Description
Track listing: 1. Sadness 2. Porno For Pyros 3. Meija 4. Cursed Female 5. Cursed Male 6. Pets 7. Bad Shit 8. Packin’ 25 9. Black Girlfriend 10. Blood Rag 11. Orgasm
Porno For Pyros: Perry Farrell (vocals); Peter DiStefano (guitar); Martyn Le Noble (bass); Stephen Perkins (drums, percussion).Additional personnel: Matt Hyde.
Recorded at Crystal Studios, Los Angeles, California in the summer of 1992.
Rolling Stone (07/08/1993): Good – …dabbles in straightforward song styles, but not for long–this is one impatient record, leaping from angst to resignation to fury within a few bars….Like L.A. itself, Perry Farrells’ mind may not be pretty, but its worth a visit……
Spin (04/01/1993):The die-hard [Janes Addiction] fan will fall instantly in love with this LP…
Q Magazine (06/01/1993): Excellent – …takes off exactly where Jane’s Addiction left off…Farrells performance reinstates him not as Lollapaloozas wise elder statesman but as its wild and irresponsible spirit. May he never mature…
Entertainment Weekly (05/07/1993):…the most compelling album [singer] Farrell has ever made….
Everything on PORNO FOR PYROS sounds squalid and back-alley…Grinding wah-wah guitars and clanky, trash-can- style drumming heighten the creepy-crawly atmosphere…. Q (06/01/1993):- Excellent – …takes off exactly where Janes Addiction left off…Farrells performance reinstates him not as Lollapaloozas wise elder statesman but as its wild and irresponsible spirit. May he never mature…Punchhole in the booklet + back cover
The guitars aren’t so meaty, the musical textures are much quirkier, yet this is the fourth Janes Addiction album in all but name. The unique and still baffling Perry Farrell remains the real addiction, of course, and his fans will eat up these alternatively bemused (“Pets”) and scarifying (“Packin’ .25”) tracks.
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing- Doesn’t need “Ex-Janes Addiction”
This band/record is so nice its almost ridiculous to compare it to Janes Addiction and just ignorant to slam it for not being/ sounding like JA. Janes Addiction is one great thing-this is another. Totally different atmosphere and sound. The members(Vocalist/Percussion)from JA sound better than ever with added dynamics/nuances but its Dave Navarros “replacement”(ha-ha)Peter DiStefano that turns in one of the most jaw dropping guitar performances put to record. Very psychodelic with tons of feeling. I wouldn’t call PFPs songwriting on this album more mellow or laid back than JA like others do(don’t forget all the JA softies). Its def slower on the whole but no less intense…just in a murkier more hypnotic way. The more I hear this record the more I remember the massive quality.
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect,
Sonically- On this record the group was dynamic in a way that even Janes Addiction never was. As far as expression, in terms of loud vs. quiet and heavy vs.light, most of Pornos contemporaries were relying on the played out clean tone to distorted tone, e.g. the verse/chorus thing that Radiohead does in Creep, a technique one can trace back to Metallicas Fade to Black, and done to death on the Foo Fighters second album.
Porno expresses emotion in the music in a totally unique way. The guitar player barely uses distortion; he employs the wah wah peddle to explore and push the limits of heavy and soft within the confines of his amp tone. There’s no cut and paste wall of sound Dave Navarro thing going on here. Just a few rythim and lead tracks- meat and bones. Plenty of minors, ninths and sevenths The Bass is phenomenal, heavy finger style along with popping and slapping that is harmonic- not that trebley Hartke/Korn sound that is so prevalent today. Then you have Stephen Perkins’ dynamic work on the drums, the kit proper as well as various other units of percussion, and then you have Perrys voice. The production and mixing is flawless.
Lyrically-
For a dude so in touch with his feminine side Perry Farrel has a stifling grasp of the youngish white males psyche. You’ve got the misanthropic rage of Packin’ 25. A young mans look at the (Alanis Morissette) irony of age and money in Cursed Male. The evolved (or emasculated- take your pick) mans view of pretty young women in Cursed Female. Nihilism meets Pyromania in the bands self-titled track–or is it their theme song? And then my personal fav- Orgasm, which inserts the listener into the drivers seat about to give a girl her first orgasm– shes ready buddy, she knows you’re the one; are you up to the challenge?
