Does anyone really like the Red Hot Chili Peppers?

I cringe when I hear Kiedis's voice on the radio these days.

And every time I'm in a guitar store, some 15 year old is playing "Under the Bridge"

Ewww. That is unfortunate.

why? well in my past i'd say i'd hate bands cos of their image and possible pretentiousness, laziness, delusion of how relevant they are, egos etc. but i cant think of a particular band now that have a strong dynamic and lots of energy (both on stage and on record) and have been known to write fine tunes over the years that i could actually HATE...i'm not really interested in the CHili Peppers anymore but ten years ago i liked them just as much as i liked Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Faith No More etc. which makes me sound like a casual/token rock fan which i probably was but still

i just wonder what really makes you HATE a band like them, i've said i hate Coldplay before but i dont really, just hate the hype around them cos i feel they're mediocre at best but whatever...

either way the Chilis are definitely past their best and should stop i guess

i dont think the thrust of the songs are the vocals tho, thought that was flea and navarro's wanky riffs

"tattoos and fucking extreme sports and obviously dancing around in underwear" - this America most definitely does exist (turn on ESPN2 next time you're stateside).

_By The Way_ is damn good, by the way. (Oh, ha.)

* this may not be true

Mr. Blount clearly hasn't had the pleasure of listening to Phish.

and if you dont think stuff like that is important then you can fuck right off

RHCP write good singles though, "Road Trippin'" especially.

Bonus: Movie climaxes with Elliot deliberately crashing a jet, just barely missing the Twin Towers.

A lot of people, seemingly. Not me, mind. Flea maybe a technically great musician, but his plinking-plonking-twanging bass sound is one of my least favourite sounds, not even just in the musical field. It's worse than the sound of belching. Ugh. "Californication" was in my top 5 least favourite albums of all time, it's an absolute dog of an album.

maybe, but i would argue that the self-indulgent/dull/irritating moments in JA are at least as bad as anything RHCP did. i think the fact that JA broke up before most of their fans outgrew their stuff is their critical shining armor.

the 1988 Sam Elliot/Paul Weller film

I would pay money to see Sam Elliot kill Paul Weller on film. Or at least abuse him.

As for the question at hand...I'll grant 'em "Give It Away" and Frusciante really is a fantastic musician on his own. But that's it.

“Hey, why didn’t we think of that?”

Copies were at Terrastock.

it pained me to say that.

frusciante's cuteness is another matter entirely.

EVERYONE DOES. (except for me & maybe chaki)

Honestly, I loved their first 3 albums, was kinda "meh" about most of Mother's Milk (even though "Magic Johnson" & "Knock Me Down" are grebt songs, and "Pretty Little Ditty" was a thing of beauty until Crazytown raped it raw), ABSOLUTELY LOVED AND STILL DO Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and everything since then has been touched with rare moments of greatness ("Kill Your Television" fr'instance), but mostly frustrating in-that they've got great melodic/harmonic ideas (thank you John Frusciate!), but a lead singer with a rather limited range and a voice that can be k-annoying. This is a band I once loved, now a band I k-like that has some songs I love that my own band is (painfully often) compared to.

Well, I'm sold!

By The Way
Universally Speaking
This Is The Place
Dosed
The Zephyr Song
Can't Stop
Cabron
On Mercury
Minor Thing
Venice Queen

See, the problem is how we're defining 'pleasant.' ;-)

MAYBE? man i never miss a show. wait till you hear what Angelo Moore/Chaki are workin on in the studio together!

Unyielding Conditioning
Lemon Merangue
Rock Star
When Problems Arise
Housework

I'm wondering how Gill's production technique has changed over the years. There's a sort've crackly, blistering quality to the sound on this album, but the players seem very sonicly tucked behind the vocals, which -- unfortunately -- highlights Anthony Kiedis' limitations as a singer (not Andy Gill's fault). At the very least -- it's got a cleaner sound, quite unlike, say, the last Killing Joke album, Democracy, so here's hoping Gill's input solves that dilemna.

AL B SURE TO THREAD

Jesus Christ, this is one of the harshest damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't set-ups I've ever heard of

this is the single most triumphantly cynical act I have ever heard recounted and my hat is off to Brooke

a. Outdoor amphitheater shows suck when there's a cold, driving rain involved.

b. John Fruciante is a much more interesting dude than I ever, ever, EVER gave him credit for. I never heard his avant-gardeish solo albums, I certainly respect his exceptionally fluid guitar playing (I have never believed, for example, he was faking the funk) and God knows he's one hell of a cautionary tale about what drugs can do to your looks and body. So he was fun to watch play (and I had completely forgotten what an astonishing drummer Chad Smith is; it's that Kiedis dude I could never stand....)

So it's the middle of the set and Fruciante has been singing random bits of songs between actual songs. "I Feel Love" was one, there were a few more. At one point, he starts playing this flickering guitar figure and I'm standing there, freezing cold, soaking wet, thinking, "jeez, that sounds familiar...."

And Fruciante sings the first couple of lines of Fugazi's "Latest Disgrace." (Not "Waiting Room," which I know they used to cover, not "Repeater," not another famous Fugazi one. "Latest Disgrace," from "Red Medicine.") Just the first few lines, then he stops just as abruptly as he started, then they go into one of their own tunes.

My jaw has an appointment to meet up with the rest of my face sometime next week.

It is THE teenage prankster's funk record, HANDS DOWN. It is very punky in its attudinal approach. It is naively retarded, and therefore all that rock and roll should aspire to be. It was my first rock album and the first record I bought with my own money, so I'm obviously going to be attached to it, as it opened the floodgates for all the music I listen to and what I've chosen to pursue in life. BUT I still listen to it regularly after all these years and it is the ONLY RHCP I still listen to, for that matter. CLASSIC. Bite me.

RHCP seriously don't deserve all this hatin'
Yes they do.

No further questions, m'lud.

(However, if Tom Waits ever joins a band and has a hit....)

Hooray for Google!

Maybe it's the insomnia talking, but something about it is clicking tonight. I wonder if Miccio still thinks there's a good 10-track album (out of 16) here. Anyway, it in no way resembles the RHCP of old, but it could be the best of the WB-era material.

also, It's So Lonely off of Mother's Milk brings back good memories of the late 80's, especially the video with alex winter in fetal position and wearing a hat.

really depends on my mood. I think its got a nice mood, good harmonies and if I'm feeling pleasant I can enjoy Kiedis' dippy new age sex king deal. That said, one of the few tracks that MAKES me enjoy the inanity is "The Zephyr Song."

I think I pretty well dug 'em through BSSM (dude, it's their Joshua Tree!!). After that, they just seemed to fade into MORscurity.

Now when I hear Kiedis' voice on the radio, it secretly whispers to me "don't you wonder what's on that other station...? don't you wonder what's on that other station...?"

http://217.204.10.75/img_bg/6603.jpg

"Sikamakaneko" and "Show Me Your Soul" are both outstanding. "Soul To Squeeze" may be third place.

And Frusciante's solo stuff is excellent. Fractured lo-fi songs that go everywhere melodically but always find their way home.

True story: While listening to that album, I accidentally kicked a hole in the wall.

A more than fair point. Now, since I hate Kiedis's voice, the rest follows.

Also, the thing about RHCP in the late '80s was they turned me on to about 500 other bands. There was a thing on MTV that I taped that Anthony and Flea were on and in the span of 5 minutes they mentioned the Meters, the JBs, Parliament, the Germs, X, Descendents, Adolescents, Big Boys, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Husker Du, Curtis Mayfield, Fela Kuti, etc etc etc. As a 14 year old with a burgeoning interest in funk and punk rock and whatever else, it had a huge impact on me.

Love Rollercoaster (by far and away their best because it was on Beavis and Butthead and it sounds nothing like the chilis)

Sir Psycho Sexy (if only for the extended outro and decent bassline, hate the rapping bit)

Songs that are okay by chili peppers:
Taste The Pain
Aeroplane
Tearjerker
Walkabout
Scar Tissue

Songs that I don't like by Chili Peppers:
most of the rest.

Their best era was between 1992 and 1994 when they stopped releasing stuff for a while. They should continue in that direction. One Hot Minute was their best album obv. I don't know why I never liked them very much. Half of it was the erect-nipple, soxoncockjock longhair and tattoos jerk-off homomachismo of it all. RHCP instantly make me think of baggy shorts and genital warts*.

The other half is it reminds me of jerks at school. The other other half is is one minute they're trying to be all whacky and spazzed out and trying to be Rick James for dunderhead whiteguys, and next they're trying to write all these stupid lamearsed ballads for your girlfriend to like. Their lyrics put me off the idea of sex at a young age - they made it sound gross, like someone throwing up all over themselves at a party.
Their recent stuff is horrible and every time it comes on the pub jukebox I wanna kill myself.

Check out the cover of their new album, really what the fuck man?

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drh200/h259/h25993jdswo.jpg

Dunno, why I don't like them. Really I don't hate them I just reckon they're very very overrated. People tell me I might like John Frustrating's solo work - anyone know if it any good or what?

*wasn't meant to rhyme but it did. if Anthony Kiddies and Feal are reading this thread and want to steal my rhymes then they can.

only rhcp song i will tolerate = 'scar tissue'.

except for that excruciating lyrics change from 'the city of Angels' to 'the city...of cities'

i might still like 'Breaking The Girl' but i can't offer any decent excuses for this.

that album cover and the new single and video are utterly awful.

keep their hedz ringing lex

-- miccio (anthonyisrigh...), June 29th, 2005.

otm, i'd love to see a reality show solely about cave watching tv and his reactions.

there may be a reason for that

what is the reason for that? Was it a collab?

