Does anyone really like the Red Hot Chili Peppers?

Looks like the University of Northern Iowa(??) did an R.E.M. show (audio here)

I know most fans hate it but the R.E.M. song that could in some realistic universe have been a stadium jam is "Stand."

OutKast has more stadium jams than REM or the B-52s.

Honestly the best stadium jam out of Athens GA is probably Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend."

Hero Worship or Runnin' Around could be slipped in as jock jams.

Scar Tissue is a great song btw

One of my students wrote beautifully about Scar Tissue last semester. I was a little dubious at first when she chose that song bc I had preexisting bias but she convinced me it was deeper than I thought.

Idk why anyone is talking about REM jock jams but I’d vote for Stand!

Orange Crush > Stand

Turn You Inside Out could work, too. Or Finest Worksong, etc. Anything with big drums (which Stand lacks).

but what is the Pylon stadium jam?

For various reasons I have fallen into a hyperlocal music scene where 30-year-old people inexplicably love 30-year-old music.

Seriously RHCP is implicated in a seemingly inexhaustible well of 90s jams that the young adults apparently crave. Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows, Sugar Ray, Hootie, Killers, Smashmouth, Gin Blossoms, Foo Fighters.

I have sat in on drums with two bands that play this stuff and it is a complete mindboink.

It's like this - I load in, set up my kit, get a drink, look out at a normal bar crowd. Ho, hum, I've done this a thousand times and mostly get ignored. Then the band starts up with "Under the Bridge" or "All Star" and the place fucking EXPLODES. All of a sudden, five 20-something women in sparkly tank tops are going WOOOO and putting money in the tip jar and asking if we know any Coldplay and buying me drinks.

It's uncanny and I have no explanation for it. When this music was current I had no love for it (I'm an 80s creature) but I can play it all from memory without thinking. If I had known this was a thing, I wouldn't have bothered with half my repertoire.

Chili Peppers should do a "Shrek" song. Whether or not there's a new "Shrek" movie. Though for all I know, they're all "Shrek" songs. "Under the Bridge" is for sure about Shrek.

Sometimes I feel like I don't have an ogre

Sometimes I feel like my only friend / Is the donkey I live with / A wisecracking equine

Give it away give it away give it away now

Mike Myers walking like he talkin

Understand I don't wanna be a dorkwad

How come everybody wanna keep it like Lord Farquaad

Give it away give it away give it away now

I really like Flea’s playing on higher ground, it sounds like he’s climbing a stairmaster

"Under the Bridge" is for sure about Shrek"
you're right. under sheck's bridge you find shrek's mud pool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-H_nGieMMA

i had never seen this video before and omg i love it

That first five or six years they were really just a bunch of dudes rapping about being weirdos and friendship

Weird, I must have seen it because I had repeatedly checked out Positive Mental Octopus from my local video store. The only thing that seemed familiar was dayglo Anthony singing into the camera around 2:30

that song is so terrible. maybe even mtv realized how bad it was and didn't play it a lot. they used to play true men don't kill coyotes a lot on mtv. which is a better song. but still worse than any bow wow wow song ever recorded.

I've always wanted to dress up in costume as the radioactive chili pepper farmer from the True Men Don't Kill Coyotes music video, except that I can't think of an occasion to wear it that wouldn't require tedious amounts of explaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC3j1pNXhSU

I like all the RHCP stuff through Mother’s Milk, especially Uplift. Fight Like a Brave has never been one of my favorites of that era though but I’d never seen the video, thanks for posting, was a fun time.

I have often wondered if their penchant for wacky costumes and antics and the low production value of their early music videos created a significant Nickelodeon-to-RHCP pipeline.

The Fight Like A Brave video is so much worse than I remember and I remember it being terrible

I never realized it until now but it really feels like a west coast response to Licensed To Ill. Goofy antics, costumes, call-and-response rapping, big drums, shreddy guitar solos...

lol Fight like A Brave video is weirdo goofball “Beat It” and if you are not on board with that vibe then idk how to help you <3

also i like this song? it’s dumb & fun

I definitely now in my old age prefer their pre-BloodSugarSexMagik output

i still love a lot of songs from BSSM & Californication & later albums too, but i primarily now enjoy the dumb weirdo vibes of their 80’s stuff so much more

I definitely now in my old age prefer their pre-BloodSugarSexMagik output

I was a big fan of their first five albums. Saw them live several times shortly before and immediately after Mother's Milk. Literally stopped listening after "Give It Away"; never even made it to side 2 of my BloodSugarSexMagik cassette, and never listened to any album after that.

What was Hillel like as a performer?

Never saw them with Hillel; all the shows I saw (April 1989, New Brunswick, NJ; July 1989, L.A.; and October 1989, NYC) were with baby John.

https://www.rhcplivearchive.com/show/apr-1989-new-brunswick-nj-2070

https://www.rhcplivearchive.com/show/jul-11-1989-los-angeles-ca-1170

https://www.rhcplivearchive.com/show/oct-27-1989-new-york-city-ny-1218

FTR, the July show is listed to history as a "Benefit for Father's Rights" but the sign outside the club that night read "Benefit to Pay Norwood's Alimony."

literally a boys' club
lol

Norwood Fisher from Fishbone?

I saw them with Hillel twice - '86, '87. He was phenomenal. I remember he had a lot of guitar pedals and he was always locking into these funk riffs that would get hypnotic. Slight of build, but had a manic presence and chops that drew your attention.

I remember reading about the Father's Rights benefit in some magazine back then. Possibly Thrasher. May have been the first place I heard of the Chi Peps.

What was Hillel like as a performer?

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, May 29, 2024 3:13 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

He’ll play a little guitar, sing a few blues
He’s the kind-a-guy that you can’t refuse
Despite the fact that he’s no brute
He’s the skinny sweaty man in the green suit

Strike the magic groove make him jerk and move
Like an eight legged freak in snake skin boots
Coming soon to a theatre near you
It’s the skinny sweaty man in the green suit

i saw them doing a couple songs on some late night fundraiser for local TV in Los Angeles late 80's and when it was done the host had no idea what just happened. it was amazing to me as a kid.

then at some point years later KROQ would play them every hour and it wasn't so cool anymore

At this point, the original 10-song 1983 demo with Hillel and Jack might be the best Pep ever. Nine of the tracks were on Out in L.A. (now OOP), and kind of wish they would just drop a remastered version on a cassette

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqsni052XnfHTm_0m2E6ygSkvYxc4Fd6L

Actually I have no idea if it's actually out of print, but it's "not on streaming services" for whatever that's worth

Out In LA was a budget CD bin staple for years. I think it has been broken up and the tracks were added to expanded versions of the relevant albums.