John Frusciante

I've been listening to a lot of the guitarist John Frusciante's work lately.

He spent a better part of the 90's in near-death heroin stupor. He's supposedly lucky to be alive. He emerged from this wasted haze with a burst of creative energy.

I listened to some of his solo music from that period and hated it. It was full on rambling drug wank off on unmastered rough and scratchy 4-track recordings.

His website (www.johnfrusciante.com) offers a ton of demos available for free download... one is an entire album's worth of music. A lot of it is really interesting. He combines minimalist guitar with shitty mechanical production, and his singing has improved a great deal. He's also included an entire accoustic version of his newer record "Shadows Collide with People".

He's going to be releasing a solo record a month for the next six months... the first one up is a collaboration with Joe Lally of Fugazi and a fella named Josh Klinghoffer of Bicycle Thief.