Why the Thom Yorke-Flea combo isn’t so weird
The Internet once again exploded last week with the news that Thom Yorke has spent time in Los Angeles forming a new band to play his solo material. However, it kinda calmed down very quickly once they stopped freaking out at the headlines and read the story itself, followed by expressing disdain at the recruitment of Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea to the new band. Music snobs finally came out of the closet and expressed their anger at why a ‘goofy’ bassist in an incredibly mainstream and commercial rock band is joining forces with someone like the Radiohead frontman.
I mean, first and foremost, I agree that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are not the ‘legendary’ band that so many people say they are. However, Flea, alongside guitarist John Frusciante (who, let’s be honest, made By The Way the decent album it is), is an incredibly talented musician and has many impressive and noteworthy music credits to his name. This is a man who spent four years of the 90s offering his services to other musicians and has collaborated with artists ranging from The Mars Volta to Alanis Morrissette to Patti Smith and the Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra at this year’s Meltdown festival. Basically, he is the ultimate session bassist.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that people need to give Flea a bit of a break. It’s not like he’s going to dance away on stage pulling faces and doing extended solos when Thom whips out songs like Cymbal Rush and Analyse – that stuff just isn’t going to happen because Flea is smart enough himself to know that that is stupid. People are losing sight of the fact that the dude has got enough talent to be in Thom Yorke’s band. Of course, this discussion could be meaningless if the shows are terrible. We’ll only be able to find out via several YouTube videos next week.
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Posted on October 1st, 2009 by Max
Filed under: Features, News
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1. That ‘goofy’ bassist has been a major influence for so many young bassists for such a long time. Maybe he isn’t ‘serious’ enough for the Radiohead fans, but so what.
2. I have not really heard many people say RHCP are that legendary. The most celebrated thing they have done recently was to re-invent themselves post One Hot Minute with Frusciante basically re-learning the guitar, which is why the latter albums sound so different – and why I don’t really listen to them..