are any of John Frusciante's solo albums good?
 

Okay, I hate the Chili Peppers more than God's sweat, but I am curious about his solo stuff, because I was reading earlier that his favorite bands were Captain Beefheart, Thee Headcoats, and Omoide Hatoba.. which shocked the hell out of me.

So, if anyone's heard his solo stuff, is it worth looking into, or is it just a bunch of wanking guitar solos?

Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt is definitely worth getting if you're into the whole outsider/lo-fi thing. None of it even remotely resembles RHCP. There's a lot of instrumental stuff on the Usually Just a T-Shirt half, but I wouldn't consider it wank.

Haven't heard any of his other albums.

sweet.

you gotta check out Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt, its just him right after he checked out of the chilli peppers, hes totally strung out on coke and heroin, and completley disillusioned with stardom, the songfs are beautiful ambient guitar and electronics. to record only water for ten days is great too.

he has the most amazingly diverse taste in music. i was reading a magnet article a while back and he was feautred for a mix tape article, he chose songs by autechre, the gza, beefheart, hendrix, the residents, the germs, black flag, pil, and some other stuff i cant remember.

which brings me to this question; why would a man this gifted with musical talent and taste, waste his time in the chilli peppers? he should started an avant garde post punk band.

Exactly, batreleaser, I knew he liked the Residents and a bunch of other shit, but when he read he liked fucking OMOIDE HATOBA, it blew my mind!

He also wastes his time in the Mars Volta, which is ridiculous.

He really should start a full band that explores his tastes..

I'll check out his solo shit for sure! I figured it was different, I was just hoping it wasn't guitar solos only..

Yeah the one about a T Shirt is apparently pretty sweet. Probably the only good thing anyone from the chili peppers can acheive.

it wouldnt surprise me that he knows the, but to say theyre one of his favorites is awesome, where did you read that?

he is probably the most disgusting and retarded person in the face of the planet, he makes flea look like a man of average intelligence when he's also a dumbass.

having said that, yes, i read once another mixtape like article, naming his favorite songs and he talked about pita being his favorite electronica artist and that he dug that keith levene from p.i.l. was a huge yes fan. he also name-dropped nirvana and fugazi, but also beefheart and i think autechre.

if only dude wasn't such a douchebag and had some talent instead of santana-ing the whole time he holds a guitar...

My thoughts exactly. It's pretty much all I've heard of his solo work though.

Yeah I think the smack fucked him up a hell of a lot.

'Smile From The Streets You Hold', his second solo record from 1997, is.. interesting. (It makes his Beefhearty first solo record (1994's 'Niandra LaDes + Usually Just A T-Shirt') sound like Brtiney Spears.)

It was made for drug money when he was half-dead. It's the lowest of lo-fi and features a lot of screaming. Basically a load of offcuts he had laying around scrambled together and some quickly recorded nightmares. I'm not sure it's still available but you shuold be able to download it from somewhere pretty easily...

Those are the only two records he released while he was not a member of the RHCP. He's released about 10 albums since he cleaned up and re-joined the band in 1998.. most of them are songwriter-y pseudo-electronica. None of it is nearly as commercial as the Chili Peppers, but it's all a lot more coherant than his heroin-years output.

true, but now he's (allegedly) clean and still a cunt and a moron.

He had (or maybe still has) a side-project band with Joe Lally from Fugazi and Josh Klinghoffer (formerly of the Bicycle Thief, PJ Harvey's band, etc) called Ataxia. They released two records (the second just last year). They're kind of sorta experimental-ish.

ataxia is alright, actually the best i've heard him do, but mostly because it's a collective effort.

didn't listen to the second album, though.

But once you quit the junk it's not like you're suddenly sane or anything.

I don't think he was quite right in the head even before his junkie phase. His quote upon leaving the RHCP (in the middle of a Japanese tour in 1992, aged 22) was "just tell them I've gone mad". There were all these stories about him becoming a painter and talking to god and trying to scratch is own eyes out and setting himself on fire and living on the streets after that.

He still talks about ghosts and dimensions and stuff a lot now.. and he's bean clean for nearly ten years.

or smart.

touché.

I remember downloading the leak of th last Ataxia album. I wasn't impressed for whatever reason.

His solo stuff doesn't even sound like rhcp. He's way better. Try and pick up those six albums he released consecutively a few years ago. he has cool influences and even lists SY as one of them on his website.

Batreleaser, it was apparently in a RHCP biography.

after "Niandra..." I recommand "To Record Only Water For Ten Days" & "The Will To Death"

Just a quick search for this information, I typed in omoide and frusciante into google and this came up:

http://www.geocities.com/erincarlson/john/drugs.html

It's really interesting, it says that Omoide and his solo albums were on the same label.

