Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Niandra_LaDes_and_Usually_Just_a_T-Shirt

Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a

T-Shirt
Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt is the debut
Niandra LaDes and
album by American musician John Frusciante, released on
November 22, 1994, by American Recordings. Frusciante was Usually Just a T-Shirt
previously a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but left in
1992 after he became overwhelmed by the band's newfound
popularity. During this period, he became severely depressed
and developed a serious drug addiction. He isolated himself in
his home to record music for an eventual album. Niandra
LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt combines avant-garde and
stream-of-consciousness styles, with guitar, piano and various
effects on a four-track recorder. Niandra LaDes and Usually
Just a T-Shirt was met with general confusion and a mixed
response from fans and critics, and sold 15,000 copies by 1996.
Two years later, Frusciante rehabilitated and rejoined the Red Studio album by John Frusciante
Hot Chili Peppers.
Released November 22, 1994
Genre Lo-fi · avant-garde ·
psychedelic rock ·
Contents experimental rock
Background Length 70:12 (CD version)
Writing and recording 76:06 (cassette version)
Cover art and title
Label American
Release, reception, and aftermath
Producer John Frusciante
Track listing
John Frusciante chronology
References
Niandra Estrus
Sources
LaDes and (1997)
External links Usually
Just a
T-Shirt
Background (1994)

Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1988 at the age
of 18, and released his first album with the group, Mother's Milk, the following year.[1] The follow-
up album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, was recorded in an empty mansion which the band decided to
live in for the duration of recording.[2] Frusciante adapted well to the environment, and often spent
his time alone painting, listening to music, and recording songs that would eventually make up the
first half of the album, Niandra LaDes.[2] Blood Sugar Sex Magik was released on September 24,
1991, and was an instant success. The album peaked at number three in the U.S. and went on to sell

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more than thirteen million copies worldwide.[3][4] Soon after the album's release, Frusciante
became overwhelmed by the band's newfound popularity. He felt that the Red Hot Chili Peppers
were too famous, and wished they were still playing small nightclubs like they were before he had
joined.[5] During Blood Sugar Sex Magik's promotional tour, Frusciante began using heroin and
cocaine heavily.[6] He and vocalist Anthony Kiedis often argued before and after performances.
According to Kiedis, Frusciante purposely sabotaged the Saturday Night Live performance of
"Under the Bridge" by playing the wrong intro for the song and out of key.[7] His relationship with
the band had become progressively more strained, and he abruptly quit during the Japanese leg of
their world tour in 1992.[1]

Writing and recording

After leaving the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frusciante continued to write and record solo material. He
had been doing so since the age of nine, but had never considered releasing his material to the
public.[8] That was until several of his friends   – including Johnny Depp, Perry Farrell, Gibby
Haynes and Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmate Flea – encouraged him to release the material he
wrote in his spare time during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik sessions.[9] Frusciante began working
on final cuts of the songs he had been writing, and producing them at his home.[9] According to
Frusciante, each song was completed in one take.[9] During this period, Frusciante's use of heroin
became more extreme; he began viewing drugs as the only way to "make sure you stay in touch
with beauty instead of letting the ugliness of the world corrupt your soul".[8][10]

During a 1994 interview, a visibly intoxicated Frusciante noted that he wrote the album in order to
create "interesting music", which he felt no longer existed. He felt contemporary artists were not
writing material he deemed worth listening to and the mainstream population were settling for
mediocrity.[8] Drugs were another significant topic on which Frusciante based Niandra LaDes and
Usually Just a T-Shirt.[11] According to Frusciante, he "was stoned for every single note [he] played
on the album".[12] He increased his drug use to cope with worsening depression that was caused by
leaving the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and his subsequent isolation. Several songs on the album deal
with his dislike for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' success, such as the album's eleventh track, "Blood
on My Neck From Success".[13]

All the music on the record was written by Frusciante, save for the cover of hardcore punk band
Bad Brains' song "Big Takeover".[14] The track was intentionally slowed down and recorded
melodically because of a pastime in which Frusciante sang punk songs in different tempos: "It was
just something I had been walking around thinking of in my head. Sometimes I'll walk around
singing punk rock songs to myself, but as if they were regular songs instead of punk rock songs, you
know, slow it down and make a melody instead of just yelling them out. And then the idea occurred
me to record it like a Led Zeppelin ballad with mandolins and stuff."[15] River Phoenix, a friend of
Frusciante's, contributed guitar and backing vocals to two songs that were intended be included on
the record, but were ultimately left off following his death in October.[16]

Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt incorporates Frusciante's avant-garde style of song
composition, with his stream-of-consciousness methodology.[14][17] It features minimal
orchestration, and Frusciante's vocals have a "fragile, wispy quality" as described by AllMusic.
[14][18] CMJ New Music Monthly called it "probably the most fucked-up album ever released by
someone who had once played in stadiums."[19] Frusciante recorded, mixed, produced and
mastered the entire record by himself on a four-track tape, and released it on Rick Rubin's label,

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American Recordings.[9] Warner Bros., the Red Hot Chili Peppers' label, originally held the rights
to the album because of the leaving-artist clause in Frusciante's Red Hot Chili Peppers contract.
Because he was living as a recluse, the label gladly handed the rights over to Rubin, who released
the album under his label.[10]

Cover art and title

The cover art of Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt is a sepia photograph of Frusciante in
drag. According to Toni Oswald, Frusciante's partner at the time of the album's making, this choice
was inspired by Rrose Sélavy, the feminine pseudonym of Marcel Duchamp—the French painter
and writer whom Oswald and Frusciante both deeply admired. Frusciante devised the name
"Niandra LaDes" as his own feminine alter ego. The phrase "Usually Just a T-Shirt" meanwhile
derives from a clothes-exchanging ritual that Oswald and Frusciante often took part in when
Frusciante was away on tour; after Frusciante asked what Oswald would wear with his clothes, she
would reply, "Usually just a t-shirt". The phrase "To Clara" in the lower right refers to Clara
Balzary, the first daughter of Flea.[20]

Release, reception, and aftermath

Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt was Professional ratings
initially previewed by Billboard magazine, who Review scores
said that "Chili Peppers fans might be daunted
by the album's elusive experimentalism."[11] A Source Rating
representative of American Recordings did not AllMusic [14]
foresee the album as being viable in any
mainstream music stores, and some retailers Entertainment Weekly B-[21]
went as far as to ban it from being sold.[11] After Rolling Stone [17]
the album was released, Frusciante played three
small performances, and participated in a few
magazine interviews to promote the album, explaining in one interview that people would be able
to understand his work only if "their heads are capable of tripping out".[11] At one point shortly
after release, Frusciante began searching for a string quartet to play the album with him on tour.
The idea was eventually discarded when he could not find a band that "understands why Ringo
Starr is such a great drummer, can play Stravinsky, and also smokes pot".[11] The concept of a tour
was ultimately abandoned as well, due to Frusciante's diminishing health.[11]

Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt was met with general confusion and a mixed response
from fans and critics.[22] David Wild of Rolling Stone wrote: "All in all, [the album is] a mess – but
definitely a fascinating, often lovely mess. As one might expect of an album titled Niandra Lades
and Usually Just a T-shirt, this is twisted, cool stuff."[23] Marina Zogbi of Entertainment Weekly
described Frusciante's guitar play as "hauntingly lovely," and said: "There's a fine line between
brilliant and unlistenable, and Frusciante squarely straddles it here."[21] The Boston Herald noted
that while the album was "a stark display of Frusciante's acoustic guitar virtuosity" and "eerily
beautiful", the singing was "terrible; his high notes will drive the neighborhood dogs into a
frenzy".[24]

Retrospective appraisal is generally more positive. In a 2003 review by Rolling Stone, critic
Christian Hoard wrote: "[the album] sounds like a string of four-track demos. The first part of the

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album is slightly more tuneful than the more ambient, experimental second section [...] Mostly
what you get are Frusciante's acoustic-guitar scratchings and stream-of-conscious ramblings."[17]
Steve Huey of AllMusic, who rated the album four out of five stars, said that "[the album was] an
intriguing and unexpected departure from Frusciante's work with the Chili Peppers [and that] the
sparse arrangements of the first half help set the stage for the gossamer guitar work later on."[14]
He went on to say that Usually Just a T-Shirt (the latter half of the album) contained "pleasant
psychedelic instrumentals with plenty of backward-guitar effects".[14] Ned Raggett, also of
AllMusic, noted that "there's nothing quite so stunning as [Frusciante's] magnificent remake of
Bad Brains' 'The Big Takeover'."[25] Adam Williams of PopMatters said the album "fall[s]
somewhere between madness and brilliance". He went on to compare Frusciante to Syd Barrett,
and felt it was a "hint at a deeply cerebral artist looking within for inspiration and creativity".[18]

