Red Hot Chili Peppers donate items to charity auction

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nickelback and the Offspring are among the artists and celebrities that have donated items to an eBay charity auction being sponsored by the Make A Noise Foundation. Proceeds from the auction will go to offset the medical costs of 39-year-old Lit drummer Allen Shellenberger, who was recently diagnosed with a grade four malignant brain tumor. The Chili Peppers are offering a signed copy of their 2006 album, Stadium Arcadium, while the Offspring is putting autographed drum heads on the block. Also up for auction are a signed guitar from Staind, a painting by actor Pierce Brosnan, a dinner with the members of Lit, a guitar lesson with Steve Vai, an amp signed by members of No Doubt, plus items from Nickelback, Donna Summer, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and others.

The auction began on Monday (September 29th) with more information available at MySpace.com/litlounge.

Proceeds will also go to the Maxine Dunitz Neurosugical Institute at Cedar-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where the drummer is being treated.

Shellenberger's cancer is the same kind recently diagnosed in Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.

Lit guitarist Jeremy Popoff said in a statement, "Allen's young and healthy and if anyone has a chance to beat this, it's him. As sad and scared as we all are, we're standing by him and staying positive. We're going to fight this together."

Courtesy of KBS Radio

Old Red Hot Chili Peppers Kerrang Scans. part 1

These are a collection of scans from the british music magazine Kerrang. They are from the Hyde Park era. Click each image to enlarge. More coming tomorrow.

More scans will be added tomorrow morning including pictures from Hyde Park, and reviews for Scar Tissue and the Greatest Hits DVD.

New John Frusciante Solo Album, The Imperium, released 20/01/2009

John Frusciante is set to release his ninth solo studio album on the 20th of January 2009. The album is titled 'The Imperium' and features Josh Klinghoffer and Flea on drums and bass respectively.

Rock Band release full RHCP album today

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ fifth studio album Blood Sugar Sex Magik will be hitting the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace tomorrow, giving Rock Band — and Rock Band 2 owners another album to add to their collection.

Cost is $19.99 (1600 Microsoft Points) for the full LP or $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) for each individual track.

Courtesy of GameFocus

Flea in new Patti Smith Documentary released in December

Patti Smith: Dream of Life



Twelve years in the life of punk poet Patti Smith, as documented by Steven Sebring. 109 minutes. At the Royal.

Patti Smith: Dream of Life, fashion photographer Steven Sebring's impressionistic study of the most influential of punk poets, disarms and charms with its honesty.


Smith, a leading figure in New York's punk/new wave scene of the 1970s, cops no attitude and espouses no causes beyond peace and love.


At the height of her fame in 1979, Smith dropped out for 16 years to raise a family in Detroit.
When she returned in 1995 with a new album and tour, following the death of her guitarist husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, it was as if she'd never left.


Her fame remained undimmed. It was at this point that her friend Sebring began filming her, collecting the hundreds of hours of mostly black-and-white film and video that have been distilled into 109 minutes of surreal wonder to make Dream of Life.


Smith is completely guileless before the camera. She strums her antique guitar with pal Sam Shepard, the playwright and actor, who gently scolds her for not practising.


She shoots photos with an ancient Polaroid. She plays with her cats, and hangs with her children and elderly parents and has an amusing conversation with friend and fellow musician Flea, a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Smith expresses embarrassment about people who refer to her as a rock icon: "Whenever they say that, I always think of Mount Rushmore," she says, blushing. Yet a rock 'n' roll version of those mountains would have to include her.

Click HERE for the films IMDB page

Old Kerrang Scan, Chad Interview, very funny

Click image for a larger version.

Article by Tony Woolliscroft, click HERE for info on his Red Het Chili Peppers photobook released next month.

