"Stuff" (1994)

For some reason, it's not so easy to find a high quality or high definition streaming version of Stuff, the 12-minute movie about the junky life of John Frusciante, shot at his house (not long before it went up in flames) within the year after his departure from Red Hot Chili Peppers. Directed by Johnny Depp and Gibby Haynes, the short also features a quick cameo from Timothy Leary that might not be noticeable in Youtube's current-best upload. (We couldn't find it on Vimeo.) Despite the lack of a proper restoration, it looks pretty amazing.

Most of the film's score is pulled from Frusciante's first solo LP, the infamous 2-parter Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt. We incorrectly assumed this was one of those records that SPIN gave a 1 out of 10 back in the day. It was actually well received in almost every major music publication aside from Rolling Stone's 2-star review.

John Cale's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" appropriately plays throughout the film credits. Bear in mind that Stuff premiered a few months before the release of Jeff Buckley's Grace, so "Hallelujah" had not yet been distastefully embraced in the aftermath of Rufus Wainwright's cover on the Shrek soundtrack. Incidentally, between 2001 and the present, over 50 covers of "Hallelujah" have appeared on some form of commercial media by the likes of Bon Jovi, Celine Dion (on Oprah), America's Got Talent, One Tree Hill, Adam Sandler, Justin Timberlake, Michael MacDonald, Neil Diamond, and Paramore among others.

Here's the soundtrack of Stuff:

John Frusciante [Title unknown, unreleased Niandra-era recording] – 1:14
John Frusciante "Running Away Into You" – 1:52
John Frusciante "Untitled #2" (different version with poetry read over it) – 4:18
John Frusciante "Untitled #3" – 1:48
John Cale "Hallelujah" – 2:16