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Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Red Hot Chili Peppers
File:Stadium Promo.jpg
Left to right: Michael Balzary (Flea), Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Chad Smith
Background information
OriginLos Angeles, California, USA
Years active1983-present
MembersAnthony Kiedis
Michael Balzary ("Flea")
Chad Smith
John Frusciante

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a California-based rock band formed by vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Michael Balzary (better known as Flea), late guitarist Hillel Slovak,Vocalist and drummer 'Cho' Laws, and drummer Jack Irons in 1983. The Chili Peppers were birthed from the Los Angeles alternative rock scene of the 1980s and early-1990s that also included bands like Jane's Addiction, Fishbone and Thelonious Monster. Throughout their twenty-three year career, the band have crafted a sound that added elements of funk, punk, psychedelia and pop to their songwriting.

Known for their previous drug use and numerous line up changes, the current line up (which has been in place for almost 9 years now) features Kiedis, Flea, guitarist John Frusciante, and drummer Chad Smith. Past members in addition to Slovak and Irons include Dix Denney, Jack Sherman, Cliff Martinez, Dwayne "Blackbird" McKnight, D.H. Peligro, Arik Marshall, Jesse Tobias, and Dave Navarro. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have nine studio albums (the ninth, long awaited double-album Stadium Arcadium, was released on May 9th 2006), nine #1 modern rock hits, and have sold nearly 50 million copies of their albums worldwide (37 million of them by Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Californication and By the Way).

Originally signed to a record deal by EMI in 1983, they switched to Warner Bros. Records in 1991, and they have been with them since. Past producers include Andy Gill who produced their self-titled debut album, George Clinton who produced Freaky Styley, and Michael Beinhorn who produced The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Mother's Milk. Their current producer is Rick Rubin, who produced Blood Sugar Sex Magik and every studio album thereafter.

Kiedis' father, actor Blackie Dammet was the head of the official RHCP fan club till October 2005. The fanclub is now run by Ultrastar.

Sound Philosophy

The roots of Flea's bass style lie in punk rock traditions and in funk and blues, borrowing mainly from the likes of Bootsy Collins of Parliament-Funkadelic and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. His bass is typically the lead instrument and sets the rhythm of the Peppers' songs. The groove heavy, low tuned melodies, composed through either normal fingerstyle or slapping has made for memorable bass riffs throughout the Peppers' musical catalogue. Flea's unique slap bass style was the driving force of earlier albums; however, the amount of slap bass on later albums (post Mother's Milk) is significantly reduced.

The guitar styles, differing amongst the four guitarists that have recorded albums with the Peppers – Frusciante, Slovak, Navarro, and Sherman – all share traits of Jimi Hendrix, a distorted, yet sharp sound with strong range. However, the similarities end there. Sherman's guitar was the driest and the most distorted of the four, but he was mainly trying to stay as close as possible to Hillel Slovak's original style - most of the songs he recorded with the band had been composed with Slovak; Slovak based his guitar solely in the heavier aspects of blues and funk; Frusciante brought along more melodies, texture, and depth; and Navarro arguably brought along a style based in heavy metal, progressive rock and psychedelia. Sherman also added guitar solos to much of the earlier work of the Chili Peppers.

Flea was taught bass by Joss Farrington and Hillel Slovak back in 1978 who introduced Flea to his signature bass the "Music Man Stingray" which he used until the album Californication.

During the early years, original member Jack Irons and replacement Cliff Martinez played drums, although Chad Smith has been with the band continuously since the late 80s. In his audition he played an energetic, chaotic jam, which is said to have taken Flea by surprise and had Chad yelling at him to keep up. Smith was later accredited as one of the premier rock drummers in the world after the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The band doubted Chad's dedication to funk music, and Anthony Kiedis told him he had to shave his head before he could join the band. Smith then turned up to rehearsals the next day with his hair still in a bandanna, but was allowed to stay because Anthony thought his obstinacy was impressive.

