Red Hot Chilli Peppers bassist Flea surprises fans with trailer for Harley Flanagan documentary
Red Hot Chilli Peppers bassist Flea has surprised fans with a trailer for a brand-new documentary project about Cro-Mags founder Harley Flanagan.}
Flea took to Instagram on Thursday (November 14) to share footage of the secret project, which still remains shrouded in mystery. At present, it’s currently unclear if the documentary will be a film or TV series.
The footage opens with Flanagan narrating: “I feel like I’ve been angry for almost 50 years. I’m only starting to realise now that this is not really who I am.
Appearing in the project himself, Flea then adds: “Here’s this wild story of lots of violence and creativity and confusion and chaos.”
Other hardcore punk musicians who appear in the trailer include Henry Rollins and Darryl Jenifer. You can watch the clip below.
While further details about the documentary are currently scarce, the subject of the project appears to be Flanagan’s turbulent childhood, how he took to drumming from an early age, and the struggles with violence he’s faced throughout his life.
Flanagan began his musical career at age 11 in 1978, drumming for the New York punk band the Stimulators alongside his aunt Denise Mercedes. In the early 1980s, he became a prominent figure in the developing New York hardcore music, helping to found the Cro-Mags in 1981 and Murphy’s Law in 1982.
However, there are far too many meandering, mid-tempo tracks on ‘Return Of The Dream Canteen’. Once you’ve heard the wonky jazz of ‘Bella’, the rumbling rock of ‘Roulette’ and the messy chaos of ‘Afterlife’, a frantic breakdown can’t make ‘Copperbelly’ feel new. Even ‘Eddie’, a heartfelt ode to Eddie Van Halen, borrows the iconic intro to their own ‘By The Way’ before five-minutes you’ve definitely heard before.
Lyrically, ‘Return Of The Dream Canteen’ treads a similar path as ‘Unlimited Love’. In amongst Kiedis’ usual poetic nonsense (“Jumping Jiminy the cat is in the chimney”), he speaks of death and nostalgia.
The record is littered with references to the ‘70s and ‘80s with the likes of BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers and comedy duo Cheech & Chong getting name-dropped. He sings, “You got your way and it seems I’ve got mine, both going to die at the very same time” on ‘Carry Me Home’ before a scowling guitar riff. “Stick with me girlfriend, I don’t want to be here alone,” he continues, very much afraid of the future. Elsewhere the stripped back electro-ambience of ‘La La La La La La La La’ sees Kiedis sing “I’ll fuck up and get so mad, act just like my broken dad,” as the usual songs of lust are replaced by romance and responsibility.
The reflective ‘Handful’ also sees the typically-aloof frontman giving himself a long, hard look in the mirror. “There’s a chapter in my book I don’t want you to read, there’s a chapter in my life where I failed to succeed’, he sings over subdued, dreamy guitar lines.
Buried in the sprawling ‘Return Of The Dream Canteen’, there’s a progressive album that sees the legendary California rockers taking risks, breaking new ground and engaging in the world around them. The band have never been ones for brevity though, and this album is an almighty slog, one where the vibrant new is weighed down with a lot of the same old tricks. For all glimpses of bold musical and lyrical steps forward, they remain largely the same band they’ve always been with ‘Return Of The Dream Canteen’ offering an all-you-can-eat buffet that often feels overwhelming.
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