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Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Red Hot Chili Peppers

Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1983.

Throughout their career, the band has successfully fused various elements of alternative rock, punk rap, funk, heavy metal and psychedelic rock. They have sold 60 million records worldwide, and also hold the record for most number one singles on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart with 10.

Band history

Early history

File:RHCP1986.jpg
A promotional flyer from 1986.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem) were formed after what was supposed to be a one time performance in 1983 by Fairfax High School alumni Michael "Flea" Balzary (bass), Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Jack Irons (drums) and Hillel Slovak (guitar). Later in that same year, after becoming a popular draw in the Los Angeles rock scene, they secured a record deal with EMI.

Irons and Slovak viewed the band as a side project, and left the Chili Peppers shortly before their self-titled debut to focus on their original band, What Is This?. Red Hot Chili Peppers, the band's 1984 debut album, was recorded with replacement members Jack Sherman on guitar and Cliff Martinez on drums. Produced by Gang of Four's Andy Gill, the album did not achieve commercial success. The ensuing tour did not fare much better, with internal fighting between Sherman, Kiedis, and Flea resulting in Sherman's departure, and Hillel Slovak returning.

Parliament-Funkadelic's George Clinton was hired to produce their second album, 1985's Freaky Styley. Cliff Martinez was fired from the band soon after the release of the album, allowing the return of original drummer Jack Irons in early 1986. During this time, drug problems started to become prevalent with the band. At one point Anthony Kiedis left the band due to his heroin addiction, only to rejoin after getting clean. Hillel was also using heroin but managed to keep himself together and stay in the band.

Their next album, which entered the Billboard Top 200, was 1988's The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. It was produced by Michael Beinhorn. This was the only album to feature the four original members.

During the supporting tour, the public became aware of Slovak's drug problems after his relapse, which resulted in erratic behavior and botched performances. The rest of the band was upset and annoyed by this, and were on the verge of firing Slovak, but backed out of doing such a thing on the advice of Fishbone lead singer Angelo Moore, who felt and warned the Chilis that firing Hillel would actually bring more bad than good for the benefit of the band. Shortly after the band returned from some performances in Europe on June 25, 1988, Slovak was found dead of a heroin overdose. Jack Irons left the band saying that he didn't want to be a part of something that involved his friends dying. He then went on to drum with Pearl Jam and Eleven.

Breakthrough success

File:RedHotChiliPeppersBloodSugarSexMagik.jpg
Blood Sugar Sex Magik, released in 1991.

The band temporarily employed Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro and former P-Funk guitarist DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, before replacing them with Chad Smith and John Frusciante to record their next album. Mother's Milk was released in August 1989, and gave the band their first top modern rock hits with their tribute ballad to Slovak, "Knock Me Down" [1], and their cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground". The album reached #52 on the American album charts, the best chart position the band had attained thus far.

In 1990, the group switched labels to Warner Brothers Records. Rick Rubin was hired to produce their fifth album Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which would go on to sell seven million copies in the United States alone. The album contained the singles "Give it Away" which won a Grammy award in 1992 for "Best Hard Rock Performance With Vocal", "Breaking the Girl", "Suck My Kiss", and "Under the Bridge", a poignant and popular ballad that helped widen the band's audience.[2] Blood Sugar Sex Magik was listed at number 310 on the Rolling Stone magazine list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and in 1992 it climbed all the way to # 3 on the U.S. album charts almost a year after its release.

Success and drug addiction were taking their toll on Frusciante, who abruptly quit the band during the BSSM tour in May of 1992.[3] After the band headlined Lollapalooza festival in 1992 with replacement guitarist Arik Marshall, and briefly with Jesse Tobias of the California based band Mother Tongue in 1993, former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro was brought in as a temporary member.

