Make It Funky

Just a quick apology for missing yesterday's post, I had an extra day off and decided to take the day off from writing as well. I hope everyone had a gnarly weekend. Now we move on...

In grade eleven I discovered a new and interesting band that opened my musical horizons even more, they were called "Red Hot Chilli Peppers" and they had just released their newest album entitled "Mothers Milk" I guess I should clarify that it was more of a re-discovery. I had seen RHCP perform on some cable access show once, and as wacky as they were, the music didn't do much for me. A couple of years later their bass player, who is known as "Flea" showed up in the video for Young MC's "Bust A Move" yet still I payed them no attention. Now here they were with their 4th studio album and they had finally caught my attention.

Their sound was interesting to say the least, they had elements of heavy rock, bursts of punk, soothing sounds, and hints of rap, all mixed together with the cosmic slop of old school funk. I'm not sure exactly how I rediscovered them, or who brought them to my attention, or why they appealed to me so much now, but the fact of the matter was they were my new favourite.

The band quickly started making headlines and they were also getting a lot of air time, both on the radio and video shows. Before you knew it funk was the new flavour of the month and everybody was jumping on the bandwagon. Bands who typically had no qualities of funk in their sound all of the sudden had "funk songs" trying to cash in on the new pop culture cash cow. Even power ballad wimpy bands like Extreme were coming out with funk songs. Top 10 bands were now trying to incorporate funk in their sound, and it seemed like every bass player was now "slapping" an old funk technique popularized by none other than Flea himself. 

As quickly as I had discovered this new funky sound, I was starting to regret it since everyone and their mother was trying to "make it funky". Then an unknown band came from "out of nowhere" and these guys seemed like they could hang on the same level as RHCP and go toe to toe, blow for blow, and give them a run for their money. A heavyweight showdown of funky sound was about to go down...