I guess all their recent albums have had absoultely disgusting covers. This one takes the biscuit though. Looks like something I could knock up in powerpoint in about 15 minutes.

I read an interview where someone was making fun of Flea, saying that he wanted to keep living in Los Felix "because he thought it was more 'punk rock,'" but then Kiedis or someone convinced him to move to Malibu... ha ha.

xp

history lessons /
teachable moments throughout,
and ROCKIN SOLO

just for kicks, they should write a song about utah.

"mormon school girls rule"

Chili Peppers angry at album leak

Michael "Flea" Balzary (left) said the copy was a "pale imitation"
US rock band The Red Hot Chili Peppers have hit out at a music "pirate" who leaked their new album, Stadium Arcadium, onto the internet.

Bass player Michael "Flea" Balzary said the group would be heartbroken if fans downloaded it illegally before its official release.

Stadium Arcadium, the band's first studio album in four years, is due to go on sale next week.

A spokeswoman for the band said she did not know who leaked the album.

'Poor quality'

In a letter on the band's website, Flea wrote: "For people to just steal a poor sound quality version of it for free because some asshole stole it and put it on the internet is sad to me.

"I cannot put in words how much this record means to us, how sacred the sound of it is to us, and how many sleepless nights and hardworking days we all had thinking about how to make it be the best sounding thing we could.

"Now for someone to take it and put it out there with this poor sound quality it is a painful pill for us to swallow."

The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis and U2 are among the other stars who have fallen victim to internet leaks.

Falling CD sales have been blamed on piracy but an industry campaign to prosecute illegal uploaders has struggled to contain the problem.

In the US, people who copy music and films before their official release date face up to 11 years in prison under the 2005 Family Entertainment and Copyright Act.

is it really their first in four years?!! It feels like Californication only came out quite recently.

"Now for someone to take it and put it out there with this poor sound quality it is a painful pill for us to swallow."

Worst imitation of Lars Ulrich yet.

lol! They couldn't get their Megadrive to work...

ALSO THIS

Okay, so are you going to tell us who is your second favorite band from Cali?

what year did the first malkmus album come out - i remember enjoying that a lot more than californication at the time...

i think one hot minute is a good album though, always had a soft spot for it. it's kinda prog rock in many ways.

That's not all that strange. It's usually 3-4 years between their albums, ever since Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

Love him or hate him. You HAVE to love those pants.

Everything about Stadium reeks of a coddled, multiple-platinum-sellling band dictating terms to their record company, indulging in their guitarist's peccadillos.

"give it away" is still a good song.

I dunno, I kind of looked at that as the one scene in the video that's more earnest tribute than mocking exaggeration, given it's juxtaposed with the line "gone too fast" and a dramatic image of a candle's light going out and all that bullshit. I'd be kind of surprised if they intended the same 'hey dig this asshole' tone as for, say, the hair metal scene, but I could be wrong. The most offensive thing about the video, I think, is that current day RHCP is seen as some how the result of all those generations of rock music, or as if the 'real' Kiedis wearing a necktie with shorts is less ridiculous than any of the other fashion statements they sport in the video as caricatures.

Oh, I'm sure they didn't. Kiedis has spewed plenty of "Kurt was a beautiful creature, a genius of our era, I loved him with all of my soul blah blah moo moo" shit over the years. All of it was meant as tribute, I just thought it was just interesting because 1) Nirvana is without a doubt YOUNGER than RHCP - hair metal more questionable, 2) seeing Nirvana treated as a link on the chain, 3) a chain of beauty currently resting in the hands of RHCP, who combine all these eras into a brilliant blast of boomshackalacka.

NO MORE FM RADIO AIRPLAY FOR YOU THEN YOU TOOL

"...the Peppers' summer-fun pop is a guilty pleasure as mainstream radio fare goes, and far superior to, say, anything by Kelly Clarkson."

http://jimdero.com/News%202006/May7SpinControl.htm

I dunno. I liked it that they didn't do the "we're only here to hawk our new album" that everyone on SNL does.

After all these years, I still kinda like RHCP... One of my fave shows ever was back in '84 or '85 when they played UCI and Anthony didn't show up - so Hillel and Flea grabbed people out of the audience to sing.

Jackpot!!!!!! Somebody thought the same as I did

BSSM is the only album of theirs I've liked all the way through, and I've heard all of them but Mother's Milk and the debut.

Hell, I'm having a hard time with the title alone!

A couple of albums recorded in the depth of his heroin/cocaine/cheap motel/no teeth period - painful to listen to, not even amusing in a "Syd Barret/ evesdropping on someone's insanity" kind of way.

"To record only water for ten days" (Pretentious title, granted) is just guitar, vocals and cheap sounding keyboard/ drummachine and it is a totally and utterly classic record.

"Shadows collide with people" is hit and miss but generally hilarious fun, and gets extra points for a a couple of tracks which are basically just beatless electronic droning

Since then (2003) he has released, without exaggerating, about 10 albums and EPs, pretty much all of which is pish.

He's also always namechecking good music in interviews (Joy Division, Gang of Four etc). Seems like a nice fellow, if slightly deranged in a California post drug sort of a way.

Frusciante has also been working with The Mars Volta in the studio on their new album Amputechture. Band leaders Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala have been quoted saying that Frusciante will have a much larger role in The Mars Volta in the next CD. He also tracked all of the guitar work for the next record by The Mars Volta during the creative process, which allowed Omar to work more as a producer for the album.

Shadows Collide With People is still the most magnificent though, most likely.

Okay, I'll shut up now.

"Shadows.." and "TRWF10D" (as it is called above) still piss all over the other solo stuff, however.

Finally, I'm all for "brain melting insanity" as well, but "Niandra..." is more like a voyeuristic delve into one man's emotional collapse. And not in a good way.

I'm sure Anthony would be willing to "pretend" you're married - wink, wink!

reight?????

Millions would disagree with you.

1) FALL OUT BOY

This is true. By their example, good music shows up more readily for the contrast.

http://www.geocities.com/hamo_2000/jrm2.jpg

They've done alot for...your...asshole.

I still love RHCP, btw; "Dani California" might just be "Californication" crossed with "Scar Tissue" but it's still miles better than anything off of By The Way. Plus my band is convering "Under The Bridge".

Flea is a little legend, I'd say without a doubt the highlight of the band...

But they are just a little bit meh, I don't think they're anything special... I tend to end up saying I don't like 'em to make my point, but I'll try very hard not to, as I am known to choose to listen to 'em every now and again...

Oh and I've even seen 'em live (headlining the VFestival) and they really weren't that great, an off day perhaps? or just not my thing live... I enjoyed Queens of the Stone Age and The Hives FAR more :)

If you really want something to complain about why don't you try nagging about all that damn emo screamo or whatever you call it, you know like fall out boy, good charlotte or panic! at the disco. It's a whole bunch of boys who haven't hit puberty yet singing like they've got their balls in a vice grip. Did I mention they also can't play their instruments worth shit?

Even if you don't like Anthony's voice (I love it) you have to admit that the rest of the band is pretty impressive and if you disagree then you obviously have no appreciation for good music. I would go see the Chili Peppers just to see Flea himself because he's one of the best bass players out there. John Frusciante is also a breathtaking guitar player and Chad is a damn good drummer.

On the other hand if you just don't like their style of music then that's ok don't listen to it, it's that simple.

Oh don't worry, that happens too.

"Well, I don't dislike em, but they are HUGELY overrated..."

That is exactly how I feel about them. I saw them a couple weeks ago for the 3rd time in 15 years. In each case, they happened to be playing at a festival that I was at for other reasons. They fared much better this time around than the first time, when they had to follow Ministry, who were unbelievable, leaving the RHCP looking fairly impotent in comparison. The crowd however were going nuts for the duration of the show. 30 000 Japanese festival goers were seeing something that I wasn't. I mean, they weren't terrible, but...

...Having said that I really like Flea and Frusciante, and have a great deal of respect for their abilities. Also, Bloodsugargexmagic is still a good album.

http://cvr.pl/gry/pic/gex/gex-logo.jpg

"They're better than you'd think considering their drummer is Will Ferrell"

I couldn't stop thinking that last time I saw them. Ferrell is a lock to play Chad Smith if they ever make a RHCP biopic.

Drive By Truckers, if you're reading this, I LOVE YOU XOXOXOXO!! yr new cd rulz!! ;) Come back to Dekalb soon!!

I just got angry trying to explain to people why I hate hate hate and have always hated the chili peppers except for "one hot minute" just now. I actually ended up pounding my own head in frustration. just so you all know this.

that album sucks, you know

if anthony keidis wasn't in the band i might potentially have a positive take on them. but then perhaps not...

They are fucking shit. So terrible, I hate the way over in Ireland they're a symbol of a type of Americanism which probably doesn't even exist, tattoos and fucking extreme sports and obviously dancing around in underwear. Also for their fans saying Flea is the best bassist in the world, I DON'T CARE!
-- Ronan (Ronan), Friday, October 11, 2002 9:34 AM (4 years ago)
OTMFMxinfiniti

There are definitely people that have tattoos and play extreme sports in America. Whether or not those are the same people most likely to dance around in their underwear, I can't say firsthand. But they seem to be on TV.

