There aren’t many active American rock bands that have enjoyed the kind of longevity and shapeshifting path the Red Hot Chili Peppers have.
When the band formed in 1983, they exploded onto a Los Angeles music scene that had been led by a generation of underground punk acts from Black Flag and X to the Germs and the Descendants. They were also taken by the space-age theatrics of Parliament-Funkadelic and the swagger of Grandmaster Flash, forming an early sound that melded brashness with punchy musicianship.
Philadelphia-based filmmaker Ben Feldman’s new Netflix documentary, “The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel,” tells the story of the band’s founding guitarist, Hillel Slovak, who died of a heroin overdose in 1988. The film premiered last week at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival in Austin and hits Netflix on Friday…