Customer Reviews

Cabinet of Curiosities

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fans of the original lineup of Jane's Addiction will love this box set. It's loaded with demos, b-sides, cover versions, and live tracks, without ANY filler from the studio albums. Everything has been remastered and sounds great. JA and Rhino deserve heaps of praise for not larding up the discs with songs everybody has already.

The demos document early versions of pretty much everything on JA's first two major label releases. They're an interesting way to hear how things change when bands get access to heaps of record company production dollars. Casual fans probably won't be terribly interested in the demos, but listeners with a passion for the creative process will find a lot of cool moments on the first two discs. The highlight of this box for me, though, is the full concert on the third disc. The band is hot, hot, hot, truly on fire!

Unfortunately, the limited edition packaging is a mixed bag. While the cabinet is pretty cool (even though the "wood" is really that sawdust + glue stuff used in the back of old TV's), it's a bit smaller than one might expect from the product picture. In reality, the cabinet is roughly the size of a Wii console. I also was a little disappointed by the booklet, mainly because Rhino usually produces stellar box set books. The main essay reads like a press release, the guest quotes are kind of dull, and a lot of the pix are just closeups of the booklet cover.

These are really minor quibbles though--the bottom line is that there's a heap of great music here, most of it previously unreleased. Anybody who digs Nothing's Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual ought to pick up this box set, in either of its incarnations. New JA fans, on the other hand, should get the first three albums before diving into the deep archival stuff here.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because Rhino did not succumb to the usual record company practice of forcing people to re-buy album cuts.


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For those who are wondering what is on the DVD, here's the track list:
* Soul Kiss: The Fan's Video (featuring Mountain Song and City)
* Music videos (Had A Dad, Ocean Size, Stop!, Been Caught Stealing, Classic Girl, Ain't No Right)
* Live at the City Square, Milan, Italy/For MTV Italy, 10-11-90 (Whøres, Then She Did..., Three Days)

The only thing that would make this perfect is another live DVD showcasing a full unedited concert. But I certainly have NO complaints here. This is amazing, especially if you can find the 5 disc version which is a great supplement to the live tracks already included. The 5th disc includes an amazing version of "Of Course" and an awesome live version of "Ted Just Admit It".

The audio quality on the demos and live tracks are very clean and definitely worth the price. The included book is everything any fan would love to have...hundreds of pictures, flyers and awesome info about one of musics greatest endeavors to date. The playing cards and mini-bead dolls of each member just ice the cake of this set. What are you waiting for....go get this before its gone. Amazon doesnt tell you there is a very limited amount of these available.

Fans of the original lineup of Jane's Addiction will love this box set. It's loaded with demos, b-sides, cover versions, and live tracks, without ANY filler from the studio albums. Everything has been remastered and sounds great. JA and Rhino deserve heaps of praise for not larding up the discs with songs everybody has already.

The demos document early versions of pretty much everything on JA's first two major label releases. They're an interesting way to hear how things change when bands get access to heaps of record company production dollars. Casual fans probably won't be terribly interested in the demos, but listeners with a passion for the creative process will find a lot of cool moments on the first two discs. The highlight of this box for me, though, is the full concert on the third disc. The band is hot, hot, hot, truly on fire!

I was disappointed by the box set booklet though. The main essay reads like a press release, the guest quotes are kind of dull, and many of the pix are just closeups of the booklet cover. More details on the recording sessions and performances would have been a lot more appealing to people who are interested in a non-Greatest Hits collection.

These are really minor quibbles--the bottom line is that there's a heap of great music here, most of it previously unreleased. Anybody who digs Nothing's Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual ought to pick up this box, in either of its incarnations. New JA fans, on the other hand, should get the first three albums before diving into the deep archival stuff here.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because Rhino did not succumb to the usual record company practice of forcing people to re-buy album cuts.


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For those who are wondering what is on the DVD, here's the track list:
* Soul Kiss: The Fan's Video (featuring Mountain Song and City)
* Music videos (Had A Dad, Ocean Size, Stop!, Been Caught Stealing, Classic Girl, Ain't No Right)
* Live at the City Square, Milan, Italy/For MTV Italy, 10-11-90 (Whøres, Then She Did..., Three Days)

I guess I was expecting much more. First I will talk about the packaging. I was expecting a sturdy wooden box and as someone else has already mentioned, what I received was the sawdust type of wooden box that in my opinion is very cheap and fragile. Both of my copies were damaged during shipping so that only added to my disappointment. If I could go back in time I would have waited for the regular edition.

Now to the contents of box. The majority of the material is studio demos, and B sides and although I admit these are upgrades to what I previously already had, I was expecting more live material because that's where I think Janes Addiction really shined. You do get one full show from their peak however that's it. After listening to the CDs back to back I was really hoping that the DVD would change my opinion however the contents of the DVD are Soul Kiss, A few music videos, and a few songs from the Milan show which could have been released complete however wasn't. That DVD is around 60 mins. and why wasn't more material added and at least 1 complete show? There's a few extras like voodoo dolls and some cards that I'm sure others have already mentioned however considering this was the first Janes box I think there could have been so much more musical content.

