U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - R U Talkin' RHCP RE: ME? - The Red Hot Chili Peppers + Freaky Styley

Episode Date: July 1, 2020

Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) and Scott Aukerman (Comedy Bang! Bang!) return as superfan Adam Scott Aukerman–but this time to discuss the music and impact of the band The Red Hot Chili Peppers. In this first episode, Scott and Scott share when they first heard of the Chili Peps before getting into a track-by-track breakdown of the band’s first two studio albums, the self titled “The Red Hot Chili Peppers” and “Freaky Styley.”

🎵 From airplane to the Zephyr song, this is Are You Talkin' RHCP Remi? The comprehensive and encyclopedia compendium of all things Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is good punk, funk, rock and roll music. Welcome to the show episode one of are you talking rhcp remy uh we are going to the new show by the way we are going to be talking about the band that you heard a little bit of that melody from some call them the peps some call them the pepsid ac some call them the chili

peps some call them the red hot chili peps some call them the hot chili peps some call them the chili peppers some call them the hot chili peppers some call them the red hot chilies some call them the red chili peppers some call them the hot reds but of course we're talking about the red hot chili peppers new show uh and i want to make sure for any of you who have not heard our previous shows you know exactly who's talking uh i am of course scott ackerman you uh have heard me on such podcasts as comedy bang bang and freedom uh he directed a movie the between two vernes movie i had a tv show but let me introduce to you a man who has far more credits on IMDb. Do you think you have more credits or just better credits? Can I say both? Is that an answer? Should I look up

the number of credits that we each have? You think you have more? I would say, you know, we've both been kicking around this business we call show for a few years, right? And so I would imagine we're around the same, don't you think? Possibly, although you got your, I'm sure you got Taft-Hartley way earlier than I did. I don't know. When did you? I think I got Taft-Hartley for Just Shoot Me back in 1999, I want to say. No, because that's not correct, because you were on Mr. Show. I was on Mr. Show, but I don't know whether that was a SAG show or whether that just made me SAG eligible. Oh, you know what? What was...

I was... Okay, I do remember now, and I'll introduce you in a second. I was Taft Hartley for a industrial film that I made. Is that what they called them, industrial films? They were like commercials for companies. I never understood what those were. I never got one. They just were called industrials.

Yeah, I remember that. I remember auditioning for them, but I never participated. My audition was was it was basically a lot of physical comedy that i had to do on a golf course and i walked into this hotel room and they said so uh can you do a pratfall and i like slipped and fell onto the couch and they went haha okay great you're hired like it was the easiest audition i'd ever had i was taft heartlead for it and then i got onto the hired. Like it was the easiest audition I'd ever had. I was half tartlead for it. And then I got onto the golf course

and it was like an all day thing where I'm supposed to just like, they gave me a bunch of situations like, okay, now fall into the lake and stuff like that. Like try to hit the ball and break your club and stuff like that. And I just remember the palpable feeling of disappointment they had in me the entire shoot,

which seemed like every job I took, everyone was they had in me the entire shoot which seemed like every every job i took everyone was so disappointed in me but like every time you would do a pratfall they would just be like huh yeah okay it's just sort of like yeah just sort of like well what okay but well maybe you could you know the thing of not the the one thing that I learned as a director from being on the other side of the camera is people want to hear like good job after a first take, you know, so you don't feel like a failure. Like, so no matter what anyone does, even if you want to, you know, to improve or improve it or whatever, you just say like, ha ha, oh man, that was so funny. Great, great, great. And then was so funny great great great and then let that settle for a while and then go hey what if on this one we did this anyway i had none of that during my industrial but i was taft-heartedly for that which meant that i was able to be on mr

show you're right and then i feel like there was something there was something with that just shoot me where maybe i was behind in my dues or something i needed to pay them i can't remember what it was you had to like rejoin yeah anyway you can see my performance in that just shoot me on uh youtube i believe uh or if you have the the dvd box sets but you can see his performances in several dvd box sets i would imagine uh one of them being parks and recreation which where is that streaming by the way uh peacock that is on netflix bro how long before it goes over to peacock i don't know when does peacock start i think it already did my man did it really it did yeah um but uh you know him from several things he played uh joe something in parks and. I can't remember his character name. As that show fades from all of our collective memories,

I'm sure you'd be hard-pressed to find. What percentage of the population remembers your character name, would you say? Of the population of the United States. I'll just give you the United States. The population of the United States? I would say probably only like 80 85 probably 80 so that 15 that knew it even four years ago including myself it's been you know it's been a good four years it's been oh it's been

yes Ben that was your character name it's been four years his name was Ben four years you made people do the bare naked ladies it's ben anytime that you walked into the frame right it's ben uh please welcome my co-host adam scott is here hello adam hi anything you want to say uh you mean in general or just about our new endeavor here uh first of all let's start off uh uh in a macro sense globally and then we'll get to locally about our endeavor here but is there anything generally you want to say um do you want to say hello to anyone perhaps i mean i i guess i i guess i could what do you think i think it would be a nice treat for people i mean uh a treat a treat huh like you ever you ever give dog, have you ever given your dog a treat?

You have a new puppy. Yeah, you know this is crazy. Have you ever given them a treat? This is such a coincidence because just yesterday I gave both of my dogs treats. Just yesterday? Wait a minute. Is this another episode of Just Yesterday? Yes, it is.

Hey everyone, welcome to Just Yesterday. This is Scott. And this is Scott. And welcome to our second episode of Just Yesterday. And we're talking about things that happens not necessarily past the stroke of midnight uh today uh anything from 1201 a.m to the current time today out of bounds off limits or also can i just jump in here nothing that happened day before yesterday either that is off the table that is off the table and you know what don't get me started on things that are going to happen tomorrow because this is not

some sort of psychic fortune telling show yeah what do you think this is the the psychic hotline what do you think this is the uh uh miss cleo that's that's really funny um but uh what we are talking about is things that happened anywhere from 1201 yesterday a.m to the stroke of midnight yesterday so 11 59 and 59 seconds somewhere around there we'll take anything. That is the last possible moment. Last possible moment. If it is at midnight, maybe you could squeak in. It's a judgment call.

We'll have to go to the judges on that. I know you're much looser on this than I am. I draw a hard line. If you're doing something, an activity from 11 59 through 1203 you can only talk about the portion of that activity that took place until 11 59 and 59 seconds the the rest of that activity you have to wait until the next episode of just yesterday to talk about the completion and you know what if you miss look i know this is only our second episode and our previous episode was so long ago yeah if you miss your window you miss your window if something

interesting happens and we don't do an episode the next day well i'm sorry start your own podcast yeah really start your own just yesterday podcast and watch us uh crush you what yeah watch us fucking take you to court because my dad is a lawyer that's right and you know crush you. Crush you. Yeah, watch us fucking take you to court because my dad is a lawyer. That's right. And you know what? You may be getting a letter from us and it's not fan mail, okay?

Oh, no. You'll know it's a letter from us. You know how? How's that? It'll look a lot like a subpoena. Yeah. Have you ever had subpoenas, Envy? Well, you're going to have it now

because we're we're serving one of those bad boys straight to you if you even fucking try it we will litigate we will end your life through suing through the courts we're not gonna murder you we're not gonna go to jail for this i don't give a shit that much about we are much more clever than that we will starve you out by suing you until you you're bled dry we will trap you in a cave with limited rations and starve your ass out we will sue you until you you're living on the streets we will sue you until your balls drop to where they are scraping on the fucking ground we will sue you until you can't even afford your own toes we will sue you take all of your money and then buy other money with it and then wave it in your face like this

isn't your original money this is other money that we exchanged it for at a fucking bank. That's right. We will sue you. Take that cash and go buy ancient cash, other forms of currency. Buffalo nickels. Buffalo.

We will spend all of our money on Buffalo nickels and then just show them off in front of the face. Rare 1919 pennies, like the 1919 d penny yeah those are great i love those what a great coin wait a minute is this an episode of great coin yeah hey everyone welcome to great coin this is Scott. And this is Scott. And we're just talking about Great Coin here. I mean, there's so much to choose from in the world. There are so many good looking coins. I mean, I'm just talking about America. You ever see one of those Susan B's? Oh man, it's one of my top 25 favorite coins.