Dave Navarro first appeared with the band at Woodstock 1994, and a year later appeared on the album One Hot Minute. The album featured the familiar blend of funk, metal, and jazz, but this time showed increased hard rock and psychedelic influences. Although critically dismissed compared to their previous work, mostly due to the lack of Frusciante's more familiar style, the album was a commercial success, selling five million copies internationally and reaching double-platinum status in the United States. It remained on the chart for 55 weeks thereafter. [citation needed]

At the time of the album recording, Kiedis had gone back to using heroin, causing much tension within the band. Dave Navarro would be fired due to 'creative differences' in 1997. Navarro is currently working on a side-project with drummer Chad Smith. According to Kiedis' autobiography, after an incident involving a drugged out Navarro stumbling into practice and falling over backwards on his own amp, Navarro was kicked out of the Chili Peppers. Kiedis said that the above incident should have been comical, but was sad instead.

Californication, By the Way

Californication, released in June 1999.

In 1998, John Frusciante and Anthony Kiedis made amends after both completing drug rehab. The band reformed with their Mothers Milk line-up to release 1999's Californication. It became a massive success, outselling Blood Sugar Sex Magik and introducing them to a new generation of fans. It is the band's best selling album to date with 15 millions units sold.

The album peaked at #3 in USA and produced three more modern rock hits: the Grammy-winning "Scar Tissue", "Otherside" and "Californication". It also made it onto the modern rock charts with "Around the World", "Road Trippin'" (UK single), and "Parallel Universe", which broke the Top 40 modern rock charts despite not being released as a single. Compared to their previous albums, Californication contained few rap-driven songs. The band went on a nearly two-year tour and featured some of their largest shows, including a Moscow performance in front of 200,000 people and a performance at the controversial Woodstock 1999 festival. At Woodstock 99, the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed Fire by Jimi Hendrix as a tribute to the late rocker who performed at the original Woodstock. The choice of song also held a certain irony, since their set had been interrupted when one of the delay towers of the PA system started burning. In 2001, they released their first concert DVD, Off The Map, which was directed by longtime friend Dick Rude, who also directed the music videos for Catholic School Girls Rule and Universally Speaking.

By the Way, released in July 2002.

The band returned to the studio in early 2001 and released By the Way over a year later, on July 9, 2002. The album, at the time, was their most noteworthy chart debut (with over 700,000 copies sold in first week), emerging at #2 and producing hit singles such as: "By the Way", "The Zephyr Song" , "Can't Stop", "Dosed", and "Universally Speaking" which was only released in Europe as a single and video. It is the most subdued and submissive album they had generated to date, focusing primarily on melodic ballads as opposed to their classic style of rap-driven funk.

The Chili Peppers recorded two new songs, "Fortune Faded" and "Save the Population", for their Greatest Hits album released later that year. To the surprise of many fans, only two songs from By the Way were included in the compilation, Universally Speaking and By the Way. Much criticism was drawn from the absence of Can't Stop, which is considered one of the band's most popular songs. Flea reported minor musical disagreement circulating between himself and John during the recording process.

In 2004, the group released their first full-length live album, Live in Hyde Park; recorded during their performances in Hyde Park, London, due to immensely high attendance rate. In the three evenings they performed, they accumulated an estimated 17 million dollars, making it the highest grossing concert at a single venue in history (knocking the Beatles to number 2)[1]. Two new songs were featured on the Album: "Rolling Sly Stone" and "Leverage of Space".

Stadium Arcadium, released in May 2006.

Recent events

In 2006, they completed their ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium. Although 38 songs were created with the intention to be released as 3 mini-albums spaced six months apart[4] it was released in May 2006 as a 28-track double album. It was their first album to debut at #1 on the US charts, where it stayed for two weeks, and debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart and 25 other countries as well[citation needed]. In the album's first week, it sold 442,000 units in the United States alone, and over 1,100,000 worldwide, setting a personal record for one week sales. The record's first single "Dani California," was the band's fastest-selling single, topping the Modern Rock chart in the US, peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and reaching #2 in the UK[2]. In addition to "Dani California", "Tell Me Baby" reached Billboard's hot modern rock tracks in early July.[3] The songs Storm in a Teacup, Snow ((Hey Oh)), Tell Me Baby, Stadium Arcadium, If and Especially in Michigan have been featured on ESPN commercials for the 2006 X-Games.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers began a year-and-a-half to two year long international world tour in support of Stadium Arcadium. One of the many legs on this tour will be the band's touring the United States with Gnarls Barkley from mid January to March 2007. The band also toured with The Mars Volta during the first U.S. leg of their tour from early August to early November 2006. Other legs on this world tour so far include stops in Europe from mid April to mid July 2006 as well as the previously mentioned 2nd European leg of the tour from November to mid-December of the same year and in Japan and Australia from mid-late March to mid April 2007.

