Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
What Is Life?: Songs, Arias and Sacred Pieces
Brahms: Sonata for 2 Pianos; Mendelssohn: Piano Trio #1; Martha Argerich
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It may have taken until 1991 for punk to break as a commercial form, but the genre was hardly new. In that story, even Jane's Addiction were latecomers to the revolution. But it was the frenzied trailblazing rock of this quirky Los Angeles quartet that made the later successes of Nirvana, etc. somehow inevitable. In this recording of a hometown club gig, Jane's offer raw versions of songs that would appear in a more refined form on their debut album, along with a dubious cover of "Sympathy for the Devil." Hear a noticeably younger and shriller Perry Farrell while guitarist Dave Navarro plays out his Jimmy Page dreams across a punk canvas the rest of the world would soon discover. --Steve Appleford