Let's list them. Susan B. Anthony's. What number? That's number 17 for me. Why didn't you say top 17 then? Well, I like a good, solid, odd number, 25. I like things that are divisible that you can throw into 100 because 100 is my favorite number. Oh, okay. Do you have 100 top favorite coins? i have thousands of favorite coins i'm just talking about the top 25 or top 17 if you want that's an odd number but i just can't it's not divisible into a hundred and i like a hundred yeah okay all right so uh susan b is 17 yeah how about you what's your number 17 my i only have one favorite coin. I don't see a lot of coins, honestly.

Yeah. I like a dime. Which one? Oh, yeah. Dime's really good. What era? What do you mean? Like what period of time when that dime came off the assembly line at the U.S. Mint Treasury,

the beautiful building. How can you even tell? I don't know. What do you mean? Well, there's a date on the coin. Any coin, any currency, American currency, there is a date on there. So you know exactly when this coin or bill, what have you, was produced at U.S. Treasury. Well, let me get out my dime collection

no how many dimes do you have these days thousands of dimes i love dimes none of these have i mean these are all standard issue dimes they're silver they're round they have a hole in the middle um they attach to screws and and lug nuts and oh yeah yeah those those actually are not dimes those are washers uh used or kind of just handy around the house stuff like i used a washer the other day i was mounting something on the wall these aren't dimes those are not dimes you would not be able to to spend those in uh like a dime store for instance you know what i realized something i what's up i hate coins yeah me too i shouldn't be hosting this podcast nah me neither all right this is the last episode we'll see you next time thanks bye

bye weird how he said i'll see you next time when they essentially ended the show the show yeah but good coin always good and here's let's just pour a little pour a little out for good coin that was a great show that was a great show r.i.p rest in power good coin yeah but we are here uh talking about things that happened just yesterday of of course. And GoodCoin, luckily, they recorded that just yesterday. So it fits in within our show. Otherwise, we wouldn't have broadcast it. But Adam, you were saying before we started that you had a funny story about something that happened just yesterday.

Just yesterday, actually actually my daughter made some homemade dog treats uh homemade dog treats homemade dog treats and the dogs love them and let me let me guess what do you have around your house uh caviar gold leaf yeah probably truffles leaf caviar um it's all we eat is gold leaf caviar uh truffles and we also have some truffle pigs in the in the backyard that you slaughter to dig up the truffles yeah oh oh they're just oh they're digging pigs they're digging pigs but we of course slaughter them uh immediately after they find the truffles and do you hide do you hide the truffles and then they just find them and then you slaughter the pigs give them a little yeah they're actually they're

not truffles like the the mushroom type oh they're not uh the the organic material chocolate chocolate truffles oh so you bury them in the ground and then the pigs find them and then you that's right do you do are they kosher do you do them upside down so the blood drains or absolutely not absolutely not no no you don't want that kosher shit we can't we can't we just don't have the the time we don't have the i mean you have a you have a slaughterhouse at your place but you can't you can't convert it to just being kosher i could but who wants to do that yeah i understand anyway how are those treats uh they're really good and the dogs love them love them and so just yesterday i um or we rather gave each dog i think one or two of them and they slurped them right up loved them him. So they ate them essentially.

Yeah, they ate them. So they, they, they took them in their mouths, chewed them up, swallowed, digested. I mean, I wasn't in there, but I would imagine they did a bit of chewing before in the mouth. So I couldn't. Oh yeah, yeah. It's hard to get in there. Speak to. It is. And, uh, and it's just not big enough for me to fit in there.

Honestly, the biggest dog that exists, probably Clifford, I would say. Yeah, Clifford's huge. The big red dog. Huge. I don't think I could even fit in his mouth. I think you could. Well, it depends on how big he is, because you know Clifford grows through the, at least the Clifford story that I know.

He starts as one size any. He's continually growing over the course of all the books. Yes, I know this. That's right. I know everything about Clifford lore. I mean, everyone knows. Well, that sounds like it was a great, great time. Oh, it was great.

It was great. And when did, wait, but when did this happen? Just yesterday. We'll see you next time. Oh, it was great. It was great. And when did, wait, but when did this happen? Just yesterday. We'll see you next time. Thanks, bye. Bye. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. I mean, solid for a second app,

you know? The sophomore slump has not visited. It was long, but I mean, a lot of people app, you know? The sophomore slump has not visited. It was long, but I mean, a lot of people like that. For some reason, people like long rambling podcasts. Directionless, mildly offensive. Sure. Well, that's, yeah. Why were we talking about treats?

You were saying to, that I should treat something? No, that dimes are a treat is that what it was no no dimes were in our other show i forget why but yeah it was uh oh yeah i can't remember anyway me neither we were likening something to dog treats maybe ryan could could tell us i know i don't want to hear his voice i don't think it matters because you know what matters what matters is what we're here to talk about and that is a little rock and roll combination a four-piece if i may be so bold and i believe i can uh what what four-piece combination what do you mean we uh We're talking about a band, a rock and roll band. Oh, okay.

All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're here to talk about a little band by the name of... Should I go through all the names again? No, I think you settled on the right one. Yeah, the right one, like officially, that I believe is on all of their contracts when they're signing their multi-million dollar record deals. They're huge record deals and tour deals for tours. I'm sure they've signed a couple of those.

Yeah, deals for tours. Certainly their backstage writers, I believe, have this name somewhere on those pages. Maybe they shorten it occasionally to some of the other names i said but i believe at least once per contract you need to get the entire full name and that can i just jump in here real quick yeah please yeah please do after you announce the name of the band uh i was just gonna let you know again after you announce sure i'm not gonna do it now but

after you announce i'm gonna let you know what i call them oh this is a treat for our first episode yeah well just you know to both save time and just sort of my knee-jerk name for this band uh isn't uh i don't say the full name i i shorten it uh but go ahead. Okay. All right. Well, that sounds weird, but I guess on the other side of this, we'll find it. It's weird. Okay. All right. Well, this is a band by the name of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now, Adam, don't leave me hanging.

Don't leave my cock swinging in the wind whoa okay hit me what do you call this band i just like uh as a i guess it's an you could it qualifies as a nickname and it's just something if it rolls off the tongue pretty easily for me i don't know about you sometimes i just call them the chili peppers yeah i guess that makes sense right that's like half of their name although technically it's more like two-thirds of their name because of the syllables involved no you're right and believe me if someone doesn't know what i'm talking about i'm you'll clarify jump in there and clarify the red hot chili peppers is not a big deal let's role play that a little bit why don't you sure yeah i'll be a person uh uh that you just met oh okay we'll say this is a party and we're just meeting for the first time sure oh yeah hey okay yeah no i'll talk to you later excuse me sir hello you seem interesting thank you i am interesting my name is Adam. What is your name? My name is Rod. Hi, Rod. Where are you from?

Rochester. Chili Peppers. What? Sorry? Who? Where are you from? I thought you were going to tell me where you were from. Rochester. Chili Peppers. What? Sorry? What? Who? Oh, I'm sorry, Rod. what who chill oh i'm sorry rod the red hot chili peppers that makes sense goodbye bye that was a good interaction between those guys yeah that's how it usually goes and um so just i'm not saying that's what we have to call them for this this new show i don't know i don't know whether i can get there if you know what i mean no i i get what you're saying and that's why i'm leaving it you know optional it's open-ended at this point like if i if eventually i can wrap my brain around it i will call them the chili peppers all right well i don't know i mean i gotta say i'm a big big red hot chili peppers fan the red hot chili peppers fan and i've never heard anyone shorten it like

that but sure so it's a little strange i don't know whether i can sort of figure it out but we'll see we'll see over the course of this show i hear you and no worries uh either way i'm i'm thank you that's so nice so you're okay no matter what where i land on this either way yes okay that's nice to know um this is a show about the red hot chili peppers and this is an ongoing podcast we're doing is that right it sure is why are you asking me this is not a one-off joke oh uh no i mean what should we why do you why is this the band maybe we should talk about that why yeah let's talk, let's talk about this band that I have always called the Chili Peppers. Let's talk about them. Well, I've always called them that, but it's fine.

