janesaddiction.org

Hi, I'm new here but I'm a long-time admirer of the music of Jane's and some related projects. There was a discussion at another forum, and I wrote something about the marketing of Jane's material during a discussion regarding the box set. Someone suggested I post it here (zdilla), so here it is, verbatim:

Don't underestimate the power of live Jane's. The public has never been properly made aware that Jane's is easily a candidate for the greatest live rock band in history.

The fact that a full live show was never released officially shows incredible lack of vision by everyone involved in marketing Jane's. It's a pathetic oversight that should be corrected. Better late then never.

Please, do not try to tell me that XXX is a live show. It's a Frankenstien creation.

To the more casual fan I can see a great full live show comfortably taking its place next to the three classic LPs.

I say release a live show as a single disc, before, after, or during the box-set (it could be as a individually available element from the box, so that casual fans might hear it). With a little promotion and the obvious 5-star reviews that would accompany such a recording, the public might wake up and say "Holy shit! This is amazing!" And a whole new appetite for Jane's-related things could be created.

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Reading what I wrote, I feel the need to point out that I love the XXX album with all of my heart, I just don't consider it the same thing as what I am speaking of. I'm talking about a live show, complete, warts and all, with all the talking, weird pauses between songs, and all that good shit. No editing. No changing the song order or omitting songs. No major noise reduction. The straight shit.

Jasper wrote:Hi, I'm new here but I'm a long-time admirer of the music of Jane's and some related projects. There was a discussion at another forum, and I wrote something about the marketing of Jane's material during a discussion regarding the box set. Someone suggested I post it here (zdilla), so here it is, verbatim:

Hi Jasper, welcome to the site!

Jasper wrote: Don't underestimate the power of live Jane's. The public has never been properly made aware that Jane's is easily a candidate for the greatest live rock band in history.

I 100% agree with this statement. 100%!
I've seen hundreds of shows in my life and none of the bands I've seen can hold a candle to Jane's back in the day.

Jasper wrote:The fact that a full live show was never released officially shows incredible lack of vision by everyone involved in marketing Jane's. It's a pathetic oversight that should be corrected. Better late then never.

This has left me scratching my head many times over the years.
Why they haven't released a complete show is a mystery.
Hopefully with the release of the Box Set this will be remedied.
That however is only speculation on my part.

Jasper wrote:Please, do not try to tell me that XXX is a live show. It's a Frankenstein creation.

Well I think there's two schools of thought on this and we disagree here.
It's my understanding that it is indeed a live album.
However crowd noise, Stephens cymbals, and other over dubbing was done.
The over dubbing is a common practice on live releases.
The mic for Perk's cymbals supposedly didn't capture them well enough and that necessitated them needing to be re recorded.
I'd love to hear what you have to say about this if you'd like to discuss it.

Jasper wrote:To the more casual fan I can see a great full live show comfortably taking its place next to the three classic LPs.

I think a full live show would be gold to everyone concerned.
The fans would lap it up, casual or not and the band would make $.

Jasper wrote:I say release a live show as a single disc, before, after, or during the box-set (it could be as a individually available element from the box, so that casual fans might hear it). With a little promotion and the obvious 5-star reviews that would accompany such a recording, the public might wake up and say "Holy shit! This is amazing!" And a whole new appetite for Jane's-related things could be created.

I'll do you one better but remember this is only speculation on my part.
What about this "three tier project" Perkins was in the news talking about?
What if the third tier is to clean out his closet and the vaults and make every recorded Jane's show available?

Jasper wrote:~~~~
Reading what I wrote, I feel the need to point out that I love the XXX album with all of my heart, I just don't consider it the same thing as what I am speaking of. I'm talking about a live show, complete, warts and all, with all the talking, weird pauses between songs, and all that good shit. No editing. No changing the song order or omitting songs. No major noise reduction. The straight shit.

I love the self titled release as well.
It's a shame all the original Jane's tracks from it weren't recorded in studio and released.
I'm totally down with them releasing stuff "warts and all" as you say.
There's no way I'd consider a release minus the between song Perry banter a complete release.

Once again, welcome to the site Jasper.
Excellent first post. :hello:

dont under-estimate the power of Jasper's marketing skillls...hit a home run jasper..!!

i've always thought that a CD of "perry rants" would be fucking awesome...

Well, if MORE than one complete live show were released, we'd at least have to get a crazy, wild earlier one (like that USC "Valentine's Day" show...forget the year). Material like "Trip Away" and "1%" comes off really well in that era. Then we'd need a later one, '90 or '91, where the sound is a little less wild, but a little more grand. Something like one of the Irvine Meadows Lolla shows. It would be great to have something less-common on there, like one of those amazing performances of "Of Course" with the live violin (viola?), and/or a live "Kettle Whistle" or something. I can recall "Classic Girl" with live violin, and "Then She Did" too. So much great stuff and diversity, especially considering it's not the biggest song catalog. Of course I already have these things, but I'm just thinking of what the public could dig. I still think some of this live material would be a real revelation for a lot of folks.

While we're on the subject, I'd love to see a video of a complete '91 Lolla show released. I remember tripping my balls off to so much crazy shit. I swear, there was a big video screen with some kind of stone goat statue or something with psychedelic swirls going all around it, and then during "Had A Dad" there was some gigantic monster on stilts chasing Perry around the stage, and for the whole rest of the show I was hallucinating that Perry was the runaway gingerbread man (remember that story?). I also remember the NS sculpture coming alive on stage and doing wonderful dirty things. And of course Ice T coming out and all that. Forgive me if any of these things did not really occur (LOL, drugs), but I'm pretty sure they did.