I saw someone on tv once, i didn't like it much

They were fun and exciting before Hillel Slovak died. Now they're just boring. Frusciante's solo/other stuff is WAY more interesting.

I can't think of anyone I dislike more. Everything about them is just awful.

I like them. Or rather I used to like'em but now I can't be bothered one way or the other. They seem to be on cruise control, which isn't so bad because Frusciante still poops out lovely little tunes, but Kiedis should really attend a creative writing class. Lately he has been known to write some class a(ssholish) stinking lyrics.

I don't know anyone who "plays extreme sports".

Stadium Arcadium is the first since before SexMagik where I couldn't give shit one about any damn song on the album.

I like them. Or rather I used to like'em but now I can't be bothered one way or the other.

OTM. Whatever else happens, they released 4 albums I really love (the first 3 + BSSM); I won't fault them for that.

In their defense, they have pretty great taste. And those George Clinton produced albums are good.

I enjoy selected moments on the first few albums. I had been a staunch defender of Freaky Styley for many years, hyping it to anyone who would listen. I just re-purchased it a few months ago though, and found that I really only liked the first four songs and Thirty Dirty Birds/Yertle the Turtle.

The rest of it was an off-putting combination of aggro/sexed-up and weird-for-weirds sake. I could get the same effect by flipping back and forth between Nickelodeon and MTV Sports. No wonder I loved RHCP so much back in middle school.

I haven't checked out any of the other old albums, although I imagine I'd still find stuff like Knock Me Down and Taste the Pain to be agreeable.

"Yertle" though, for any non-believers, is deep in the pocket.

ffs guys, their last single was called 'hump de bump' and was possibly evem worse than that title sounds. music doesn't get any more wretched.

'HUMP DE BUMP', people. i want to PUKE.

"Freaky/Styley" is undeniable. Also "Get Up And Jump" and "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes".

i have a guilty pleasure for The Mars Volta, however, RHCP-involvement and all.

if anthony keidis wasn't in the band i might potentially have a positive take on them. but then perhaps not...

Funny you should mention that as one of my favorite concerts was when RHCP played UC Irvine in 1986 or so and Keidis didn't show up for the gig. They played anyway - grabbing people out of the audience to sing anything if they knew the lyrics. About half the songs that night were covers - the best being their version of the Circle Jerks' "Wild In The Streets."

Few words fucking rolling stones kick the crap of anything the peppers put on the table.

About half the songs that night were covers - the best being their version of the Circle Jerks' "Wild In The Streets."

Itself a cover, if I'm not mistaken.

Few words fucking rolling stones kick the crap of anything the peppers put on the table.

Settle down, Grandpa.

AVC: Did you see any Anthony Kiedis hairs in the shower drain or anything?
JM: No, there were a lot of System Of A Down stickers around the place, but that’s about it. No Chi-Peps stickers.

AVC: Did you just say “Chi-Peps”?
JM: Yeah, man. Jane’s, Chains, Peppers, and Rage, dog. Chi-Peps!

I post this here because, simply, their new album, I'm With You is not deserving of its own individual thread. Stupidly, i thought the long hiatus from their last appreciable album, (Blood Sugar Sex Magic), coupled with Fleas musical studies, would result in something more inspired. Of course, Mr. Balzary shines as always on bass and trumpet, and Chad makes some strong "up's" here, but is Frusciante even still in this band? Their stoccato'd hubris is sadly absent; instead, easy-breezy grooves. What the hell. Hell - it'll sell 8 million copies so what the hell do i know?

is Frusciante even still in this band?

No. He's not.

this is no surprise. they have been shit for years. roughly 28 years.

C'mon, The Abbey Road E.P. has a certain appeal, and BSSM rocks to the 'n'th. Save a couple tracks, this album stinks.

I saw someone on tv once, i didn't like it much

― Filey Camp, Saturday, July 14, 2007 3:25 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

^ underrated post

I couldn't stop thinking that last time I saw them. Ferrell is a lock to play Chad Smith if they ever make a RHCP biopic.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Thursday, August 10, 2006 12:21 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uBOtQOO70Y#t=92

god i hate chad smith

man, based on the above and the Superbowl performance, young master Klinghoffer seems to be trying much much too hard. so amused that he was in the band for 6 months and waltzed right into the RRHoF.

He has some kind of mandated role to perform as an ersatz Frusciante. It's really weird.

Like, I'm pretty sure that it's not a personal artistic choice.

you think AK and Flea say "look man, you gotta act like Frusciante." the kid is Frusciante's protege; he played with him on a number of JF's projects.

I think I'm the only person on ILM who thinks Californication is a decent album (though can't stand the title track).

ILM was just a different read in the days before you had to register to post. I don't think I ever read this one before and I had to track down Nick Cave's diss on the Chili Peppers and I got to say it is a pretty good and bitchy slur.

Nick Cave on Red Hot Chili Peppers
“I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the **** is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” (Reported in the Guardian)

I had some of their records on tape back in the 80s early 90s, but really hadn't heard anything after Blood Sugar Sex Magik except on the radio. Saw them live in Chicago around 1990 and thought they were really fun, they had ton of energy. Fruciante was a f-ing mess on Saturday Night live a few years later. I played the heck out of that Abbey Road EP tape delivering pizza's when I was like 18-19. In hind sight, I'd say their Meters cover was probably the first time I came across a song by them.

Shopping cart escalator!

I'll still rep for them through Mother's Milk. Blood Sugar Sex Magic is a mess, and you can really see the wheels coming off. But those records with Slovak and the first with Frusciante are all good to great.

I saw them a couple of times in that 89-90 era and they were great fun.

jeez, has anybody told Kiedis he can't sing yet?

Was never a big fan, but became quite (perhaps too) familiar with the first few albums through friends & parties. The self-titled debut and Freakey Styley were big hits on the campus & weed-sotted demenses of The Evergreen State College back in the day. Tracks that linger in my mind include "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes" (which I hated), "Yertle the Turtle" (which bugged me something fierce), "Why Don't You Love Me" & "Catholic School Girls Rule" (which I liked in spite of myself).

In the summer of '87, I stole a transparent green promo cassette of The Uplift Mofo Party Plan from a house party up in Seattle, a drunken decision I still regret. Consequently, I know it better than the previous two. It's not at all bad, with the best production and songwriting they'd had up to that point. Ironic, cuz the debut and Freakey were hyped almost as much for their scene-celeb producers (Andy Gill and George Clinton) as the band's music.

From there, I bought record club copies of Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik w/ my own hard earned, got good use out of both. Still no regrets LOVE "Give it Away" and the Stevie cover, enjoy a bunch of other tracks. Then again, I haven't felt the need to seek out and listen to either album in decades.

Finally, I completely stopped caring @ One Hot Minute. Was disinterested to begin with, then a girl I liked asked me over to her house to listen together. Hated it, which I tried to half admit without saying as much. Plus her roommates didn't like me. It didn't work out. Since then, nothing I've heard has inclined me to investigate further.

In summary, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are okay.

That's their main problem... the group was better when Kiedis was just rapping.

The Nick Cave quote is great, even though the RHCP have made 3 or 4 more great albums than Nick Cave has ever made.

(x-post)

Freakey Styley soooo much better than Uplift Mofo Party Plan, contendo! Once in 7th grade I defaced a pair of Levis in the manner that Hillel did in the Uplift Mofo party plan CD booklet, but I never had the gumption to wear them out of my room.

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u120/kingkonggodzilla/RedHotChiliPeppers-TheUpliftMofoPartyPlan-Booklet1-3_zps94e3a9d1.jpg

Also, my 7th grade self knew that the Peppers had struggled with heroin (R.I.P. Hillel), but really had not idea about what that meant or that they were doing so much cocaine as well. So when me and my middle school friends tried to emulate their manic energy and weird intensity, a common refrain from those around us was "are you on drugs?" which of course we weren't, we were just Uplift Mofos like the Chilis, man. Who were of course, completely on drugs.

Also, totally disagree that Blood Sugar Sex Magik is a mess. To my ears, that's the album that sounds most coherent and consistent.

Irrc Blood Sugar was pretty much the first album of the CD era that was unanimously branded "too long."

For me, BSSM was their "new jersey".

I tried to sell my cassettes of Freaky Styley and Uplift Mofo in the mid-90s for beer money and dude at the record store was like "no way, these guys are so over." It's weird to me that "Under the Bridge" was on BSSM; I remember hearing it way more in the late 90s after their, uh, comeback I guess, than I ever did when it was a hit. But I spent most of the early-mid-90s in a weird bubble, so...

When Faith No More started to get attention, many people declared the Chili Peppers over, because they thought FNM was doing what the Chili Peppers were doing, but better. I knew those people were wrong at the time and I'm glad they were proven wrong in a huge way.

Yeah because FNM were so much more than a shitty funk-rock group and made some excellent albums which is more than you can say for RHCP

Nothing against FNM, they had their own thing, but I saw the two bands back to back at the same show in the 1980s and there was no question who was the more exciting band.

Meh. I don't really see FNM and RHCP as being the same thing.

is this racist?

wait, are you saying that his horrible scatting is on some "ching chong bing bong" ish?

I mean, I'd never thought about it that way, but could be!

