Does anyone really like the Red Hot Chili Peppers?

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!