DOWN ‘N’ OUT IN LA

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

‘Out in LA’

(EMI advance tape)

NAMED AFTER the first ever red Hot Chili Peppers song, this collection of early oddities is EMI’s last bite out of the band they let slip, and it is actually far more interesting than the ‘Plasma Shaft’ odds ‘n’ sods compilation recently released by current label Warner Bros.

Whether this stuff will actually be enjoyed by anyone but the most dyed-in-the-wool Chili-chewer is another question….

First up are the four remixes, ‘Higher ground’, ‘Hollywood’, ‘If You Want Me To Stay’ and ‘Behind The Sun’, which, like all remixes, are pretty worthless; while the following three live tracks were recorded in 1989, with Hendix’ ‘Castles Made Of Sand’ especially, highlighting what a problem Anthony had actually singing back then.

Six tracks are taken from demos for the first two Chili Peppers’ albums, including ‘Sex Rap’ which is a miserably juvenile shag-poem from the act for which the term ‘Cock Rock’ might have been invented, and three more numbers are no more than sub-one minute studio pranks that have doubtless been rescued from some editing suite bin. Meanwhile, ‘What It is’ is an Anthony Kiedis rap recorded on a ghetto blaster with Flea only for accompaniment, and you will certainly not be hearing their cappella version of ‘Deck The Halls’ on the Christmas Day ‘Top Of The Pops’.

Harsh souls will call most of the stuff on this album complete shite- but this is the band that eventually created the mighty ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’, so ‘Out In LA’ has to be worth hearing once. Try to avoid actually paying money for it, though….

LIAM SHEILS