The Six Coolest Members of Otherwise Uncool Bands

By Ryan Wasoba Tue., Feb. 26 2013 at 11:09 AM

2. Tommy Stinson, bassist of Guns 'N Roses

Tommy Stinson was in The Replacements, and he replaced Duff McKagan in the new Guns 'N Roses. This is probably advanced. If I liked Guns 'N Roses in the Slash era, I would be offended. Since I didn't, and still don't, Stinson's addition to the band is just plain lame.

1. John Frusciante, guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers

First off, yes, Flea is coming around. Joining Thom Yorke's Atoms For Peace is a big step in not being super lame. But he has a long way to go to redeem himself for the years of playing slap bass in a diaper. John Frusciante, however, is way too cool for Red Hot Chili Peppers. When he quit in the late 90s and the band hired Dave Navarro's pierced nipples as a replacement, he made a series of raw solo albums. Not raw the way a White Stripes record is raw, but raw the way listening to somebody die of heroin is raw. In all honesty, Frusciante rejoining RHCP may have literally saved his life, but realizing there is no guitar part great enough to mask the vocal trainwreck that is Anthony Keidis, he quit again in 2009. Perhaps he figured out that he's the coolest person in an uncool band. Thankfully, he was smart enough to do something about it.

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Tags:

bad bands, cool versus uncool, good dudes who are backed hard

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patrickdean

1 Like

To the RFT,

You should consider hiring someone who has a clue about music. I doubt this format allows enough characters to go through the myriad of ridiculous statements made in this article, so I won't. The other reason reason you should terminate the author's employment is that he or she can't write (you might want to check your editor's credentials as well for letting this go to press.) Seriously, read it, and justify the amount of grammatical errors. Also look at the structure problems in the presentation. The author contradicts his/her own theories, which is actually impressive in under eight sentences. The quality of this article and it's related article, are enough to make me stop reading The RFT altogether. Not because of the writer's opinions (which are inexplicable), but because the writing is so poor.

MarkM15

I like how this writer thinks he's cooler than Flea.

freakoftheweek75

Goddamn. You guys are officially trying WAY too hard. Take a handful of bands ranging from really good to legendary, talk about how they are lame and were never cool...wash, rinse and repeat with your newly adopted trend of journalism douchebaggery. I truly think I've seen more inspired writing and review making over at metalsludge.com . And that's pretty bad.

Bob Pivoroff

Duff was a hell of a lot better than Stinson. Stinson is a hired hand. GNR may not be as revelant in today's world, but they're far from uncool.

Marc Seleman

I guess that is a matter of opinion.

Niki Bridges

1 Like

Flea playing in a diaper was a tribute to Parliament and Funkadelic. No need to redeem himself :)

evanlan

"Tommy Stinson was in The Replacements."

Ryan, that additional 2.5 lines was unnecessary.

Ethan D. Kemper

God, I want that fucking Wings shirt.

Michael Allen

1 Like

Flea is fucking awesome. Always has been. Lest we forget that he appeared in Penelope Spheeris's Suburbia, back when he was just a crusty punk who was basically playing himself, or that he provided the bassline for Young MC's "Bust a Move" and a trumpet solo for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" during one of Nirvana's many live desecrations of their biggest hit. All Frusciante ever did was convince Anthony Kiedis that he could sell platinum records by writing shitty ballads. He'll never hold a candle to Hillel Slovak.