Flea: 2 year hiatus, solo record..."and I never saw the money or the pants again"

As fellow L.A. Times blog All Things Trojan reported last night, Michael Balzary -- better known as Flea 'round these parts -- is indeed a freshie at USC. I interviewed the bassist last week about Hullabaloo, the upcoming benefit concert for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, which he founded with childhood friend Keith Barry in 2001, and we got a chance to gab about his classes, his upcoming solo work and whether or not things will be resuming with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
--Margaret Wappler

So you're taking classes at USC. What brought that on?
I’m glad my music education has developed the way that it has, but it’s so much fun to learn this stuff because I never knew anything. I played trumpet in the school bands. I learned things I liked to play on my trumpet but I didn’t learn why this note goes with this note and why it produces that sound. Or how to create tension in the composition. The Chili Peppers did that in our song structures but all based on emotion and intuition as opposed to knowing the math and academics of it. Knowing the structure is really fun.

What classes are you taking?
I'm taking three: theory, composition and jazz trumpet.

What are you studying in jazz trumpet?
In jazz trumpet, I’m improvising over jazz changes and getting comfortable with that. I’m also studying with a classical guy named Boyd Hood who plays with the L.A. Phil. But the jazz teacher at USC is named John Thomas. Right now he's having me transcribe a trumpet solo from Lee Morgan off the track “Party Time” from the album “The Procrastinator.”

Do you ever get any students who say, "Why are you here? You don’t need this, you’ve been in a successful band.
"Well, not from people there, but people outside the school have looked at me like, what are you doing? Except for real musicians who understand. I think most people see it as being about commerce –- you only go to school to make money, and you already make money playing music so why would you go to school? It seems backwards but it makes perfect sense to me. My whole musical life has been an educational process and I’m just furthering my education and filling in the blanks. There’s stuff that I want to know that I don’t know.

So, are the Chili Peppers working on a new album?
No, we’re on a major hiatus. It's a two-year hiatus.

And that was very set? You said, 'Two years and then we’ll talk about starting again"?
Basically, yeah. We just needed two years. We had our noses to the grindstones so hard for so long. We needed to get away from it and get a fresh perspective on things.

At this point, do you guys have plans to get back together and record something else?
We’re just taking the two years off and seeing where we are at the end of that.

What about solo work for you?
I’ve been making a record at home and it’s nearly done. It’s mostly instrumental stuff but I have Patti Smith singing on it and the choir from the school but mostly it’s an instrumental record. I’m not sure how to describe it but a lot of people have described it as cinematic, like soundtrack music. It’s not really a commercial enterprise, it’s not going to be on rock radio or anything. The record is based on the character Helen Burns from "Jane Eyre." I love Charlotte Bronte and all of the Bronte sisters.

I've got to ask: Do you still have the stuffed animal pants?
Someone stole them. It’s so funny because for years I always lived in crappy little apartments but right when we got the money from signing with Warner Brothers I got to buy a house. I bought a nice house in Los Feliz that I was real excited about. I drove home and the first night at that house, someone broke into my car and stole my bass, my leather jacket and those stuffed animal pants out of my trunk. And I had lived in crappy neighborhoods for so long and never got robbed. As soon as I stepped up, someone took my stuff. I commissioned the girl who made them to make me another pair and I never saw the money or the pants again.

Photo of Flea holding a French horn -- he'd left his trumpet at home -- at the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. Credit: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times.

Courtesy of LA Times

Rock Band 2 offers full RHCP album...

While there's been a lot of talk over the last few years about the inevitable death of the album format, the videogame industry doesn't appear to be listening. On Sept. 12, Metallica will release a gameplay version of their new record, Death Magnetic, through Guitar Hero, and two days later, Rock Band 2 debuts, and with it, the promise of 500 tracks by year's end. Stocking the digital bins, EW.com has learned exclusively, will be seminal full albums by Foo Fighters (The Colour and the Shape), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar Sex Magik), Jane's Addiction (Nothing's Shocking), Megadeth (Peace Sells... But Who's Buying) and Stevie Ray Vaughn (Texas Flood), along with a specially-compiled No Doubt Best Of collection. All are slated to roll out in the coming months, according to MTV Games.

Courtesy of EW.com

New Anthony Picture

Anthony and Everly on Malibu beach, September 21st 2008.

On This Day in RHCP History...

Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Rick Rubin, it was the band's first record released on Warner Bros. Records. The musical styles of Blood Sugar Sex Magik differed notably from the techniques employed on the Chili Peppers' preceding album, Mother's Milk, and featured little use of heavy metal guitar riffs. The album's subject matter incorporated sexual innuendos and references to drugs and death as well as themes of lust and exuberance.

Peaking at number three on the Billboard 200, the album has sold over seven million copies in the United States alone and became the Red Hot Chili Peppers' introduction into popularity and critical acclaim. Blood Sugar Sex Magik produced several hits for the band, including "Give It Away", "Under the Bridge", "Suck My Kiss", and "Breaking the Girl". Guitarist John Frusciante quit the band mid-tour in 1992, until returning in 1998, due to his inability to cope with the album's popularity. Blood Sugar Sex Magik is recognized as an integral factor of the explosion of alternative rock in the 1990s and the record serves as the most critically praised album the band has recorded; Steve Huey of Allmusic noted that Blood Sugar Sex Magik is "...probably the best album the Chili Peppers will ever make."

Tracklisting

1. "The Power of Equality" – 4:03


2. "If You Have to Ask" – 3:37


3. "Breaking the Girl" – 4:55


4. "Funky Monks" – 5:23


5. "Suck My Kiss" – 3:37


6. "I Could Have Lied" – 4:04


7. "Mellowship Slinky in B Major" – 4:00


8. "The Righteous & the Wicked" – 4:08


9. "Give It Away" – 4:43


10. "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" – 4:31


11. "Under the Bridge" – 4:24


12. "Naked in the Rain" – 4:26


13. "Apache Rose Peacock" – 4:42


14. "The Greeting Song" – 3:14


15. "My Lovely Man" – 4:39


16. "Sir Psycho Sexy" – 8:17


17. "They're Red Hot" (Robert Johnson) – 1:11
    

Accolades

• Pause & Play - "The 90s Top 100 Essential Albums" - 1999 = no.11



• Rolling Stone - The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - 2003 = no.310



• Spin - "Top 90 Albums of the 90s" - 1999 = no.58



• Q - "90 Albums of the 90s" - 1999 - no.58



• Guitarist Magazine - "101 Essential Guitar Albums" - 2000 - no.11



• Guitar World - "The 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time" - 2006 - no.18



• My Favourite Album - "Australia's Favourite Albums of All Time" - 2006 - no.8



• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - "The Definitive 200: Top 200 Albums of All-Time" - 2007 - no.88

Gangsters of Love

'George Clinton and His Gangsters of Love' is a cover album by funk music pioneer George Clinton. The album includes guest appearances from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sly Stone, El DeBarge, System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian, Carlos Santana, RZA, and gospel singer Kim Burrell. The disc is set to be released on September 16, 2008.

Reports on the album's title have been inconsistent. Some suggest the title of the album may actually be Radio Friendly, and that "George Clinton and Some Gangsters of Love" may be credited as the artist for the album. The album has also been referred to as Any Percentage of You Is As Good as the Whole Pie, although that may refer to another P-Funk album to be released later.

Notice John Frusciante at the back on the right of the cover.

Tracklisting:

1. "Ain't That Peculiar (feat. Sly Stone & El Debarge)"
2. "Never Gonna Give You Up"
3. "Mathematics of Love (feat. Kim Burrell)"
4. "Let The Good Times Roll (feat. Red Hot Chili Peppers&Kim Manning)"
5. "Pledging My Love"
6. "Gypsy Woman (feat. Carlos Santana)"
7. "It's All In The Game"
8. "Heart Trouble"
9. "Our Day Will Come"
10. "Sway"
11. "A Thousand Miles Away"
12. "Heaven (feat. RZA)"
13. "As In"
14. "Stillness In Motion"
15. "Fever"

Here is a link to the song featuring the Chili's on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfkwJqykc04

Flea's Back To School

Believe it or not, there is a cool freshman at USC. His name is Michael Balzary.

You probably know him as Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The legendary group has sold over 50 million albums, won six Grammy Awards, and topped the Modern Rock charts a record eleven times.

