Flea is working with Damon Albarn and Tony Allen

Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz etc...) has said he is:

"making an album with Tony Allen and Flea which I've nearly finished, hopefully the end of this year… and I'd like to do another The Good, The Bad & The Queen album if we get the chance, because we’re all really good friends".

Click HERE to read the full interview.

Is John Frusciante still in The Red Hots?

In an inteview with 'Classic Rock Magazine' Chad can't talk about John.

With all of these projects going on, how do you find time to sleep?

Things are starting to slow down, actually. Thanks to [producer] Rick Rubin, I’ve just finished Kid Rock’s album, which came out really well. And I’ve started again with the Chili Peppers, which means I won’t be able to do any Meatbats stuff for a while.

So the Chilis have finally returned to work, following the 2006 double-set Stadium Arcadium.

Did guitarist John Frusciante, who in recent interviews seemed to express antipathy towards doing so, take some persuading?
[Sounding uncomfortable]: Well… at this time I can’t talk about that. I have been told to stay away from the John questions.

Who might produce it?

I really can’t go into any more detail than what I’ve said.

Read the full interview HERE.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers to play Coachella Festival 2010?

'Consequence of Sound' have "searched the many message boards...searching for links or any hearsay that might give credence to a lineup confirmation or any rumor that’s out there" regarding 2010's festival line-ups.

They say:

Coachella (April 16-18; Indio, CA):

Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Los Angeles outfit officially ends its hiatus with a headlining spot at Coachella.

To read the full article, click HERE.

Chad on the cover of Musicians Friend's December Catalogue

Click below to see the cover, read about it, see the left over pics and watch a video of the photo shoot.


http://www.musiciansfriend.com/cover?src=3TP9LP&ZYXSEM=0&indiv_id=1394521

Flea Collaborating With Bryan Ferry

Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry has revealed that he is working on a new solo album that features members of Radiohead and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In an email to fans the singer-songwriter announced that he is has brought in Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea to play on the album.

Also set to collaborate with super-producer Nile Rodgers from Chic, the record is set for release in the summer of 2010.

Courtesy of NME

Cracked.com - "...references to California have occupied almost as much space on RHCP albums as the shitty "rapping" does.

Lyrical Fixation:

Southern California

Example Lyric:

"L.A. is the place, sets my mind ablaze
For me, its a race through a cotton pickin maze"

How It All Started:

Those sample lyrics are from the Red Hot Chili Peppers very first single, "Out In L.A." From that point on, references to California ("Under the Bridge," "Californication," etc.) have occupied almost as much space on RHCP albums as the shitty "rapping" does.

Why It Needs to Stop:

Sure, we all love the place we live in to some degree, or else we'd move. But there isn't all that much you can say about any place before things start to get a little redundant. If Springsteen didn't mix in a little sex music with all of those anthems about impoverished towns, at some point the frustration would overtake you and you'd find yourself at your local homeless shelter with a megaphone imploring people to get a fucking job already.

But Anthony Kiedis has an uncanny ability to reference Los Angeles no matter what the song is about.

A song about chicks? Best believe those chicks are from L.A. A song about depression? L.A. is super depressing, bro! A tune about drug addiction? Blame it on the City of Angels. A song about absolutely nothing? It's a safe bet that at some point, "wang dang dong bell flay" will be rhymed with "L.A."

It's enough to make a person pray for an earthquake, if not for the inevitable RHCP benefit album to earthquake victims that would surely follow (with a title like "Los Angeles Rocks." )

Unfortunately, the band's fascination with ham fistedly mentioning California whenever possible shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The first single off of their most recent album was called "Dani California."

Hell, at least take a hint from Sufjan Stevens and branch out to another freaking state.

Chickenfoot In Theatres December 1st

Chickenfoot is headed To Theaters... Movie Theaters that is. Here is the official word: Come experience the very first filmed live show of the new rock collaboration Chickenfoot. Yes, Chickenfoot! In Theatres on December 1st.
Chickenfoot Live the concert film features Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony formerly of Van Halen, world-class guitarist and band founder Joe Satriani, and the "funk/alternative" drummer Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Don't miss one of the greatest rock music collaborations of all-time live in Full HD and 5.1 Surround Sound coming to select theatres on December 1st, 2009!

Theatre Information:
http://www.sonyclubdates.com/chickenfoot.html

Source:
http://www.antimusic.com/news/09/nov/20Chickenfoot_The_Movie.shtml

'By The Way' comes in at no.98 in The Times 100 Greatest Pop Albums of the Decade

98. By the Way - Red Hot Chili Peppers (Warner, 2002)

Thanks to guitarist John Frusciante’s sense of melodic wonder it suddenly felt as if the Chilis, formerly slap-bass rock berks, could adventure in any direction they wanted: huge rock choruses, swooning balladry, strings, ska, Beach Boys harmonies and even flamenco boogie.

