Me and My Friends #64 - A Month in the Randomized RHCP Trenches
I go through moods, of course, with this band. Dalliances (near obsessions, some might say) with certain songs, certain albums, certain periods. There are...
Me and My Friends #63 - Californication
1. Californication was released twenty-five years ago today, on June 8, 1999. This is not a review of Californication, because reviewing Californication is...
Me and My Friends #62 - I'm Beside You
I’M BESIDE YOU, or “I love my mistakes/I’ve been here before.” I had a worrying initial impression with I'm with You, mostly because of the band’s choice of...
Me and My Friends #61 - Thanker's Milk
The Chili Peppers' early albums, in their initial CD releases, had barely any liner notes at all - just a paper square that unfolded once into a white...
Me and My Friends #60 - The Best Bit About the Worst Song on Each RHCP Album
This might come as a shock, but I quite like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Having said that, there is a lot about them I don't like. Some of their decisions and...
Me and My Friends #59 - Preserving Jams
Howdy. Firstly, I must apologise for this letter being a little tardy - I try to have one out at least once a month - but I am working on my next full length...
Me and My Friends #58 - A Hot Minute: Melancholy Mechanics
If I'm counting them correctly, there are five spoken word moments in the Chili Peppers discography, all arriving at a steady rate of once a decade. Some of...
Me and My Friends #57 - Deluxe Desires
Sometimes it's fun to imagine what-if. The Chili Peppers, despite being an ongoing concern that continues to record new music, are also a legacy act. Nothing...
Me and My Friends #56 - Hank
When Flea and Anthony moved in with Bob Forrest in mid-1983, they received a lot more than a new place to rest their heads. Like any good new friend, Bob...
Me and My Friends #55 - 26 Eternities of Hillel Slovak
It's April 13, which means it's Hillel Slovak's birthday. He would have been 61; the eldest of the original lineup. On the day of his 21st birthday, the...
Me and My Friends #54 - Rough Mix Ruminations and a Request
Out of nowhere it's suddenly time for my yearly rumination about the Blood Sugar Sex Magik "rough mixes" tape. It's a weird story, and I might have gone into...
Me and My Friends #53 - Live in Sydney 2023
On February 2 and February 4 of 2023, I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers live in Sydney, at Accor Stadium. It was the 6th and 7th time I've seen them in a...
Me and My Friends #52 - Release Day
A few years back, I had been doing a little research with some friends into the Chili Peppers' first year. I don't know exactly what started it. That period...
Me and My Friends #51 - 40 years of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Today - Friday, December 16th, 2022 - is the 40th anniversary of the first ever Red Hot Chili Peppers performance. Today is the band's 40th birthday. Here's...
Me and My Friends #50 - What If Stadium Arcadium were weirder?
It's May of 2006, and the weather outside is miserable. Black clouds ink out the sky, and when thunder and lighting aren't cracking the day in half, the...
Me and My Friends #49 - Anno Somni
This is another letter from Leni at the immeasurably valuable RHCP Live Archive, all about the just-wrapped 2022 tour. Next month we get deep into some...
Me and My Friends #48 - Arik the Freak
Physically, Arik Marshall seems an unlikely candidate for Pepperdom. He’s tall and gangly—not a pumped-up pectoral in sight. And although he’s just in his...
Me and My Friends #47 - Out in LA
Hi friends,As promised, I have news. My book about the band - OUT IN LA - will be released by Chicago Review Press on January 17, 2023. Here's the cover:...
Me and My Friends #46 - What am I thinking?
Since Unlimited Love emerged on April 1, it's gone through that cycle that every new album goes through inside my head. I touched on it in a letter a few...
Me and My Friends #45 - 6 thoughts about The Getaway on its 6th anniversary
The Getaway turned six years old today, which feels like yesterday but also feels like a worryingly long time ago. Six years? Obama was still President, we'd...
Me and My Friends #44 - Memories of the Eighties
Tom Bennett got in touch with me a few weeks ago and we got to talking. Turns out he's a fan from way, way back, and saw the band many times in their early...
Me and My Friends #43 - Cover Me, Slowly
"If You Want Me To Stay," "They're Red Hot," "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"... the band have covered a wonderful selection of songs over the years, and in...
Me and My Friends #42 - This is the Show
It's easy to forget that in all the excitement over Unlimited Love, there's two new releases out this month by former members of the Chili Peppers. One of...
Me and My Friends #41 - Early Impressions
I had to excuse myself at a dinner party a few weeks ago so I could go to the bathroom and read this NME article, which was released - as these things always...
Me and My Friends #40 - Black Summer
I wasn't planning on talking about "Black Summer" at all, but then I realised that this is the first new piece of Chili Peppers music we've had since I...