I've always heard it that way because of the theme of the song, the video, and the notes he is 'scatting'.

it's 100% irritating and obnoxious, but i don't know if it's strictly racist

He is 100% addicted to the shindig

100% awful lyricist

100% terrible band for at least for the past 20 years. probably longer.

Wiki for this band is kind of amazing in its self-serious minutiae

http://rhcp2014.com/

^^^Jon Daly's fake RHCP thing, texted it to a friend and he was like "Kiedis ONLY records dry vocals," all umbraged out – it was a good moment

I hate to mean to anyone but RHCP seem to be made of people who really want to be in a band, talent aside.

they had the best promo photos in the 80s, breath of freshness from the usual 'stand around' rock poses.

https://thegrayishcarpet.com/2016/04/20/blood-sugar-sex-dickheads/

Most of the women I know who worked in the music business in the late 80s and early 90s put up with sexual harrassment. We didn’t talk about it to our friends, for the most part, and not many of us took any action. We were ashamed or afraid or didn’t think we’d be believed. We thought we’d be blamed, or worse, we blamed ourselves. We didn’t want to be perceived as weak, and we thought that in order to succeed, we just had to put up with it. Sexual harrassment came along with working in the music industry — it was an everyday reality — and a lot of us didn’t even realize that anything was wrong. Most of the reasons we kept quiet may never stop being reasons — shame and fear aren’t going to go away — but at least we know now when we’re being harrassed.

I still love the first 3 RHCP albums and like BSSM.

It was unlikely I would purchase any other piece of music featuring these guys regardless of this story, which just gives me a moral reason to avoid them on top of my aesthetic reason.

Answering the original question, I suspect Flea is the only one who really, really likes the RHCP.

"Shopping cart, escalator!"

lovely url there

I think I'm the only person on ILM who thinks Californication is a decent album (though can't stand the title track).

nah, i do too, but I'm a massive frusciante stan so I'll endure a lot to hear his playing/compositions. "porcelain" and "this velvet glove" are gorgeous

i also love by the way where frusciante ramped up the beach boys and nearly broke up the band (flea iirc was really bummed out)

have to think that flea and Frusciante and possibly Kiedis are wounded by the infamous kave kwote (smith: "who's Nick cave?"). those guys want to be respected by punk rock royalty SO BAD. I also imagine Flea wearing down Radiohead's management: "I'm his biggest fan! you don't have to pay me! please hire me to play with him."

I don't think any reasonable person ever thought they were anything but dickheads. As far as dickhead bands go, I like Freaky Styly up to a point, but I bought it long ago and I'm not planning on spending any more money on RHCP. Someday Fishbone will get a similar article, at least if anyone was present at their shows during the 1980s, but it may or may not show up on ILM.

Idk they always just looked like happy go looky goofballs in all their press photos...

https://www.blueinc.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/carpool-xlarge_transNJjoeBT78QIaYdkJdEY4CnGTJFJS74MYhNY6w3GNbO8.jpg

🙅

Once you see it...

sigh

"Moist, pink men are quickly mobilized."

not that i was ever a big fan, but I saw them last night w/ a friend (it was her idea, I just wanted to hang out w/ a friend and hear some live music) and lord are they a boring live band.

the people on the floor were having a good time. up in the nosebleeds, half the audience was bored and on their phones.

their new stuff sounds so bland too (I like the new single tho)

They used to be great live. But the last time I saw them was in 1990.

I would have enjoyed them in that era.

the only songs from pre-Californication that they played last night were

Under the Bridge
Give It Away
Aeroplane
Pea (they went nuts for this shitty song - is this really a fan favorite?)
Higher Ground
Sir Psycho Sexy

and really I could live without ever hearing UtB, HG or GIA ever again

They probably went nuts over "Pea" because they never do anything from One Hot Minute (which has some great songs on it)

I was surprised too cos I thought they hated that album but that barely even counts as a song.

then again, better that than "My Friends"

(the only other one i know from that alb is "Warped" which is aight)

I told myself years ago that I was done with "guilty pleasures" - why feel bad about what you like? If anybody judges you as a person based on your musical taste, fuck 'em, right? But I still feel kinda guilty about liking the Chili Peppers, because I mean come on.

RE the gig you went to - I thought they had totally disowned One Hot Minute, which is not a bad album at all. "Aeroplane" is from that album, so I'm surprised to hear they played that. "Pea" is kind of a nothing song, the type of lyric I would have thrown away even if I'd written it in 10th grade. But with this band bad taste is of the essence, isn't it?

The worst time to hear the RHCP is right after a great Ariel Pink song

Pretty much every covers band I was in or was friends with in college played Aeroplane at some stage.

Bassist: I never get to pick songs
Rest of band: Ok, pick a song and we'll play it
Bassist: Aeroplane, bitches

According to one of my bassist friends the main bassline is ripped off note-for-note from a Graham Central Station song.

this is prob embarrassing but i’ve been listening to by the way a lot lately and what a weird power pop record masquerading as mainstream funk rock. “dosed” is so beautiful. wish i could hear a version of this record without kiedis but you take the good with the bad with these dudes

Yes, that is a good way to put it

was gonna post a picture of these dudes with socks on their dicks but...

like whoa

how many times did they perform naked with socks on their dicks?????

i still stan for that Zephyr song off that album, it’s the last lovely thing they did

That picture slightly upthread vaguely reminds of that photo of the French National Soccer Team on break. You know the one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i_22PrQsp8

w t f

love the concept of rarity on youtube

incredibly, it really goes downhill later on

The Flea memoir is pretty good, but the man remains a mystery. How could anyone with such great talent and taste, and cred for days, participate in music so consistently shitty and uninteresting?

A steady paycheck?

rhcp occur to me as one of the more tasteless evolutions of hardcore back when hardcore was splintering off into multiple things. while everyone was tastefully incorporating dub these guys were like “there is absolutely no reason why our punk band can’t be a funk and rap band, lets just do it and be legends” and the rest is history. but that’s also why flea has the cred and the taste

xpost Money for sure, but of course he doesn't need the money, and he has plenty of side projects. He even explicitly says in his book how he thinks popular equals boring, which says a lot about his own music.

when they started that kind of funk/punk/metal skatebro diaspora was pretty in vogue and they were not remotely the only ones working that vein.... they also got tons of critical acclaim

it's kind of Monday morning quarterbacking to say otherwise

Never understood why these guys are so bad and hated.

ums otm

I dunno, I think they got some shit, iirc, from those paying attention, like Xgau. And by Party on Your Pussy, people knew that shit was ugly.

didn’t mean to suggest they were the only ones doing it, and yes, somehow, people liked it (i like rhcp)

Anyway, my point was that reading the Flea book, it's amazing that, like em or not, the sum total of all the stuff bouncing around in the guy's brains is the Chili Peppers.

also if i were a bassist i’d stay in any band where i got to play with chad smith

Come on, that dude sucks.

Compared to, say, Fish.

chad smith is an outstanding drummer i’m not sure you can convince me otherwise

I mean, if you like him who am I to say? As an erstwhile drummer I always found him leaden and funkless.

Also, re money etc, clearly the guitarist understands that for all the fame and fortune, sometimes you just need a break from the rhcp.

I saw Chad Smith in Chickenfoot, and he was the weak link in a truly shit band

Chad Smith can be a good drummer in the right circumstances. This album is pretty great:

https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/the-process

Jon Batiste: piano, electric piano, hammond organ, electronic keyboards, harmonaboard, percussion
Chad Smith: drums, percussion
Bill Laswell: basses, guitar, electronics

Tunde Adebimpe: vocals (#2)
Killah Priest: vocals (#6)
Garrison Hawk: vocals (#6)
Toshinoro Kondo: trumpet (#4)
Peter Apfelbaum: flute & tenor saxophone (#6), soprano saxophone (#11)
Dominic James: guitar (#7, 10)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1t3okn8MLI

He's also on the Rick Rubin Dixie Chicks album, but is nothing special there.

does he need to be anything special on a dixie chicks record

what initially caught my ear in his playing were the tom rolls in “breaking the girl,” i have probably talked about this on ilx before

Never gets old
https://youtu.be/WAapJhYgQ8U

xpost I concede that's a rare show of relative creativity. Rubin probably had to teach him what to do with 6/8.

But listen to the groove of Fish on "Taste the Pain" and imagine what could have been.

lmao that national anthem video freakin rocks

RHCP would be fine without Keidis.

_if anthony keidis wasn't in the band i might potentially have a positive take on them. but then perhaps not..._


Funny you should mention that as one of my favorite concerts was when RHCP played UC Irvine in 1986 or so and Keidis didn't show up for the gig. They played anyway - grabbing people out of the audience to sing anything if they knew the lyrics. About half the songs that night were covers - the best being their version of the Circle Jerks' "Wild In The Streets."

Yeah, I recently revisited some of their “highlights,” and found much of it unlistenable, thanks primarily to Keidis. I also don’t really get the appeal of Frusciante as a guitarist, though he has some nice licks here & there.

Clearly they need that dude!

Frusciante is better on all his solo stuff. he's massively talented.

I mean, if you like him who am I to say? As an erstwhile drummer I always found him leaden and funkless.

Frusciante is better on all his solo stuff. he's massively talented.

