine for trio of moribund freak-rockers whose attempted return to glory was a safe, anthemic rock radio record. And now I see that my diagnosis is accurate, so far: Just listen to their thunderous, cacophonous new jam “End To The Lies” and its nipply new video (above, NSFW; audio only here). The jam is on fire! Turn it up!

-ADF

Jane’s Addiction’s fourth album The Great Escape Artist is out August 23 on Capitol Records.

So E! is apparently doing a new reality show, called Married to Rock, which, in case the title doesn’t make it obvious, is about the wives of some famous rock stars. Here’s a rundown of the women who are going to be on this show (some barely safe for work pics after the jump… you’ve been warned, you horn dogs):

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Well here’s a nice juicy rumor to end the week. From Blabbermouth:

“According to The Pulse of Radio, the JANE’S ADDICTION fan web site Xiola.org has reported that VELVET REVOLVER and ex-GUNS N’ ROSES bass player Duff McKagan is writing and recording with the band, following the departure of original member Eric Avery for the second time in the group’s troubled history. After JANE’S reunited for a third time in late 2008 — with Avery on board for the first time since the band originally broke up in 1991 — and toured last spring with NINE INCH NAILS, the band began feuding once again as it tried to record new music, with recent rumors suggesting that Avery was headed out the door…

“…There has been no official announcement about McKagan from JANE’S ADDICTION themselves, except a brief post by frontman Perry Farrell saying that the band was working with a new ‘writing partner.’”

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So Slash performed a new song, “By the Sword,” at some benefit over the weekend, and of course there’s bootleg footage now on the net. It sounds better than the crap we’ve heard before, but the sound of Slash taking an actual crap would sound better than the crap we’ve heard before, so whatever.

The vocals are being performed here by Carrot Top. I don’t remember anyone saying that Carrot Top was on the actual album, so either he is and we just didn’t know it ’til now, or someone else sings the studio version. Let’s hope it’s the former.

Filling out the band for this performance is Dave Navarro, another dude from Jane’s Addiction who isn’t Navarro or Perry Farrell, and Blink-182′s Travis Barker, who tragically survived a plane crash earlier this year.

Slash’s solo album should ruin your 2010 sometime in the spring.

-AR

All this talk about Slash’s upcoming solo album has got me playing “Fantasy Velvet Revolver” in my head once again. Though I still hold out hope that Axl’s idea of having Perry Farrell front the band comes to fruition, I know in my heart that there’s probably a better chance of Scott Weiland rejoining the band, which is admittedly a pretty remote possibility. Remote like Siberia.

So looking through the list of vocalists purportedly gracing the axeman’s new record, I see a number of qualified albeit unlikely candidates to fill Weiland’s still-vacant spot. Yeah, it would be a heavy music lover’s dream to have Ozzy Osbourne sing for the band, considering the craptastic nature of his last few solo albums. Realistically, that would be an unholy managerial nightmare with the potential capacity to yield a catastrophic clusterfuck to put the legal woes of Black Sabbath and Guns N’ Roses to shame. Dave Grohl’s too busy counting his money and playing geriatric rock with his idols to commit to yet another band. These days, Alice Cooper and Lemmy Kilmister have the commercial drawing power of, well, Alice Cooper and Lemmy Kilmister, and maybe would shift a few more units than a Velvet Revolver fronted by an unknown (anyone remember Eric Dover or Rod Jackson?) or that dude from Spacehog. Don’t even get me started on Fergie.

One other name on that list, however, actually makes sense…

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“Metal” or not, I think we can all agree that Jane’s Addiction was a truly awesome and original band, and their seminal 1990 album Ritual de lo Habitual still sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard elsewhere.

If you don’t have this album, go mug an old lady for cash and buy it — yes buy — immediately.

JANE’S ADDICTION — “Three Days”, from Ritual de lo Habitual (1990)

-KW

I just wanna be clear, right off the bat, that this is just me playing “What If?” I’m not breaking a story, I don’t have a source, it’s Monday, it’s a slow news day, and I just got to thinking. I don’t want this to be like the time that I said it might be cool if Whitfield Crane joined Anthrax and then some putz put it on Wikipedia and asked Crane about it in an interview, and asked as though it were a bona fide fact or even a real “rumor.” THIS IS JUST ME HAVING FUN.

Here’s the reasoning behind my total b.s. speculation:

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When LA transplant Scott Ian recently declared that “I come from a New York that doesn’t exist any more so there’s not much for me to miss,” you could hardly blame the guy; this city is rapidly dying and will soon be one big strip mall. Case in point: John Varvatos’ take-over of the space that was once CBGB. Even though we’ve known this was coming for a while, the press release Varvatos’ “peeps” put out yesterday made me foam at the mouth with rage all over again – mostly because it’s indicative of what a truly self-centered, disingenuous poseur Varvatos is. After the jump, the press release – with our comments in bold, natch.

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