Well, I don't know about you, but do people often throw bands at you of other bands that would be good for a podcast? Here's what happens. Most people think of a name first so we get a lot of talking heads requests because of our previous names you talking you too to me are you talking rem me has talking in those titles so we get a lot of you talking talking heads you heads talking talking heads stuff like that yeah most people think of the title first and then the band that they want to hear is seems secondary interesting all right see you next time bye oh wait no we still have more to do um it seemed like you had a point though no i mean i just feel like there's a lot of options

we've had radio head thrown at us we've had the stroke i've had the strokes the other day thrown at me like literally stroking it the other day but we felt like this was a great band because they're you know it's a long story as far as like the you know the band story and there's a lot of ups and downs and uh ins and outs if you know what i mean uh I mean, and they sing about those ins and outs. And we'll be talking about that a little later in the show. Yeah, some bands, look, we realize this will be a divisive choice. Yeah. At best.

But some bands, like, let's take Radiohead. Big fan of Radiohead. Probably seen them more times than any other band, except maybe the Vandals, because I'm friends with the Vandals. But they don't, not a lot went on behind the scenes with them. Yeah, not high drama. Kind of boring guys. And boring in a good way, where they seem, if not happy,

they seem comfortable with their success, and they go out and they make good records, and they tour and they have fun. Nice people. Nice people. Don't know whether that's interesting to talk about necessarily. Not exactly. What's the behind the music material from Video Hits One? Do you remember that station? It was a cable channel. I loved that station. Remember, behind the music was a big deal it was a bit i mean when it was such a ratings hit that when you got one it was like yes it was like getting an unplugged or something like i know and it started out as like motley crew and bands like that that yeah it started it started out as just like cheap programming that VH1 could use like old clips, you know,

that they'd had lying around and cobble them together and go, Hey, behind the music, here's a documentary about a band. But then it became like a big, I mean, I don't like to say this a lot, but a BFD. Yeah. A big fudging deal. That's right. So did you ever get one made of you? I did.

And it was really weird. It was strange because... What about you, Scott? I had one made of me and it was a weird episode because within the first, I have to say, 60, 75 seconds, they admitted that I don't have any records out and don't play music. don't have any records out and have don't play music and then they just it was kind of like a combination of me staring at the camera and going uh what what and them saying i don't well i don't know and i think we all just kind of like realized about a minute a minute and a half in that it was going nowhere but we had to fill the hour because they'd sold all the commercials at that point you understand oh yeah you remember in parks and rec when they would come to you and go it was going nowhere but we had to fill the hour because they'd sold all the commercials at that point you understand oh yeah you remember in parks and rec when they would come to you and go

it was usually about from what i can tell on a normal show you tape one episode a week about day three day four the network will come to you and go guys we sold all the commercials for this episode and then everyone on the cast and crew would applaud and then some days it gets down to the wire where it's like coming up i mean you guys were on thursday at 8 30 sometimes they like at 805 or something you'd get that call like okay okay we sold all the commercials and we would all start clapping i'll start clapping some i mean and then there are those weeks where it's like you filmed day one three hours and suddenly they come and go you're never gonna guess we sold them all and then you can just coast that week and the episode doesn't have to be good

you know so you guys try less hard which episodes were those the ones where we didn't try hard yeah can you name one uh no i don't even know what that means. So, in any case, behind the music, I mean, for the Red Hot Chili Peppers would be insane. So much happened to this band, right? Yeah. And what about your, like, feelings? Are you a fan? Have you been a fan for a long time?

I mean, are you trying? I think what you're trying to ask me, probably, if I had to guess, is when did I hear of the Red Hot Chili Peppers? That's right. That's what I'm trying to get to. That's what I'm digging for. Well, I would say just come out and say it. Don't be a coward and just say it. You know what? You're're right scott when did you first hear of the red hot chili peppers i would say i first heard of the red hot chili peppers probably in 1984 maybe 1985 i saw the video for true men don't kill coyotes on probably video one the richard blade hosted a video show that was an hour here in california on kcal 9 yeah um and i remember if i remember

that video correctly gosh i'm just gonna take a stab they were shirtless was that their first video that was their first video yes and i remember thinking like oh that's an interesting name first of all i uh back in the early 80s if you had like a weird name it would get a lot of attention you know like wall of voodoo or you know something you know bands up to then it'd be like boingo yeah we can go boy the mystic knights of the wango boingo bands up till then had been the eagles the strokes you know the strokes have been around since like the late 70s death from above 1979 that was a band that came out in the early 80s and you were like what an interesting name okay so the chili peppers the red hot chili

peppers come along and you're like hey what's this name huh i look i might call them just the chili peppers i remember thinking that to myself i made a little note i love it in my diary i said remember this um but i remember thinking like yeah i mean i i will say let's hear a little first of all let's hear a little bit of that song. This is from their debut album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is True Men Don't Kill Coyotes. Coyotes. First song on the album.

First song on the album. Let's hear a little bit of it here. It's almost like he's saying, hoorah, like Al Pacino. Hoorah, like Al Pacino. Hoorah. Hoorah. So it's kind of, it's not like a lot of alternative music at the time. Alternative music.

No, that slapping bass was not, it's not something you were hearing all the time. Should we talk about the members? Yeah yeah we should probably jump into the members the ever revolving yes that's another great thing about this band is there's this this long epic story about the they've had so many guitarists um let's talk about the two who have been there in every incarnation. Slappin' that bass, of course. You heard him on the four string just moments ago. We're, of course, talking about Fleek. Fleek is the best.

Incredible. Well, yeah. And would you say, and listen, I'm going to say something controversial here, and you can react. I want to hear your real reaction. I'm going to try to calm down first. I'm sitting down. Don't worry.

Okay. Go ahead. Hit me. Would you say that his bass playing is the signature sound of the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Oh, fuck you. Fuck you. I know. It's a weird thing to say. Fuck you, dude.

Fuck you. This is why I wanted you to calm down before I brought this up. Get the fuck out of my face right now. This is fucking bullshit. Just let it out. It's fucking bullshit. Let it out. We will get there.

God, I'm just so angry about this. Scott, look at me look what if what if you didn't say that and i i said something different uh you know what i'm just gonna accept it okay yeah you're right see thank you and thank you for being honest i tried to go through all the stages of of grief during that but i may have forgotten what in dabda it goes uh denial anger bargaining then what's the d after that um denial i'd said denial didn't i that's the first one uh i can't remember anyway i tried to go through them all but i forgot that d um and hey forgetting that d speaking to somebody who never forgets about that d adam scott is here so uh let's all let's talk about the the guy on um he carries a microphone with him

on everywhere he goes everywhere he goes and he never forgets during a uh a red hot chili peppers performance um he is he sings he raps what else he shakes his little butt raps i think that's a pretty apt description he shakes his little butt though songs sure he writes songs yeah on his when he's not on stage it'd be kind of weird if he was writing songs while he was on the stage i guess you could during sound check you didn't say you said he carried a microphone you said he sings and raps you didn't mention that he sings and raps into that microphone. Oh, that's true. Yeah, he does most of that.

Most of the time. Sometimes I will say you'll see a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert and he'll be singing and rapping and you'll go, dude, dude, pick up your microphone. Do it inside that. It will amplify your voice. And he's like, oh, shit. Sorry. Thanks.

Sorry. Sorry, everyone. Then he apologizes and goes, I oh shit sorry thanks sorry sorry everyone then he apologizes goes i'm sorry i'm sorry let's talk about him though of course we're talking about on lead vokes anthony kitties all right those two guys between fleek and kitties they are in every incarnation of the band every record features those guys prominently. Occasionally, whomever mixes those records, and I don't even know who they are, will turn up Anthony's vocals so you can hear them.

And occasionally, he'll turn down those vocals and turn up that bass so you can hear that bass. That's right. Because sometimes you just got to hear that bass. You got to hear it. There's so many songs I'll be listening to and I'll be like, wait a minute. Where's that bass?

Yeah, got to hear that bass. Got to hear that bass. It's all about that bass. It's all about that bass. Anyway, those two guys are in every version of the band. Would you say they are the core of the band? I don't know that I would go that far. That seems...

The constant? I wouldn't even say that. Oh, all right. I would probably... It seems like by definition they are, but... It's pretty dicey material there. I'd probably stay away from that. I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole, probably.

