John Frusciante unofficial website - Invisible-Movement.net

It appears that John's official website was the next victim of a common malware attack aimed at outdated installs of WordPress.

In simple language - don't go there until further notice.. It went to pička materina. You might end up downloading a rogue program to your computer from its footer. Such programs ironically pose as anti-virus software prompting you to buy it, while installing shortcuts to online porn on your desktop, gaining access over your system tools.

If you have already been attacked by going to johnfrusciante.com, download a copy of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and have it scan your computer while NOT connected to the Internet - unplug your cables, shut down your routers, whatever it takes. Once it's done scanning, update its database and scan again, just in case.

I'm also using this opportunity to point out something many people are still wrong about - John is not on Twitter. If you spoke to anyone using his name, other than JohnJFrusciante who happens to be a writer/comedian from New York with the same name, you were scammed. There's a fake John out there wishing people a happy Purim and endorsing random bands.

The record company was notified about both of these issues and sent helpful tips on how to fix it, until then listen to what Google says and don't go to johnfrusciante.com or talk to the prankster on Twitter.

For reference: there's a little thing us professional web designers know and amateurs blame others for it when they first encounter them, usually thinking they have a rival - a website has got to be maintained, databases need to be purged, spam cleaned up and content management system updated. In particular, if you're a WordPress user, update it to 3.0.1. Same goes for your social media presence - someone might be "you" and you might not have an idea about it; so reserve your name everywhere if you're anywhere near a public person and be extra-cautious even if you aren't. These things can cause serious trauma to those affected.

And the above was just a friendly note, of course. ^_^

You might also be interested in:
Follow Invisible Movement on Twitter
Get "Here, Air" from an indentical widget as the one on the website so your downloads count properly

In a lengthy video interview with German editing of Rolling Stone, Michael Rother is talking about his upcoming USA, Mexico and Europe Hallogallo 2010 tour, where his back-up band will consist of Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth fame on drums and Aaron Mullan of Tall Firs, presumably handling the guitar duties.

But mr. Rother also reveals other musicians, like John and Josh Klinghoffer will be integrated in this project on occasion. There's no word on what the occasion is, but knowing more about it and knowing that it is still an option, after a news or two on it last year, is great.

You can find the tour dates on mr. Rother's homepage (USA ones are in a couple of days, so if you're based there, hurry up!) and watch the whole interview below. It's in German, and the exciting bit comes at about 8:15. However, given this artist's impressive work, you should give the whole thing a go.

Many thanks to Frank for this exciting piece of news!

You might also want to read
More on Michael Rother's plans with his American friends
Michael Rother would love to play live with John again
Performance 11 in San Francisco (audio)
Performance 12 in Los Angeles (audio)
Doppelgänger video from Performance 12
A super long jam from 2003, also featuring Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Flea

While it's certainly a bit upsetting the story with the unofficial first-hand comment got the attention of mainstream media who are in it for presumably different reasons - as well as some upsetting comments - it sure is a breath of fresh air to get a confirmation that John indeed is not a member of Swahili Blonde and that, despite some people saying otherwise, he was the project's member beforehand.

After the above story and the reached The Fader, their editor, Matthew Schnipper, reached out to Swahili Blonde publicist Tim Jones who confirmed this. Here's what he said:

“He plays on every track on Man Meat but then quit the band. He felt obligated to perform at least a song the other week as tons kids drove very far to seem him play thinking he was in the band still. I don’t think he’ll be making anymore cameos though. Probably won’t be on their next album I hear, but he definitely left his mark on this one.”

So, unlike some other situations where it's becoming clear that the "right" people were never notified of what happened, this case is dismissed - John is not a member of Swahili Blonde and it's likely that he won't be a part of their live line-up again, either, perhaps even not the studio album. However, the seven stunning songs peppered with his funky guitar, ranking from the up-tempo LeMampatee to the ecletic Tigress Ritual, which he also co-wrote, are still awesome, so support the band and buy their album, check out their next tour dates or watch their first music video for the above-mentioned song, LeMampatee.

At the same time, the creators of an upcoming surprise related to John's guest appearance at the band's maiden show cannot keep their mouth shout, so go and see what you're all in for and give the idea a thumb-up! I am sure it will be appreciated.

This said, back to the daily routine of waiting for another stellar collaboration to happen, hoping for a blog entry and/or news on the 11th (12th?) solo record. As we all know, the wait is sweet, like real sugar, not corn syrup, and it usually pays out bigtime. I'll leave you with this quote on John's time with this particular band, courtesy of Margaret Wappler of PopHiss, and some recent beautiful things that came our way.

