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...