Original Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery—who's backed off from participating in his former band's reunion shows and tours because he (perhaps rightly) saw them as little more than cash grabs—has decided to play a few songs with his old mates at next week's invite-only, MySpace-streamed
NME Awards USA. The band is picking up a "Godlike Genius Award" at the ceremony, no doubt in part because it new how to monetize that '90s-nostalgia mine when Weiland was still trying to figure out whether or not making an album with Guns N' Roses members was a good idea. Avery was, understandably, somewhat conflicted about even publicly mentioning that he was even
considering doing the show, what with "maybe" meaning "yes" in the overheated gossipsphere that the
NME helped create.
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Idolator
Many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock. To help figure out which is which, here's "Corporate Rock Still Sells," where Al "GovernmentNames" Shipley examines what's good, bad, and ugly in the world of rock and roll. This time around, he celebrates the 20th anniversary of Billboard's Modern Rock chart by cherry-picking some of its most oddly notable chart-toppers:
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My invite to the NME Awards USA apparently got lost in the mail, so the only bits of the for-real-this-time Jane's Addiction reunion that I've had a chance to see are the AP photos and this video interview with the band, in which Dave Navarro looks shiny and talks a lot and Perry Farrell looks kinda sad, until he says "As soft as grass may seem, it cracks the asphalt." [
