Does anyone really like the Red Hot Chili Peppers?

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