I had a couple modern rock remixes. Two Friends have been smashing out some quality rock remixes which I always appreciate being a rock DJ. Today they sent over a classic Red Hot Chili Peppers cut from 1999’s Californication, “Otherside.”
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PLS&TY remixed a Much Mega Hit from Portugal, The Man, “Live In The Moment.”
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Spent last weekend on Vancouver Island at Rifflandia. What a time. My wife Coral and I were joined by Meredith from CFOX. We ferried over and crashed at Coral’s sister’s place. Raged for a day and a bit and headed back to Vancouver to make some radio.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to interview Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was an amazing professional opportunity and I am grateful that Anthony was generous with his time to share some with me before a sold out show in Vancouver.
We talked about still generating spirit after all these years and shows. The darkness behind the jovial sound “Dark Necessities,” changing up  the producer from Rick Rubin to Danger Mouse The Getaway, recollections of their first tour to Vancouver (which turned out to be memories of their ferry ride to Victoria and a show at the legendary Harpo’s), and if I visited Anthony Kiedis in California, he’d take me to the beach.
Look out for cameos from Chad Smith and Flea.
Shoutout to the production team, Jamie Ellard and Julie Mangat.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been grinding out sunny Californian radio-alt rock since the 80s!
Their 11th studio record is out on June 17th and will be called The Getaway.
The Chili Peppers haven’t turned my crank in awhile and truth be told, I was expecting to hate this cut….but you know what, I don’t hate it. It’s not a revolutionary jam, but it is pleasant.
The song is called “Dark Necessities” and features some funky Flea bass, disco piano and Anthony Kiedis singing about drugs, I think. It’s what he tends to sing about.
The band is doing some shows and festivals, but nothing in the Pacific Northwest.
Vampire Weekend made an old model from the early 80s famous when they selected this odd picture as the cover of their record Contra.
The person is Ann Kirsten Kennis and in 1983 she worked as a model in New York City. This is a picture of her rocking a Ralph Lauren polo. Cute.
I am sure her goal in 1983 was to have as many people see pictures of her as possible and be famous, but I guess something happened after Regan and now she just wants 2 million dollars from Vampire Weekend.
She claims her signature on the release form was forged and that she never agreed to have the picture released.
Personally I think $2 million is a little steep, but maybe she should be paid something for having her likeness on the cover of one of the better selling albums in 2010.
From 1983 we travel further back in time to the Ohio Players’ 1975 record Honey.
I was reading about the song and it turns out that there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding the original song.
If you punch up the album version of “Love Rollercoaster” >> HERE and scroll to the 2:32 mark of the song… you will hear a chilling scream.
There was an urban legend associated with the scream that sad that it is the scream of a woman murder in or around the studio at the time of recording and that scream was picked up on the microphones and used on the recording!
And even more fanciful story says that the model on the cover of Honey, Ester Cordet, burned herself during the cover shoot. She poured the super heated honey all over and it disfigured her. She burst into the studio where the Ohio Players were recording and demanded compensation… but unlike Vampire Weekend being all civil to their cover model… the manager stabbed Ester to death right there while the band was recording. I guess it sounded so awesome they went, “meh, lets live it on the tape.”
Later, Jimmy Williams of the band would explain about the “scream;”
“There is a part in the song where there’s a breakdown. It’s guitars and it’s right before the second verse and Billy Beck does one of those inhaling-type screeches like Minnie Riperton did to reach her high note or Mariah Carey does to go octaves above. The DJ made this crack and it swept the country. People were asking us, ‘Did you kill this girl in the studio?’ The band took a vow of silence because you sell more records that way.”
The Chili Peppers would later cover this song in 1996 for the Beavis and Butt-head Do America film. Its fairly early in the film when the boys head to Vegas and see this wedding/lounge band group on stage jamming out this funky Ohio Players’ classic.
The Morning After 