''Good God's Urge'' is the second and final studio album by American

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Porno for Pyros Porno for Pyros was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992, following the first break-up of Jane's Addiction. The band currently consists of Jane's Addiction members Perry Farrell (vocals) and Stephen Perki ...

. It was released in 1996 on

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

It was the band's first album to feature bass guitarist

Mike Watt Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957) is an American bassist, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded and played bass guitar for the rock bands Minutemen (1980–1985), Dos (1985–present), and Firehose (1986–1994). He began a solo ca ...

, who assisted the band in finishing the album after

Martyn LeNoble Martyn LeNoble (; born 14 April 1969) is a Dutch bassist and a founding member of the alternative rock band Porno for Pyros. He started his musical career by playing bass in a Dutch punk rock band when he was 14. In 1989, he moved to Los Angele ...

left before all his bass tracks had been completed. There were three singles released from the album. In addition to Watt, many guest musicians lent their musical talents to various songs. "Porpoise Head" featured

Daniel Ash Daniel Gaston Ash (born 31 July 1957) is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He became prominent in the late 1970s as the guitarist for the goth rock band Bauhaus (band), Bauhaus, which spawned two related bands led by Ash: Tones on Ta ...

David J David John Haskins (born 24 April 1957, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England), better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician, producer, and writer. He is the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus (band), Bauhaus and for ...

and

Kevin Haskins Kevin Michael Dompe (born 19 July 1960), born and best-known as Kevin Michael Haskins, is an English drummer, best known from the British rock group Bauhaus. He was also a member of Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets. Early career As a child, H ...

from

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

, Love and Rockets and

the Bubblemen Love and Rockets are an English rock band formed in 1985 by former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash (vocals, guitar and saxophone), David J (bass guitar and vocals) and Kevin Haskins (drums and synthesisers) after that group split in 1983. Ash and ...

. ''Good God's Urge'' also marked a reunion of ex-

Jane's Addiction Jane's Addiction was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1985. The band's best known line-up consisted of lead vocalist Perry Farrell, bassist Eric Avery, drummer Stephen Perkins and guitarist Dave Navarro. Jane's Addicti ...

guitarist

Dave Navarro David Michael Navarro (born June 7, 1967) is an American guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock band Jane's Addiction, with whom he has recorded four studio albums. Between 1993 and 1998, Navarro was the guitarist of Red Hot Chili ...

, who played guitar on the album track "Freeway." The song also featured Navarro's

Red Hot Chili Peppers The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1982, consisting of Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Flea (musician), Flea (bass), John Frusciante (guitar), and Chad Smith (drums). Their music incorporates elements of a ...

bandmate,

Flea Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...

. Farrell's then-girlfriend, Christine Cagle, appeared on the album cover. Photographer John Eder described the photoshoot as "increasingly chaotic and weird", and said the cover was one of the last shots of the night. The album was devised over a two-year "surf trip" that saw the band visiting places like

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

, and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, leading to a more acoustic and less

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

sound. The trips doubled as occasions for the band to

detox Detoxification or detoxication (detox for short) is the physiological or medicinal removal of toxic substances from a living organism, including the human body, which is mainly carried out by the liver. Additionally, it can refer to the period o ...

from their severe drug addictions, which informed the lyrics of songs like "Porpoise Head" and "Tahitian Moon". Recording took place at

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Tibet's Kunlun Mountains, Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon'' by the British author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently ...

Malibu, California Malibu ( ; ; ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, about west of downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate, its strip of beaches stretching along the Pacific Ocean coa ...

. LeNoble left the band before recording completed due to drug addiction and clashes with Farrell, who was growing increasingly paranoid from

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be Smoking, smoked. Crack offers a short, intense Euphoria (emotion), high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Sub ...

use. LeNoble was frustrated with the business structure of Porno for Pyros, set up as a company with Farrell as the sole owner, thus depriving the other band members of publishing rights. LeNoble was hospitalised after he left due to the severity of his drug addiction. Porno for Pyros went on a hiatus shortly after the tour (featuring Watt on bass) promoting the album's release due to guitarist

Peter DiStefano Peter DiStefano (born July 10, 1965, in Santa Monica, California, U.S.) is an American guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work in the alternative rock band Porno for Pyros (the Jane's Addiction offshoot featuring vocalist Perry Farrell a ...

cancer diagnosis. They were set to reform in 2019 to perform at singer Farrell's birthday celebration, but those plans were scrapped due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The Good God's Urge-era lineup of Farrell, DiStefano, Perkins, and Watt performed in 2020 as part of a Lollapalooza webcast, and in 2022 as part of the

Welcome to Rockville Welcome to Rockville is a four-day hard rock and heavy metal music festival. The festival is held annually at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. History The inaugural Welcome to Rockville was held on Mother's Day, Ma ...

festival.

Critical reception

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who, Dave Schulps, and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' wrote that "while he helpfully turns the attack down to an alluringly cool semi-acoustic breeze on parts of ''Good God’s Urge'', Farrell can’t improve his obnoxious personality, which renders the album another love-it/hate- it proposition." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote that "the music gets atmospheric, experimental and interesting." ''

CMJ New Music Monthly CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

'' called the record "more pleasantly stoned than the first album."

Track listing

Personnel

Band

Perry Farrell Perry Farrell (born Peretz Bernstein; March 29, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician referred to as the " Godfather of Alternative Music". Farrell began his career with Psi Com in the early 1980s, before becoming the frontman ...

: Vocals, percussion, samples, harp, keyboards *

: Guitars, samples, backing vocals *

: Bass (tracks 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10) *

Stephen Perkins Stephen Andrew Perkins (born September 13, 1967) is an American musician and songwriter. A drummer and percussionist, he has played with Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Banyan and Hellride. His style blends rock, jazz, swing, African, In ...

: Drums, percussion, samples, backing vocals

Additional musicians

* Thomas Johnson: Samples and sounds, keyboards (track 2) *

: Bass (1) *

: Bass (2, 6) *

: Bass (9) *

: Guitar (1) *

: Samples (1) *

: Guitar intro (9) *

Matt Hyde Matt Hyde (born June 19, 1964) is an American record producer, engineer and mixer. He has been credited as engineer, producer, mixer and/or mastering engineer on notable albums such as No Doubt's '' Tragic Kingdom'', Monster Magnet's '' Powert ...

: Intro slide guitar (3), samples (8), slide guitar (10) *

Lili Haydn Lili Haydn is a Canadian-born violinist, film and TV composer, singer-songwriter, and former child-actress. She won a Grammy Award in 2019 for ''Opium Moon'' and was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics" in the ...

: Violin (2) * Ralf Rickert: Trumpet (2) * Leo Chelyapov: Clarinet (7) * John Flannery: Space guitar intro and chorus (9), backing vocals and trash can (6) * Josh "Bagel" Klassman: Backing vocals (9) * Christine Cagle: Backing vocals (6, 9) * Shawn London: Backing Vocals (6) * Kimberly Juarez: Backing Vocals (2)

Production

* Dave Collins: mastering * John Eder: photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control Porno for Pyros albums 1996 albums Warner Records albums Albums produced by Matt Hyde Albums recorded at Shangri-La (recording studio)