Chad Smith is a great drummer. Not a Peppers fan but no idea what people are talking about when they slight any part of the instrumentalists imo

Chad Smith is the least-funky entity of any kind (sentient being, solid matter, gas) that has ever existed. Now, normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but it is when you’re in a band that purports to attempt “funk” to any degree.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, December 29, 2019 12:45 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

if y’all prefer to hear your own projections than what smith is actually playing then fine with me

Chad Smith is the least-funky entity of any kind (sentient being, solid matter, gas) that has ever existed. Now, normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but it is when you’re in a band that purports to attempt “funk” to any degree.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, December 29, 2019 12:45 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

haha, that's otm

i have been very mean to the RHCP in the past, and i'm sorry about that.

but to be just a little bit mean instead, it's like, in that grace notes video above, uh that's a really misleading description of what grace notes are, and not even a very good demonstration of how to do it and what it should sound like (even if you limit it to category of really heavy-handed grace notes!)

xp :P

Again, saw him in a different context, in Chickenfoot, and he brought less than nothing to that band. In fact, made them worse. They covered Zep's Rock and Roll, and his total lack of groove killed it dead. Maybe I am misremembering? I'm sure there are videos.

I always found him ham-fisted, obvious, clichéd, and unable/unwilling to take risks. He absolutely has a great deal of technical facility, no question. For whatever reason, he has yet to apply that facility in a way that engages with the material, that strengthens the arrangements, or that moves the music along in a non-forced manner.

I will say that he’s relatively tolerable on the Dixie Chicks record, but he’s also fighting an uphill battle against Rubin’s hideous production.

I hate Chad Smith's style.

he’s a very hard player cf. see him hitting the cymbals during the star spangled banner, but i don’t think there’s anything misleading about that video or what he’s playing

And sound.

His drums do sound terrible, regardless of talent. Could use a lighter touch for sure, especially since he's so not funky he shouldn't be calling attention to it (the drums equivalent of AKs not funky or soulful singing).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuibdktNlWQ

i think whiney may have posted this video to this very thread. regardless of his tone (which i think is fine) this is phenomenal imo

and funky as hell

It strikes me as the polar opposite of funky, the drumming equivalent of a used car salesperson trying to talk you into a shitty deal.

all of your criticisms of his playing are abstractions

He does hit hard.

I'd say it lacks the effortless nuance of good funk. It's too busy and too loud, like the drum equivalent of some kid playing "Euption" at Guitar Center. Like, breathe, Chad, breathe. We hear you!

all of your criticisms of his playing are abstractions

JiC otm

But in his defense, the music doesn't leave a lot of room for subtlety!

A great example of funky hard rock done right is Led Zeppelin, of course, one of Flea's heroes. I mean, listen to "The Ocean!" That groove, all that space, the simplicity of the drums. Heavy, but so light on its feet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POFSurBkSzM

i know chad smith can play like this, it's just that every part of it would be 1000x louder. maybe it's just that when i think of funk i think of a wider dynamic contrast.

but then again, smith isn't playing along to bill withers, he's playing along to RHCP, so of course it's louder. i get that. it's just different kinds of funk, i guess, and i guess i prefer the more subtle one

also a big difference: james gadson's snare sounds really good (to me). chad smith's snare sounds really bad (to me).

It doesn't necessarily matter how much 'funk' CS has in his playing style, although I think 'swing' would be a more appropriate adjective, he is definitely a solid and capable musician, Flea and guitarist du jour both use him as a big, busier Bonham-style downbeat to continually bounce off.

If everyone is trying to be funky *and* busy it just ends up like an overplayed, splattery mess like idk The Spin Doctors or something or indeed RHCP depending on your own view.

Think of Chris Frantz from around 1981 onwards, playing live in a very simple and straight four on the floor with a modicum of behind-the-beat swing, but surrounded by most of the rest of the band playing in a very funky manner.

although I think 'swing' would be a more appropriate adjective

yeah otm

Yeah, Bonham can swing, Chad cannot, but again, like I said, it's not necessarily his fault, because the band doesn't give him enough room to work with. I saw the Chili Peppers once, at Lollapalooza in 2006, and they were utterly exhausting.

I should say that I sometimes think that Will Calhoun plays too much and too hard, too, but Living Colour was generally trying to be a fusiony hard rock band first and foremost.

the only time i ever saw them was for vegas’ bicentennial, a free show where the lineup was adolescents/weezer/rhcp (you could see frusciante just offstage during the adolescents set having a real blast watching them). frusc played a few fugazi riffs between songs and sang “i feel love” as his solo showcase iirc. they were great, a thousand times better than weezer (low bar i know)

that was in 2005 iirc

weezer also have a great drummer but it is not enough to shake the rest of the band out of their catatonia

Flea thanks Ian MacKaye first in the back of his books and cites The Argument as one of his all time favorite records, and John did those albums with Joe Lally. Those guys are huge Fugazi fans, while Anthony and Chad are like the anti-Fugazi.

I like Weezer's drummer, but last time I saw them he was playing guitar, and Josh Freese was on drums.

I think my issue is that a lot of funk or even jazz-influenced alt rock/hard rock bands don’t traditionally “swing” but that doesn’t detract from their effectiveness imo; in each case the “rock” is still the overriding factor

i mean chad plays a bit of “latest disgrace” with flea and john on the live at sloane castle dvd, i’m sure he’s into fugazi

as is kiedis. like all of these dudes have the same taste as the minutemen, they know from punk in multiple eras and subgenres

I actually know nothing about Chad's background. But yeah, the other dude's have been around.

I was actually surprised Flea didn't mention the Minutemen once in any regard in his book.

his wiki page just gives a cliche list of classic rock bands as inspirations + parliament so i could be off here but idk there’s very little reason to believe he is like the anti-fugazi in this band

idk i feel like i’m making the same argument over and over but i feel like flea, despite being very cool and having good taste, probably still plays with this band bc he likes playing with them (+ reliable likely vast source of income). pretty much everything that’s good about the band can be located in the way they play together. (frusciante and slovak before him are a part of this, somehow, both klinghoffer and navarro threw off the balance by either having too much presence or not enough)

Josh in Chicago at 12:49 29 Dec 19

xpost I concede that's a rare show of relative creativity. Rubin probably had to teach him what to do with 6/8.

lol like Rick Rubin does shit except stroking his beard on a couch in lotus position

I do not like RHCP very much but they were part of a general movement of "shorts rock" and a lot of ppl that were pretty hip like Flea got involved, I just think it's weird to be mystified by it

I saw them in 86, 87, and 89 and at least in those two earlier shows - both of which got shut down before completion - they really were very good, exciting, and yes kind of subversive, though their songwriting hadn't really developed at that point. Nothing against Frusciante but I think Slovak was a more singular guitarist and better for them, commercial considerations aside.

xpost Again, prompted by me reading the Flea book, where he comes off extremely passionate about and interested in ... just about everything opposite what I think of when I think of the Chili Peppers. Art Blakey, X, Echo & the Bunnymen, Cameo, the Germs, Talking Heads, Dizzy Gillespie, Fela, Miles, League of Gentlemen ... I mean, I get why the band is popular: for many of the meathead reasons I (and you'd think Flea) wouldn't like 'em. But hey, Kiedis is his cosmic sex soul brother love traveler or whatever.

It was crazy how early all those future Peppers intersected. Grade school, really. Flea, Slovak, Jack Irons, Kiedis. I'll def. read the second volume when it comes out.

I saw them twice, in 1988 and 1989. The first show was great. Outdoors on the campus of Rutgers University, they were opening for Killing Joke, and I believe it was very early in Frusciante's tenure and D.H. Peligro was on drums. (Weirdly, it never shows up on even the most exhaustive lists of their touring history, but I was there, man!) The second time was the Frusciante-Smith lineup, at the Ritz on 54th Street in NYC, and there had already been a change in their audience; lots of dudes in the pit wearing white Duke University hats and randomly punching people. I soured on them after that.

And yeah, Flea is not who his music would indicate. I actually met him and Anthony at a Fela concert in L.A. in the summer of 1988.

Regardless of their attitude towards the Spicy Red Chili Peppers, who are generally regarded as a vile and tragic entity for many reasons (not the least of which their role as prominent contributors to the "shorts rock" genre, as mentioned), all music fans seem to tolerate, if not respect or even admire, this Flea guy. Why? Because it's understood that he's "pretty hip."

But I put it to you all: why is his hipness assumed indisputable? Because of his history of drug use? Because of his outspokenness for liberal causes? Because of his weird-looking face? Because of his stuffed animal pants? What notable alternative rock star among us who has played in bands either widely reviled, widely acclaimed, or anywhere in the middle can be said not to have done the drugs or bad-mouthed "the man" or is not sort of weird looking or has never worn outlandishly inappropriate garments in a desperate cry for attention? Not a single one of them, I say. Not William Corgan, not Jeff Ament of the Pearl Jam, not even Jason Ross of platinum-selling alternative rockers Seven Mary Three (occasionally abbreviated to 7 Mary 3 or 7M3).

So what makes this Flea character special?

I posit that the only true reason that gap toothed heroin enthusiast Michael Balzary remains a popular figure in the rock and roll world is because of this reason: the name "Flea" is cute and amusing, and people like cute and amusing names. It is truly that simple. Had he chosen to go by a traditional name such as Chad Smith, nobody would give a single heck about this man, and we would have been spared his volume of autofellacious drivel - a waste of paper that would be better spent chronicling the lives and times of more deserving rock icons such as Kevin Griffin, lead singer of Billboard Modern Rock chart-toppers Better Than Ezra.