It's been plastered around the Web that this is Frusciante's band -- and while it's true that he plays guitar on the lion's share of "Man Meat," he's no longer a part of Swahili Blonde; word is that he quit last month, something he did a couple of times with the Chili Peppers too. I guess these are the kinds of inexplicable mash-ups that happen in Los Angeles: One moment John Frusciante is sending out blasts of guitar skronk in your quasi-experimental band and then the next, he's gone with the pink sunset.

The beautiful things that happened AFTER John left RHCP in autumn '08:
All posts on The Empyrean
The Heart Is A Drum Machine - with a 45-minute interview
Official RHCP book to be released in October
Me And My Friends - the picture book on RHCP
Another upcoming film where John will be interviewed
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quarter's "Sepulcros de Miel
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & John Frusciante album
The Mars Volta's "Octahedron"
An awesome live jam on radio from Mike Watt's podcast
N.A.S.A.'s "Way Down" where John did something (and no one ever said what)
Little Joe soundtrack
Wu-Tang Vs The Golden Phoenix soundtrack
Warpaint EP, mixed by John and more
Rick Rubin book released - a lot of insight on the creative process
Michael Rother's plans
John was voted the best guitarist of the last 30 years
...and let's not forget Speed Dealer Moms

If you're one of those people collecting just about everything that's fresh out of print, this update was intended to make your lives easier. For those waiting to hear more about Saturday's event - you'll have to wait a bit more.

Orange and purple vinyls for Sepulcros de Miel
For the lucky ones whose countries indeed exist and who managed to place their orders for both Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's albums featuring John - the lo-fi gem Omar Rodriguez Lopez and John Frusciante and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's quarter album Sepulcros de Miel; you will be delighted to find out that the second of these is somewhat customisable. What's the deal? You can have it in purple and you can have it in orange.

If you have already ordered the LP, you are supposed to receive an email asking you what colour you want. If you're yet to order it, I assume the option is available at some point throughout the order process - perhaps someone can confirm this.

Red Hot Chili Peppers book now with a new cover
While we're eagerly awaiting October 26th so this book could see the light of the day, An Oral/Visual History - The Red Hot Chili Peppers got revamped and now it has a different cover image. Also, all possible previews of it have been removed, so check the older news item on it to get a little sneak peek into what it's going to be like - there are portions of text and some really nice photographs!

Pre-order the book and look out for more possible previews.

David Bowie tribute album - new name, new cover and release date
We Were So Turned On: A Tribute To David Bowie has got a much better-looking cover and a definite release date - September 06th. As you can see, it is no longer called Repetition, either. Those nice folks over at Ultimate Guitar have a definite track listing and if you want to pre-order it, it's still available only through PayPal. Also, one of the tracks is free, but it is not the one featuring John - you can get that one with Man Meat, either way.

Here's a little gallery of all items mentioned - enjoy!

Some excerpts of Barry Cleveland's interview with John for the Guitar Player magazine, November 2006 issue, will be a part of this week's episode of The Guitar Show.

After positive feedback they have received when they aired a segment of it in February, the author and producers of The Guitar Show have decided to air another segment of Barry Cleveland's 2006 interview with John in their program; and they'll be doing so this week - tonight, tomorrow and on Saturday! Once again, it's the real deal, not super-polished stuff you find in magazines. It's how it really was.

This is how the staff of The Guitar Show presented it:

In this week's Writer's Archive segment, we'll hear an excerpt from a 2006 interview with Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante conducted by Barry Cleveland, Associate Editor at Guitar Player magazine. Cleveland's interview coincided with the release of the Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium double album. In this excerpt, Frusciante describes recording "Death of a Martian" and "Warlocks" — two songs on Stadium Arcadium — and explains how he was influenced by the way funkmaster George Clinton would mix the early Parliment/Funkadelic albums.

The Guitar Show airs at 11:00pm EST / 10:00pm CST on 107.1FM WRFN Radio Free Nashville and on the web; as well as each Friday, on at 10:00pm CST and each Saturday night, we're on at 8:00pm CST on Dewberry Jam Community Radio. For counting when is this aired in your time zone, use the World Clock.

Just like it was last time, the interview segment will be streamable from Monday on. Just go to theguitarshow.com, click on the Interviews button and select it. There are also many interviews with other guitarists, from various spheres of the music world.

UPDATE: The mp3 file of the interview excerpt is now available for everyone to listen.

Many thanks to John Haring, the show's producer, for letting Invisible Movement readers know about this.

You might also want to check out
The whole interview from Guitar Player, November 2006
Scanned pages of the cover and magazine pages
Archived audio interviews, some of them with transcripts
Another segment of this interview aired in February

The long-awaited review of the Swahili Blonde show at Echoplex by Grimy Goods is finally up. It was long-awaited because they stated that they have spoken to John at some point, to ask him to clarify whether he was a part of the project or not. While this is not an actual interview, just a reference to a brief chat, it should clear up things that were never clearly stated. Or, more likely, never updated. Before you continue reading all this, just one little disclaimer: this website was always supporting the band. And yes, it was because of John (which is absolutely normal coming from a website about him!) and because of the wonderful giddy feeling of assuming he was doing something out of love and love for music. Let's not forget the awesome guitar work laid down for the album, too. All logical & normal.

