Me and My Friends #70 - Freaks With a Cause
Max Elfimov is a busy man. Fresh off his archival work for the Hillel doc (see my interview with him here) he’s just finished the first round of an English...
Me and My Friends #69 - Twenty years of Stadium Arcadium
20 years ago today, May 12, 2006, I was coming home from school on the 370 bus, deep in nervous anticipation about tomorrow's release of Stadium Arcadium. I...
Me and My Friends #68 - Max Elfimov
If you’re subscribed to this newsletter, I probably don’t need to tell you about the new documentary, The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother...
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...
