Niandra LaDes and Usually Just A Tshirt

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 Nianda Lades was recorded as the band were recording BSSM 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.