Sandra Burciaga of Grimy Goods sums up the little chat she had with John:

So what’s the deal? Isn’t Frusciante a standing member of Swahili Blonde? Well that’s what I along with many other fans thought upon arrival to the show. After talking one-on-one to Frusciante during a brief intermission of the next act We Are The World, he shared that he is no longer with Swahili Blonde. He recorded with them but later quit the band. He doesn’t understand why she (Nicole) was advertising him as being in the band, because he’s not. He also felt bad that many die-hard fans came from as far as Arizona to see him rock that guitar.

However, as everyone else said previously, he ROCKED!

After about four songs, the crowd was to be blessed with an epic closing jam by none other than John Frusciante. Although it was all but one song lasting a good six minutes or so, the man jammed out to some wild shit and closed up the show proper. I can honestly say the whole crowd was pleased with his brief appearance; even the chatty-Cathy morons stopped their incessant blabber for a bit.

To read the whole review, which is somewhat more favourable towards the two other bands of the night ( We Are The World and Weave!, the later being Nicole Turley's former band), but most favourable to John's cameo appearance and to see some awesome photos taken by Grimy Goods' photographer Matt Fisher, proceed this way. Many thanks to Sandra and Matt for sharing this with us and having been bold enough to ask that question!

Also, to correct John/Sandra, all in good spirits, people were coming from Berlin (Germany) and Lyon (France) as well. They had a good time, regardless and they loved the band. It's just that...we all inevitably yearn for something like 2001 or those odd dates in 2004 and 2005; there's always wishful thinking going on when there's a tight community dedicated to one person's beautiful music.

To remind you all - when the project surfaced, it was stated that its members were Nicole on a quite impressive number of instruments and John on "fancy trick guitar". This was the situation each time I (less often) or one of Invisible Movement's contributors (more often) checked on the Myspace profile. More people were added, but album's cover art and credits, all featuring John didn't help that much either.

When the live shows were first announced, it was stated that John was on the guitar for live performances. Mass-media's articles likely stealing contents from websites like this one and making it sound more flashy so they could get more clicks with their "wonderful" titles such as "John Frusciante ditches Red Hot Chili Peppers for his girlfriend's band Swahili Blonde" weren't helping much and wow, they were mean, libelous and rude. And they might be the ones to blame for all this most, too, as they even went as far as to call John a swahili blonde?! In the meantime, the list of band members got even more unclear.

From what this website has been told by a couple of various sources, John was originally scheduled to play that one song (some of band members confirmed that) and he was present at the rehearsal. Given that nobody is a psychic here, the assumptions about whether he would've played more or not are pretty wild and there's no reason to get into them.

For those who are interested in Swahili Blonde, no strings attached regarding John possibly appearing or not, three more shows have been scheduled for August-October 2010, all in the Los Angeles area. Do enjoy them and support a band that's still shaping up, they need all the love they can get, they're so much fun and they're all so young! Admit you all danced to the video from Saturday! ^_^

To sum this up - once again we learn after the fact that John is not a full time member of a band. One day it would be nice to actually know the true information without fans having to speculate and potentially be disappointed.

As usual, some people take a couple of days to recover from a great show. Some of them keep their impressions for themselves, which is probably not really cool, but it's OK. Some of them say a thing or two, take a couple of photos. And some, like our friends Ari and Ernesto go out of their way to bring us a whole Eyjafjallajökull-smoke-explosion worth of awesome. So? So, you're in for an Invisible Movement exclusive!

Here's Ari's video of Swahili Blonde performing Dr. Teeth two nights ago at the Echoplex. If you open this entire news page, you'll also get to see screencaps of Ernesto Mejia's video, shoot from the other corner. There's much more to come, so stay tuned and keep on checking the site.

To see the video in the 640x480 resolution, which would normally mess up the main site's layout, please do watch it on its video archive page.

Please, if you have the time, thank our friends by leaving a comment.

Once again, if you have photographs of your own, please do send them over. Invisible Movement will never claim your photos as its own and if you're an owner of another website, they will go online with your own watermark/no watermark (whatever is the way you prefer them). At the same time, this website reserves the right not to publish anything that I feel would be too intrusive/invasive. Thank you so much for sharing the love, dear friends!

In case you missed it, you might also want to see the following
Photos from the Swahili Blonde release party

Swahili Blonde’s Man Meat – (digital) out today, live tonight