I just saw the Flea Starlicks video and....

[Lovebown]

....even though it was really crappy produced (bad sound, weird camera work etc.) it really inspired me. I mean, I have played bass a while now and have been exposed to quite a bit of bass porn (miller, hamm, wooten, claypool u name it..) but when it all comes down to it Flea just owns. His slap technique is so f**king great, he just slaps the damn string in a real trashy ugly way and it sounds great. He also pulls awesome licks out of his ass and play funky/mellow stuff really great.

Damn.
/lovebown

[punk guy]

watch the 'funky monks' video (its kind of a documentary on the chili peppers, but the bits that have flea playing bass are cool.)
and its got some interesting footage of them recording songs.

(the only bad thing about it is it gets boring in some parts and is in black & white)

[Funk Warts]

I have that video too - from what I can work out what makes Flea's playing so different from a lot of jazz and funk bass players is that he has such a storng punk rock influence in his style, as he says several times in the video. He even goes as far as saying "I don't think any musician can ignore punk rock".

Whereas a lot of slap bass players tentatively pluck the string Flea really rips them to nothing, and I respect that like nothing else. My advice to a budding slap bass player - don't be afraid to break your strings!!!!!!

[punk guy]

yeah he says he mixed punk with funk and got this really fast slap technique.

i like it when they play pots and pans in 'breaking the girl'



that video made realise how wierd John really is.

[Angus]

Are you talking about the Flea instructional video? You know, I collect those videos, because they're fun to watch (though sadly usually not educational), but the Flea video was the one video I've had to return. Yuck.

[Lovebown]

That's the one I was talking about anyway Angus.

/lovebown

[*ToNeS*]

and how funny is River Phoenix ! he's so obviously high off of about a zillion drugs ... that bit where he drops the tape recorder on the ground by accident is a classic moment in instructional music videos

[Lovebown]

LOL yeah. Hahaha

/lovebown

[Freaky Fender]

I have funky monks. real cool. also for blood sugar sex magij album he uses a wal! the only music man he use is for a song that needs a 5 string