They won at the MTV Europe Music Awards for Best Album and won two American Music Awards for Favorite Band, Duo or Group and Alternative Music.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have recently been nominated for Billboard Music Awards in the categories of modern rock artist of the year, modern rock single of the year (Dani California), rock single of the year (Dani California), and rock album of the year. They also picked up six nominations in the 2007 Grammys.

Stadium Arcadium is the best seller of album released in 2006 with around 6 millions copies at the end of the year. Red Hot Chili Peppers placed #1 for 28 weeks in Last.fm Global Artist Charts during 2006.

Music style

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Instrumentation

Flea's bass style is an amalgamation of funk and blues, borrowing from artists such as Bootsy Collins of Parliament-Funkadelic and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. The groove-heavy, low-tuned melodies, composed through either normal finger style or slapping, have contributed to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' signature style. While Flea's slap bass style was prominent in earlier albums, later albums (post "Blood Sugar Sex Magik") have more melodic basslines. He has also recently started using bass chords on Don't Forget Me and Snow ((Hey Oh)), for example.

The guitar styles of the guitarists that have recorded albums with the group share common traits, featuring a sharp, distorted sound with strong range. Jack Sherman's playing style was a funk/rock hybrid influenced by many guitarists from Leslie West to Eddie Hazel and Garry Shider. Replacement players appear to have tried to stay as close as possible to original guitarist Hillel Slovak's style with its heavy blues and funk elements. However, during his short time with the band, Dave Navarro focused on a style rooted in heavy metal, and progressive. Current guitarist John Frusciante brings a more melodic and textured sound.

Kiedis provides a range of vocal styles for RHCP songs. His style of spoken verse and rapping (the latter being the primary characteristic of his vocals up to Blood Sugar Sex Magik) complemented with more traditional vocals have helped the band maintain a relatively consistent style.

All backup vocals are currently provided by John Frusciante, both live and in the studio. His falsetto singing style is frequently used, especially on By The Way and Stadium Arcadium. It has become a tradition that at some point during a Chili Peppers concert John performs an unaccompanied cover song, usually a hit from the 1960's or 70's. Some songs include "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John, "How Deep Is Your Love" by The Beegees, "Maybe" by The Chantels, and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" by Carole King.

Improvisation

Improvisation has always been a major part of the signature style of the band. Early shows were composed almost entirely of improvisations. Also, many solos recorded on the current albums by guitarist John Frusciante are improvised, and his live solos are almost invariably improvised, as are Flea's bass solos in songs such as By The Way. On recent tours, the band has always opened the show with a full-band improvisation, always on the same key as the opening song. Sometimes, the endings of the songs are long extended by improvisations, such as "My Lovely Man" and "If You Have To Ask".

Lyrical themes

Through the years, Kiedis' lyrics have dealt with a variety of topics. Themes include love and the meaning of friendship, teenage angst and good-time aggression, sexual fantasies and the link between sex and music, political and social commentary (Native American issues in particular), romance, drugs, loneliness, California, alcohol and dealing with death.

While Kiedis is the lead vocalist for the band, Flea provided lead vocals for "Pea" and "Deep Kick" from One Hot Minute. Frusciante often contributes backing vocals. In live performances, Frusciante performs lead vocals for songs outside the Red Hot Chili Peppers catalogue (see instrumentation above). He shared lead vocal duties with Kiedis on "Knock Me Down" from Mother's Milk.