Frusciante's drug addiction worsened as the years progressed. An article published by the Phoenix
New Times described him as "a skeleton covered in thin skin".[10] He participated in an interview
with Dutch public broadcast station VPRO, the first media appearance he made since leaving the
Red Hot Chili Peppers.[8] In the interview Frusciante speaks of the positive effects drugs have had
on his mind and proudly admits to being a "junkie". He went on to confess addictions to heroin and
crack cocaine, but ultimately described himself as being in the best health of his life.[8] Niandra
LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt sold 15,000 copies by 1996; two years later Frusciante
rehabilitated and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers.[26] In 2017, record label Superior Viaduct
reissued Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt on vinyl.[22]

Track listing
All tracks are written by John Frusciante, except "Big Takeover", written by Bad Brains.[14]

Side 1: Niandra LaDes

1. "As Can Be" – 2:57

2. "My Smile Is a Rifle" – 3:48
3. "Head (Beach Arab)" – 2:05
4. "Big Takeover" – 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

Side 2: Usually Just a T-Shirt

1. "Untitled #1" – 0:34

2. "Untitled #2" – 4:21
3. "Untitled #3" – 1:50
4. "Untitled #4" – 1:38
5. "Untitled #5" – 1:30

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6. "Untitled #6" – 1:29

7. "Untitled #7" – 1:42
8. "Untitled #8" – 7:55
9. "Untitled #9" – 7:04
10. "Untitled #10" – 0:25
11. "Untitled #11" – 1:51
12. "Untitled #12" – 5:27
13. "Untitled #13" – 1:52

References
1. McStarkey, Mick (December 11, 2021). "The strange reason why John Frusciante first left Red
Hot Chili Peppers" (https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-reason-why-john-frusciante-left-red-hot-ch
ili-peppers/). Far Out Magazine. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20220130084800/http
s://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-reason-why-john-frusciante-left-red-hot-chili-peppers/) from the
original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
2. Kiedis & Sloman 2004, pp. 274–275.
3. Epstein, Dan (September 23, 2016). "Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik': 10
Things You Didn't Know" (https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/red-hot-chili-peppers-blood-sug
ar-sex-magik-10-things-you-didnt-know-121474/). Rolling Stone. Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20200831120907/https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/red-hot-chili-peppers-blood-sug
ar-sex-magik-10-things-you-didnt-know-121474/) from the original on August 31, 2020.
Retrieved January 30, 2022.
4. Huey, Steve (n.d.). "Blood Sex Sugar Magik – Red Hot Chili Peppers" (https://www.allmusic.co
m/album/blood-sugar-sex-magik-mw0000265082). AllMusic. Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20220130084800/https://www.allmusic.com/album/blood-sugar-sex-magik-mw000026508
2) from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
5. Kiedis & Sloman 2004, p. 229.
6. Dalley, Helen (August 2002). "John Frusciante". Total Guitar. p. 35.
7. Kiedis & Sloman 2004, p. 288.
8. Frusciante, John (1994). "Lolapaloeza - John Frusciante". VPRO (Interview). Interviewed by
Bram van Splunteren.
9. Perna, Alan Di (January 1995). "Stone Free". Guitar Player. p. 17.
10. Wilonsky, Robert (December 12, 1996). "Blood on the Tracks" (https://web.archive.org/web/200
50907083433/http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/1996-12-12/music/music3.html).
Phoenix New Times. Archived from the original (http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/Issues/1996
-12-12/music/music3.html) on September 7, 2005. Retrieved June 22, 2007.
11. Apter 2004, p. 279.
12. Kenneally, Tim (July 1995). "Chilly Pepper". High Times. p. 57.
13. Anon. (March 2004). "John Frusciante: Perso e Ritrovato". Il Mucchio Selvaggio (in Italian).
No. 570. pp. 13–19.
14. Huey, Steve (n.d.). "Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt – John Frusciante" (https://www.
allmusic.com/album/niandra-lades-and-usually-just-a-t-shirt-mw0000122031). AllMusic.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20220101171200/https://www.allmusic.com/album/niand
ra-lades-and-usually-just-a-t-shirt-mw0000122031) from the original on January 1, 2022.
Retrieved November 22, 2007.
15. Broxvoort, Brian (1994). "John Frusciante Goes Over a Bridge". Rockinfreakapotamus.