Oh, Jesus. All right. But I'm a 6'3 pole, so hey, we'll see. That's really funny. That was a Lenny and Squeaky joke, I believe, on an episode of Laverne and Shirley. Wow. I believe our good friend Michael McKeon, who I, by the way, would love to have on this show. Yeah.

What better guest on a show devoted to the Red Hot Chili Peppers than Michael McKeon, member of Spinal Tap? No, no better guest no doubt we would want him on this show 100 worked with him a couple of times could not be a more generous uh performer as an actor did he do bang bang he did an episode of bang bang he played zeus i also worked with him on mr show He played a substitute teacher in a sketch. Those two work experiences were, if I had to say, they were 18 years apart, 17 years apart, something like that. And I tell you, we picked right back up where we started. He walked in. I was like, all right, sir, action.

And then he acted and I said, all right, cut and then he acted and i said all right cut and he left and it was just amazing i thought you were gonna say you picked up right where you left off with hi i'm scott ackerman no he uh he he is a great guy uh i worked with him once on um do you remember me telling you about the tom selleck sitcom called the closer that i had like two oh yeah we've talked by the way is this an episode of talking about keen oh yeah hey everyone welcome to talking about keen this is scott and this is scott i think i threw an extra syllable in that you did talking about talking about keen which is not the title of the show it's talking about keen um and we're just talking about a one

of the world's greatest actors michael mckeon a great comedian great actor great person i would say great great performance as always even on better call saw he's excellent even on that a show that you wouldn't you wouldn't think that you wouldn't think anyone would be good on that on on one of the best dramas on television right now you wouldn't expect anyone you'd expect to just turn that show on and see someone take it a dump but no yeah so i was on this this show the closer i think that's what it was and yeah he was at craft service and i was like i'm gonna wait was he acting on the show or did he just go by craft circus service he was just

hanging out at craft service he was acting on the show and fuck is that the show i think that's the show and do you want me to look up your service yeah? Yeah. See if he did a guest spot. Otherwise, it was some other job. But I kind of sidled up next to him nervously, and I said, He did not. He didn't ever. He was never on The Closer. I'm going to look up Michael McKeon and Adam Scott. We should have been on the same episode of The Closer. I'm going to look up Michael McKeon and Adam Scott. We should have been on the same episode of The Closer.

I'm telling you. Michael McKeon, Adam Scott. You know who else was on that episode was Tom Selleck. Yeah, it says he was on it. Arthur Wilhaven for two episodes. His Wikipedia says he was on it. There you go. Arthur, were you on that show all the time or something no i i had one you had one of his two episodes you were in yeah and i had like two lines and the whole thing got cut what were your lines

do you remember it's like hey it's not even on my it's i not even on the IMDB for it because it. Because you were cut out. Because I was cut out. That's interesting. You should try to, occasionally you can petition IMDB to add you to something if you were cut out. You know what?

I'm gonna sue. Yeah. Hedy Barres is the name of the girl who, that's the woman who played his daughter and i was like her punk rock boyfriend did you have did you have uh let's see i was watching the terminator the other day and uh there are a bunch of punks at the beginning that arnold schwarzenegger steals their leather jacket from, all their clothes, because he's naked at the top.

And one of them is Bill Paxton, and it's so funny, because he has the spiky hair and everything. It's like if you were playing a punk, did you have the spiky hair? Did you have the multicolored? I remember thinking the punk rock outfit they chose was super

lame, and I because it was very much a sitcom version of a punk rocker it was like the chips in punk episode yeah but like in 1997 or whenever this was so it was way lamer and did you tell them that and And that's, that's why I was like, Hey, do you think, uh, is this supposed to be like a punk rocker? Is that what this is? And, and they didn't want me to say talk at all. Um,

but I remember being like, Oh my God, I'm working with Michael McKean, even though we weren't in any scenes or anything. And remember those early days when you're like you know what i'm an actor he's an actor we have that in common show together he now we're on the same level so i can go talk to michael mckean and he's gonna be psyched to talk to me because i'm and not that he out of i will say out of a lot of people i've worked with he probably would have

been he's he's one of those guys who's so generous and so nice to all the other actors that i i bet he would have been very uh engaged in your conversation at least i'm sure he would have been if i was he didn't punch you in the fucking face and and not such a lame-o because i think i just went up to him at craft service and said so uh i really really like the big picture um we just a great movie uh you know like i was trying to find like the obscure performance instead of maybe like going up to him and going like, yeah, like you're amazing in spinal tap,

you know, something that he would go, Oh, okay. But instead you're just picking something that he was, it wasn't even his movie is creation. No. And it's like a dramatic role of his and he's excellent, of course,

but right. But he was just like, Oh, thank you very much. And just kept kind of like trolling for snacks. And that was the entire interaction. Wow. Yeah.

Not bad, though. Not the worst interaction you've ever had with other celebrities when you were a young person. Not even close. Stephen Toblowski was the other person in that episode. Oh, really? How was he? How's Toblouse?ouse to blouse how you like about mississippi burning because i love that movie he because i'm not going to go into why

he's so great in mississippi burning but he sat down and talked to me for like half an hour about mississippi really what a guy it was really cool yeah amazing anyway anyway uh look i could talk about michael mckean stories all day uh the concerts i saw him at uh after the mr show where i would wave hi at him and he would wave hi at me back but look we're out of time on this episode we gotta go we'll see you next time what concerts uh Let's see. I saw him at an Elvis Costello concert. Wow. And you got a wave. I got a little wave.

Well, it was right after the Mr. Show, too. So I was like, hey, remember me, Mr. Show? And he's like, hey. And we chatted for a bit. Also, the woman that I was with knew him as well. So it got a little bit of runoff from her. I would think. Listen, between the two of us, we've got some solid keen time. You look, man, I don't beyond maybe Christopher Guest and Bob Odenkirk. I don't know who has more

keen time than we do. Certainly not like the average Joe on the street. And until Bob Odenkirk and Christopher Guest or Harry Shearer start a podcast about him, right now, we're the only ones. That's right. All right. We'll see you next time on Talking About Keen. Bye. Pretty solid. I think it, yeah.

pretty solid i think it yeah the story about the craft service kind of started off very tantalizing and then went nowhere in my opinion but sort of like yeah terrible story sort of like how you know how serial uh the first podcast got its hooks into everyone everyone's like oh gosh wow amazing and then at the end it was like really um it was a lot like that yeah it was it was exactly like that because the massive popularity of massive popularity look if you're comparing talking about keen to cereal it's in good company that's right that's right um why were we talking about about keen michael mckean why were we talking about him well we were talking about him because uh he's in spinal tap oh he'd be great on the show he'd be a great great on the show he would be great on the show so michael look someone's gonna tag you i'm sure i believe you follow me on twitter

someone will tag you say hey you got you got to get on this show i just want to talk chili peppers with you dude i'll bet this guy this guy has a thing i think he has a few opinions about the chili peppers believe you me yeah i think so yeah so how do you feel about the chili peppers in general? I know I had a conversation with our mutual friend, Tall John, maybe two years ago where we were talking about the chili peppers. It was kind of a test run for this show that we're doing. You mean like between the two of you, just talking about them, seeing how that would go?

Yeah, we were talking RHCP to each other how that would go yeah we were talking rhcp to each other and we both admitted that even though they are not certainly in vogue stereo gum or pitchfork they're probably gonna slam whatever they're doing these days we we both admitted that uh we grew up liking them have a fondness for them still enjoy listening to them uh much to the uh bemused eye rolling of our uh each other's wives uh his wife will roll her eyes at me and my wife will roll her eyes at him of course um and uh we're still look we still like listening to him what about you yeah it's sort of the same that like i got on board at blood sugar sex magic when they became a huge band and have kind of been i guess what i'm asking is when did you when did you first hear of red hot chili peppers when did

i first hear of them uh probably around the same time you did. I remember my friend Kemper, his sister would go see them down at the civic auditorium in Santa Cruz. And so I would, we were like in the second grade or something. And we would go with his mom to go pick her up after the concert at the civic auditorium. I feel like that happened a couple of times. Like they were, this is like 83, 84, I feel like that happened a couple times. Like they were, this is like 83, 84, something like that. Probably post 84 after they put out a record. Yeah, I'm just thinking of how young I was and it wouldn't have made sense after like 83

that we would be, anyway. Right, okay. So maybe they were just prepping, I mean, they were, I don't know whether they were they were touring around yeah maybe you know i read both the flea and anthony autobiographies have you read those yet i haven't read them um i i'm probably going to leave those to you to uh uh for you to pop in and uh sort of shoulder a little bit of the burden here in the biographical history they're both pretty good like they're both really entertaining and and uh and fun i just listen i

listen to them actually um so yeah like you said it's sort of they're sort of like a band that that you feel like you're gonna get some eye rolls when you if you admit that you like them which is kind of a weird thing because they're they have great they have some great records but some people just really hate them and you get the feeling like it is in you know it's like not cool to like them um but only if you're like thinking about like you said like pitchfork stereo gum or kind of music people so there are there are certain things in these records that we'll be going through and we and look if you've never heard one of our previous uh shows we're going to be going through every album here and talking about every single one.

