| Looks like I'm back up at UPJ and I'm definitely getting the college experience once again.
It's good being with/seeing/being around the old Hemlock Basement boys once again. Going to be one hell of a year
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| what's the deal with nobody in this town playing pool? Are Scrabble tournaments and online poker really the way people want to pass their time?
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| It's been a couple weeks since the Red Hot Chili Peppers released "Stadium Arcadium", a double album that was said to be the most anticipated album of 2006. Bold statement? not at all. A double album, particularly from a well known artist always gets attention (Example: Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile"). When the album was released on May 9th, critics gave it mixed reviews. I usually don't pay attention to music critics (because most of my friends are music snobs), but one statement stuck out in particular. A person basically called the album "solid", and clarified his critique as meaning that there weren't any real highlights or bad parts, but the album retained it's integrity throughout the 28 tracks. Solid albums are good, but not great. After careful listening (Jupiter one week, Mars the next) to this dual-cd over the past two weeks, I found his review to be...
Like every album, some tracks are just better than others. In this case, I preferred "Snow (hey oh)" (favorite track at this point) to "Death of a Martian", but I prefer "Subway to Venus" over "Snow". My point is that this album is not a return to the funk-rock stew the Chili Peppers were born of, it's not like that at all. Anthony Kiedis, John, Flea, Chad, all said that this album was going to sound like their "old stuff". If by old stuff, they mean the album they released prior to this one (By the way) then yes, yes it does. Stadium Arcadium just sounds like By the Way with funk. You cannot recreate the sound that they had when the Chili's just formed as a band; Hillel, Anthony and Flea were different people back then and their sound was just too unique. Does anyone own Freaky Styley? The Uplift Mofo Party Plan? Their self-titled debut? Mothers Milk? If you do, then you cannot say that Stadium Arcadium sounds "just like their old stuff".
It's very disheartening to me to the chili's on Itunes, all dressed up and --- These were the guys that rocked the stage with socks on their cocks years ago, and the guys who roasted their bodies in costumes with giant lightbulb hats. If you were to see their performance of "Stone Cold Bush" on SNL back during their glory days, you would agree that they are two different bands. Blood Sugar Sex Magik is still recognized as the pinnacle of their success...the only thing "solid" about this album is that every single track unadulterated by outside forces (see "the greeting song", "they're red hot", etc.) is a stand-out track. It's a balance of perfection. the album after that, One Hot Minute, was a complete and total departure of the sound born and cultivated by the Chili's. To know One Hot Minute is to know the end of the old chili peppers. I would have said One Hot Minute is the prelude to the modern day chili's, but "By the Way is clearly a far different sound than "Californication" (which borrows sounds from One Hot Minute).
They say a good band changes their sound often, but a good band also doesn't disappoint the die-hard fans that loved them from the roots. It may sound like a rant against mainstream music and it's listeners, but it goes well beyond that. Regardless, I will still be in Philadelphia on October 23rd hearing my favorite band, and hoping to retain the adoration I have for their (old) music.
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| well, now I can say I got into a motorcycle accident. |
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