The career of one John Frusciante, part 1
January 8th, 2009 by Flint
So as we all already know about the new John Frusciante album coming later this month, I reckoned that not many of us are probably well-versed in the man’s solo career. We’ve all heard his work – his stint as the guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers on all of their most successful albums has made it sure everyone’s heard his guitaring and backing vocals at least once. Not many even know he has a solo career – worth loads of albums even. The thing is, even if you hate the Peppers it doesn’t mean you don’t like Frusciante’s own material. Whilst his inner guitar wanker and riff meister gets unleashed in the Peppers’ stadium rock, his solo material accesses his more melodic, introspective side. And shows us why he’s one of the few people who’s guitar style I actually lovelove.
And thus, after the cut, our first part in checking out Frusciante’s history and overtaking the tag cloud dominance from Mag’s Grammortiks begins.
Niandra LaDes & Usually Just a T-Shirt (1994) / Smile from the Streets You Hold (1997)
The thing is, despite Frusciante being one of my very favourite artists, he didn’t start all too well. In fact, he started rather miserably. Really miserably.
In more than one sense.
Frusciante joined Red Hot Chili Peppers around 1988, after the band’s previous guitarist Hillel Slovak had died of a drug overdose. Frusciante immediately showed his magic: the first Peppers album with him on, 1989’s Mother’s Milk, gained a small hit or two and suddenly the next one, 1991’s BloodSugarSexMagik turned the band into one of the world’s largest bands for a while. Frusciante was young at the time and hadn’t even thought of getting famous – he just loved the opportunity to actually play in the band he loved. The sudden publicity, gigantic tours, humongous audiences et al got young Johnny on the edge of a nervous breakdown and depression, during which he started to follow Hillel’s path and got deeper into drugs. Finally he snapped and admitted he couldn’t take it anymore, quitting the band in the middle of a world tour.
This is the time where Frusciante’s first two solo albums are set. Leaving publicity completely behind, Frusciante became a hermit and a drug addict, recording his rambling guitar on lo-fi measures for the hell of it. NianDra Lades & Usually Just a T-Shirt, released on the urging of a friend, is a collection of personal demos and musical rambles in the form of a double album (both fused to the same disc though) – the Niandra LaDes side being more concise in nature while the T-Shirt side featured more instrumental jamming and obvious song sketches. Smile from the Streets You Hold followed three years later and is now pretty much discontinued and out of print (I reaaaally lucked out when I randomly found a copy of it on a local music store) and is less of an artistic creation and more of a way to get more drug money as John himself has stated.
And they’re painful, painful albums. There’s absolutely no signs of the man’s fantastic voice or songwriting skills. It’s just a man in pain at the edge of his life and his trusty guitar that he haphazardly strums while yelping, mumbling and screaming something on top. Smile is the worse of the two, some of its moments practically being suffering made into music (the 8-minute opener “Enter an Uh” is one of the most relentless and horrific album starts I’ve heard). They’re very much love it or hate it kind of records. I can understand someone digging these quite a bit, but I don’t. They’re just too painful to listen and the music isn’t exactly memorable or good.
Might be your cup of tea but I’m not wasting our precious FTP space on these tracks. For hard-core fans only.
To Record Only Water for Ten Days (2001)
A little before the turn of the millennium, Frusciante was saved from the brink of death. His former bandmates finally realised that this is it, they’re losing another fabulous friend, and got John into a rehab. He came back as a new man (and with literally new teeth). This “rebirth” is something any Frusciante fans will become familiar with due to the man’s constant lyrical referencing to dying and coming back, reborning, having been given a second chance at life, et cetera. Completely free of drugs, John’s creative juices started flowing madly and he rejoined the Peppers. The resulting Californication (1999) became another gigantic smash hit and rose the Peppers on the top of the world once again after their 90’s public slump. And this time Frusciante loved every single moment.
After all the Californication hassle John released a new solo album which I like to think of his debut proper. To Record Only Water for Ten Days is in many ways a precursor to everything he’s done since but sounds the most different from all of his other solo albums.
To Record sees the debut of the man’s grand voice, a charismatic and personal sound with an impressive range (in many ways better than the Pepper chiefman Kiedis’ voice). This voice is then put on endless layers of jingling, highly melodic guitar lines and the words are indecipherably cryptic (knowing John I’m sure there’s a deep meaning in each song but good god I’ve no idea what the hell they could be). However, like mentioned, musically the album is quite different from the man’s reminding catalogue. Whilst the warm lo-fi sound is present, the music on To Record is far more synthetic and electronic than on his other albums. In fact, the entire album consists of Frusciante singing and guitaring over fuzzy synths and mechanic drumbeats.
To Record is what started my personal Frusciante journey, as a completely random purchase. One of the best random purchases ever.