Wow

who could dispute such a watertight argument

lol See also: The Edge.

(For the record, he's not a heroin guy. Everything else, though, gets a funky thumbs up!)

And yeah, Flea is not who his music would indicate. I actually met him and Anthony at a Fela concert in L.A. in the summer of 1988.

they tried to conceal this interest by re-titling Fela's Concert to Fela's Cock

I saw them in '91 (BloodSugarSexMagic tour), and they seemed to be phoning it in... maybe it was an off-night.

I like Flea - did it say in the book that he chose it as an anagram of “Fela”? - but that argument almost made me change my mind.

He more or less picked the name randomly when he auditioned for Fear.

When I last saw Pearl Jam, Jeff Ament was wearing a Cult "Love" shirt, which intrigued me. That's the most I've ever thought of him other than "that's the guy that plays bass in Pearl Jam."

I saw a guy in a running suit who I thought was Flea a few years back, but he was Flea so I couldn’t catch up with him to ask and be sure.

Who has saved more on shirts, Flea, Matt Pike or Iggy? Prolly Iggy.

Just based on length of career, Iggy for sure. You're talking 50 years of shirtlessness.

Do you think he wakes up, goes to the closet, and wonders: which shirt won't I wear today?

picturing him strolling through a walk-in closet with this very thought but yes

Now that they’re middle-aged, those guys wear argyle socks on their c0cks.

i thought people loved flea because they can't get enough slap bass

he’s one of the few guys who do it that I actually like

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an amazing band and every CD by them is great. I like how they're music has matured with them which seems to be the reason a lot of you don't like them here. They may not be as crazy as they used to be but you can't do the same stuff forever. The Chili Peppers are one of the only bands I know who can change with the times and still be successful and write good music.
If you really want something to complain about why don't you try nagging about all that damn emo screamo or whatever you call it, you know like fall out boy, good charlotte or panic! at the disco. It's a whole bunch of boys who haven't hit puberty yet singing like they've got their balls in a vice grip. Did I mention they also can't play their instruments worth shit?

Even if you don't like Anthony's voice (I love it) you have to admit that the rest of the band is pretty impressive and if you disagree then you obviously have no appreciation for good music. I would go see the Chili Peppers just to see Flea himself because he's one of the best bass players out there. John Frusciante is also a breathtaking guitar player and Chad is a damn good drummer.

On the other hand if you just don't like their style of music then that's ok don't listen to it, it's that simple.

― lizz (chikkabam), Thursday, August 3, 2006 3:40 AM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

You kids don't know the Spicy Red Chili Peppers? The breathtaking guitarsmanship of John Frusciante? The wild shirtless bass of Flea? The bong-rattling lyrics of Anthony Kiedis? The damn good drumwork of Chad Smith? Oh, man.

They and U2 could be the last bands standing where regular folk could name more than one (sock covered) member.

Limbomaniacs were better.

As maybe the only other poster who's actually heard the Limbomaniacs album...no, they were not.

:)

it took me a minute to recognize flea in queen & slim, maybe it’s bc he’s wearing a shirt

i thought people loved flea because they can't get enough slap bass

― 💠 (crüt), Sunday, December 29, 2019 7:48 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

he’s one of the few guys who do it that I actually like

― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, December 29, 2019 7:57 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

he also, deliberately i think, significantly dialed down the slapping in his parts around the time of one hot minute/californication

I seem to remember him talking around that time about Kim Gordon who was being quite scathing in the press about all that cock rock slap bass stuff and how he felt chastened by it.

As early as BSSM, apparently (#4 here): https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/red-hot-chili-peppers-blood-sugar-sex-magik-10-things-you-didnt-know-121474/amp/

imagine being chastened about slap bass, thinking about it critically, then continuing to slap so hard

He talks about getting introduced to it by hearing another high school band practicing and being impressed by how in your face it was. He says getting down the non stop 16th note downstroke parts of Fear as the real challenge. He also cites Les from the Bunnymen as a huge influence.

So weird, Les is an interesting bass player and the master of very simple, slightly off-kilter rhythmically repetitive bass riffs but there is *no* discernible influence on what Flea telegraphs to us in his style whatsoever, like nada.

Like if he wanted to namecheck some cool post-punk player I would have expected Tracey Wormworth or Sara Lee.

I didn’t know those River Phoenix / Sinéad O’Connor details.

Also:

“There are definitely ghosts in this house,” he told Interview magazine. “One of the rooms has a very spiritually sexual vibe, and I actually heard a woman being fucked in there one day. I hadn’t masturbated the whole time that we’d been here, because I was so concentrated on my music, but then I slept in that room and I couldn’t resist the temptation to masturbate.”

The Sinéad thing is interesting in light of those few lines of dialogue involving her in My Own Private Idaho

(Also, of course, Gus Van Sant directed the “Give It Away” video)

Turns out RHCP later wrote a tribute song to Phoenix, after his death (“Transcending")... I didn’t know that, either.

I mean...

damn emo screamo or whatever you call it, you know like fall out boy, good charlotte or panic! at the disco. It's a whole bunch of boys who haven't hit puberty yet singing like they've got their balls in a vice grip. Did I mention they also can't play their instruments worth shit?

xxxpost He does mention Sara Lee! Re Les, he acknowledges no one would guess, but claims it's there if you listen. Which is certainly one reason I've never noticed.

xpost - people always have the weird idea that inspiration from another musician means you sound like them in an obvious way

also I'd say the fact that he picked the Bunnymen dude is 100% sincere I didn't even know the dude's name and I post on ILM

xpost Gus didn't make the Give It Away video.

Huh, really? My memory fails me.

I think he did Under the Bridge, tho.

Wikipedia sez you’re right

xpost - people always have the weird idea that inspiration from another musician means you sound like them in an obvious way

Okay I see that, but In what other way might Les have influenced Flea?

Flea literally writes that he borrows from him all the time ...

Crazy, can't see it myself, but cool. Les is really quite underrated too.

I just like looking at photos of them from the early 90s and before, they look like a bunch of fun positive (shirtless) guys

i never got the appeal of them neither. even guns n' roses - a band i don't really care about - were more interesting.

they were my favorite band in the late 80s/early 90s. Rather too earnestly, I was concerned that not only mainstream rock & metal but also hardcore in the 1980s was severed from or did not honor black music. So alongside Bad Brains, Fishbone, 24/7 Spyz and Living Colour, RHCP did the trick. Carrying on the way they did live in those days = "rocking." I saw them like I think 8 to 10 times; the final was '91, when the opener was Pearl Jam, producing an instant profound revulsion in me that has never abated.

I thinks it is self evident that Smith didn't really fuck with P-Funk, JB et al, much less any post punk or hardcore, before he joined the band. He's a midwestern drum jock…Chickenfoot is clearly the kind of band that he would have wanted to be in when he was 14 or whatever…

Frusciante is back in the band, evidently.

producing an instant profound revulsion in me that has never abated.

for RHCP or Peal Jam(?)

The thing that makes Freaky Styley so great is that it is obviously a group of stoned white skaters doing their conception of a funk album; the fact that it actually ends up being a funk album is a bonus.

it's kind of like when the Cult put out its Electric album and everyone thought it was a goof, until they realized, no, they were serious about being so stupid.

The most incredible thing about the RHCP is how none of them have been subjected to #MeToo or the cancel culture despite Kiedis, Flea and Smith all having sexual battery charges and in general having a macho/sexist asshole rep towards audience members, music execs, etc

I'd like to think they did some "growth" after the Spring Break thing, which was like 25+ years ago and generally becoming old hippies

Well in that case carry on!

https://thegrayishcarpet.com/2016/04/20/blood-sugar-sex-dickheads/

After the meeting, I took two of the Chili Peppers to the storage room, where we kept the box sets and CDs, to get the standard sign-with-us swag. As we looked in a cabinet, they pressed up against me and told me about all of the ways we could make a super sexy sandwich.

At first I thought they were joking. When I realized they weren’t, I ran from the storage room to my office, where I closed my door, sat down at my desk, and cried. I was humiliated and weirdly ashamed, and embarrassed that I was humiliated and weirdly ashamed. I thought I was a badass. Being a victim didn’t fit my self-perception.

When the Chili Peppers’ then-manager knocked on my door a few minutes later, I stopped crying and let him in. He offered an apology that sounded memorized; it was one he’d obviously offered many times before. The A&R guy apologized after the Chili Peppers left, and I decided to get over it. I told myself that I knew what I was getting into when I started working in the music business. I was used to the shit that happened late at night, back in Boston, when I was wasted and hanging out at gigs and after show parties. I wasn’t cool with any of it, but I accepted it, and even though the incident with the Chili Peppers took place when I was an executive at a major label, sober and doing my job at 2:00 in the afternoon, I decided to accept that, too. It was just the way things were.

welp

Originally posted upthread

yeah i distinctly remember reading that :\

Kiedis's book also does not give the sense that they are some "more enlightened" with age

ftr I don't listen to them anymore

stories like the one posted are indeed pretty gross, but it also proposes a whole slew of others where someone got coeerced and didn't get out of it.

listening to record only water for ten days by john fruciante

this is a pretty odd record, lo-fi, shambling, downer junkie vibes

like uh...skip spence's oar for people who have been to at least one warped tour

i love that record, especially "moments have you"

like uh...skip spence's oar for people who have been to at least one warped tour

Warped Oar

m@tt it's worth getting into shadows collide with people (like a higher fi to record only water with even better songs imo) and the run of albums he recorded over 2004-2005 if you like that one

lol EZ

xpost cool yeah i'll check it out, tho i do dig the ragged, lo-fi vibe

well if you want way more ragged niandra lades is pretty great, kinda beefheartian for a home-recorded four-track thing

at one point i was enough of a frusciante superfan to find good things to say about smile from the streets you hold but from a more adult perspective i’d say no one should listen to it, when someone’s that gone on heroin it doesn’t feel like you’re really hearing expression anymore

I still like the two Ataxia albums, too.

