I've been thinking about Eric Avery today, which is not terribly unusual, because most days I'm rocking out between the headphones to the purely genius Polar Bear, his post-Jane's Addiction, post-Deconstruction, pre-Alanis-backing-bassist, pre-Garbage-tourboy project. I've never met anyone that knows who I'm talking about when I bring them up, and when I do, I expect that person will be my proverbial soul mate.
While Perry was creating controversial art, fucking people onstage and talking about "looooooove", Eric was quietly creating the hypnotic bass rhythms that, face it, nearly every Jane's Addiction song was based on. I've oft believed that bands don't even need a bass player unless they are USING the bass, not just as a mechanism to strengthen the guitars, but as a foundation to the melody that guides the other instruments and complements what's going on around it. Eric Avery is a master of this—the man had both "Brahms" and "Butthole Surfers" stickers on his bass for god sakes. His post-Jane's projects prove his brilliance. Navarro was out marrying Carmen Electra and doing really fucking lame reality TV, while Eric was remining loyal to the music that he really wanted to do, whether it made any money or not. Biff Sanders, who is the other brainchild behind PB and used to be with the industrial band Ethyl Meatplow, adds samples and drums with the experimental riffs that push the boudaries of "alt." and still manage to completely rock. I just felt like I had to mention Biff because he is awesome, too, but Eric just makes me gush, because I always loved him the most in the Jane's days.
I sound like a psycho when I talk about this guy because this music has so intrigued and impressed me that it makes me want to cry. I have so much respect for someone who remains true to themself, even if it is not the most popular way to go. It doesn't hurt if they also completely rock and are also pretty freaking cute. This is why Eric A. is my boyfriend, even if he doesn't know it. Seriously, I swear it is a healthy admiration. If he read this, I'm sure I'd have a restraining order against me within 24 hours.
UPDATE: I'm starting to sober up now and I'm completely horrified by this post. I sound like a raving lunatic! Jesus, no more saki bombs for me...
1 comment:
Ah-ha! Eric Avery! Hooray!
My friend Phil was totally obsessed with Jane's Addiction in the early 1990s, right around the time they broke up. He had an account on CompuServe and found an Eric Avery on there, so he wrote a very short email asking if he was the Eric Avery. It turns out he wrote back, and he was indeed the real deal. Phil wrote back with another very short email, and he got another response. They started communicating, as I think Mr. Avery trusted that Phil wasn't some sort of oggling psycho fan or anything like that. I remember that he talked to Phil about the (then-forthcoming) Polar Bear record (I want to say this was 1994ish). A few years later, Eric invited him for a visit in LA. Phil went there and hung out with both Eric and Dave Navarro (and I think Stephen Perkins but I'm starting to forget.) One of his most prized possessions is a framed photograph of the three of them hanging out outside of some coffee shop in LA.
Around the same time, Phil started an online newsletter via email which I helped him distribute (which is why sometimes you will find my name if you do a Jane's Addiction search - or you'll find Jane's Addiction things if you do a search on my name.) It was pretty forward-thinking for the time (1994/1995), I think.
Phil ended up writing a biography on Jane's Addiction around 1997. He never shopped it around to get it published, but I have a copy printed out from a word processor. It's rough around the edges but overall pretty good. It's very Eric Avery-centric, unlike most things published about the band that are almost always predominately about Perry.
So that's my Eric Avery story. Yay!
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