I love b-sides, rarities and all this other material. They’re my special musical passion. Things that artists take time to write and record but which never get widespread releases, often verging on the border of being forgotten forever if it wasn’t for the most fanatic fans and b-side compilations. To quote the name of the Manic Street Preachers’ b-side “best of”, they’re the secret histories of these artists. Hit songs that arrived with the inspirational flow at the wrong time, stylistic experiments, drunken studio jams and yes, also average filler fluff custom-made to slap something on singles to give some incentive for people to buy them. Often they, if released on the last single of its parent album, also hint at the direction the artist is going to take on their next album.

MP3 posts are fun and this is one concept of them. Hidden treasures, going with the ever-popular “updated when I feel like it” update rate, are tiny collections of particular gem that are worth giving digging up and giving a special mention to – especially if the said artist hasn’t had a b-side compilation left or they decided to leave something out from the one they had.

Inspired by my recent find of one such gem, today we tackle on the already well-discussed John Frusciante. Frusciante’s never been much of rarities fellow, partly because of his very musically focused nature and partly because the guy’s only had about two singles during his entire career, and one of them was partially filled with songs he ended up releasing on the internet-only demos compilation From the Sounds Inside. But he does have something to offer.

Time Is Nothing (2001, from the Going Inside EP)

One of the more finished songs from the To Record Only Water for Ten Days sessions, meaning it doesn’t have the demo-esque fuzz to it and would fit very well to its parent album. Like the instrumentals that made the parent album, Time Is Nothing takes the route of starting from simple and then continuously growing. Backed by a very soft constant thud and a relentless acoustic guitar melody, this lovely song reaches its max height shortly before it finishes with the addition of a simple high-pitched keyboard melody that truly makes the song.

Resolution (2001, from the Going Inside EP)

Resolution got the honour of being the Japanese bonus track of To Record alongside being one of Going Inside EP’s songs. Smack it anywhere on the album and no one could tell the difference. Understated electronic beats, Frusciante’s guitar strums and falsetto vocals. The switch from the intro-esque beginning to the jubilantly strumming middle section and finally the once-again keyboard-driven finale is excellent.

Of Before (2004, Japanese bonus track of Shadows Collide With People)

The song that inspired this article and afterwards the desire to turn this into a vague series. I’ve had this song for flippin’ years but only as a tremendously poor 64kbps mp3 – and few days ago I randomly found a good quality version! Of Before is a beautifully chilled out song that uses electric piano as its main workhorse and a soft drum beat to provide the rhythm. It’s almost like a lounge ballad, an upbeat float with soft sounds.. The scifi-esque synth squeals bring added loveliness. Such a relaxing song and well worth hunting for.

Dying Song (2004, from The Brown Bunny OST)

Vincent Gallo’s artsy film “The Brown Bunny” is according to word of mouth a rather unremarkable film though as I’ve not seen it myself I can’t agree or disagree with that. What I do know however is that Frusciante contributed five songs to its soundtrack, one old one from the From the Sounds Inside and four new ones that hark stylistically somewhat back to his first two albums with their lo-fi vibe and sparseness. Otherwise you can’t find many similarity points however as the man’s matured songwriting craft is now present. Dying Song is the best of the bunch, a beautiful and haunting acoustic song that manages to sound wonderfully lush despite its sparse sound before it ends with the simple but powerful tool of vocal layering.

Ah Yom (2009, Japanese bonus track of The Empyrean)

Ah Yom is the better one of the two bonus tracks that featured on this year’s The Empyrean in its Japanese release. It doesn’t sound like much at first – a bit of a nice, energetic pop song but not much else. The second verse kicks in with its additional instrumentation and you’re already unnoticably getting more into it. Then you spend the rest of the day singing the song’s title-dropping final minute to yourself. Ah Yom is one of Frusciante’s the most instantly-hooking, extroverted songs. Hell, it’s downright poppy. A wonderfully upbeat song about how life is such a multiple-path road, sung in the most wonderful way and ending in a downright jubilant gorgeousness that refuses to lodge out of your head. If you don’t feel like downloading anything else on this list, get this! As a trivia, “Ah Yom” means “today” in Hebrew.

And when we return next time, whenever that will be, we return with a whole different artist! Stay tuned.

Tags: John Frusciante, mp3

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Hidden treasures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.