Does anyone rep for his acid house records?

i can’t really get down with any of his records after he left rhcp for the second time

maybe one day

whats yr frusciante album ranking (including rhcp albums)

i would pay for this info

the empyrean
shadows collide with people
by the way
automatic writing
niandra lades
blood sugar sex magick
curtains
to record only water for ten days
the will to death
californication
dc ep
mother's milk
inside of emptiness
aw ii
a sphere in the heart of silence
stadium arcadium

trust me i am relistening to every record in that ranking to make sure it's right. top seven or so are a lock though

by the way top 3 *bicep emoji*

you know it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3bRH63Kxgw

my fav rhcp song, makes me really value everyone in the band lol. frusciante is still the star with those backing vocals and that guitar solo

“Dosed” might be my fav on the album

Btw this is random but Is it me or does the song “soul to squeeze” (the coneheads song) sound an awful lot like their version of “no woman no cry”

Frusciante is like the Alan Wilder of RHCP.

No thank you

I like him but 'To Record Water...' blows everything else he did out of the *err* water.

i know many people who think that and i can't argue with them, it's a great record that doesn't really sound like anything else

it's the one record where his Cure/New Order influences shine through.

you know what, i've never thought about it like that before

since i'm going through these in order

mother's milk: a fun and very transitional record, to the point where three different chili peppers lineups appear on the album (the "fire" cover dates back from when slovak and irons were in the band, and "taste the pain" features fish from fishbone instead of chad smith). you can already tell how frusciante is affecting the songwriting of the band on stuff like "nobody weird like me," "knock me down," and even uh "sexy mexican maid," there's a really atmospheric quality his playing that they didn't have before. (frusciante talks a lot about communing with a world of spirits when he plays and writes and i believe him, there's just this otherwordly soul animating it)

blood sugar sex magik: even though rhcp is considered bad and hated i kinda think this album is undeniable. none of songs are bad there are just too many of them, and if i'm in the mood for 1.1 hours of melodic funk rock i don't even really feel the length. "i could have lied" and "my lovely man" alone make them feel like a radically different band from the one that recorded mother's milk, one with patience, subtlety, and an inner world of psychedelia to explore

niandra lades and usually just a t-shirt: feel like i understand this record more the older i get, even though i LOVED beefheart when i first heard it and was thus sorta prepared for where it goes. almost hard to believe he recorded most of it at the same time as blood sugar. the niandra lades part is just a bunch of very catchy yet cracked songs, if it were possible to take away his (deliberately) contorted singing i think most people would recognize things like "curtains"/"mascara"/"your pussy's glued to a building on fire" as v well-written songs. the usually just a t-shirt half is totally bottomless

I like the Empyrian, or whatever it's called.

none of songs are bad there are just too many of them, and if i'm in the mood for 1.1 hours of melodic funk rock i don't even really feel the length.

When this first came out I owned it on cassette, and I think I played Side Two maybe twice. By the time I got to/through "Give It Away" I was done.

hell of a side one though tbh

i spend more time thinking about this band than I care to admit. for a band I dislike they take up a lot of my mental space.

still mad at "By the Way" for (inadvertently, I assume) nicking that chord sequence from dEUS

that is the extent of my RHCO engagement. I like a lot of the Frusciante solo stuff I've heard tho

*RHCP lol

Hmm, I don't think I've listened to BSSM in at least 25 years, so I don't recognize most of the song titles beyond the singles. Maybe I'll give it a shot and see what floats to the surface.

I tried it last week -- your metaphor is apt, IMO (:D)

I didn't make it that far, tbh. Maybe to the title track?

Oh, a couple of other (er) nuggets in the Flea book. He also big-ups Blockheads bassist Norman Joseph Watt-Roy (which makes perfect sense). And he reveals he started and then abandoned a solo album produced by Daniel Lanois (featuring Jewel on backing vocals, among I'm sure other guests). But he concedes he can't sing worth a shit.

californication: all of the problems i had with this record in 1999 still hold: it's one of the worst-sounding albums i've ever heard, can anyone confirm that this is when rick rubin started indifferently handing off his productions to be mixed/mastered by demons from hell; the more juvenile funk tracks mix poorly with the solemn serious pop they start producing here (despite the lyrics "purple stain" rules though); at 56 minutes it's one of the shorter rhcp records and yet i can hear a fuckin perfect 40 minute edit in my head that makes the slight bloat frustrating (cf. "emit remmus" is one of those rhcp album tracks that's fine when it's playing but still pretty pointless). and yet: "parallel universe," "scar tissue," "otherside," the title track, "easily," "porcelain," "this velvet glove," "savior," "right on time," "road trippin'" are all career-best songs, and one of the reasons they sell that solemnity so well is that kiedis finally learned how to fuckin sing and how to write lyrics that aren't about fuckin

to record only water for ten days: the entire reason i'm a john frusciante fan is because i thought this album title was so sick that i had to hear the record. in a lot of ways it's the more composed, "other side of the breakdown" version of niandra, it sounds like it's gradually putting itself together instead of falling apart. a beautiful, lonely album

it should probably be way higher in my ranking

His album titles are great

Lord help me, Brad, you have inspired me to deep dive every record from Californication onwards… I never listened to that one past the few listens necessary for reviewing, and goddamn did I hate what you accurately describe as those solemn singles… I was asked to write about them several times in the 00s, and it occurred to me those singles indicated they had assumed the mantle of Don and Glenn, songs about how LA fucks you up…

What is your view of Josh K? I was tickled that he was inducted into RRHoF before his first record with them came out…what do you think of One Hot Minute?

A while ago, some Chris M chart piece revealed that the band is the Modern rock airplay champ, Foo Fighters right behind. And it seems that in SoCal, bad and hated ain't happening, they are bulletproof, like at Springsteen in NJ levels…

Never forget

http://rhcp2014.com

“Shopping cart — escalator!”

very excited for you to hear by the way veronica

What is your view of Josh K? I was tickled that he was inducted into RRHoF before his first record with them came out…what do you think of One Hot Minute?

josh k: great guitarist, plays on some of my favorite records, never really established his own identity in the peppers. one hot minute: one hot mess (with some great songs on it)

the first time i ever saw two men kissing was the "warped" video

"never really established his own identity in the peppers"

they did the super bowl with Bruno M, and I thought it was quite unseemly how much he seemed to ape John F and Hillel, like "you fuckin' played with Pj Harvey, you don't have to pantomime those guys." Although perhaps he understands that a certain shamelessness is de rigeur…

I find all the musical omnivores of ILX really inspiring, but I've got to admit I'm particularly, truly impressed with Brad's familiarity with not just the Chili Peppers but with John F.'s prolific solo output, to the extent that he can actually rank them. No joke. That's like meeting someone who can recite Pi to the 100th place or something.

Meanwhile:

https://russell-collection.com/upcoming-exhibitions/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/chad-smith-art-exhibit-confirms-new-chili-peppers-record-john-frusciante-934615/

josh my pronouns are they/them (no need to apologize). and i fell in love with frusciante's solo work in high school (my library had both to record only water and shadows collide and i checked them out... several times) but this love was extended/deepened bc one of my best friends in college was also a huge frusciante fan

also i owned californication when i was 12, the chili peppers have always been a part of my musical life for better or worse lol

my favorite part of "by the way" the song is when it goes bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow

by the way: probably the only rhcp record that'll ever be completely driven by frusciante, which flea was apparently real upset about, even though iirc he contributed one of the sunniest pop songs on it ("universally speaking"). uncoincidentally it's their best, frusciante's wilsonian harmonies swelling into every chorus and making kiedis' voice sound like an oddly beautiful counterpoint. it's also the only rhcp record that gets better in the final stretch, from "cabron" to "venice queen" each song is really catchy and increasingly odd. the only thing i don't like about it is that kiedis' lyrics kinda curdled back into rhymey whymey nonsense all the time every time, it even affects the dark drug songs ("this is the place," where "can i smell your gasoline? / can i pet your wolverine?" sits right next to the devastating "on the day my best friend died i could not get my copper clean")

makes you long for the literary qualities of "scar tissue" and "otherside" tbh lol

Maybe I should try By The Way again, my recollection of trying to listen to it at the time was an overwhelming "this is no longer a band I like or want to listen to" reaction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeMXdaId60U

imo how you feel about this song will determine if you're going to get anything out of the album

I was really enjoying this until Kiedis started singing

lol

I bet that Chad Smith is one of those drummers who grew up playing pots and pans and trash can lids until he could get his own set, but when he got his own set he made sure they sounded like pots and pans and trash can lids.

(On an ad hominem level, he makes me think of Elliott Smith, who was born Steve Smith but reportedly thought it sounded like such a jock name he changed it to Elliott. Chad Smith seems like someone who was born Elliott Smith and changed it to Chad.)

oh my god the ataxia records are so good. like i already knew this but they are SO GOOD

“If they dig it (or) don’t dig it, that’s OK. I’m not going to get my feelings hurt if a Basquiat aficionado doesn’t like my work.”

