Tje Boyz from LA are back
by edwin p. sallan
IT has all the makings of a summer blockbuster. You have the same familiar cast, an intriguing recurring character and a kick-ass of a catch phrase title.
Except that Stadium Arcadium, the new and ninth studio album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in four years is not a movie. But with the rather cinematic manner in which it was conceived, recorded and ultimately released, the much-anticipated 28-track double CD might as well be one. It would certainly make for an excellent soundtrack for the band whose colorful lives, drug problems and personnel changes are much more interesting than any biopic ever released.
Comeback is a funny and overused word in rock music and it certainly doesn’t apply to a band whose last live performance in 2004, documented in the CD, Live In Hyde Park set a new world record for being the highest grossing concert event (258,000 paying audience translating to total ticket sales of US,187,234) at a single venue in music history. Despite the lengthy absence of new material, the Chili Peppers in its classic incarnation of Anthony Kiedes on vocals, John Frusciante on guitars, Chad Smith on drums and the one and only Michael Balzary a.k.a Flea on bass were still on top of their game when we last saw them. Forget Dave Navarro’s One Hot Minute stint, his RHCP cameo never really went beyond that anyway.
With a distinctive sound that combines the best elements of punk, funk, rap and psychedelic rock and matched with lyrics that are pretty much biting commentaries on issues concerning the environment, social justice and globalization, the Chili Peppers have been blowing us away for the last two decades. Call it second wind, record studio nirvana or just plain productivity on a new high, a whopping 38 songs were in fact written and recorded for the new album that was originally intended to be released as three mini-albums every six months.
In a recent interview for the making of Stadium Arcadium as well as in other recent interviews, the band eagerly talks about the much-anticipated release of the year. Debuting at number one, Stadium Arcadium is the Chili Peppers highest charting album to date. You can call it a lucky nine but what is certainly not in question here is that the band remains Red Hot even after all these years. Excerpts:
On the title Stadium Arcadium
Anthony Kiedis: I originally wanted to call it ‘An Increase in Howling Pt. 1,’ and then Flea said, ‘hey how ‘bout Stadium Arcadium,’ and I said OK.
On Dani California, the first single
Flea: It’s our first single off the record and you know Anthony wrote the lyrics and it’s a continuation of a character he started with "By The Way" and "Californication" and it’s the conclusion of that girl’s story.
Kiedis: I didn’t realize it at the time but when this funky groove came up, it struck me as the perfect place to actually tell a story. Sometimes I think it’s much more interesting to tell the beginning of a story and not finish it. Just get it started and let it go where it wants to go or wherever the people wanted it to go. But with this one, I felt this is gonna be a cool story. And I started writing and I said, oh my God, this is about the girl in "By The Way," Dani, and I realized that Dani is the girl in "Californication," the teenage bride with the baby inside and it revealed itself to me that it’s the same character.
On John Frusciante’s guitar playing
John Frusciante: I got this thing that reminds me of a Wu-Tang riff. I’ve been listening to this first Wu-Tang album, Enter The 36 Chambers pretty much everyday for the whole writing of the record. I was inspired especially by the rhythms that the MCs were using in their rap. They were inspiring to me in terms of my guitar playing. Those guys, they make up their own groove for their music. I was really into the idea of a lot of rhythm expression for this music.
Chad Smith: It’s so cool. I really like the way when John came up with that melody for the chorus of Dani California. The way that it overlaps against the music is much different. It’s a real unique thing.
Flea: What ended up happening was really no different from "Sweet Home Alabama" or something. I think Wu-Tang was very much influenced by Lynyrd Skynyrd (laughs)!
On Tell Me Baby and the other tracks
Smith: "Tell Me Baby" came about from a jam. I think it’s one of the most partying songs we ever had. It just parties like crazy.
Kiedis: When we first started doing the melodic stuff for the band, it was real divided. It was like we had songs like "Sir Psycho Sexy," "The Greeting Song" and "Apache Rose Peacock" and then we had songs like "I Could Have Lied," "Breaking The Girl" and "Under The Bridge" and they were totally divided. But they gradually become one thing more and more.
Frusciante: We’ve always been able to do the funk thing pretty good and more recently the melodic thing, and putting them both together in one song is a good achievement in showing that we’ve grown as songwriters.
Smith: We all contributed the best of who we are in this record, and you know, we managed to work together in a way where we really respected each other’s opinions and stuff so we got a really good record out of the deal.
On summing up the new CD
Kiedis: There’s this weird kind of sublime, subliminal undercurrent that is suggestive, in a spirited way, of our earliest records.
Flea: It is simply by far the best thing we’ve ever done. If you don’t like this record, then you won’t like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Period.
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