Kiedis is a diverse vocalist in rock with a wide range of vocal styles which give the band an identity and sense of familiarity. His nontraditional rapping (with the melody rather than the beat), spoken verse (characteristic of his vocals up to Blood Sugar Sex Magik), and singing (which has improved drastically since Freaky Styley) add another dimension to a Peppers song.

The band is unique by being the first rock band in the world to fuse punk and funk, or "White sound" with "Black sound", way before Aerosmith and Run DMC featured "Walk This Way", although there were already white hip-hop bands in the early 1980's, such as The Beastie Boys. In fact, "Walk this way" bears a strong resemblance to the RHCP's song "Fight Like a Brave" from their 1987 album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and might have been influence by the latter. Back in 1987 their sound was considered "unusual", hence the marketing problems regarding Freaky Styley. The band's most prominent contribution to the rock world would be crossing-over to both white and black audience and making rap music more attractive and plausible to white audience. Moreover, alongside with other bands of similar styles (Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine, Fishbone, Primus) they are also sometimes credited with influencing the nu metal genre that emerged in the late 1990s. Even though most fans don't know much about the formative years of the RHCPs in the '80s, it was the backbone of their more renowned work from the '90s and 2000s.

Political views in the music

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are concerned about social justice and environmental issues as reflected in many of their songs. The song "Johnny Kick a Hole in the Sky" from Mother's Milk is about the plight and affliction of the Native Americans and this particular song made the public see Kiedis as part-Native. The song "Green Heaven" from Red Hot Chili Peppers highlights police brutality and racism in America. "The Power of Equality" speaks out against racism, and the lyrics are a very similar style to the music of Public Enemy (who are mentioned in the song). "Californication" also speaks in opposition of globalization.

History

The 1980s

Fairfax High School alumni Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary (Flea), Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons, founded the Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally "Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem"), after what was supposed to be a one-time performance in 1983. The four gathered a sizable following for a band that had yet to release an album, mainly through their connections to the Los Angeles music community and their manic live performances, which occasionally included them playing with only socks covering their genitals. Later in that same year, they secured a record deal with EMI. However, Irons and Slovak were already committed to their original band, What Is This?, so for the recording sessions of the debut album, Jack Sherman was brought in on guitar with Cliff Martinez on drums. The result was the self-titled Red Hot Chili Peppers. Arguably poor production by Andy Gill (with whom they often argued), a failure to catch the aura of their live performances, and lack of band chemistry doomed it to commercial failure. The tour did not fare much better, as problems between Sherman and the other band members arose, resulting in his removal from the band. Slovak would then leave What Is This? and come back on board full time in the beginning of 1985. The first RHCP single from the first album would be "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes".

The line up of for their second album, Freaky Styley, was Kiedis, Flea, Slovak, and Martinez. Parliament-Funkadelic maestro George Clinton took over production duties. Described as straight-out funk played at a punked out speed, it featured a rendition of Sly & the Family Stone's "If You Want Me To Stay", and cult classics such as "Jungle Man" and "Catholic School Girls Rule", which would appear on college radio stations. The album did not attract the eye of the mainstream. The only recognizable hit would be "Hollywood (Africa)", which received reasonable airplay in Europe, but didn't make the same impact back in the US. Martinez would leave the band soon after the release of the album, leaving room for the return of original drummer Jack Irons in early 1986.

1987's The Uplift Mofo Party Plan would be the only album with the four original Fairfax High School friends performing. The album was fuelled by the most recognizable of their early anthems, Fight Like A Brave, the first and what would be the only single until the release of Behind The Sun in 1992. The album was their first to dent the Billboard Top 200. However, their success was partially stunted by the fact EMI did very little to market the album, due to the confusion of musical styles. Still, the album mixture of thrashed funk, psychedelia, and punk sent them to Europe for the very first time. Drug problems, which were prominent in the band throughout the decade, came to light when Slovak failed to stay clean during the Uplift Mofo tour, especially in 1987, which resulted in erratic behavior and botched performances. The band, at the advice of Fishbone's front man Angelo Moore, allegedly backed off on firing Slovak. When the band toured Europe in May 1988, Slovak was clean again and all the problems seemed far away, but shortly after the band returned to the United States, on June 27 1988, Slovak was found dead in his apartment after a heroin overdose. Irons quit soon after, not wanting to continue with the band after his friend's death.

