Does anyone really like the Red Hot Chili Peppers?

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (825 of them)
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, 11 October 2002 16:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

James Surowiecki (sic, probably) had a good thing in Slate a couple of weeks back about how he loves the new album and raving about John Frusciante (lot of technical musico speak too, to be expected from The New Yorkers' house economist I guess) and how he can only listen to the first ten to thirty seconds of each song because after that you have to listen to Anthony Kiedis sing. Dave Q's comment regarding Chili Peppers = Eagles seems especially deadon, they're everything that makes me suspect I'd hate L.A.

"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).

James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 11 October 2002 16:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

Flea is the best bassist in the world...

insectifly (insectifly), Friday, 11 October 2002 16:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

...is one of the funnier 'truths of the nineties'.

James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 11 October 2002 16:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

RHCP as banner boys for X-Treme America - oh, that's some funny stuff, especially since they're dropping ornate instrumentation & three-part harmonies all over their newest album. CS&N fandom is XTREME! (I think that lifestyle Ronan & James describe / dispute exists nowadays only in shitty Coors beer commercials - that is, the commercials w/out the Andrew WK songs.)

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

David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 11 October 2002 16:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

You know how in surfing movies there's the grizzled old (ie. 30) surfer who looks kinda like Gary Busey with a touch of Montgomery Clift that the surfer kids look to as the elder/shamen of their tribe*? That's the role the Chili Peppers (and perhaps the guys in the Mountain Dew commercials) play in X-Treme America. Three-part harmonies = emotional maturation = one day I'll be nicer to my girlfriend.

* this may not be true

James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 11 October 2002 16:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

Three-part harmonies = emotional maturation

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

David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 11 October 2002 16:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

BUT their cameo in The Simpsons is probably the best of any band

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

blueski, Friday, 11 October 2002 17:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

"everyone can enjoy that"

dleone (dleone), Friday, 11 October 2002 18:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"what I'd like is I'd like to hug and kiss you"

dleone (dleone), Friday, 11 October 2002 18:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

flea is great in back to the future two and the big lebowski!!

s trife (simon_tr), Friday, 11 October 2002 18:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

No singer has benefited more from auto-tune technology than Mr. Keidis.

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

Yancey (ystrickler), Friday, 11 October 2002 18:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

Best Flea moive = Dudes. Best Anthony Movie = Point Break.

bnw (bnw), Friday, 11 October 2002 18:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

Trivia time: RHCP's cover of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is playing on the boombox near the begining of the 1988 Sam Elliot/Paul Weller film Shakedown. A white guy approaches Richard Brooks (later of Law and Order) and complains, "I hate rap!"

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

Pete Scholtes, Friday, 11 October 2002 20:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Does anyone really like the Red Hot Chili Peppers?"

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.

weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wrong. Best Flea movie = Penelope Spheeris' "Suburbia."

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

'bloodsugarsexmagik' actually meant something to me at the time, even if it is just a watered-down version of a lot of other things done better by other people. "Give It Away" is a good single. also the dirty bits in the other songs were much-valued contraband to a twelve-year-old. and they do have their moments in their post-MothMilk stuff - "Soul To Squeeze" is their best non-album track, and "Warped" and "Scar Tissue" are also worth it. i would buy a singles comp from their later years, but that's all.

Dave M. (rotten03), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

how can you like Jane's Addiction and not like RHCP even a little bit?

Dave M. (rotten03), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Avoiding your point, but: I hate Jane's Addiction completely and like RHCP a little bit.

Yancey (ystrickler), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

I like "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes" but that's about it. Jane's Addiction (their direct L.A. peers) were light years better. Although the Chili Peppers are far better (i.e. less irritating) than any of the nu-metal stuff

Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 11 October 2002 20:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

Fishbone stalled but I would mention them, too. And everybody knows about the Minutemen, RHCP models. "Under the Bridge" is Flea's Watt immitation set to Journey.

Pete Scholtes, Friday, 11 October 2002 23:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

Every once in a while they do something that doesn't make me want to immediately vomit, and that one video - think the song's called 'Otherside' is really a great video. My primary problem with them is that they seem like such half-baked assholes. Which is, you know, FINE. If only if their collective personalities were easily separable from the music. Instead, virtually everything they do reeks of it.

Kim (Kim), Saturday, 12 October 2002 00:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Jane's Addiction (their direct L.A. peers) were light years better

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.

Dave M. (rotten03), Saturday, 12 October 2002 00:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

I really don;t like when the RHCP try to be serious. Some of their funk-ish tracks are better.

Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Saturday, 12 October 2002 00:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

The solo in "Scar Tissue" reminds me of the solo in "Torn".

James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 12 October 2002 05:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

They're the new generation's Rolling Stones...i.e. decrepit, washed-up, greedy, ruthless, millionaire drug addicts still hawking themselves as beacons of youth rebellion. Though at least Mick didn't need to have his vocals recorded one word at a time and painstakingly pieced together in the studio over months as Anthony does.

G. Turkington, Wednesday, 16 October 2002 22:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

If that really is Mr. Turkington, welcome. Neil Hamburger's entries in the premiere issue of Arthur make me smile.

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.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 23:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

“Yeah, That’s much better”

“Hey, why didn’t we think of that?”

Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 17 October 2002 03:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ned -- is Arthur on the newstand?

Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 17 October 2002 03:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

I forgot about Fishbone.

Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 17 October 2002 03:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ned -- is Arthur on the newstand?