And there will not be anything left uncovered. No stone left unturned when it comes to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We're going to talk about it all. There will be no need for you to read Anthony Kitty's book or Fleek's book. We're going to cover all of it here. So by the end of listening to this series of shows you will know everything there is to know about i mean look we've already talked about them so much up to this point yeah you know we've covered just about everything already so we've covered 95 i would say

though we were we were kind of thinking about another band to do if we did another podcast and when john frusciante rejoined the group just a few months ago it was exciting i got so excited that i was it occurred to me like maybe these are the guys we should do a podcast about and you were like yeah you i think you said you had even thought about it before like we were both sort of on the same page about it um i wouldn't go that far but i will say that uh that i'm excited so is are you saying this is a purely uh my creation thinking of this band oh no no we no we go 50 50 on this don't try to take my fucking money. Yeah, no. Money always right down the middle. Right down the middle.

Maybe, I mean, yeah. I take a little off the top. Sir, sure. I wet my beak before it gets to you. You know what I mean? You gotta wet the beak a little bit. But after that, 50-50. Listen, I know what I'm getting into here.

But no, we are approaching the show probably some of the songs we hear we will not be great in hindsight uh now but uh uh we're approaching it as fans that's right and these first few albums i actually don't know that well i think mother's milk on i know quite well right i listened to all of these uh we'll talk about when we first heard them but look we do have to take a break before we really roll up our sleeves and uh just jam our elbows into this elbows first like always always so we are going to come right back with more uh adam and i are going go we're gonna be talking about their first two

albums and the creation and formation of the band uh we will be right back with more are you talking rhcp remy after this we'll be right back you know what those instruments mean it could only be one band that's right the red hot chili peppers welcome back Welcome back. When you hear that combination of instruments, guitar, drums, bass, it can only be one band. Oh, yeah. The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I figured that's who you were talking about. Welcome back to Are You Talking RHCP Remy.

Adam and I are here, and we're talking about the chili peppers and uh let's talk about them let's first of all talk about the uh formation of the band yeah we're talking uh four guys are in high school uh fairfax high not too far away from where we are recording right now uh and uh four guys you got the aforementioned fleek and anthony kitties and then you also have on guitar you have halal slovak and on drums you have uh jack irons yeah jack irons is incredible and now uh and for years of Pearl Jam fame. So those four guys started this band as a joke, I believe, in high school. What were they called originally?

They were called... Oh, when they were like improvising on stage? Yeah. Tony Flo and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. Yeah, they were just like punk rock skater kids and uh and they all just sort of found each other at fairfax high and started fucking around and playing music uh you read his autobiography he's he he's kind of started out as the musical kind of the real musical genius in the in the band did he not what's his background yeah and he was he was primarily focused on if i remember correctly on jazz and kind of saw rock music as kind of you know he's kind of looked down his nose at rock

music and thought it was dumb but then punk rock came along and that really struck a chord with him and and then he of course discovered funk and and all of this was happening as he kind of met these other guys and they all were interested in the same same music and skateboarding and smoking pot. And they just all kind of, you know, blended together into this little era and this little like musical community. And they were really young. Like you said, they were in high school. They were in high school.

Were they in high school when they started tour, like playing or just playing around Los Angeles? What essentially happened was they played a, from what I can a uh from what i can understand from what i've read they played a uh a gig where they just kind of improvised and right and anthony kitty's um like improvised raps and stuff like that over it and uh jack irons and hillel were both in uh a different band that they thought was going to be more popular. Oh, yeah.

So they were like, we're not in this band. But then they got booked for the next week at the same place. Apparently, it went well. Although I cannot imagine improvising raps over that it was any good but um but this is right at the kind of not the dawn but it was early in the years of hip-hop at least to mainstream audiences so people were just like whoa what's this guy doing so um they got asked back and then um so they they, you know, they were the founding members. Now, it goes a little while, they get a record deal, and Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons bow out,

and they're no longer in the band. Yeah, because they're in What Is This?, which at the time in L.A., they were getting kind of big and and everyone thought they were gonna be like this big deal right um no they were not a big deal and uh hardly anyone's ever heard of them now but uh those guys departed and uh so for the first they get a a record deal and we're gonna listen to the songs on this uh and uh the self-titled debut red hot chili peppers has uh a guy by the name of jack sherman is playing guitar yeah now jack sherman i'm looking at his wikipedia page here and i he he

it doesn't doesn't really have a lot on his wikipedia page and he also was not inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame along with everyone else like that sucks when the red hot chili peppers were inducted like anyone practically who had ever played on a record as a red hot chili pepper got inducted uh cliff martinez who's on drums he for the first two records he's inducted and i was like cliff martinez he was in the chill i didn't even remember he was in the chili peppers yeah i didn't know that either till one of the two books i read i was like whoa because i love his his he's yeah he's uh he scores a lot of modern films and big fan a lot of sodaberg films including contagion and stuff and i i have a lot of modern films and big fan, a lot of Soderbergh films, including Contagion and stuff.

And I have a lot of his scores, his film scores. And I was like, he was in the Chili Peppers? Yeah. He's been doing Soderbergh stuff since the first movie, too. Yeah. He's been doing it a while. So, in any case, Jack Sherman, he's out of luck. He thought it was very unfair and that he deserved to be inducted.

But I guess maybe he's only on the one album. But then again, like Dave Navarro is only on the one album too. So, oh, he was not inducted. Yeah, I don't know. I think anyone who is an official member and plays on a record, you should induct. But in any in any case i agree i think that's totally shitty yeah so in any case the lineup we have cliff martinez on drums uh jack sherman on guitar and uh this is uh

you want to hear we of course heard uh true men, don't kill coyotes, coyotes. Uh, that's kind of the classic sound at the time with like a lot of slapping bass and then, uh, like macho rapping. Yeah. Let's,

let's hear, uh, the rest or just like, yeah, here's track two. Let's dip into it. Let's dip in a little. Here's track two.

This is called Baby Appeal. You get it. Yeah. You know, also, Andy Gill is the producer of four yeah so uh andy gill really weird choice well i i kind of get it because okay their head there really was never a band like the red hot chili peppers up to this point so they hear maybe the guitar sounds and they're like well gang of four kind of had a post-punk incorporated some elements of funk into that so it kind of makes sense as a producer maybe but he i think was trying to push it into a gang of four kind of area and this like really reverb-y Todd Glass sound doesn't really suit them. Todd Glass from our other show, Stained Glass, of course.

Yeah, sorry, from Stained Glass fame. It doesn't really suit them. I feel like when they're... Like the George Clinton one, the next album, it's a little better because the bass is brought up a bit more. Do you want to skip this record here well no but i'm just saying like this one let's hear a little bit more weird yeah and the guitarist just isn't a lot of reverb on the guitar

but you you can just tell this guitarist, Jack Sherman, is just not the right guy. I mean, look, if you're listening, Jack, we're sorry. We don't want to talk shit about your guitar playing. It's better than I could do. Yeah. Oh, he's way better than you could do. He's about as good as you can do. I feel like he's obviously good at playing guitar.

It just doesn't sound like he's in the right band. Well, it's also the way it's recorded a little bit. One story that I read was... And they did not get along with Andy Gill, by the way. No. By the end of the process. They hated him. They took Andy Gill's notebooks when he stepped out of the room.