Kiedis (who had just spent a stint in rehab) and Flea decided to continue the band after Slovaks's death, and after temporarily employing drummer D.H. Peligro and guitarist Dwayne "Blackbird" McKnight, settled on today's line-up of Chad Smith on drums and John Frusciante on guitar. The following effort, 1989's, Mother's Milk, was recorded and produced with an energetic mixture of funk, rap, metal and jazz. It included a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Fire", which was the last studio track recorded with Slovak. On the strength of the touchstone "Knock Me Down" (their first top 10 hit), the cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground", and other numbers including "Magic Johnson" (a tribute to their favorite basketball team - the Los Angeles Lakers) "Stone Cold Bush" and "Pretty Little Ditty" (which would be later sampled as "Butterfly" by Crazy Town), the Red Hot Chili Peppers finally entered the mainstream. They progressed to start a successful nine month world tour, which was just as eventful as their last and featured a comprehensive tour of Europe and the US.

Although Mother's Milk is considered to be a milestone in their career, the Red Hot Chili Peppers usually refrain from performing songs from this album anymore, due to John's dislike of the way he performed back then. Many avid fans would regret it, though, as Mother's Milk is perceived by many longtime RHCP fans to be one of their strongest albums.

The 1990s

The Peppers jumped to Warner Brothers Records and hired Rick Rubin (whom they have worked with ever since) to produce their fifth album 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik which featured the singles "Give It Away" (their first ever #1 hit), "Under the Bridge," "Breaking the Girl" and "Suck My Kiss". Alternative rock was getting massive mainstream airplay by 1991, and coupled with increased label support, the album sold seven million copies in the United States alone. Blood Sugar Sex Magik is often regarded as the finest album in the entire Peppers catalogue.

Unfortunately, this success was taking its toll on Frusciante, who was finding the band's superstar status hard to deal with and was experiencing severe existential problems. This lead to the degradation of his relationship with other band members until he finally decided to quit the band during the BSSM tour in May of 1992, sinking soon after into a drug addiction. After headlining Lollapalooza with replacement guitarist Arik Marshall and briefly working with Jesse Tobias, the Peppers found a more permanent replacement in former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro.

Their only album with Navarro, One Hot Minute, was released in the fall of 1995 to mixed reviews. Many music journalists criticized the lack of chemistry between Navarro and the rest of the line-up, especially compared to what they'd had with John Frusciante. The album featured the familiar styles of funk, metal, and jazz, but this time showed increased psychedelia and heavy metal influeces and featured some of the longest songs ever produced by the Peppers. Despite the criticism, the album was a success, selling four million copies (2 million of them in the United States alone) and reaching double-platinum status; "My Friends" became a #1 hit, and "Warped", "Aeroplane", "Coffee Shop" and "Shallow Be Thy Game" also appeared on the charts. However, the line-up wasn't to last, as the band's chemistry progressively deteriorated. Kiedis' and Navarro's drug use was taking its toll on the band. At the end of 1997, Navarro and Flea played on the Jane's Addiction reunion tour, but the Peppers were in a state of creative stand-by, and Navarro, who wished to focus on his own musical projects after four years of working with the Peppers, left the band in early 1998. One Hot Minute is now considered by the band members as an exception in their career, because it was not inspired from jam sessions like other Peppers albums. The band did not renounce the album, as is often erroneously stated, but after Navarro's departure the band ceased playing songs from OHM during their shows (except for occasional performances of "Pea" by Flea), mainly because the songs didn't match John Frusciante's style and would not fit in their sets. Frusciante claims to have never heard the album.

