Break Up Your Band

John Frusciante is a writer/performer living in NYC. His writing about music and comedy has appeared on AmplifierMagazine.com, The Onion News Network, Cracked.com, etc. He can frequently be seen at the UCB Theatre, where he is the Artistic Associate. He has the same name as--but is not the same person as--the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

May 28

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Epilogue — “Disrepair (Radio Edit)”

A good mix of elements that usually make me love songs: squiggly low end synths, lingering chords, and lyrics processed through several different shades of vocoder.  I imagine if I were a sophisticated person who drove through the city to or from parties at night, this would be the soundtrack I faux-pensively contemplated my playboy lifestyle to.


May 27
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Josef Tuulse — “Astroboy”

Tuneage is right: thesixtyone.com is an awesome music site!  I found this track and others by this guy on the site, and I am totally in love with the sweeping production landscape and twitchy beats he creates.  Now tell me where can I buy this, thesixtyone!

(I realized recently that I really miss writing about music and discovering new stuff.  FYI.)



May 24
A song from the 90s crypt: Dink’s “Green Mind.”

At first, the samples in this song don’t seem to have much of a connection to the larger material, but if we listen there arises a theme within the song of being lost and retreating into a sort of mental isolation, an every-man-for-themselves feel that springs from an agreement that things are all pretty fucked up, which is what most industrial music is about (even the hyper-sexualized “Do What You Want To Do To Me” grand scheme of Lords of Acid reflects this to some degree). This song is like the bad-ass, cynical cousin to lame momma’s boy Jesus Jones’ whiny, over-optimistic “Right Here Right Now.”

May 22

New Play Wednesday


Last night I saw Eric Bogosian’s “Bitter Honey” at the Public Theater, which isn’t so much a play as it is a collection of “underperformed” monologues by Bogosian, done as part of a benefit for the P.T. Right after I bought my ticket I noticed that Julianna Hatfield was playing next door at Joe’s Pub, and I almost returned my ticket b/c Hatfield is the second most attractive singer/songwriter I’ve ever seen and a significant amount of my driving in high school and since has been done while Become What You Are blasted from my speakers. But I wanted to see Bogosian more than I wanted to resist the temptation to propose to J.H. right there in front of the Joe’s Pub audience, so in I went. I’d recommend that anyone in NY not doing anything tonight go see this show. His characters have such great, specific points of view and Bogosian finds ways to take them into really dark and absurd places without it being wacky or silly, which I love. Monologues are a form I need to play more with.

After the show ended I walked to the restroom, which you have to walk through a hallway by the stage entrance and dressing rooms for Joe’s Pub to get to. There, sitting in a chair near the foot of a staircase leading up to the men’s room, was Julianna Hatfield. I walked right past her. Our eyes met. My heart melted. I forgot to propose.


May 13

New Musie Tuesie


Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell

 Ever since I heard TPC’s amazing EP, A Lesson In Crime, I’ve been super-psyched about hearing a full-length album’s worth of that manic, sawtooth sound.  Look’s like I’m going to have to wait a little longer.

What is it with these bands, man?!  Just give me more of what you gave me the first time I heard you!  It’s like, “Yep, that sound we created is awesome and distinctive and totally engaging, we did it.  Now let’s ease off on that a little and try to develop our songwriting.”  Fuck your songwriting.  Give me the urgency.   If I was a fan of bands abandoning what’s awesome about them in favor of boring pretentious bullshit songcraft, I’d still be listening to Pearl Jam.  


Apr 30
Here’s a great way to “decrease your global footprint” that people don’t talk about.  Stop buying books.  This way less trees will have to be cut down to make more copies of “Earth: The Sequel.” Here’s a great way to “decrease your global footprint” that people don’t talk about.  Stop buying books.  This way less trees will have to be cut down to make more copies of “Earth: The Sequel.”


Apr 25