Me and My Friends #39 - A Hot Minute: Factory of Faith
The first song I heard from I'm With You was, as you might expect, "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie." I remember where I was, exactly what I was doing....
Me and My Friends #38 - My Lovely Man Minutia / Now and Then Again
Hello friends, Happy 2 year anniversary of John's return. Too bad the plague derailed it. Apologies for the radio silence (or should I say newsletter...
Me and My Friends #37 - Cancelled Shows Galore
This entry, written by Leandro Cabo, serves both as a prequel and sequel to newsletter #6, Falling Apart in 1992, as we try to dig a little deeper into the...
Me and My Friends #36 - 13 notes on One Hot Minute
I like "Warped" just fine. It's a really catchy riff, it's a great opener, and the interplay between Chad and Flea/Dave is great. But was it really first...
Me and My Friends #35 - Rareware (part 2)
Hi friends, All quiet on the band front. I’m guessing the new album won’t be out until next year, but virtually every prediciton I’ve ever made in this...
Me and My Friends #34 - A Hot Minute: Animal Bar
An album comes out, and you know the single. You’ve heard that a hundred times already. It’s imprinted on your brain to the point that it stands out like a...
Me and My Friends #33 - What If...?
What if… Dave Navarro never left in 1998? Well, assuming the band gets their shit together and don’t implode permanently, there’d be another album in early…...
Me and My Friends #32 - Universally Speaking
Hello all, I was recently a guest on the Universally Speaking podcast, hosted by Ben and Sam Townsend. You can listen here and in all of your regular podcast...
Me and My Friends #31 - Lonesome Flea
Here’s yet another entry written by Leni, who aside from picking up the slack for me in these newsletters, also runs the RHCP Live Archive. They recently...
Me and My Friends #30 - A Hot Minute: Walkabout
When you think about it, “Walkabout” really is quite a strange song. It has a traditional verse, chorus, bridge and breakdown structure, but it also stays at...
Me and My Friends #29 - Anno Nihilo
What follows below was written by Leandro Cabo, of the RHCP Live Archive, the best website on the internet. All I’ve done is edit it lightly. A big, big...
Me and My Friends #28 - Rareware (part 1)
The Chili Peppers, like any large band that has primarily existed in the pre-streaming era, leave behind them an unbelievable amount of... stuff. Some of it...
Me and My Friends #27 - An Opening
At the very first Red Hot Chili Peppers show all those years ago, the band played one song: “Out In L.A.” This short song is the perfect Chili Peppers track,...
Me and My Friends #26 - 17 notes on Blood Sugar Sex Magik
The drone you can (just barely) hear in "Power of Equality", at about 2:38 in the left channel -- I think it's a result of John not quite releasing the Eb...
Me and My Friends #25 - I Do Feel Maya
This band has little occurences -- factoids, riddles, situations -- that tickle the mind to think about. The kind of thing you'd reject for being too bizarre...
Me and My Friends #24 - Five Ways the Chili Peppers Can Spice Things Up!
Apologies for the clickbait title. I couldn’t resist. Are the Chili Peppers stagnant? Yes and no. Things have changed, of course; they just swapped out their...
Me and My Friends #23 - Jack Sherman
I wasn't sure what to write about Jack, but I wanted to make sure I said something before the news cycle moved on. Jack was a very kind and open man who was...
Me and My Friends #22 - Bram Van Splunteren interview + new rips of Lolapalusa, May 11 1994 and "Stuff"
Hello friends, Something very fun happened last week! Friend of the site Jack Bratt (who owns the world’s coolest shorts) let me know that he’d been speaking...
Me and My Friends #21 - Yes I Can Hear You Clem Fandango
Hello dear readers, I’m about 60% through the first draft of my book about the RHCP in 1983. There are many more people I need to talk to, and further...
Me and My Friends #20 - A Deep Dive Stream
Hello all, This shuttered world has become one of low resolution up-the-nose conference calls, fan streams, and quarantine specials, and here’s one more for...
Me and My Friends #19 - レッチリ大宮
Heyheyheywhatshappening, In an earlier edition of this newsletter, I dove a little into the chaotic period up to John's last show with the band in 1992....
Me and My Friends #18 - the RHCP Live Archive
The RHCP Live Archive is the best website on the internet. Picking up where sites like The Side left off, it catalogs every show the band have ever played,...
Me and My Friends #17 - What if By the Way were weirder?
When I think of an album by the Chili Peppers, I tend to think of the attributes given to it by things external to the music itself; the media that review...
Me and My Friends #16 - Funkus Amongkus
Hi all, In honour of the late, great Andy Gill of the incredible Gang of Four, this month I'm sending out a piece about the band's first album. I wrote this...
Me and My Friends #15 - Trading Places
August 26, 2007. Bramham Park, Leeds, United Kingdom. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have limped to the end of a year-long world tour for their ninth album,...