This is a really swell record. I bought it when it came out and have listened to it on and off ever since. Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, the group wasn’t able to recapture the brilliance of its first studio outing; the second record is largely an uneven affair with a different lineup; for my money its more of a Perry solo record.
Clocking in at around 45 minutes, Pornos 1st is just about perfect.
5.0 out of 5 stars one of my favorite albums of all time,
This is my favorite album by the great Perry Farrell. This is the last album that Perry still had his edge, he was still young and pissed off. On this album Steven Perkins drums stand out much more than in Janes Addiction and its a tribal sound. A very unique style and its not for everyone, but I love it. I bought this album the day it came out and still listen to it all the time. I give it 5 stars as it has stood the test of time.
5.0 out of 5 stars a masterpiece,
its basically a more spaced out version of janes addiction… probably does some of the stuff that Perry Farrell was trying to do with Janes Addiction a lot more concrete. It doesn’t have the guitars that the earlier stuff by Janes has, but they manage to carry it off with a lot of conviction and emotion.
5.0 out of 5 stars This Cd is GREAT!,
I’ve liked Perry Farrell since the days of Janes Addiction and Psi Com, and this album is no exception. I LOVE this CD. Any true fan would. Each of their albums is unique from any others, and thats the way it should be. How exciting would life be if everything sounded so similar (like a lot of groups) that you couldn’t really tell the difference? I say “Get it and be Happy!”
5.0 out of 5 stars Such an amazing record!
Of COURSE Janes Addiction was the best, but this 1st P4P album is beautiful. I like it so much because of several elements:
1) Of course Stephen Perkins’ drumming is SO wicked and has more exotic percussion than when he played with JA (ie- more finesse, less rock), 2) Peter DiStefanos electric guitar style is so ethereal, he creates amazing soundscapes, BUT also has amazing funk appeal.
3)Martyn LeNoble on bass is such a perfect fit because he drops a Spanish, majestic groove to the rhythm section.. and of course
4) Perrys voice sounds great, his lyrics are very poetic/beautiful, his harmonica playing is actually a good thing and sparse, and his whistling is in perfect spots!
To sum up, this is an awesome album of ethereal funk infused rock, with Spanish majestic feel.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great,
I think this album is on par with Janes. This brings back great memories. Awesome!
5.0 out of 5 stars The Lyrics Are The Bomb,
… I agree that is the 4th Janes Addiction album for all intents and purposes. Its mixed a little more smooth and wavy than the older albums. I love it.
5.0 out of 5 stars Hits on all cylinders-Entirely Underrated,
Part of the problem with all of the critics that snubbed this album is that they apparently settle for the blandness that often plagues Janes Addictions few albums. If anything, Porno For Pyros tightens up all of the flab (recall the tedious second half of the OVERRATED ‘Ritual de lo Habitual’?) and differentiates more between songs, not to mention SHORTENS them, which is a real benefit to this material. The sound is a ballsy, testosterone-heavy kick in your teeth, with the intensity level dwindling rarely. It mellows for “Pets,” and that is about all. Really, if ‘Pigs in Zen’ stands head and shoulders above all the rest of “Nothings Shocking,” then this album is Perry Farrells masterpiece. Had this been released as a Janes Addiction album, my guess is that many critics would have praised it as a step forward. Or maybe they wouldn’t have, preferring a few good songs surrounded by several monotonous ones.
5.0 out of 5 stars Its not Janes Addiction, so stop the comparison.,
I will be the first to admit I am a big Janes fan. Dave was an awesome guitarist, but you shouldn’t hold that against Peter Distefano. Pets is an awesome song with in its own right. This band isn’t trying to be Janes. I do know about the fact that blood rag is really taken (well, originally written) as an improv for Pigs in zen and some of the music is leftover janes but this is a great band in and of itself.
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