And they looked at his notes for the record, and right by the title of the song, Police Helicopter, which we'll hear a little bit of it, he just wrote one word, which was shit. And they, and as Anthony, as Anthony Kittis says, he was like, well that that song is is everything the red hot chili peppers wanted to be so why would you say let's hear a little bit of that this is police helicopter Yeah, this sounds pretty, like, early Chili Peppers-y.

I mean, I can only imagine, if you're Andy Gill and you're part of Gang of Four, pretty cool band. Yeah. Like, the critical consensus is, is you know you were doing something pretty on point then you got to hang out with these shirtless guys i know he's like animals um and out in la is kind of a classic early song right let's hear a little out in L.A. The first of many, many songs. Oh, it's still Los Angeles.

Which, by the way, I didn't realize they sing a lot about Los Angeles. Do you know where we're recording right now? Los Angeles. Yeah. I know. It's crazy. It's fucking crazy. They did a cover of

Why Don't You Love Me like you used to do, which I used to like listening to. Let's hear a little bit of that. yeah this is so of the time although they were creating this style in a way i mean sure it has elements of other stuff like bad brains and yeah um and the punk rock especially in that police helicopter song you could hear the descendants and some of the punk rock, especially in that Police Helicopter song, you could hear the Descendants and some of the punk rock at the time, kind of Dead Kennedys sort of seeping in there a bit. So they are creating this style. I remember it was when this came out. I didn't get this right when it came out. The first record I got by them was the Uplift Mofo Party Plan in in 1987 and then i went back and got these two um but i do remember they were unlike any other band i mean that that style of like oh yeah you

know punk meets that the funky funky bass funky funky bass was just the songwriting which ends up being central to their success i think not there yet really yeah not quite there yet and maybe uh um the lineup had something to do with that um yes it's uh let's hear a little bit of mommy where's daddy i remember enjoying that song let's hear a little bit of that see how that holds up what about that out in la demo i wonder what that sounds like a little bit of that. See how that holds up. What about that Out in L.A. demo? I wonder what that sounds like.

It sounds like Out in L.A. but shittier. Oh, cool. I remember liking this song because it's a little, it's not in that aggressive kind of space. It's a little more more of a funk song.

By the way, Fleek, you know, also a great trumpet player. Although he's not playing here. Yeah, I think he was mainly a horn player when he was a kid. He played trumpet. He, um... By the way,

we should talk about this band's connections. Probably one of the reasons that I got into them and liked them was their connection to another LA band, Fishbone. Yeah. I was a big Fishbone

fan. Me and my friends. I remember seeing Fishbone. The first time I saw Fishbone was in 1985 at a place called Fenders in Long Beach. And a band called No Doubt opened for them and it was uh their

second singer gwen stefani's first show and um they opened for fishbone and we were like i mean i like i like ska music but uh we weren't incredibly impressed with her. But Fishbone, my friends and I would go see them all the time. Oh, they were a huge deal. And so the fact that Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone both incorporated punk and funk into their rock music uh was was very important at the time that said listening to their debut again i hadn't heard it in um we listened to it for the show i hadn't heard it in a few years previous to this it's uh you know it's i i have memories associated with it but i wouldn't call it like a good album necessarily. No, not really. They're just, it was actually pretty successful though.

I mean, for like a super weird new kind of melding of music, what, it sold like 300,000 copies, which that's not bad. Did it sell that at the time or just in retrospect? I have no idea. But it was like played on MTV and stuff. Like it was minorly successful and they toured and they kind of became, they were like apparently just, even before they made records, right when they started playing,

they started filling these venues, small venues, but they were like popular right away because they were so weird right yeah i mean they had a they had a lot going for them to call attention to them their name the fact that anthony kiddies is uh you know essentially a like could have been a model um and was shirtless and had like you know well i don't want to the ladies like him i don't i don't want to judge his body that's not what this show is all about but i mean it's not on a scale of one to ten it's a fucking ten oh yeah it's terrific terrific physique um and i i do have to say like i would look at them and their videos and go like, how much of the day does he spend working out?

Does he talk about that in his book? No, I don't think, no. And I wonder if it's that or if it's just them just always running around and being. And then also being on heroin. I don't, you know, but I got a sense, though, when you look at him, because I had a friend that i went to college with who had a body like that right just like total six-pack abs big muscles right and i said to him once and we were in theater school where we had to be there either at 7 a.m or at 8 a.m i think it was 8 a.m we had to be there at 8 a.m and we had to be there at 8 a.m. And we had to be there until 11 p.m., right?

Right. And I said to him once, like, so how often and for how long do you work out? Expecting, like, it can't be that, I mean, it can't be that much, you know? And I'm thinking in my mind, like, well, maybe I could do this. And he said, it's every day like two hours a day yeah i was like what before school every day you were he's like yeah i just get up really early and then i go into the gym for two hours a day i'm like it's how is anyone supposed to achieve that and still be good at what they do some people get into the habit of doing that like as kids like or like you guys

you ever see those really muscular kids yeah like toddlers they they start lifting they start lifting tonka trucks above their heads yeah it's pretty amazing there are those like ripped little kids on youtube it's so weird it's really i love it um in any case i i mistrusted uh the band because of that um because of of of their shirtless antics but um they they really were uh creating something new so you got to give them credit for that yeah for sure um look we need to take another break before we get to their second album how's that sound sounds great um so we're gonna come right back we're gonna be talking more about this band right here if you want to hear more of this come on back

remember that songwriting that you said they got good at? Yeah, this is from a later album. We'll be right back with more Are You Talking RHCP? We'll be right back. Welcome back. Are You Talking RHCP? are you talking rhcp remy uh adam scott and i going through the discography of la's finest the red hot chili peppers and uh we didn't spend a lot of time on um that first record and uh we're probably not going to spend a ton of time on this one, but, uh, we're going to talk about, yeah.

What do you, you, you have something to say? You know, I will say like, we were saying like people like it's not always in, sometimes it's like, you feel like you should be embarrassed to like be a fan of the band.

And I will say sometimes it is embarrassing being a fan of the band, like through the years. Now it's been like 20 years since they started liking them sometimes they're they do like i remember when the dave navarro phase i've liked them for now 30 33 ish years and how many times have they gone into a phase where you're like oh jesus christ you guys it's you know what it is is like i would say up to through blood sugar it was exciting when a new record came out and you could listen to it and play it for your friends and everyone be like fuck yeah this is good and then around the dave navarro phase after that it became

a little like embarrassing in the in the sense of like you could no longer put it on and everyone be super excited about it unless it was yeah one of their big big hits you know that yeah anyway so it's more of an in retrospect thing you know like if you go back now and listen to the records there's plenty that you kind of like go i don't know well yeah but also like now i'm of an age where i'm not embarrassed about liking anything because who gives a shit but you're i mean you're about to die we we haven't we haven't told the listeners this that i'm in my late 80s yeah well we uh you wanted to do the show and this is sort of like your last request so i'm just humoring it that's right you don't you've never even thought about this band all All right. Well, let's talk about their next record.

This came out in 1985 in a little month that I like to call the dog days of August. And this is a record called Freaky Styly. Freaky Styly. Now, let's talk about- I remember this being a big deal. I did not. I remember this not being a big deal. did not i remember this not being a big deal weirdly enough this one flew totally under the radar i saw that true true men uh don't kill coyotes

video and then i did not hear about the chili peppers again until uplift mofo i think this one kind of just there wasn't even really a single that anyone played or a video that i ever saw maybe it was because i it was in the record collection of my friend's sister oh okay maybe it wasn't a big deal i was just because that record cover is pretty great and it's hard to forget but anyway this is a george clinton one right yes so let's talk about what happened since the previous record um the self-titled first record came out uh they did not like working with andy gill um and then uh jack sherman after the tour was fired right and uh cliff martinez is still with us but uh hello slovak he's tired of playing with what is this and so much to everyone's surprise he's like hey why don't i join the chili peppers again and everyone's like fuck yeah yeah what is

this was sort of just not really not happening achieving liftoff i couldn't even name any other songs do you know any other songs no i do not yeah so they were looking for uh a new producer they did not like andy gill from gang of four the first producer the band worked with was malcolm mclaren the great malcolm mclaren oh right who you know sex pistols adam and the ants bow wow wow um you know as well as his solo stuff but he's one of those like impresario types who wants to create it and so malcolm mclaren gets a hold of him and he says okay what i want you guys to do is change your whole style and play like 1950s rock and roll like doo-woppy stuff and then make anthony kitties like this like a fonzie type central character yeah it's so hilarious and they were like uh no no thank you so they're trying to come up with someone that can produce the record and um because a lot of

