Red Hot Chili Peppers to release second double-album of 2022, "Return of the Dream Canteen" 10/14/22

As has been covered in this thread,
Streaming royalties are minimal and if you want to make any money, you have to crank out about 50 or so songs at a time. And for the people still buying albums, they’re more likely to buy one single album, or even two, than they are to buy one double album.

Basically, it’s more money in the long run.

 

Some just can't let it go, One Hot Mess.

 

Eh, they probably make more from four or five shows than they do from a year of streaming + album sales. Quite a few songs on the new album don't even have 10 million Spotify streams after 6 months. 10 million streams gets you about $40k, split with the label and between band members. But maybe it adds up over the long run.

 

Saw a picture from earlier in the tour of John and Flea having a quiet lunch out together. I'm sure they have their problems, but they seem about as kumbaya as a band of multimillionaires can be.

 

Lotta effort being put forth to convince RHCP fans that the band is a bunch of egotistical jerks. Most real fans made their peace with that a long time ago.

 

Longtime fan here, I was 16 when blood sugar sex magik came out and it is one of my top five all-time favorite albums. Mothers milk excellent. Stadium Arcadium brilliant. None of their other albums have ever grabbed me. Unlimited love unfortunately a snooze fest. Way too adult contemporary. I really hope that this new one is more upbeat. Tippa my tongue is a great chili peppers track except it needs to be sped up by about 50%. It’s got all the right elements yet it’s just too slow. Let’s get back to the ****ing rocking out boys!

 

AK was never on Epstein's flight logs. That list that floated around was completely false, and he's nowhere to be found in the real list. He's got plenty of baggage, believe me, but a connection to Epstein isn't among it.

 

As great an album as BSSM was it had all the indicators of the song formulas & repetition that would dominate everything ever since pretty much.

 

Full disclaimer: I'm not the biggest fan of RHCP (not even close), but based on what I've heard here so far I think I'm in on this one.

Looks like more money will be flying out of my wallet. DAMN YOU, SHF.

 

Radio spots and all over MTV. Yes, it did.

 

I would say Californication is the album where the baseline formulas began to take effect. BSSM at least had some tempo changes throughout the album, including the released singles. If I listen to Unlimited Love, it sounds like they used drum trigger samples based off of Californication LOL.

 

What's the point of a RHCP record without prominent Fleaisms?

 

Haha, Sounds like Kiedis lyrics.

 

I forgot to mention California and a few obscure sexual references.

 

Cutting-edge stuff.

 

Seems like a lot of people really love the Peppers (myself included) and others really hate them--reminds me of Rush, in that way. (And, really, only in that way ; )

While I'm excited about another new double album next week, my excitement is tempered by how surprisingly underwhelmed I was by Unlimited Love. Given that the new 17 are from the same sessions, expecting some mind-blowingly great songs on the new one seems like misplaced hope. I've heard "Tip Of My Tongue" and "Eddie" once each, and they're both good (more so the latter, given its interesting subject matter and John's two great solos) but I'll be surprised if the new one is remotely better than the previous.

That said, I'm still glad to have new Peppers music. I was overall pretty disappointed with Getaway, so having John back on guitar and Rubin at the helm are huge. (That said, I really liked the Rubin-produced I'm With You, so the problem with the last one was seemingly more the production than the guitar and songwriting.)

I love that they somehow manage to churn out tons of music when they record-I think there were eight or so BTW b-sides, so 20 from that, Stadium was of course a double and featured another nine or so b-sides, so 37 songs! I'm With You had another album at least of outtakes that they released as singles over the next couple years, so many of which were fantastic (I'd die if they played "Hometown Gypsy" live sometime). Only a couple outtakes that just surfaced earlier this year from Getaway, for whatever reason not a lot from those sessions. But then we get another 35 songs this year from the most recent sessions? Awesome! Again, as a big fan, even "lesser" Peppers beats pretty much everything else coming out these days, so I'll take it.

I only have three main complaints right now:

1) It's sad the way they canned Josh. Even though they were friends, maybe John's ego couldn't handle Josh in the studio (which is sad, and weird for such a "sensitive" guy John is at least portrayed to be) but they could certainly use him onstage, not only as a second guitar on many songs but on keys as well. As anyway who saw Pearl Jam (or Eddie solo) this year well knows!

2) Their setlists are pretty formulaic. There are a few songs they always play, others that rotate (e.g. you get either "UTB" or "Soul To Squeeze," etc.), a few new ones (that, sadly this year at least, pretty much zap the energy and lose the crowd till the next hit), and then a few slightly deeper cuts rotated in. John might sing one cover, and that's it. Rotate from the same show openers, end with the same song, encores the same, just not real creative. If they actually dropped in some of those b-sides or real deep cuts (though of course John won't play anything from the Josh or Dave eras, pretty sad and again, what an ego), that would be so cool. Probably wouldn't go over with the crowd much better than new tunes, but still. Odd that they still haven't even played any from the new album live yet, even though two have been released as singles.

3) Again, this is probably John's ego yet again (a recurring theme, sadly) but for the past two tours they released each live show at nugs.net. I've speculated that maybe because they don't want to because the sound quality in stadiums isn't as good as arenas, but nugs releases plenty of stadium shows that sound great (Pearl Jam, Springsteen, etc.), so if it's not that, you have to look at what else is different from the past two tours - and it's John on guitar instead of Josh. Why eliminate what had to be a pretty nice revenue stream of the live shows from the past two tours?

 

It wasn't his bass playing being downplayed per se. That album was more conceptualizd from John coming in with fully formed songs with a particular way to play them. He was allowed to be more in control and BTW was largely a creation and vision of Frusciante's listening to guitarists such as John McGeoch for his work on the Magazine's and Siouxsie and the Banshees' albums including Juju, Adrian Fisher of Sparks for Kimono My House, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Vini Reilly of the Durutti Column and Keith Levene of Public Image Limited as well as XTC singer/guitarist Andy Partridge.
Flea thought about quitting around the time of those album sessions because he wasn't being consulted through the writing process and he had wanted to take the band in a more funk direction.

Obviously there is a point, since we got the album By The Way through that type of approach.

 

More like false teeth,hair dye and plastic surgery.

 

Wow. Had no idea that was an issue for the band back then! I don't think BTW is a very good album anyways. But I've noticed some songs from it are prevalent on the setlist this tour. Wonder if that's John exercising his creative rights. Like we're going to play MY songs if you want me back in this band.

 

The emphasis on John's ego is entirely of your own speculation.

 

With the album out in a week, is there word on if the vinyl is AAA like Unlimited Love?

 

Perhaps, though I'd argue the circumstantial evidence is pretty clear...

 

I expect it will be because the songs came from the same recording session. So I’m guessing same tape, same mixing, same mastering, but could be wrong of course.

 

That’s unfortunate. I’m glad Flea found his way back after the friction the process created, but it was worth it. That album is unique in their catalogue because John was able to follow-through on his creative vision unrestricted and the result was really something special. His vocal harmonies alone justify the journey.

 

I cancelled my preorder for the CD. I buy them as they are released, listen a few times and then put on BSSM if I am in a RHCP mood. If you took every song after One Hot Minute and jumbled them around I couldn't tell you what album that song goes to. Hope you that art anticipating the album like it, though.