Does that make him a bad drummer? He's doing his job, and doing it very, very well.

It doesn't make him a bad drummer but it doesn't make him a virtuoso either.

Crow thats 100% wrong (no offense). I have een drumming my entire life, and been into funk, rock the entire time, and he is very good. Wtch clips of him and some of his demos. Also many old drummers from huge bands such as Van Halen and whatnot have said in interviews that he is one of the best modern drummers. Hes deceptivly simple. Not only that but he holds all the chili peppers songs together insanely well, and believe me when i say, lota that stuff is not easy to replicate. I have had a tuff time with a lot of it.

ps: watch some of his jams, and bside jams if you get the chance

edit: and hes not a virtuoso because he doesnt want to be, read scar tissue and watch interviews, he doesnt want to be front runner inthe band, and is content where he is

Being a virtuoso means you can essentially play anything. By no means is Chad a bad drummer, but somehow I can't imagine him being able to play, say, "I" by Meshuggah.

You should review Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

I would like that very much :)

Who? I'm saving that for my top 100 list.

Well anyone i guess, its such a good album.

Chad Smith is a fairly decent drummer with some good funky chops. One has to remember his role in the band and then it's clear why he doesn't overplay.

He's a good pocket drummer with great feel.

My review of the same album

That cat must have had one too many chili peppers for lunch

Hope it doesn't burn!

Lol, typical Urban.

He's good, but I wouldn't call him a great drummer by any means. He's tight and plays his part though.

Frusciante and Flea are both excellent musicians however, but on the last 2 RHCP albums their talent has been kinda wasted. I think the most impressive work both of them have done so far this decade was with the Mars Volta, Fleas bass playing on De-Loused is excellent.

Hmm, but the bassline on Dani California's great though.

Yeah.

Btw what do you think of the production on Californication? On really good speakers and headphones you can hear a lot of fuzz and crackle with the drum and bass. But I actually like the lo fo approach that Rick Rubin was going for.

Yah, it sounds better on worse speakers. I prefer his work on BSSM though. He gave them a more melodic take while keeping their edge. Californication lost that edge, I think.

Does anyone else like Frusciantes backing vocals?

I really like it on Californication. And By The Way for that matter.

You know, I think By The Way is better than people give it credit for. Listening to it now. It grows on me with each listen. And listening to it with some good headphones for once I think I might have been too harsh when I said this album is a waste of Flea and Frooshes talent. Its just a bit more low key but theres some solid riffs and basslines to be heard.

Stadium Arcadium is still a huge disappointment though.

I think it's a solid pop album with a few Peppers classics. The t/t is spectacular.

SA has some great tracks too, but that album just screams "should be a single LP".

Yah, Wet Sand, Dani California, Tell Me Baby are all among the band's best work. But there's a huge amount of filler.

That i have to dissagree with, as i feel a good deal of Chili pepper fans will. The double album is also thought would be a flop, and just a bunch of soso filler's, but the more i hear it the more i like every song. Especially disc to, i feel it sums up there last 3-4 albums very well.

Each song on that disc is completely different from the last.

And for disc 1, the singles are defiantly no better than the rest of them.

I f*cking hate Tell Me Baby, can't stand that song. Its so dull and derivitive.

Dani California is a good song though. I loved the video they did where they were just mocking different eras and genres.

I think Flea is very good on the album but the problem is that there's more of a focus on Frusciante. The Peppers are at their best with everyone contributing equally.

That is the one song i forgot to mention. Tell me baby is terrible. I honestly do not know how or why it on the album.

By the Way is excellent IMO and very underrated, but maybe nostalgia is playing a part here. I still can't help but be a bit disappointed with Stadium Arcadium - it feels contrived to me (I know I've said this many times before).

There's nothing wrong with music being poppy, but when it feels contrived, it sounds tedious/weary.


I think Cali's production has too much treble.

I don't like it when people label them "the funkiest white guys in the planet". To me that's just the most stupid-sounding statement of all time. Why do people have to bring race into music discussions. For heaven's sake.

Why did you come here just to whine about that?

Thats far more annoying to me.

I didn't. I came to discuss the album. Then I saw that statement written in the opening thread and got annoyed. I wish people would just stop writing/saying/conceiving of STUPID things like that. Just utterly idiotic, pea-brained stereotypical tripe which people think is alright just because it's not saying anything negative.

Calm down son. How many white people do you know that are real FuNky??

Besides the point.

The implicature of the statement is a stereotype of black people as funky, or that they are somehow inherently more funky. That's a small-minded pigeonholism and a racialistic undertone.

Aside from the statement implying a stereotype of black people and thus displaying incredible ignorance, it is also wrong for the following reason:

there ain't NOTHING the slightest funky about Anthony Keidis and his lameass band.

Proof does wonders...

Ever heard BSSM or Mothers Milk? Apparently not.

I think you are overanalizing the holy hell out of that comment.

I think he was merely stating that RHCP do funk better than any other white artist/band. And thats his opinion, one that I share I might add.

Now you're just being an elitist douche.

Mother's Milk and BSSM have some damn funky moments, it must be said.

I absolutely detest the direction that the Chili Peppers went right after OMH. For me, the peak Chili Peppers was with Hillel Slovek. The original Chili Peppers feel died with Hillel. Mothers Milk and BSSM are good albums, but I am much more partial to the funk in the early Chili Peppers.

...Elitist? How so? Enlighten me! All I said is that there is nothing remotely funky about that band.

And there isn't. The RHCPs are, in case you hadn't noticed over the past 10 years, a mainstream rock band. Not a funk band.

Freaky Styley is a pure Funk album. In fact everything before OHM is extremely funky.

No you went bat**** insane on the ofensive just because a guy used a phrase that you took ridiculously out of context and then of course you insult the band. I think you were just looking for an excuse to be a jerk.

Yeah, but before that they were a funk rock band. That kinda adds a little context to what the reviewer said, now dosen't it?

No. Because he was speaking in the context of Californication. And if you're talking about going mad on the offensive, look at you, dude! You rip into me for nothing. Chill! I wasn't being elitist, and objected to the statement because I found it silly and irritating.

No he was speaking in context of the entire band. Only later did he say there later stuff.

He is a little right (and i stress a little) wen talking about the last 10 years of there music but before that it would be plain stupid to say they were not a funk band.

The point was kinda that it doesn't make much sense to call them the funkiest bunch of white guys on earth in the context of them having firmly become a mainstream rock band. In fact it just sounds downright ridiculous. What's more, as I've commonly found, generally the fans of their later material don't even LIKE their funk stuff and only like the Chilis for their cookie-cutter pop rock. Yet you still find them referring to them as "funk" and "funky". Just makes ya laugh.

Californication is funky on the whole, it's just the radio hits from the album that 'cookie-cutter pop rock'.

...they (the radio hits) are the only good blinkin' songs on it!