Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt Tracklist
Clearly inspired by influences Captain Beefheart, Syd Barrett, and Frank Zappa, John Frusciante’s debut solo album is a remarkable experiment in avant-garde, psychedelic, progressive, and jazz rock territory.
This period of John’s life was marked by extreme discontent over the fame and popularity of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and it reflects well in the emotion and low-fi aesthetic of this album.
Niandra Lades is an anagram reference to Aladdin Sane, an album by David Bowie. For the second part of the album title, Frusciante was inspired by his then-girlfriend, Toni Oswald, who said:
I guess the name, Usually Just a T-shirt, came from me — when we were apart we would wear each other’s clothes; he called me from tour after he received a box of my clothes to wear and asked what I would wear with these orange plaid pants and I said, “Usually just a t-shirt.”
Contrary to common belief, this album was not recorded during the height of John Frusciante’s heroin addiction.
That album was not recorded when I was a heroin addict. It was released when I was a heroin addict. [source]
“Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt” Q&A
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What has he said about the untitled songs?
Usually Just a T-Shirt was recorded in the order that it appears on the record, so the earliest things on it were recorded during the writing process of Blood Sugar Sex Magik and the last things recorded on it were just before I quit the band. I think it’s interesting that you can hear the the decline that I was going on inside. I think that those last two songs on it aren’t the best songs on the record, but at the same time it’s very sad because, when I hear it, it sounds like a person falling apart or it sounds like somebody about to kill themselves. Those songs are sad for the same reason that they’re good. I’m proud that I went through it and I’m proud that I did
those songs. That last song I thought at the time was the direction that my music could go outside of the band if I hadn’t stopped playing music at that point.– John Frusciante, Q&A with fans, 2004.
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Where was the album recorded?
All the songs on Niandra LaDes were recorded in my living room at 8505 Hollywood Blvd, in Kings Rd, in the hills.
– John Frusciante, Q&A with fans, 2004.
