Clarification: John is not a member of Swahili Blonde (but he was)
Written on July 14, 2010 in Events/gigs, Swahili Blonde & with 16 responses
Tags: demanti, grimygoods, Swahili Blonde
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.
16 Reactions to Clarification: John is not a member of Swahili Blonde (but he was)
Pravila za komentarisanje:
A load of fake propaganda. Hope fakes are truly proud of them now!
ha, i drove from missouri mainly to see Swahili. Yes, John was the tantalizing ingrediant to the concoction, but as a band even without him they stood well. I really do regret seeing him alone smoking a cigarette and not having the guts to go speak with him though...
Chris, you have remember that he compose the guitar part to songs, someone else just played it. OF COURSE they play well something he compose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like the Grimy Goods visitors share the writer's sentiments, but they are more vocal.
http://grimygoods.com/2010/07/13/swahili-blonde-w...
'he doesn't understand why she was advertising him as being in the band'? wtf?!
anna - wtf indeed!
earth to john frusciante: you are great w/o any doubt and we all love you, but please hire someone to handle your shit on the internet and handle it properly. you are risking your reputation!!! dont be stupid.
i can understand a blog w/o comments allowed when i see what kind of crap ppl ask in fan interviews. but i cant understand removing posts from the blog with no explanation, no knowledge of a fake twitter account where youre apparently "eating a birthday cake", no knowledge of a a loony chick interviewing the imaginary you for a couple of years. and sure there is more. your website is useless, there is not even back catalog of your music or a proper biography. and it was always as useless. the old one contained a biography some kid wrote ten years ago and it was never revised. are you aware that you grew up "masturbating and playing guitar"? nice cv right there.
indie is beautiful, staying true to yourself is beautiful - but you can also do all of that that while livin in this century. there are many crazy people, but there are also real fans. what do they like? nothing special. a little human touch, a little precise info. oh, and a show here and there, but we can do with the previously mentioned first.
spellchecker suggests frustrated, frustration, frustrate and frustrating. fitting.
Pat - You have just summed up what I've wanted to say perfectly.
My only wish would be for him to play one gig in Europe (like the AmsterdamLondon shows)
I'm from Ireland and it would be almost impossible for me to get enough money to get to the U.S
I hope he doesn't go down the same route he went down the last time he left the Peppers.
He's back drinking and smoking anyway, but i suppose that's his decision to make not ours.
Just one chance to see him perform...
Not intending to be mean against Nicole, but I think she took advantage on John being her boyfriend and having helped her in the project, to promote her band, which on the other hand I still like and love.
She shouldn't have credited him as part of the band. Probably as a collaboration.
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Not to be defending Nicole Turley, but it's not really her, it's Manimal Vinyl. She never actually credited him with his full name, a few fans put two and two together and when later Swahili Blonde got signed by Manimal, the label took over, promoting them with his name. It's the same with Aska Matsumiya (from the band Moonrats) who wrote a song with Nick Zinner and Flea. She didn't mention their names, but so did Manimal Vinyl. As for Grimey Goods, we can't be sure what John said literally, because it wasn't recorded.
wrong. in that tom tom article she mentioned 'her boyfriend' being part of the project.
are you the firestarter...
...the TWISTED FIRESTARTER?
yes, you are. im quite a misanthrope but i never slagged so many people in one go.
from what i see, just like anna said, john/john1 IS john frusciante, nicole was writing those blog entires herself, the location where the photos in the 'exclusive' interview were taken clearly implied who her boyfriend is, the label could have stopped her but they didnt since theyre pulling way too many stunts (e.g. they hav nothing to do with warchild, there was no mutual agreement involved).
if frusciante himself really doesnt use the internet, which i never believed, the label and nicole and her friends definitely do. the label probably knows of this website as the website thanked them once or twice. nicole couldve googled herself or somethin lol and she wouldve sureley come accross links to articles where her band is being mistaken for frusciantes band. in such cases, if you dont like whats written, you email the magazine or blog and tell them its not so.
so, its a double game - not wanting johns name because she and her friends are already famous, yet using his name everywhere or not stopping anyone from using it. theres no reason to doubt grimygoods quote. it sounded very diplomatic, definitely like something frusciante would say...
...but i stand by what i said yesterday and asking - john frusciante, do you have a manager or pr? do you have any idea whats going on? are you informed of things you have supposedly said, done, participated on?
...didn't think so....
Okay a bit offtopic here, but what stunts? Manimal Vinyl is one of few labels who really care about their artists, and about the causes they support. Benefits of tribute records always go to a cause of the artist's preference e.g. Bowie supports War Child and the Bowie tribute is official. (Ya I'm defending them a little now, I respect them a lot... and as a label they have to create "buzz", that's the way it goes.)
I agree with Pat when she says John could benefit from decent PR... but that's old news.
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wow lots of propaganda...is frusciante still in relatonship with nicole?
I believe this is none of our business Art is often ruled by love, just think of history.
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