In grade 10 I left the suburbs and went to school downtown. This isn't exactly like comparing moving from the burbs to Manhattan, but at the time for me, it kind of was. I was now at a school where expression was encouraged so I died my hair black, got a wallet chain and started wearing my dad's old green khakis and his beat up old blue zip up hoodie from the 70's. I was at a school where I didn't know anyone but pretty soon I had made a few friends. My first friend was Hrag, we both wanted to start a band but we didn't know how to play our instruments yet so we just listened to a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I had never really listened to the Chili's much but when I was 15 One Hot Minute came out and got into them through that record. Of course I knew Under The Bridge but I had never really listened to Blood Sugar Sex Magic which is the album you should get into the Chili's with. A friend of mine who's favourite band is Van Halen once told me that he got into VH through the album 5150 their first record Sammy Hagar after the departure of David Lee Roth. Not exactly the record you should fall in love with Van Halen with. This was the same with One Hot Minute, the first and only record with Dave Navaro on guitar after the departure of guitarist John Frusciante. A lot of Chili's fans dismiss this record but it has some really great songs on it, mainly the singles Warped, Aeroplane and My Friends. Sure it's nothing compared to the Frusciante albums but Navarro does a great job, he fit in well with the band and their sound, he was a little heavier but he was still funky. After that I went backwards and got really into the Chili's back catalogue mainly Blood Sugar Sex Magic and Uplift Mofo party plan but I still think that Warped is one of the best album openers I have ever heard. I also think Aeroplane is one of the best video's of the 90's.
1 comment:
I think it's cause of the age we were at, One Hot Minute came out at the right time. I was fully aware of Under the Bridge, but Blood Sugar was already come and gone, and with Muchmusic, if it wasn't on at that time (or on the great Z-Rock if you remember it from Copenhagen/Watertown/Kingston) you didn't really see it/hear it as much. All good tunes you mention, but the Chilis album that really got me was Californication, which I bought just before KC grad, and then listened to all summer working at camp in Muskoka. I swear every song on that album was good, not like the filler albums people put out today.
Nice blog, I'll have to start updating mine again too, since others are writing good stuff.
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