Band members

Current members

Former members

Drums
Guitar

Former touring backing musicians

  • Keith "Tree" Barry – saxophone (1987–90)
  • Rain Phoenix – backing vocals (1995–96)
  • Rob Rule – backing vocals, guitar (1995–96)[citation needed]
  • Acacia Ludwig – backing vocals (1995–96)[citation needed]
  • Vicky Calhoun- backing vocals (1989-1990)

Line-up history

1983-1984
1984-1985
1985-1986
1986-1988
1988
1988-1992
1992-1993
1993
1993-1997
1997-present

Discography

Main article: Red Hot Chili Peppers discography

Videography

Main article: Red Hot Chili Peppers videography

Bibliography

  • Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman. ISBN 0-7515-3566-4

TV, film and other media

  • Band members Flea and Anthony Kiedis have been featured individually and together in many movies and television shows.[5] [6]
  • "Higher Ground" was also featured on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
  • They performed 'Black-Eyed Blonde' in the '80s skateboard film Thrashin'.
  • The 1992 version of the band, with Arik Marshall standing in for Frusciante, appeared in an episode of The Simpsons titled "Krusty Gets Kancelled". In the episode, Bart and Lisa help Krusty save his career by organising a "Krusty Komeback Special" featuring many celebrities [7]. The Red Hot Chili Peppers perform their song "Give it Away", although Krusty suggests that they change the song's lyric "What I got you gotta get it put it in you" to "What I'd like is I'd like to hug and kiss you", to which Flea and Marshall enthusiastically agree while Anthony Kiedis merely smiles at the suggestion.
  • The band is referenced in the video game Tekken 4. In the Tekken force mini game, there are five ninjas that are harder to beat than the average ninja near the end of the game. They are named after the members (and former members) of the band: Anthony (Anthony Kiedis), Flea (Michael "Flea" Balzary), John (John Frusciante), Chad (Chad Smith), and Dave (Dave Navarro)
  • Anthony Kiedis and Flea both appear in Johnny Cash's video, "God's Gonna Cut You Down."
  • In 2007, their music will transform two roller-coasters at the Disneyland Resort. From January to April, the two roller coasters, Space Mountain and California Screamin', will feature the songs "Higher Ground" and "Around the World", respectively, on their on-board audio speakers. The new soundtracks for both attractions were remixed by Ryan Hewitt, the man who remixes the Red Hot Chili Peppers' own music, to ensure the soundtracks are specific to the twists and turns, highs and lows of both roller coasters. [4]

Awards

Year Award Title
1992 MTV VMA Breakthrough Video (Give It Away)
1992 MTV VMA Best Art Direction (Give It Away)
1992 MTV VMA Viewer's Choice (Under The Bridge)
1993 Grammy Awards Best Hard Rock Performance (Give It Away)
2000 MTV VMA Video Vanguard (career award)
2000 MTV VMA Best Art Direction (Californication)
2000 MTV VMA Best Direction (Californication)
2000 MTV EMA Best Rock
2000 Billboard Awards Best Alternative Group
2000 Grammy Awards Best Rock Song (Scar Tissue)
2002 MTV EMA Best Live Act
2002 MTV EMA Best Rock
2003 Brit Awards Best International Group
2006 MTV VMA Best Art Direction (Dani California)
2006 MTV EMA Best Album (Stadium Arcadium)
2006 American Music Awards Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
2006 American Music Awards Favorite Alternative Artist

References

Notes

  1. ^ VH1 biography
  2. ^ Grammy website
  3. ^ VH1 biography
  4. ^ Catucci, Nick. "Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium" (review). Blender magazine, June 2006 (Issue 48), p. 146
  5. ^ Flea on IMDB
  6. ^ Anthony Kiedis on IMDB
  7. ^ RHCP on The Simpsons

See also

Official

Biographical or discographical

News and other

  • Anderman, Joan (October 1, 2006). "Red hot". The Boston Globe. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Fan Sites

Media


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