Nothing's Shocking

This is the first album a Los Angeles four-piece made for a major label, and it is regularly named as a starting point for the alternative metal of the 1990s. It was recorded in January 1988 at Eldorado Recording Studios and produced by Dave Jerden and Perry Farrell. The line-up is Perry Farrell on vocals, Dave Navarro on guitar, Eric Avery on bass and Stephen Perkins on drums. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers plays trumpet on "Idiots Rule". Bringing long songs and quiet passages to the volume of hard rock and the background of punk made it unlike any other band in Los Angeles at the time. The sleeve, a sculpture of conjoined twins with burning heads, was refused unwrapped by nine of the eleven major store chains. It stalled at number 103 on the Billboard 200 and had gone platinum by 1998. The running order here is the original LP's as printed; the CD adds "Pig's in Zen", and the player on this page is that eleven-track version.