Frusciante rejoined the band in 1998 after spending time in rehab and releasing two solo albums. The refreshed, refocused, and re-energized guitarist was on board for the Peppers 1999 release, Californication. The album produced three more number one hits--the Grammy-winning "Scar Tissue", "Otherside" and "Californication", and also made it onto the Singles charts with "Around the World", "Road Trippin'" (UK single), and "Parallel Universe", which broke the Top 40 despite not being released as a single. Compared to the previous Peppers' albums, Californication contains few rap-driven songs. The band went on a tour which lasted nearly two years and featured some of their largest shows, including a Moscow performance in front of 200,000 people. In 2001, they released their first concert DVD, Off The Map.

The 2000s

After returning to the studio in November 2001, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released By the Way, which received generally positive yet somewhat mixed reactions. The moody and mellow album produced two more #1 singles: "By the Way" and "Can't Stop". The Peppers then went on another two year tour, in the meantime releasing their second concert DVD, Live at Slane Castle in 2003 and recording new songs for their Greatest Hits album later that year.

In 2004, the Peppers released their first ever live album, Live in Hyde Park, recorded during their 2004 performances at Hyde Park, London. The concerts set a new world record as the highest grossing concert event at a single venue in music history, bringing in an astonishing $17 million. The three shows (June 19, 20 and 25) sold out within hours of going on sale, had a paying audience of 258,000 punters, bringing in $17,187,234 (approximately £9,115,282) setting a new world record. The Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN had previously held the record, with a gross of approximately $14.5 million.

On October 6, 2004, lead singer Anthony Kiedis released his autobiography entitled Scar Tissue (Hyperion Publishing). The book includes details of his friends, loves, struggles with drug addiction, and music. It also contains lyrics from certain songs, along with the story behind each.

In 2005 they completed their ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium. Although 38 songs were created and originally intended to be released as 3 mini-albums spaced six months apart, it was released in 2006 as a 28-track double album. The first disc in the set is titled "Jupiter", while the second is called "Mars", and both contain 14 songs.

File:RHCP-StadiumArcadiumPromotional.JPG
Left to right: Chad Smith, Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary (Flea), and John Frusciante in a Stadium Arcadium promotional picture.

In Film

The group has been featured on many movies soundtracks, most notably "Show Me Your Soul" from the Pretty Woman soundtrack; "Soul to Squeeze" from the Coneheads, "Love Rollercoaster", a cover of The Ohio Players hit song from Beavis and Butthead Do America, and "Sikamikanico" from Wayne's World.

It has been revealed that Dani California, from the album Stadium Arcadium, will be on the soundtrack for the live action Japanese film version of the manga Death Note.

The band appeared in a 80s movie, THRASHIN' about a skateboarder, and they also appeared playing a song called "Set It Straight" in the movie Tough Guys, featuring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Anthony Kiedis and Flea have both had several big screen appearances. Kiedis was featured as gangmember Tone in the 1991 film Point Break with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves. Flea has appeared in several films, including a role in parts two and three of the Back to the Future trilogy and a memorable turn as a nihilist in the 1997 film The Big Lebowski.

Flea and Anthony were also in the final minutes of the movie The Chase starring Charlie Sheen as rednecks in a pickup truck.

The entire band appeared briefly in The Simpsons episode in which Bart and Lisa helped Krusty save his career by showing a Krusty Komeback Special featuring many celebrities including the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Jokes include a reference to "Chilly Willy", and Krusty even suggests changing lyrics (from "What I got, you gotta get and put it in you" to "What I'd like is I'd like to hug and kiss you")--much to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' pleasure.

Flea Made an appearence in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as the guy in the bathroom who was licking Johnny Depps hand.

Flea was also the voice of the character Donnie from an old nickelodeon show "The Wild Thornberrys"

Discography

Main article: Red Hot Chili Peppers discography

Studio Albums

Videography

See also

External links

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