people compared them to parliament funkadelic they said hey what if we work with george clinton of course the uh impresario behind parliament funkadelic uh and this is whose records they were so influenced so influenced by their first album and so basically george clinton is paid uh 25 grand to produce the record and they move to just outside of detroit where a lot of the p-funk players are and george clinton has a house jack sherman before he left the band he wrote most of these songs with uh the guys so he he pops up in the writing yeah but george clinton wants them to move to outside of detroit um so that they can write new stuff and spend a month together before they get into the studio right so they move into

george clinton's house immediately anthony kitties is going through heroin withdrawal because he is constantly taking heroin out in la and now he has no heroin out in detroit um so he's just sick for the first week essentially that they're supposed to be working just throwing up and yeah but they all start taking cocaine and then uh he levels off and he starts feeling better. So then they take massive, massive amounts of cocaine, which if you look at their Wikipedia, it says the band and Clinton began using copious amounts of cocaine together, which had a negative effect on the band's overall health. Which is a fun little tip, a little factoid on their Wikipedia page. But when... Funny how that happens but when anthony uh records his vocals he decides to abstain from cocaine for those two weeks so he can get some clear takes um of his uh of his his vocals so at the end result we have freaky styli which is um i have a lot of fondness for this record this is the most p-funk sounding record that they that they did yeah for sure

cliff martinez still uh slapping the skins behind them uh we also have some p-funk all-stars from I'm Fred Wesley and Maceo on some horns. And we have Bruce Nazarian mixed some of it. He played with P-Funk. Anyway, so let's hear it. You want to hear some of this, Adam? What do you say? Yeah, yeah, let's hear it. All right, this is, the first track is Jungle Man. Guitar is so much better. Still within their wheelhouse here.

Say that again? It's still in their wheelhouse of, like, laying down a funk bass line with some rapping. Yeah, it's still, it's funny because it's better. They sound more comfortable in their element element or something but it still feels loose it doesn't feel like really pulled together and it's a little reverb-y will reverb yes also of the time everything had reverb on it and the songs it's not really uh this song is not incredible well-written song yeah really it's so what's interesting about this record is the first side of it is like five songs and they're all you know

kind of normal song length between three and a half to five minutes and then the back half of the album is all like little shorty songs like 30 seconds or one minute so it's almost like filler yeah it's like half of a good record but um the next song track two why don't we hear that this is a cover of a song by the meters i guess uh fleek really liked the meters and wanted to do one of their songs and so george clinton said hey what if you take their song africa and make it about your africa which is hollywood and change the name to hollywood so uh this uh i i actually really like this song let's hear a little bit of it this is hollywood on cocaine that sounds like the best idea in the world Of course you hear Maceo

Fred Wesley Who played with James Brown I want to go As fast as I can Sliding on back To the Brothers James Brown. See, they have like this great song structure and they flourish. Yeah. Plus, this is what I like about P-Funk, too. Just, you know, laying down this groove.

Yeah. And just laying into it and having the horns come in. Yes. Yeah, and you can see, like, in 1985, having this playing, it doesn't sound like anything else. This is kind of great. Like, what is this? It's doesn't sound like anything else this is it's kind of great like what is this it's certainly unique so that's a i chalk that up in the w column the what's that the w column that's uh yeah do you know george w bush yeah yeah yeah it's a lot like him you know mission accomplished okay like stuff stuff that that he would like yeah it's a lot like him you know mission accomplished okay like stuff stuff that

that he would like yeah it's him on that helicarrier just saying like we did it mission accomplished yeah um all right this is the third track three american ghost dance this uh i don't know we'll see here we go I do like the horns. There they are. a lot of uh native american imagery here sure didn't he have it does he have a tattoo with like a native american thing on it who knows i think there's some uh maybe some family. I know there's a tattoo. You know, I feel like I've had enough of this song. Sure. Me too. If you want me to stay.

That's a Sly and the Family. Obviously a cover. Yeah, Sly and the Family Stone, although one of my favorite songs on the record. Again, taking a really great song and doing it their way turns out to be successful for them. I did not know this was a sly and the family stone

song when i got the record so i just thought it was one of theirs for a while was this a single they put out i would imagine i think the singles for this like technically the singles were that first song we heard jungle man uh and then and then hollywood uh was also a single um catholic school girls rule also had a video i remember that video i think being on like 120 minutes or something if that existed back then maybe i do like this yeah plus it's him actually leaning a little more into the singing which i think he was probably a little uncomfortable straight singing for a while yeah maybe i had a friend that i was in a band with who was sort of like that like he you know he was like oh i'm not a good singer but he punk sang and i was just like you're

you're singing you're just you know um you're good at singing it's just take off the like shouting kind of element to it and you'll be singing normally um right this is never mind not nirvana's never mind i'm in the middle of june in the summer of 59 i was young and cool and shot a bag game of poo and i hustled all the chips like a vine. Now they call me the swan because I weighed my magic wand and I loved all the women to death. I partied hard, packed a mean rod and I knocked y'all with a right or left. Hard to see George Clinton

letting that slip through quality control. Guess he did, though. Again, cocaine. This song is pretty much just like that pretty pretty standard red hot chili peppers um and then you have the titular freaky styley which uh i remember being pretty good there's a long nine minute version of it on the reissue by the way which is uh i i like it because it's just like the instrumental section over and over with them playing but uh i i do this is a kind of a p funky track here This is pretty cool. I think it builds from here.

Let me cut ahead a little bit. Yeah. Anyway, I enjoy it. Yeah, eventually he does start singing. For all of you Anthony Kitties fans, don't worry. He gets in there. Yeah, that sounds cool, actually. What do you think about side two?

You want to skim through these? Yeah, well, Black Eyed Blonde, they played it in a movie, didn't they? That was on... Did they play it in a movie? Thrashing? Yes, Thrashing with josh brolin that's right let's hear a little bit of from the soundtrack to thrashin this is black eyed blonde you know a lot of this does sound just like kind of standard chili peppers fair i mean this is what they did

it was more like it was a little more interesting when they would do something like if you want me to stay or yertle the turtle which is the last song which is really good um that was always like the kind of promise of like hey if you listen to this band you're not just like just a dumb long kid they also do some interesting things on the record um like i yeah naomi last night was telling me like yertle the turtle as you know like a 12 13 year old or 11 year old at this point like that was cool and weird that they have a song called and funny like which was a dr yeah dr seuss reference yeah and they use a lot of dr seuss stuff in it let's hear a little bit of catholic school girls rule because that was kind of a classic one uh that i think was on was it on the Abbey Road EP? I can't remember,

but I don't remember. Let's hear a little bit of that. Yeah, this was on the Abbey Road EP. When this came out, I liked it. This is the kind of song I think in my high school band that we would have played. Totally. Kind of punk, kind of alluding to sex. kind of alluding to sex.

And, you know, when I was 17, this was the kind of thing that was pretty cool. Now, bear in mind, these guys are almost 30. And in 1985, saying stuff about like Catholic school girls was like, whoa, wait, they're really going there. Well, that was the thing. You could get played on k-rock if you had an interesting title of a song so sparks i remember would do that all the time where it was like i have angst in my pants that was right a guaranteed ad on k-rock

because right you know it was about it was about or all you ever think about is sex that was another spark song that you knew they were going to play because it was about, it was about, or all you ever think about is sex. That was another Spark song that you knew they were going to play because it was about sex. It was kind of clever and no one else would play it in regular rock radio. Let's hear a little song by the name of Sex Rap. Here we go. Alright. all right that was i get that was sex rap again while you're racking up another line

you you hear yourself saying some stuff like hey let's just call it sex rap do you think anyone's gonna listen to episode two of the show i don't know let's hear we talked about it yertle the turtle this was uh this is probably their best original on the record um and features uh george clinton's uh drug dealer uh has a lot of of spoken words on this because I think he wanted George Clinton to pay him or something. And George said he couldn't pay him. So instead gave him some lines on the record. That's right. So remembering some of these stories from their books.