But I recall a few years back on a Boredoms discussion on this Livejournal (...) message board someone bringing up that John played Omoide for his other band members and such every day to the point of annoyance and that they were one of his favorite bands, which is hilarious.

Anywho, read that article though, it's uh.. interesting.

kind of a sad article. makes me glad i cut opiates loose when i did yknow.

niandra, to record water and an internet only album he released are all fantastic, his newer stuff isnt so great

This is probably the worst post everyneurotic ever made.

I've seen a lot of interviews with Frusciante and yeah he seems arrogant in his early years but he definitely became a completely sincere reserved person as time went on.

And I can't talk for the RHCP stuff, but his solo stuff explodes with talent and his guitar playing is also very tasteful and actually most times very simple barre chords even (Inside a Break is C minor, Bb and F for the WHOLE song!).

I dunno why I'm replying to a post from several years ago but here I am.

That everyneurotic post is still stupid.

But here's some interesting articles from 1996:
http://thedees.tripod.com/johnarti.html

I like the solo stuff I"ve heard. And his work with Chili Peppers is most of their stuff that I think sounds good.

I think his solo stuff is some of the best music ever.

Everyone go to btjunkie and download his discography, it's like 700mb for all his albums and it's well seeded.

That was the worst post marcos ever made, but it was years ago, so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=213mmXUjOlw

The video for 'Life's a Bath', filmed under the direction of John himself. Includes scenes of him shooting up with bloody arms..

I love the junk albums, their so mental scared and just pure madness most of the time. Trash is also a real pain to watch...

http://www.xguitar.com/guitar-tabs/j.../poppy_man.txt

can't believe there are SMILE FROM THE STREETS YOU HOLD tabs

poppy man is one of the best guitar songs ever!

He always seemed too good for RHCP to me, but I don't like them one bit, so... Anyway, never heard anything of his solo work, but all those references are really interesting and I will definitely get some stuff.

Definitely, I know the whole album nearly. I've always thought about just.. covering the whole album in my own style. Maybe I will someday.

that one track you put on facebook was pretty good, but he isnt very good generally

O rly?

to record only water for ten days semi-rescued my life once upon a time.

going inside is still a magical and strong recording.

anyone ever see this hilarious performance of under the bridge from snl?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq5jFBqKVXo

frusciante plays it totally different in parts, I wish it was instrumental it would've been a lot better.

Yeah the singer said he felt "backstabbed" after that performance. I think it sounds better though.

I'm on such a Frusciante kick. I downloaded that VPRO Interview (the youtube version cuts out a lot), it's actually easy to find via torrents. For some reason a few parts repeat. Uh, anyway, I've watched it 6 times.

I play along to Frusciante's stuff constantly. I actually have downloaded a couple Chili Peppers songs and cut out the vocals with Adobe Audition. It doesn't sound very good. I wish there was some way to just hear the guitar and bass and nothing else.

But yeah I play along to his stuff and am not ripping him off but he's definitely inspiring my new stuff. On the new songs, I've actually come up with what you could actually call "guitar solos" which are modeled after Frusciante's wilder stuff.

The thing is, musically the Chili Peppers have come up with a few really good musical songs as far as mainstream 90's rock goes. Now, vocals are some of the worst of all time, and the lyrics are just garbage. But honestly a song like "Scar Tissue" is amazing. I mean, those solos!

I even, shudder, have downloaded all the Mars Volta albums recently. You really can't tell Frusciante's playing on a few songs, because there are about 9 guitar tracks per song. There's just so much going on, each segment is SO effected/processed and ... god damn, so many layers ... this band gives me a migraine. Only albums harder to listen to is THERE'S NO 666 IN OUTERSPACE (and the double album the band released before that). When did prog become about being annoying as hell? There's no depth to it. I know a lot of people think 500 layers of guitars playing as many notes as possible is "Deep". ANYWAY, on the few songs when you can clearly tell Frusciante's playing (note the word clearly; also note that on songs where Frusicnat plays the whole songs -- not just a solo -- you actually can tell pretty easily, since Frusicnate is a technically good and creatively interesting guitarist, which is the exact opposite of Omar Rodriguez, who often still sounds like an amateur), if you can tune out the garbage, it's good stuff.

I also just got the omar rodriguez (ugh)/frusciante collab album and it's actually pretty cool.

Anyway, this guy is in my top 5 guitarists, he's up there with seeichi yamamoto, gary lucas (from the magic band; also see zoot horn rollo and jeff morris temper; basically, any guitarist the magic band had is a genius, though the bassist was the most "talented" member of the band, listen to the bass playing on decals sometime), trey spruance, and john fahey in my top 5 guitarists ever.


Thanks for turning me onto him all those years back, Derek.

I'd say SMILE FROM THE STREETS YOU HOLD is pretty easily in my top 10 albums of all time.