The Red Hot Chili Peppers, off the road while Anthony Keidis’ foot heals up, have released an interactive version of the video produced for their single “Look Around.” Check it out here!
The initial version featured each member of the newly named Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band in four different rooms, with camera shots that rotated from one to the other. In this new version from director Robert Hales, you can stay in any of the four rooms to follow the individual Pepper of choice. (Notable moments: There’s new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer who, even while the other three bounce around like maniacs, sits motionless for a lengthy period of time. Creeeeepy. Oh, and Chad Smith — performing in the bathroom — exposes his ass. Double creeeeepy.) Activate the “show hints” feature, and you can also unlock bonus content by clicking on highlighted items.
As Kiedis recovers from surgery after aggravating an old injury, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been forced to postpone a string of North American dates. The group is expected to resume touring on March 28 at Tampa, Fla.
Here’s a look back at our recent thoughts on the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and related solo projects. Click through the titles for complete reviews …
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – I’M WITH YOU (2011): Though they often play with a familiar steely aggression, the Red Hot Chili Peppers seem nevertheless to be rounding the corner into middle age. I’m With You, the band’s first project since the 2006 double-album Stadium Arcadium, is often focused on departures — of youth and of old friends, perhaps a direct reaction to the exit of guitarist John Frusciante. The longest layover in band history, clearly, gave them time to think. Still, this being the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and thunderous bassist Flea being, well, thunderous on the bass, you’d expect most of these ideas to be buried deep in the group’s trademark whomping frat-boy funk, right? Not so fast. This Rick Rubin-produced efforts ends up as the most layered, complex offering in a Peppers’ catalog dating back almost three decades.
JOHN FRUSCIANTE – SHADOWS COLLIDE WITH PEOPLE (2004): hat is the sound of a lone Pepper? Not as hot, not as funky … but more distinctive than you might expect. While some of 2004?s Shadows Collide With People shares bits of Chili Pepper-ness, there are definitely a few non-Pepper moments. First of all, the electric guitar does not play a big role here. No, a strummed acoustic is used to build the bed of sound supporting the vocals. This isn’t really out of left field with respect to the Peppers: acoustic guitars are used there, just not to this degree. What is very Pepper-like is the tempo, with much of the album settling into that familiar mid-tempo “Californication”/ “Scar Tissue” area. It’s also quite amazing to hear Frusciante’s vocals.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – GREATEST HITS (2003): The Chili Peppers is one of those bands that I resisted. They were getting airplay from Mother’s Milk (“Higher Ground”, no doubt) and I just did not get it. Then Blood Sugar Sex Magik came out. This was the Peppers’ London Calling, their Dark Side Of The Moon (and hopefully not their Frampton Comes Alive). The funk was undeniable: killer guitar riffs and powerful in-the-pocket drumming, all anchored by Flea’s kinetic and soulful bass. So one day at work I’m listening to BSSM and a co-worker asks me if I’ve heard the ‘real’ Chili Peppers. He offers up his LP copies of Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Freaky Styley. Cripes, this stuff is nuts!
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