Me and My Friends #67 - Califaltication
Obviously I couldn’t stop at One Hot Minute. If you’re somehow reading this entry first, this is the final part of a three part series, started here and...
Me and My Friends #66 - One Alt Minute
Hello again! This is a companion piece (or a sequel?) to this letter. Everything is a little more straightforward here, and there aren’t any of those strange...
Me and My Friends #65 - Blood Sugar Tape Questions
A few weeks back, an internal Warner Bros. cassette dated July 22, 1991 came into my possession. It’s an early, pre-release version of Blood Sugar Sex Magik....
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...