Funky Monks (1991) - Documentary

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 04:00:08 +0000

⁣The 1991 documentary of the making of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album that undoubtedly broke them through to the mainstream proper with the crossover hit, "Under the Bridge."
When I originally saw the film in the mid-90s, I was astounded at the recording process — with a much younger Rick Rubin and engineer Brendan O'Brien (before he became a household name producer himself with Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden, etc.), and made in a house, the supposedly haunted The Mansion (which Rubin now owns).

It shows a much younger band — there's a lot of serious talk mixed in with their own brand of sexual juvenility.
What's interesting is seeing the brief moments of interplay amongst the Peppers. John Frusciante before his descent into his hell of drugs and madness and his subsequent return to the fold. Kiedis mixing his own sense of the world from the brotherhood he feels with the band, along with Flea's love of funk and the music and his daughter, Clara who's just a toddler here (and now the band's photographer).

The best moments are when the band is shown recording the actual music — insights into the unorthodox methods and instruments they took — playing drums in a bathroom, using oil drums and metallic junk for the breakdown in "Breaking the Girl" and Kiedis' occasional off-tune vocal takes.
The best moment may be the recording on "They're Red Hot", the quiet outro track on Blood Sugar Sex Magik — they recorded it live, outside the house, on the grounds, at night.

If anything it shows a band just before they became HUGE and before the tragic excesses of what this album did to them in their history. Of course, they've recovered and succeeded even further since then, but they almost seem quiet, dour and yes, mature now. It seems that the sex and funk are a little more PC, and a little more PG.

1. Suck My Kiss
2. Funky Monks
3. Sikamikanico
4. Sir Psycho Sexy
5. Mellowship Slinky In B Major
6. Breaking The Girl
7. Fela's Cock
8. Give It Away
9. Apache Rose Peacock
10. They're Red Hot - Written-By – Robert Johnson
11. My Lovely Man
12. Under The Bridge

REVIEW RESOURCE: https://letterboxd.com/weights....hift/film/red-hot-ch
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