If you're seeking Janes studio material then this is the box for you however if you were really hoping for more live material then you too will be somewhat disappointed.

Maybe Janes is planning on releasing a live box in the future. Only time will tell.

this box set is very cool and i bought it for cheap at best buy for the same sale price as above but i also go the bonus fifth cd of extra live songs. all the demos are pristine and enjoyable.the box is real wood and has that old cabinet smell. i havent seen a box set this complete and cool in a long time. way better than the recent "let sleeping corpses lie" by white zombie. the booklet has different artist statements from flea to billy corigan and slash on their first experience hearing and seeing the band. there is also a mini history written of the band that summarizes some of what is read in the "whores" book. the santaria style cards are very cool and the little voodoo dolls are delicate but a very nice touch. i love the dvd and i only wish "Gift" was on there. i have the vhs of it still but i long have since had a vcr. must have copy right problems with that movie but would have been really cool to have. other wise any collector, fan, and any one curious should buy this set before they run out of print and before you have to settle for the standard card board addition....cant wait to see the band in phnx in may with nin

I bought this for a Jane's Addiction fan who was more familiar with the original lineup of the band. He was very pleased with the tracks that were selected, however a note of caution, there is a great deal of live tracks, if this is not something you enjoy, you may be dissapointed. As far as the box set itself, the design is quite clever. The box looks like "wood" and the artwork and extras (kachina type dolls) really stand above other "box sets" which are simply CDs.

The live CD here is from the same tour I saw them and it brought back some wonderful memories. I'm also glad Soul Kiss was included because I have an old VHS copy of it. The demos and live material are great examples of how the band evolved, and the book is great, showing lots of old pictures.

This is exactly right. Perfect old school jane's. It's as if this was released from a time capsule and they never broke up. This makes up for Strays, and especially that wretched Satellite Party garbage. This box set brings back hope that was long gone.

Also: if you are thinking of downloading it, you're really missing out. The packaging is really the prize here, looking like something straight off the cover of Ritual. It's filled with tiny images of all sorts of really obscure fan-stuff - backstage pass from Jane's opening for Love and Rockets, anyone? Most of it is embedded in a collage, so looking for this stuff feels like a treasure hunt.

I never recieved this item and was told that I would get my money back. And if I didn't; there will be something done about it!

Before talking about the box set, I think it is important to state a fact not mentioned by any of the other reviewers of any of JA's disks here on Amazon. Nearly all of the great JA songs were written between 1986 and 1987, that is, before or around the XXX record. I'm not making this up. As you can learn from the band's own website, songs like "Stop!", "Ain't no right", "Three days", and "And then she did" (not to mention Mountain Song, Ted Just Admit it, Ocean Size and so on) were were written (and played) for years before their commercial release.

I have the "Life and Profane" bootlegs with all the great songs on them in performances in 1986 and 1987. You can see amazing videos of a similar vintage on youtube. The only significant differences between those old performances and the album versions, or the 1990 live disk in this box, is (much) better equipment and recording, and some better soloing by Navarro. The reason they sound so awesome in 1990 is because they'd been playing those songs, and only those songs for (nearly) four years already. Anyone who talks about the 'evolution' of JA's music from XXX to Ritual is talking nonsense. The band was just spreading out the good stuff over as many albums as possible.

As you can learn from Brendan Mullen's bio, the band was already breaking up before "Nothing Shocking" was recorded in 1988. Basically, Perry insisted on 62.5% of NS's album royalties. Eric, Dave, and Steve ended up with 12.5% each. Apparently, they were also fighting about other things, but as you can imagine, after that raw deal, the band was basically broken (Humpty-Dumpty style). By the time most people (including me) learned about them in 1990, it wasn't a band anymore. It was just some debris left over after the explosion. But, man, could they play!

Now onto the box set. I have no interest in dolls of the band members or the little wooden box. That allowed me to save a lot of dough by getting the digital downloads instead. Consider it.

There are two reasons to get this set. First, the live disk. The band is superb and the sound is thick and juicy. The performances are so good that even "Been Caught Stealin'" rocks. It's a sign of the state of the music industry at the time that this novelty track was what broke them to the mainstream. The second reason to get this is to get some wonderful tracks from Ritual without that disk's over-production. You get "Stop!" without the cringe-inducing "Nosotros tenemos..." intro. For anyone who actually speaks Spanish, it actually hurts to listen to the absurd errors in the voice-over. You get "Ain't No Right" without the (dated) "My sex and my drugs and my rock & roll" intro. You get "And then she did..." without the violin and piano. You get to hear Dave Navarro's guitar without the multiple over-dubbing. And he sounds unbelievably good even with just one guitar. The early live (1987) performance of Kettle Whistle is also great. The cover songs are, actually, mediocre. And I am one of those people who think that their version of "Sympathy for the Devil" is better than the original...

So, over all, I have mixed feelings about this bloated box set. But when I listen to the live disk, I forget whatever else I might be thinking about.