Let's hear Yertle the Turtle. Dr. Seuss inspired. Here it is. Look at that turtle go, bro. This is him. Turtle the Turtle, Dr. Seuss inspired. Here it is. Look at that turtle go, bro. This is him.

Oh, bro. Out of the cage, and here, it was too small. I'm a ruler. All that I see, I don't see enough, and that's the trouble with me. Again, those peafunk horns. Can't get better than them. With a stone for a throne, I'm too low down I cannot look down upon a place beyond So Yer to the turtle king looked at his hand And Yer to the turtle king gave a command He ordered all the turtles under one another's back He piled them high into a tent to the back

Oh, Yer to the turtle, tell the things I now know i'm a king of a clown i'm a king of a mule let's cut a little bit ahead in the outro because i think that's right so this is the kind of song where okay so i'm really into fishbone at the time right this is the kind of song that fishbone would play and would blow your mind and like angelo the lead singer of fishbone would be stage diving and have people taking him all around the club and this i mean this is the this is the kind of stuff i liked back then you know i helped angelo move a couch once really did you i feel like we talked about this on the show but let's uh oh but i want to hear the story again that's essentially the whole story scott It doesn't go much further than that.

I was doing kind of almost janitorial work for this acting studio so I could get free acting classes and in the same building. I mean, if you'd moved all the- Why didn't they work? Yeah, why didn't they work? I don't know. No. I was coming, arriving one day, and he was struggling trying to drag a couch up some stairs,

and I helped him bring him up the stairs. And you knew who he was. Oh, yeah, but I didn't say anything. I would see him around, yeah. But I was pretty excited. I would see him walking down the street. Mainly, I remember one time, La Brea in Hollywood. I saw him just walking down the street with a cane i was like there he is that dude's cool yeah do they still play sometimes sometimes yeah i mean

the a lot of the members there's actually a documentary about them which is really interesting which um i mean they kidnapped their guitar player all sorts of weird shit went down um really yeah it's because he was in a cult or something i mean so they they barely have any of the same members uh i think maybe two of the guys were the same from back then but man i tell you when we saw them between 85 and um i think i even saw them in 2000 ish play a benefit that my friends in the vandals played and a lot of the comedians that i'd befriended i'd start doing comedy in 95 i was like stick around for fishbone they're really really good guys and they were all sort of like snippy and you know like uh sure and then they

all stayed and were and afterwards they were like wow you were right they're fucking amazing yeah they've had some reunion shows here and there it's just kind of a bummer they were like, wow, you were right. They're fucking amazing. Yeah, they've had some reunion shows here and there. It's just kind of a bummer. They never got the just massive success they totally deserve. They never got the massive success that the Chili Pippers. What is it? Pippers, yeah. The Chili Pippers or Jane's Addiction.

Like those guys. Right. The guys from Fishbone play along with flea play play horns on jane's addictions nothing shocking they were all in the anthelonious monster which by the way yep felonious monster i don't think we've talked about this or maybe we have the probably the biggest band that i ever opened for oh did you write open for a felonious Monster once up in San Luis Obispo and uh nice guys and hung out with them a bit uh met Bob Forrest and uh uh he's a big supporter of yes of uh and plays with them quite yes I was fucking stoked to open for them yeah I bet um especially because it was me and my friend just

doing like acoustic punk songs essentially like right proclaimer style but like punk type stuff um like whimsical versions of punk songs sort of it was basically like hearing the friend's theme that's basically that was our style of music um let's hear one last song this was a kind of a b-side recorded around the same time, but I liked this song because it was on one of their EPs that came out circa 1989. This is Millionaires Against Hunger. We're the millionaires against hunger! I remember this.

This was on the Taste the pain single i believe which is why i got it originally it's a lot of that like this early chili pepper stuff it's a lot of that like i'm doing this and i'm here to say and i'm going away and i wish more raps would start with, my name is this and I'm here to say, then one other thing and then now I'm going away. And then they just leave the stage. That's it. That's it. You're done.

It's over. So look, we felt we had to cover them. I certainly have a lot of memories wrapped up in these, but they're not albums that albums that i would necessarily 75 of these songs i would not listen to for pleasure any longer right and i think uh you mentioned his anthony's ketis's drug use and that's a huge part of these early years and this record in particular like you said we've just kind of glossed really struggling over it but yeah uh i mean uh hillel obviously in our next episode with the record we're going to cover uh that's his final record with them because he passed away after that so i mean these guys are all like la punk skater kids who are doing a lot of drugs and uh addicted and struggling for most of it but they love music usually and they love each other and close friends like really close good

buddies i remember them kissing a lot back in the day like and they were always like i will say okay here's the thing they're always kissing to get like, be sort of provocative about it. Like, Hey, we're such good friends. We kiss. And, but then they also, anytime people would bring it up in an interview, like, are you afraid people are going to think you're gay? They would also, they would always be like, who cares? You know, they would always be like, you know, who cares what people think? Um, that's one of the interesting things genuinely interesting things about this band one of the reasons i think they're fascinating is that they have this very fratty like kind of reputation people think of them as this friend and audience and earned as well in the sense of you know that's

a reason why um you know one of the members that we'll get to down the road like eventually leaves is you know he he's just flying on heroin and thinks he can do anything to anyone you know and they're constantly getting laid and it's just it's very rock and roll but uh i i do i do think that's one of the reasons why people have a thing against them is is especially these early records there's not a lot of sensitivity although in interviews i do remember them all being like you know very love friendship oriented guys yeah there's a very hippie California vibe to it as well. And like you said, this they've, you know, from the start, this very kind of anti homophobia stance, which, you know, in these early, you know, these eight in the 80s, in these early days, it wasn't exactly I mean, it was I mean, look, the hugely homophobic culture in America. Let's do a little math. How many songs about L.A. have we heard on these first two records?

Okay, so we have Out in L.A. on the first record. Yeah. And we have Hollywood on the second record. There's Walking Down the Road. Oh, wait, no, I'm looking at Uplift. Okay, so we have two songs about L. in their title so let's keep let's keep a count as we go that's two so far and that's two albums one per album i feel like there might be more coming up in their discography i think i don't really remember i haven't listened to these

records in a long time but i think they sing about la a little bit uh at some point on one of their records and also california from time to time. Yeah, I mean, I guess LA, if you're singing about LA, you're probably singing about California, definitely. Perhaps. Perhaps. Anything else we want to talk about regarding this band currently?

I don't think so. I'm looking forward to this, taking this journey with you, Scott. A musical journey. It is going to be a journey. A musical journey. The Red Hot Chili Peppers dare to ask the musical question, Red Hot Chili Peppers? And they answer it by saying yes. And there is a certain point where they drop the from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Have you noticed that?

I mean, look, it certainly doesn't happen in the first three records no but we probably will get there at some point do you think justin timberlake said to them drop the the just red hot chili peppers it's cleaner you know what's cooler than a million albums doing just 11 just 11 they were gonna do a million albums when they first that was the original the original goal was put out justin timberlake thank god he got a hold of them um all right well we are that's gonna do it for us on this episode we are going to uh give it away back to uh uh your your personal life where you can do anything now uh are you talking to the audience yes you can do anything with your life right

now uh because this is going to be over and as we take this journey uh we scott and i get more and more into the music as the personal yes moves on these two records uh we have the only personal connection we have to them is we got them in retrospect we didn't buy them when they first came out and we're never like super into them but i can tell you uh i do have some stories when it comes to these guys of the personal nature. Okay. So I'm just going to hype that. Cannot wait. Just going to hype that. All right, so that's going to-

Oh, I do too, actually. I have a couple. Oh, cool. Well, if they're as good as that helping Angela with a couch up the stairs, then the listeners are in for- Or the Michael McKean saga. The listeners are in for a lot like what you gave to your dogs just yesterday, a treat.

A-T-R-E-E-T. That's right. All right, that's going to do it for us. We are going to see you next time. I want to thank our fans and everyone who is undoubtedly going to go through this journey with us, either regretfully or enthusiastically. That's going to do it for us. We'll see you next time on the show.

And also, should we also, yeah, just have a quick shout out to anyone that's not feeling so hot and anyone that's taking care of those that aren't feeling so hot. Yeah, whatever. Okay. Until next time,

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