MP3: Away & Anywhere
From the Sounds Inside (2001)
Released shortly after To Record, John gave everyone who wanted a whole 21-track album through his website – for completely free. From the Sounds Inside is, from what I’ve gathered, a collection of demos from around the recording of To Record. The style is the same as on the mother album, guitars meet drum loops, but the songs are generally shorter and the sound quality is fuzzy in a true demo way. At first the 21 tracks are a whole lot to stomach (though the album itself is only around 45 minutes in length) but the album eventually reveals itself to be a nice little dish, a collection of short little Frusciante pieces ranging from nice to good. It’s by no means a masterpiece, but it’s a fantastic grab for fans.
As John’s official site is nothing but a blog these days, the album can’t be found from there anymore. However, the great and extensive fansite Invisiblemovement.net is hosting the album for the moment so those who are interested should grab it from there.
Shadows Collide With People (2004)
Frusciante was on a streak after To Record. 2002’s Chili Peppers album By the Way was so heavily influenced and driven by Frusciante that it’s musically like a whole different band and in the end it even caused friction between Frusciante and some of the others (coincidentally, it’s my favourite RHCP album). After the world tour following By the Way, Frusciante retreated back to his own world and started recording his next release.
Shadows Collide With People differs from the rest of the Frusciante discography in its production. Unlike the warm, fuzzy sound of the other albums, Shadows gleams with studio sheen. The sound is sharp, all-encompassing, crystal clear and heavily produced. It’s a far more organic album than To Record because of its basis on rock instruments, but the endless swirls of keyboards and synthesizers turn the table to the other direction. The three instrumental ambient interludes hinted at a direction John would check out more in the future, and John’s brother-in-arms Josh Klinghoffer makes his first appearance here – his musicianship and his voice would become regular collabolators with John on his solo adventures.
In the end, Shadows is Frusciante’s most accessible album as it throws its melodies to the fore-front. The blissfully heart-on-sleeve pop songs meet some fierce rockers and each burn on a passionate love for music and loads of unleashed imagination. Whilst the glistening production takes slightly away from the personal touch of his other albums, it gives the listener a chance to really pay attention to all the musical details the man puts in his music.
To counter the album’s studio gleen, John released two alternative versions of the album for free on his official website – a demo version which features demo versions (duh) of all the songs bar the instrumentals from the album, and an acoustic version which shows John tackle nine of the album’s songs with only the acoustic guitar. Both of these are lovely fan nibblings and at least the demo version offers a free way to check out the album in a way. Due to the reworking of John’s site you can’t find the tracks from there anymore, but the already mentioned Invisiblemovement.net hosts both the demo album and the acoustic album for the time being.
MP3: Wednesday’s Song
MP3: Carvel
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Shadows wasn’t it for 2004 however. A few months after its release, John announced an ambitious plan on his official website – he intended to release six albums during the latter half of the year, one each month. These would be both solo material as well as side projects he was heavily involved with.
And that marathon will be checked out during the second part.
(Amazon.com (and its international sibling sites) supplies most Frusciante albums!)
Tags: John Frusciante
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January 23rd, 2009 at 5:26 am
In your review of Smiles From The Streets You Hold, you say; “(the 8-minute opener “Enter an Uh” is one of the most relentless and horrific album starts I’ve heard).” This opinion of yours leaves me no interest in reading anything you have to say about everything!! Art will always have opposing effects on individuals. I think that “Enter an Uh” is the most daring and successfully amazing album beginnings I have ever heard. In fact, when I introduce Frusciante to friends, it is the first one I play for them. When I was fifteen in 1997 I was so happy to have “Smiles…” in my life. I love every album he has made. But nothing can move more than it has!
August 9th, 2009 at 6:09 am
i must say, i think you have an unfortunate view on nianda lades and smile from the streets you hold…. they are both magnificant. nianda lades especially, changed how i viewed music. i had never heard anyone articulate how i felt as clearly as he did on that album. every painful moan, the… purity of it. the primitive nature, recorded on the 4track. i love the whole john discography, and in my personal opinion, his greatest work in found on those albums. that INCLUDES enter a uh… untitled 12, as can be, head, smile from the streets you hold, and.. untitled 11, my personal favorite song he has ever recorded. give it a shot, or.. at least remember that there’s a reason why these albums are cult classics. it’s not just johns popularity. he reached the level of angels with those albums, and still touches me, everytime i hear them, almost 10 years later.
anyway, im rambling. id also like to point out again how much i love all of his work. to record only water for ten days is probably my most frequently listened to, although it still doesnt reach me how niandra lades does. i’m also happy with the empyrean, it’s a shame we don’t hear more from him these days. although, i suppose he spoiled us with 6 albums in 6 (or so) months. hmm.
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