John Frusciante by Mike Piscitelli
John Frusciante was inducted into the Rock n' Roll hall of fame back in 2012 after spending a number of years as the iconic lead guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but this man is still had at work. Earlier this year, he put out a hip-hop record, The Almighty, with Wu Tang Clan-affiliated group Black Knights, and the year before he put out a solo record, Enclosure.Yesterday, he took to his website to announce the release of a batch of new music, almost all of which was "made purely for the sake of making music, rather than for having it released and thereby sold." The tracks range from IDM-styled sketches to acid house and guitar-and-drum machine instrumentals. He goes on to critique what he purports to be the commercial basis for the music industry today:"Recording artists have been 'giving' the public music by selling it to them for so long that we now think of sell-outs as dedicated musicians who love their audience so much that they aggressively sell them products, and sell themselves as an image and personality to this audience on a regular basis just as aggresively. Sell-outs is an antiquated term which, when I was a kid, referred to artists who love making money more than they love making music. The word indicated a lack of artistic integrity. Sell-outs suck, in my opinion. Its a shame its become so normal, expected, and acceptable to be one. When I was a teenager it was very common for people who loved music to insult a recording artist for being, or becoming, a sell-out. I believe that this was a very healthy instinct on the part of music lovers."You can stream new releases Renoise Tracks 2009-2011 and 4-Track Guitar Music below and check out the rest of his new stuff here and here.
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