From that Chad Smith art exhibit article linked up thread. I can totally see Chad Smith saying this.

“Dosed” is so good ... and better lyrics too

Never really was a RHCP fan, but this interview was really touching and interesting:

https://brokenrecordpodcast.com/episode-10-flea-acid-for-the-children

I didn't even know about those Ataxia records, giving them a listen now, yeah, those are amazing

Gave Dosed and Minor Thing a try but I’m with DJP: It’s all good except for Kiedis. I just can’t get into his lyrical and vocal style. I can stand one or two RHCP songs in a row but that’s it. And the older I get the harder it is for me to enjoy it.

I like the rest of the band though. Frusciante is like a wizard on the guitar. Even with the lo-fi production and not-so-good singing I’d rather listen to any Frusciante solo album over a RHCP full album.

I’m not that well versed on side projects of his. Does he have some album or songs with a vocalist other than Kiedis or himself?

Those two Ataxia albums have vocals by all three members (Frisciante/Lally/Klinghoffer)

I heard an RHCP cover of "I Want You Back" once and it sounded good until Kiedis came in so off key I was convinced he was in another location from the rest of the band

Listening to Dosed, I kinda feel the same ways as previous posters. It sounds good, until Kiedis steps in. His singing is not bad per se, but it just sounds so phoney and put on. I dunno, I suspect I would be OK with it if I had no idea who these guys were.

xp: looooooool this is so shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VJp0WXD-I

hahahahahahahahaha

I really do like a lot of RHCP stuff but they've never bettered the first three albums, largely because they didn't try to make Kiedis sing as much back then

I actively like keidis on “dosed”

A great melody and lyric can sell a goofball persona

He sounds a little like he's trying to imitate Balki's accent to me

I'm listening to the first album again and man this is just superlative and exactly what I want them to be

i think kiedis and frusciante sound beautiful in counterpoint but i'm not gonna argue with someone who knows from singing

It's all subjective

that said, do not want

He sounds a little like he's trying to imitate Balki's accent to me

― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Friday, January 10, 2020 9:27 AM bookmarkflaglink

Lol

So Frusciante is back in, huh? It's funny, I don't care about RHCP nor have I ever especially enjoyed his music, but I do find him to be a very interesting figure.

Other related trivia I just learned on wikipedia:
-That Klinghoffer guy who had been playing guitar in RHCP used to play drums in Warpaint, who have been a band for 15 years
-Dave Krusen (who played drums on Pearl Jam 'Ten', but has been kind of forgotten) is now the drummer for Candlebox

Xpost As a funk vocalist he had good staccato charisma. Making the dude actually sing was the end for me

Ok, did Calif yesterday, now onto By the Way…I guess it sounds OK, three songs in…

I have never heard this "universally Speaking" song, which was a single? The only songs I remember hearing from this in 2002 was the title cut and "Can't Stop" which I despise…I wonder if I'm going to have the stomach to go through all of Stadium…

I was a big Q reader from '89 to '03, and that mag rode hard for RHCP. For the feature pegged to this record, Frusciante was quoted something along the lines of "this album comes out at a time of high anxiety; nothing has been the same since those planes hit the Empire State Building."

apparently for this album, Frusciante was really into the Durrutti Column, but by the time of Stadium, he was all about EVH…does that sound right to you, Brad?

i don't know for sure but that sounds like him

“Venice Queen” is also an awesome song

I agree w brad’s criticism of keidis occasionally goofy word choice but I don’t actually have a problem w his persona or singing or any of the other stuff really

I like the orchestral accompaniment on "Midnight" (a first for the band, right?) and what sounds like a modular synth of some sort ping-ponging around in "Throw away TV"…

"That Klinghoffer guy who had been playing guitar in RHCP used to play drums in Warpaint," holy crap I didn't realize that.

I gotta hand it to you, brad: this thing does indeed pick up towards the end (this is the tale end of the often ill-advised Metallica/RHCP "we are going to cram 80 mins of music into this CD) , and makes something worthwhile out of the "we are going to sound solemn and chastened" thing that I disliked about them in 1999… "A Minor Thing" is really quite remarkable…I can't quite believe that I'm impressed with this record, yet this absolutely is because its JF's thing…

"this is the tale end of the often ill-advised Metallica/RHCP "we are going to cram 80 mins of music into this CD" era

I really like “soul to squeeze”. Might be my favorite song by them in retrospective and it’s sort of a template of the RHCP sound. Would be the song I recommend to hear to a newcomer. Also Kiedis is good in it, he’s oddly relaxed instead of annoyingly spastic.

It's a pretty good barometer for this band that the singer is relaxed instead of annoyingly spastic on the song where he says "Doo doo doo doo ding le zing a dong bone ba-di ba-da ba-zumba crunga cong gone bad".

hahaha yeah I guess he can't avoid it but still, he keeps it down to a bare minimum. That's why I think it's some sort of RHCP sound template, it has them both on ballad mode (that bass is the highlight) and doing that spastic thing but only for a brief moment, it ends before it gets too annoying.

If he'd take a sudafed now and then

RHCP are outsider music

i will begrudgingly admit to loving by the way across the board. it's very much a frusciante record. the overall tunefulness it possesses and the harmonics on some of the tracks (mostly thinking of 'tear' here) are really just beautiful. very consonant music. never did hear those extra tracks from the sessions, but would very much like to.

also this:

what sounds like a modular synth of some sort ping-ponging around in "Throw away TV"…
― veronica moser, Friday, January 10, 2020 12:40 PM

is actually a guitar pedal! it's called the seek wah and it's made by sonic mad scientist zachary vex! very cool stuff.

also, for anyone interested in a good, quick shot of super legit solo frusciante, check out the ian mackaye-produced (no, honestly) dc ep.

In the Red Hot Chili Peppers song Funky Monks, there's a line "Can I get a little lovin' from you?/Can I get a little bit of that done did do?" Later on the record, in the song Naked in the Rain, Kiedis sings "Doctor Dolittle, what's your secret?" But for the longest time I thought the lyric was "Done did do, baby what's your secret?" Like it was a callback to the earlier nonsense.

Having just heard Walk This Way on the radio, I maintain that Aerosmith sets the Chili Peppers template. Not just a song like Last Child, which is totally proto Chili Peppers, but in other regards, too. You've got a gibberish jive spouting lead singer, you've got a singer and guitarist who struggled with heroin, the bassist is probably the most talented member ... Against all odds you've also got popular peaks in the 90s. They should tour together.

Does anyone in RHCP have their own signature hot sauce though?

Probably.

Just put them on when you are cooking and everything will come out funky.

Chad Smith seems like the most likely to have a hot sauce because he played in Chickenfoot with Michael Anthony (who has a line of hot sauces) and Sammy Hagar (who has tequilas).

a band named the Red Hot Chili Peppers probably has a hot sauce

Their streaming stats are insane, they’re over the stones and Zep but below the Beatles

Sammy Hagar (who has tequilas)

...and is a full-blown restaurateur.

I Can't Chive 55

New Chi-Peps song sounds AN AWFUL LOT like the McDonald's Menu Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioojKFSH6hM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfH3yf-vf3A

which itself sounds like Life Is A Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) by Reunion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcRe6DO-sE8

Which influence is cooler?

This band really sucks, I hate hearing their music

looooooooooooooooooooool

omg

that is fucking HORRIBLE

excellent work peace, man

If you change the playback speed on the RHCP video to 1.25, it's almost a perfect match.

kill me now lord

Oof, that's what they came up with *after* John Frusciante came back?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5XxjAshUWE

It's also like, 4 different Ian Dury & The Blockheads tunes

at least Anthony's rapping again

kkvgz wrote this on thread Does anyone really like the Red Hot Chili Peppers? on board I Love Music on Jun 2, 2010

AVC: Did you see any Anthony Kiedis hairs in the shower drain or anything?
JM: No, there were a lot of System Of A Down stickers around the place, but that’s about it. No Chi-Peps stickers.

AVC: Did you just say “Chi-Peps”?
JM: Yeah, man. Jane’s, Chains, Peppers, and Rage, dog. Chi-Peps!

lol, I posted this w/o context 12 years ago, but that was James Murphy talking about recording in the Rick Rubin mansion.

How do you pronounce Chi-Peps?

like chai tea.

like Chia Pets

imo

Enough about their pubes!

Having just heard Walk This Way on the radio, I maintain that Aerosmith sets the Chili Peppers template. Not just a song like Last Child, which is totally proto Chili Peppers, but in other regards, too. You've got a gibberish jive spouting lead singer, you've got a singer and guitarist who struggled with heroin, the bassist is probably the most talented member ... Against all odds you've also got popular peaks in the 90s. They should tour together.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, January 20, 2020 1:36 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is a quality take, excepting that Aerosmith don't have a ton of songs explicitly about Massachusetts, with titles like "Assachewsetts", "Boobston"; or "Fenway or My Way".

I mean, Anthony Kiedis had to have bruised his forehead when he realized Tyler beat him to "I wanna get high on the crack of that ass".

Sounds like Barenaked Ladies with a sick rhythm section

like, under the weather.

RHCP & Kirk Douglas in Tough Guys (1986)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRsj3YjwGg0