Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt

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Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt
Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt cover
Studio album by John Frusciante
Released March 8, 1994
Genre Alternative rock
Length 70:00
Label American Recordings
Producer(s) John Frusciante
Professional reviews
John Frusciante chronology
Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt
(1994)
Smile from the Streets You Hold
(1997)


Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt is Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante's debut solo album, released in 1994 on American Recordings. Frusciante released the album after encouragement from friends Johnny Depp, Flea, Perry Farrell, and Gibby Haynes (of the Butthole Surfers), who told him that there was "no good music around anymore".

The album consists of Frusciante's singing, his guitar and piano playing, and some strange effects (including backwards instruments and tape speed modifications) all recorded on a 4-track recorder. Toni Oswald, Frusciante's consistent friend of 10 years, also sings on two of the final tracks. Most of the songs were recorded before the guitarist left the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992 (during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour), and indeed much of the first part of Niandra Lades was recorded as the band were recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1991.

Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt was for a long time a very rare and hard-to-find album, being removed from record stores and ordered out of production at Frusciante's request along with his second solo album, Smile from the Streets You Hold (1997, on Birdman Records). Frusciante supposedly felt uncomfortable with the albums being available to the public, though Niandra Lades was recently reissued by American Recordings.

Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt is a double album. The first twelve tracks comprise Niandra LaDes ("Niandra LaDes" is a female character that John played in the as-yet-unreleased film Desert in the Shape directed by then-girlfriend Toni Oswald). Tracks thirteen through twenty-five make up Usually Just a T-Shirt.

The first album was recorded during the recording sessions for Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The second album was recorded in the order that it appears. John has stated that the only song from Niandra recorded following his quitting of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is "Running Away into You," recorded shortly after John's departure.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "As Can Be" – 2:57
  2. "My Smile Is a Rifle" – 3:48
  3. "Head (Beach Arab)" – 2:05
  4. "Big Takeover" (cover of Bad Brains) – 3:18
  5. "Curtains" – 2:30
  6. "Running Away into You" – 2:12
  7. "Mascara" – 3:40
  8. "Been Insane" – 1:41
  9. "Skin Blues" – 1:46
  10. "Your Pussy's Glued to a Building on Fire" – 3:17
  11. "Blood on My Neck From Success" – 3:09
  12. "Ten to Butter Blood Voodoo" – 1:59
  13. Untitled #1 – 0:34
  14. Untitled #2 – 4:21
  15. Untitled #3 – 1:50
  16. Untitled #4 – 1:38
  17. Untitled #5 – 1:30
  18. Untitled #6 – 1:29
  19. Untitled #7 – 1:42
  20. Untitled #8 – 7:55
  21. Untitled #9 – 7:04
  22. Untitled #10 – 0:25
  23. Untitled #11 – 1:51
  24. Untitled #12 – 5:27
  25. Untitled #13 – 1:52

[edit] External links

John Frusciante
Discography
Studio albums: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt | Smile from the Streets You Hold | To Record Only Water for Ten Days | From the Sounds Inside | Shadows Collide with People | The Will to Death | Inside of Emptiness | A Sphere in the Heart of Silence | Curtains | Solo X
EPs: Estrus EP | Going Inside EP | DC EP
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Mother's Milk | Blood Sugar Sex Magik | What Hits!? | Californication | By the Way | Greatest Hits | Live in Hyde Park | Stadium Arcadium
Ataxia: Automatic Writing | AW II
Related articles
Ataxia | The Mars Volta | Josh Klinghoffer | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Autolux | The Brown Bunny soundtrack
Categories: John Frusciante
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