Red Hot Chili Peppers

[Brains]

Is there anyone here who likes them? For me, it's about the only act scoring in the charts that I think are really good. I just bought their last album By The Way. It's really interesting to see how they've matured. From a quite hard album with little melodic versatility, BloodSugarSexMagik (their breakthrough; I don't know their earlier work), to a very melodic and cleverly arranged album now.

[Len]

I've never really been much into them, but that Flea is one hell of a bass player.

[Ram1]

The Chili Peppers are awesome. And yes, Flea is an amazing bassist. I saw them on Valentine's Day back in '96. When they had Dave Navarro. Unfortuantely, they were having an off night though.(Except for Flea. I don't think that dude EVER has off nights!)

[Brains]

I have the transcripts of all bass parts of Californication. It's not really that extremely difficult to play, just fast. And it's very prominently mixed. Quite different from our Paulie I'd say. Driving Rain was his first album in years with a prominent bass.

[Len]

He's an animal!

But when he talks about his bass playing, he's surprisingly eloquent. He's one of the best. Not THE best of course.

[Ram1]

Yeah, he's a smart guy. And he's very well-schooled in his musicianship. He was actually a virtuoso trumpet prodigy has a child. His trumpet playing has showed up on some Chili Pepper tunes. Brains, yeah some of his bass lines theoretically aren't that difficult. But it's just the WAY he plays them that is so amazing. His fingers move a hundred miles an hour. I think Les Claypool from Primus is probably better though. The dude is amazing. I saw Primus twice back in '95.

[Brains]

Primus? Never heard of them. What kind of music do they make?

[Ram1]

Man, Primus's music is REALLY hard to describe. Hmm...let me see...it's kinda like the Chili Peppers tripping on acid. LOL. Like I said, it's REALLY hard to describe. The music is pretty weird. But it's awesome. You should just go ahead and buy one of their albums. My favorite is 'Tales From the Punchbowl', but it would probably be better to start out with 'Pork Soda.' Trust me, you'll never listen to the bass guitar the same again. In my opinion, Les Claypool is like the Jimi Hendrix of bass. He can make sounds come out of that thing like you wouldn't believe. And it's not all just effects. I've seen the dude live TWICE for myself. When you see him playing, you almost think it's magic. Like "How the hell did he do that?!?" It's amazing watching his fingers. Claypool's playing will blow your mind.

[Len]

Didn't they do the South Park theme?

[Ram1]

Correct, Len. I don't watch the show, so I can't tell you if the song is really indicative of their other material.