Copies were at Terrastock.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 October 2002 03:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

Their cover of Love Rollercoaster is about the worst thing anyone ever did. ssssSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!

dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 17 October 2002 11:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

i always kinda hated them. i mean, *funk metal*, come on. but every song i've heard by them over the last couple of years (their mature period i suppose) has been pretty good in a kind of world weary cali-druggy sort of way.

it pained me to say that.

adam b (adam b), Thursday, 17 October 2002 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Thank you, Ned! I still haven't seen Arthur yet myself.

G. Turkington, Friday, 18 October 2002 23:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

five months pass...
u can all go **** urselves, rhcp rock. if u can't appreciate them for their musical ability then ur nuts. u need a serious head check!!

t, Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

oooh 'by the way' john frusciante is sooooooo cute! (that coming from a teenage girl)

t, Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

i don't appreciate bands solely on their "musical ability", t. i like to hear more than just technically great bass-work, especially when all it's doing is creating such ugly, ugly music.

frusciante's cuteness is another matter entirely.

weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

Chili peppers' career path is similar to Aerosmith's to an alarming degree.

dleone (dleone), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

I liked that last single.

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

I forgot about Fishbone.

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.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

And I want to mention that, although they're VERY challenging and rather harsh listens, Frusciante's solo albums are dirty gorgeous cracked-out raw soul.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

And Flea's not a great bassist 'cause of technical-shmecnical mumbo jumbo, he's a great bassist because his basslines are very clear and strong and catchy and just so damned funky. Young MC agrees.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

Young MC agrees.

Well, I'm sold!

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think "By the Way" was one of the great radio singles of last year -- even though I'm not otherwise invested in RHCP. In fact, a lot of their newer (Frusciante comeback) material strikes me as "modal" somehow. Or maybe I'm using that word wrong, but Radiohead uses a similar compositional technique. Does anyone know what I mean?

jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

That first Frusciante solo alb is nice and cracked-up.

g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Thursday, 10 April 2003 14:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

Catholic School Girls Rule.

christoff (christoff), Thursday, 10 April 2003 19:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

Everyone should remember that every Red Hot Chili Peppers lyric may be replaced with "Red Hot! Red Hot Chili Peppers!" with no noticeable effect on quality.

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 10 April 2003 19:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

No noticable effect? The lyrics would make more sense I'd imagine.

Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 10 April 2003 23:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think my biggest problem with the RHCP is I'm just do damn bored with their "story." I mean, granted: it's a great saga of snatching victory back from the jaws of defeat.....sorta, but y'know, YAWN! Isn't everybody tired of hearing about their struggles and triumphs over heroin addiction? Isn't everyone tired of their soulful introspection? I know I fuckin' am.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 10 April 2003 23:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

"By The Way," the only RHCP album I know, is to Love what Interpol is to Echo & The Bunnymen. Right down to the flamenco track. Or maybe RHCP is now REM's "Radio Song" done RIGHT. I dunno. But within the bloated 16-song album is a great 10 song one. Here's how I cut it on my CD player. I don't get why pleasant songs by, to quote Christgau, new age sex maniacs bother people so much. I guess pleasant rap-rock is peanut butter on pizza for some. Keidis's goofiness, for me, is what makes listening to them unique experience and keeps it from getting too serious.

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

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 11 April 2003 20:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

barney rubble, what a little weiner

waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 02:56 (one year ago) link

Everything they've done since Blood Sugar has been garbage, Kiedis is just the easiest piece to make fun of in their slow jam/ballad era.

papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 03:04 (one year ago) link

good for Flea, tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip61tzxpSQQ

papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 03:05 (one year ago) link

inexplicable that these goofs are still huge while nobody under 30 has any idea who R.E.M. are.

I was at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta last month, with the Georgia Bulldogs from Athens one of the two teams. they played like three RHCP songs in the stadium that night and nothing by R.E.M. or the B-52's. a travesty.

charlie brown from outta town (GM), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 04:02 (one year ago) link

wait though, what would be the rem jam to play to a stadium of football fans?

Karl Malone, Wednesday, 8 February 2023 04:07 (one year ago) link

"It's the End of the World as We Know It," obviously. Maybe "What's the Frequency." I dunno, just saying it felt all kindsa messed up.

It was UGA vs. Ohio State, should've played nothing but Elephant 6 and Ron House.

charlie brown from outta town (GM), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 04:09 (one year ago) link

maybe The One I Love, too? stadium jams are such a strange genre

Karl Malone, Wednesday, 8 February 2023 04:12 (one year ago) link

Doo-doo dingle zing a dong bone
Ba-di ba-da ba-zumba crunga cong gone bad

Cinta Kaz is comin' to town (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 04:26 (one year ago) link

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

listened to "Mississippi" one take too long (morrisp), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 04:34 (one year ago) link

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."

Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 04:37 (one year ago) link

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."

Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 05:03 (one year ago) link

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

peace, man, Wednesday, 8 February 2023 10:50 (one year ago) link

Scar Tissue is a great song btw

castanuts (DJP), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 13:17 (one year ago) link

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.

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 13:21 (one year ago) link

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

Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 13:21 (one year ago) link

Orange Crush > Stand

calstars, Wednesday, 8 February 2023 13:40 (one year ago) link

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

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 8 February 2023 13:47 (one year ago) link

but what is the Pylon stadium jam?

Brad C., Wednesday, 8 February 2023 13:52 (one year ago) link

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.

Auf Der Martini (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 14:04 (one year ago) link

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.

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 8 February 2023 15:40 (one year ago) link

Sometimes I feel like I don't have an ogre

Auf Der Martini (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 15:49 (one year ago) link

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

Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 16:11 (one year ago) link

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

Auf Der Martini (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 16:19 (one year ago) link

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

not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Wednesday, 8 February 2023 16:20 (one year ago) link

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

CerebralCaustic, Wednesday, 8 February 2023 23:59 (one year ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.