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Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niandra_LaDes_and_Usually_Just_a_T-Shirt

16. Nelson, Artie (November 1994). "Space Cadet". Raw. pp. 43–46.

17. Hoard, Christian (August 4, 2003). "Album Reviews: Niandra Lades & Usually Just A T-Shirt" (h
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071128154800/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/johnfrusciante/
albums/album/146562/review/5944990/niandra_lades__usually_just_a_tshirt). Rolling Stone.
Archived from the original (https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/johnfrusciante/albums/album/14
6562/review/5944990/niandra_lades__usually_just_a_tshirt) on November 28, 2007. Retrieved
November 22, 2007.
18. Williams, Adam (November 3, 2003). "John Frusciante: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a
T-Shirt" (https://www.popmatters.com/frusciantejohn-niandra-2495911711.html). PopMatters.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20200812070617/https://www.popmatters.com/frusciant
ejohn-niandra-2495911711.html) from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved
December 30, 2007.
19. Wolk, Douglas (October 1997). "Reviews". CMJ New Music Monthly. No. 50. p. 42.
ISSN 1074-6978 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1074-6978).
20. Karemo, Tuomas (January 10, 2018). "There's no more me – the history and love story behind
John Frusciante's Niandra LaDes" (https://web.archive.org/web/20181001145622/https://yle.fi/a
ihe/artikkeli/2018/10/01/theres-no-more-me-the-history-and-love-story-behind-john-frusciantes-
niandra). Yle.fi. Yleisradio Oy. Archived from the original (https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2018/10/01/t
heres-no-more-me-the-history-and-love-story-behind-john-frusciantes-niandra) on October 1,
2018.
21. Zogbi, Marina (November 11, 1994). "Album Review: Niandra Lades and Unusally Just a
T-Shirt" (http://ew.com/article/1994/11/11/album-review-niandra-lades-and-unusally-just-t-shirt/).
Entertainment Weekly. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20171222105910/http://ew.com/a
rticle/1994/11/11/album-review-niandra-lades-and-unusally-just-t-shirt/) from the original on
December 22, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
22. Scott, Tim (October 11, 2017). "John Frusciante's 1992 Solo Album Is Getting a Vinyl Reissue"
(https://www.vice.com/en/article/yw37pb/john-frusciantes-1992-solo-album-is-getting-a-vinyl-rei
ssue). Vice. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20220203052201/https://www.vice.com/en/a
rticle/yw37pb/john-frusciantes-1992-solo-album-is-getting-a-vinyl-reissue) from the original on
February 3, 2022. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
23. Wild, David (December 1994). "As If We Needed One, Here's A Reminder of Dylan's Power".
Rolling Stone.
24. Anon. (December 9, 1994). "Music Discs Dionne Farris' arresting vocals bloom into". Boston
Herald.
25. Raggett, Ned (n.d.). "Smile From the Streets You Hold – John Frusciante" (https://www.allmusi
c.com/album/smile-from-the-streets-you-hold-mw0000238205). AllMusic. Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20211214092053/https://www.allmusic.com/album/smile-from-the-streets-you-
hold-mw0000238205) from the original on December 14, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
26. Todd 2012, p. 322.

Sources
▪ Apter, Jeff (2004). Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story. London: Omnibus Press.
ISBN 1-84449-381-4.
▪ Kiedis, Anthony; Sloman, Larry (2004). Scar Tissue. New York City: Hyperion.
ISBN 1-4013-0101-0.
▪ Todd, David (2012). Feeding Back: Conversations with Alternative Guitarists from Proto-Punk
to Post-Rock. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-6137-4059-0.

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External links
▪ Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt (https://archive.org/details/cd_niandra-lades-and-usu
ally-just-a-t-shirt_john-frusciante_0) at the Internet Archive, with options to stream the album
from licensed platforms
▪ Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt (https://www.discogs.com/master/30172) at Discogs
(list of releases)
▪ Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt (https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/2a52f6e3-062
2-3d60-947a-a75b0673f096) at MusicBrainz (list of releases)

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