Kettle Whistle
Cult heroes Jane's Addiction are the Grateful Dead for the should-I-be-a-punk-or-a-hippy-or-metal-head-or-just-get-high-and-become-one-with-the-music underground; soKettle Whistle, the band's collection of live recordings, a few new songs, and B-sides from their two albums, would be as must-have for fans as all those Dead bootlegs--even if it sucked. This is definitely an album for the converted, and the extended jams and live ramblings would be hard to endure without a frame of reference. The electronic filler and robotic knob-twiddling on the new songs, "Kettle Whistle" and "So What," suggest that Jane's Addiction's breakup was well timed, but the demos and live cuts ooze the band's tremendous energy and chemistry. In the 1988 demo of "Ocean Size," Perry Farrell's charismatic, raspy howl mingling with Dave Navarro's screeching guitar sucks you into the music and sends you to an alternate groove-plane.--Megan O. Steintrager