Red Hot Chili Peppers Album: “Out in L.A.”

This album was very difficult to find, but well worth the effort and money. While I don't particularly enjoy the remixes, and Behind The Sun isn't noticably different than the original from Mother's Milk (I think), the other songs and demos are very interesting. This CD is probably not for the mainstream listener because of the demo quality and funny, but cheap songs Stranded, Deck The Halls, and Flea Fly. "What It Is" is simply Flea playing and Anthony rapping lyrics combined from several of the demo songs, and it's also my favorite track on the album. "F.U." is rather funny and simple, and it's interesting to hear the demo tracks and how they sounded before they were put on album.

A disjoint collection of demos, remixes, and live tracks, most of which surfaced as b-sides or ended up as bonus tracks to the recent remasters of the early Red Hot Chili Peppers catalog, "Out in L.A." is of limited value. I'll approach each of the three portions of the recording on its own.

The remixes I have little interest in, but this is pretty much a consistent thing with me, I'm generally not big on remixes. Two of themixes (the extended dance mix of "Hollywood (Africa)" and the Ben Grosse remix of "Behind the Sun") make minimal adjustments to the piece, whereas "Higher Ground" receives a near rewrite in the 12" vocal mix (Flea's prominent slap bassline is totally removed) and the Pink Mustang mix of "If You Want Me To Stay" turns the piece into a hip hop beat and sound effects. None of these really contribute much to the band's catalog.

The three live tracks fare a little better-- I've never cared for this recording of "Castles Made of Sand" (which also ended up on the "Mother's Milk" remaster)-- Kiedis always sounds a bit slurred and goofed on it, but the live recording of "Special Secret Song Inside" (sometimes referred to as "Party on Your P***y") is spectacular, full of energy, and "F.U." (a setting of rather odd lyrics to Thelonious Monk's standard, "Bemsha Swing") is unique and goofy, and certainly worth a listen. Neither of these two are available anywhere else.

The remainder of the album is given over to twelve demo recordings from 1982 from before the Peppers' debut album, recorded by the original band (Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak, Flea, Jack Irons). Seven of these tracks ended up on the "Red Hot Chili Peppers" and "Freaky Styley" reissues, limiting the value of this set further, but certainly the material put together is rather intriguin.

The majority of this material feels more in line with hardcore punk than it does with what the Chili Peppers would become known for-- pieces like "Police Helicopter" and the twelve second "You Always Sing the Same" would not have been out of place on a Dead Kennedys album. A good chunk of the other stuff is bizarrely experimental, from the detailed arrangement of "Blues for Meister", featuring intertwining guitar lines and a trumpet solo from Flea, the call-and-response vocal chant "Flea Fly".

Overall, much of this material is intriguing, but getting the remasters gets you over half of the essential material on here. The rest all but the most hardcore collector could probably live without.

finally the peppers realeased some of their hard to find early recordings from 1982.the album does contain the first recordings with dave navarro on two new songs-blues for meister and deck the halls.this albums NOT for a person looking to get a taste of the peppers.this is basically an album for the fans of the peppers--jason harshman

The only reason I wouldn't give this cd 5 stars is sound quality. The EMI people have made this cd nearly obsolete because they spread all of its tracks across the reissues. For the die hard Chili Peppers fan a must have.