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"Supersonic Squirrel" said:
This should have its own topic, as it's pretty important and it's a question people will keep on asking.
*cough* 
So, I decided to create a new thread for this matter.
As far as I know, the only accessible source of information on this topic is JF's Q&A from 2002 (?), where he recorded the answers to the fans' questions in his house.
So, the following is an extract from the interview:
- Would you give us a brief summary of when the individual songs on Niandra and Smile were recorded?
- Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of Smile sitting around here, but for Niandra:
“As Can Be” was written while we were in the house where we recorded BSSM, and recorded probably on a weekend when I went back to my house, cause we didn’t work on weekends.
“My Smile is a Rifle” was recorded while we were writing the record.
“Head,” or “Beach Arab” was written when I was 16 years old, and it was originally written as a heavy metal song, but the version of it that I did on Niandra just went into a different direction. It was also recorded pretty early in the writing process of "Blood Sugar".
“Big Takeover” was also recorded during the writing.
“Curtains” was at the time my only song written on piano and it was recorded during the writing of it.
“Running Away Into You” was recorded after I had quit the band. I think it might be the only song that was recorded after I quit the band. I probably recorded it about a month after I quit.
“Mascara” was recorded while we were writing, and the day after writing that song I met Mascara Snake from Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, and I think that’s why I called it “Mascara.” I felt that there was some kind of connection between the experience of meeting him and the lyrics to the song.
“Been Insane” was recorded during the writing of it.
“Skin Blues” was also recorded during the writing of it.
“Your Pussy is Glued to a Building on Fire” was written at the house where we recorded BSSM, and recorded on a weekend when I went back to my house.
“Blood on My Neck From Success” was written just before I quit the band, and the lyrics were sort of an assault on our manager, Lindy Goets. He’s a really nice guy, I don’t mean anything bad to him, but at the time I felt like I was being pushed around and told what to do, and that my relationship with my art was suffering from this drive to be successful by everybody else.
“Ten to Butter Blood Voodoo” was recorded during the writing of it, and I seem to remember being pretty happy at that time, I remember being on heroin when I played the guitar parts.
Usually Just a T-Shirt was recorded in the order that the songs appear on the record, so the earliest things on it were recorded during the recording process of "Blood Sugar", and the last things were recorded just before I quit the band. I think it’s interesting that you can hear the decline that was going on inside of me. I think that those last 2 songs on it are the best songs on the record. But at the same time it's very sad, because when I hear it, that sounds like a person falling apart, or it sounds like somebody about to kill themselves. Those songs are sad for the same reason that they’re good, so I’m proud that I went through it, and I'm proud that those songs are what they are. I would say that the last song, I thought of it as of the direction that my music could go outside of the band, if I hadn’t stopped playing music at that point, and if a close friend of mine who played upright bass hadn’t died...
All the songs on Niandra LaDes were recorded in my living room at 8505 Hollywood Blvd. at Hollywood Blvd. and Kings Road, in the Hills.