The 45-year-old is listed as an "undergraduate visitor" in USC's Thornton School of Music. Balzary probably has a leg up on most of his classmates, considering he founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music and, oh, yeah ... is a rock icon. While he's on campus several times per week, don't expect any dorm sightings -- Flea's a commuter student.

Besides collaborating with legendary artists like Jane's Addiction, Nirvana, and Alanis Morisette, Balzary has appeared in The Big Lebowski, My Own Private Idaho, and one of the Back to the Future movies. His latest "appearance" was at USC's football practice -- he stopped by after class because he heard a commotion. The Trojans were playing simulated crowd noise to mimic their upcoming road trip to Oregon State, and the practice field is adjacent to the music school.

You may know that Balzary is a huge sports fan and blogs about his beloved Lakers on NBA.com.
No word if the team will try a flea flicker this season in his honor.
Of course, Balzary isn't the only music celebrity starting his undergraduate studies at USC this year. Percy Miller, better known in his rap career as Romeo (a.k.a. Lil' Romeo), is on scholarship to play basketball for the Trojans.

Chili Peppers return to studio this month?

According to Smith, the group is to tentatively return to the studio for their next album in September 2008. Smith went on to say that "some of our best stuff is yet to come. For some reason we have a special thing, the four of us. We've changed the chemistry of the band a couple of times. When John [Frusciante] rejoined for the second time, we were like: 'This is a special chemistry we have.'"

Silverlake Hullabaloo 27th September 2008

Flea will be playing at the 4th Annual Silverlake
Hullabaloo on September 27th. Purchase tickets here http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=300615

Me And My Friends - Photobook by Tony Woolliscroft. Due October

A bound collection of photographs is a curious thing. Great photos, like great paintings, were created to be viewed, and sandwiching visual treats between two covers seems like the ultimate irony.

You would have thought that with high production costs and the widespread availability of images online, the photo-book would have been rendered obsolete, but surprisingly the demand is still there.

Essentially, photo-books document a time and place in the past, and nostalgia is a guaranteed seller, particularly when the time and place in question is filled with the faces of our icons.
Red Hot Chili Peppers' drummer, Chad Smith, has modestly trumpeted the arrival next month of Me and My Friends -- Red Hot Chili Peppers (Trinity Mirror, €16.49, due October) by accomplished photographer Tony Woolliscroft, who has snapped everyone from Anthrax to Madonna in his illustrious career so far, but served as the official photographer for the Chilis from 1990 to 2005. (www.tonywoolliscroft.co.uk)

"Most photographers are only allowed to shoot the first three songs of a show," writes Smith, in the press release for the forthcoming book. "We love Tony and his work so much that he is the only guy we give complete access to for an entire show."

Courtesy of Herald.ie

Flea's House

SELLER: Michael Balzary (Flea)
LOCATION: Sycamore Meadows Drive, Malibu, CA
PRICE: $4,800,000
SIZE: 4,882 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: A Malibu sanctuary, gated & nestled in the green belt at the end of Sycamore Meadows. Sweeping ocean views & commanding hillside scenery surround this majestic home. Set in a botanical paradise, this private 2.4 acre compound also features a newly refinished pool & spa, private alcoves & pathways thruout the grounds. The hm conveys a warm & solid feeling in its large living spaces, combining traditional & eclectic styles. Big bedrooms, high ceilings, large kitchen & rec studio.

Courtesy of The Real Estalker

Anthony's House

SELLER: Anthony Kiedis
LOCATION: Davis Drive, Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $6,997,000
SIZE: 4,294 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: On one of the rare 3 acre knolls in BHPO, this tour de force celeb property is Tuscan in style, w/ panoramic vus from every vantage point yet accomplishing privacy. 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 6 fireplaces, roman pool and spar and spectacular indoor/outdoor flow, Bell tower, grand cordon bleu kitchen w/ sweeping views, large scale ceiling heights and one of the most romantic master suites in Southern Cal. A breathtaking opportunity to purchase this beautiful villa near the best of everything Beverly Hills has to offer.

Courtesy of the Real Estalker