Red Hot Chili Peppers Debut ‘Monarchy Of Roses’ Music Video. New video is a tribute to artist Raymond Pettibon, who helped shape the L.A. punk scene that RHCP grew up in.
By James Montgomery – Published November 14th, 2011.
When I first interviewed the Red Hot Chili Peppers back in June, frontman Anthony Kiedis made it a point to wear his now-ubiquitous OFF! cap (the same one he’d wear in their “Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” video), a tribute to the punk supergroup made up of members of Black Flag, Red Kross and Rocket From the Crypt, to name just a few.
Red Hot Chili Peppers in their "Monarchy of Roses" Music Video
The reason I mention that now is because the Red Hot Chili Peppers just premiered the music video for “Monarchy of Roses,” the second single from their I’m With You album, a stark, surging, (mostly) black-and-white thing very much indebted to the work of artist Raymond Pettibon, who made his mark designing album covers, logos and flyers for Black Flag, SST Records and just about anyone else associated with the L.A. punk scene of the late ’70s/early ’80s.
So, in a way, months before “Monarchy Of Roses,” Anthony Kiedis was already tipping his, uh, cap to Raymond Pettibon. Shoot, Kiedis even mentions the artist in the lyrics to the song, which makes the music video — directed by Marc Klasfeld — even more fitting. And when you consider the fact that the Red Hot Chili Peppers basically grew up in the scene Raymond Pettibon helped shape (they caught an early break thanks to impresario Brendan Mullen, who booked them at his infamous Club Lingerie), you realize that the Monarchy of Roses video has actually been in the works for a very long time indeed.
While it might not be as flashy or instantly memorable as some of the band’s other clips, it fits both the grit of the song — and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ entire legacy — perfectly. Raymond Pettibon’s bludgeoning black-and-white images, which he often matches with harrowing texts taken from popular culture, art criticism and commercials, are a true combination of the sacred and the profane, and you could reasonably argue by that logic alone that they’ve been inspiring Anthony Kiedis’ lyrics for years now.
The argument could also be made that, by sheer will alone, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have finally earned the right to be considered right alongside bands like Black Flag (and artists like Pettibon) in the pantheons of Left Coast rock, punk or otherwise. Which adds a whole new wrinkle to the “Monarchy of Roses” video, really: It may be their coronation, though I am reasonably sure they did not intend it to be. They’re too humble. And always paying tribute, to Brendan Mullen (on the I’m With You track “Brendan’s Death Song”), to their punk forefathers (Anthony Kiedis’ OFF! cap) and, really, to the artist who managed to inject iconography into the whole thing.
That he did it in such a stark, shocking way was a testament to the music and the ethos of the era, and as “Monarchy of Roses” proves, it’s a solid fit for RHCP too. After all, like Raymond Pettibon’s work, they know a thing or two about bleak times. And they’ve never been afraid to get a little bloody, either.
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674328/red-hot-chili-peppers-monarchy-of-roses.jhtml
Watch the Monarchy Of Roses Music Video!
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