Chickenfoot Named 'Best New Band' At Classic Rock Awards

Chickenfoot, 2009's stand out rock collaboration comprised of guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, Red Hot Chili Peppers' drummer Chad Smith, and Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony were named "Best New Band" at Classic Rock Magazine's annual awards ceremony in London on November 2nd. Chickenfoot will release a Deluxe Limited Edition of their eponymous debut album, recently certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America with over 500, 000 units shipped.

The deluxe album will be exclusively released through Best Buy and is available at wwww.bestbuy.com/chickenfoot. Chickenfoot will be performing "Sexy Little Thing" and "Oh Yeah" on Jimmy Kimmel Live on November 6th. Chickenfoot have also announced a December 5th Show at the Joint in Las Vegas.

Chickenfoot's Deluxe Limited Edition will feature a reverse design from that which was featured on their self-titled debut. The original black album artwork was printed with heat sensitive ink and the new design will feature a white background, printed with fluorescent ink. In addition, the package will include one bonus track, "Bitten by the Wolf, " and a bonus DVD containing an hour of behind the scenes footage of the band, music videos, interviews and concert footage from their European and US Tours. It will be available initially for a sale price of $9.99, exclusively through Best Buy.

Chickenfoot just completed a 30-city cross-country US Tour in support of their debut album. The band made their first ever TV performing appearance during the first week of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on Friday, June 5th. The album is an 11-song slab of raging rock, " says writer Joe Bosso of Guitar World magazine. Chickenfoot is produced by Andy Johns (Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones) and mixed by Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Metallica). The band's first single, "Oh Yeah, " has been embraced by radio. It has proven to be a true multi-format smash, topping both the mainstream and classic rock charts at No 1, as well as charting in active rock.

John Frusciante - Ah Yom - Hand Written Lyrics

John Frusciante talks to 'Mind' Part 3: Meditation

I asked John to elaborate on his meditation practice:

'In your daily life, if you have a thought that's motivated through insecurity or fear, (or in a lot of cases garbage that your brain is manufacturing, that you find yourself caught up in) - it's the nature of our minds that once a thought arises, for that thought to become another and another, with our days going by with these trains of thought. These trains end up being interrupted by something circumstantial: You run into a person and start a new conversation and the thoughts go away for a second, or you sit in-front of a TV screen and that blocks the thoughts out. In your daily life you're usually consumed by these thoughts when there's no distractions. A lot of the time you're worried about whether this or that is gonna happen, or is this person mad at me, or am I not handsome enough, or am I not sexy enough or whatever it is. These kind of thoughts end up producing these really vast trains our brains are inescapable from, because the whole thing is being led by the emotions. The thoughts and emotions are tied to one another.

With meditation a lot of people have this misconception that the purpose is not to think anything, but to me the most valuable part of it is to establish a type of detachment from your thoughts, in which your emotions and thoughts are cut off from one another. The purpose when you're sitting down with a technique like Vipassana is to observe your thoughts and to not get involved in them. Let them move by like they're a cloud.

And so for me the most valuable part that I've noticed the effects of are: Before I meditate there may be some things I'm worried about, that I'm thinking about all the time. I'm pointlessly going from one possibility to another of what is going to happen if this doesn't happen, worrying about things. You sit down to meditate and let's say you're doing some sort of mantra based meditation for example, the thought comes into your mind of this thing you've been thinking about, but you bring your attention back to the mantra. Or with some form of Vipassana you bring your attention back to a body part or just observe the thought but don't jump to the next thought. And what happens is, in that one moment of where you made that decision, though the thought exists I'm bringing my attention back to the mantra. It's like you've untied the rope that you're connecting to. One second you were tied to building and the next you untied the rope and you were walking away.

And so in a situation like that where something has been bothering me, I sit down with meditation and the same thoughts come up; I continually apply the technique of centring my brain, doing the technique of the meditation. Coming out of it the same thoughts come into my brain and yet they don't produce the second or third thought. I've established a disconnection between them and it's almost as if the thoughts are afraid of me instead of me being afraid of the thought. You end up finding that the thought doesn't have the same power over you because in that one moment you disconnect with that thought the thought from your emotion. The thought occurred in your head but it didn't occur in an emotional state. It occurred when you were just applying the technique and the next thing you know the thought doesn't have as much power over you.

To me it wouldn't matter if you were thinking the whole time when you were meditating. As long as you were making that effort to do what the technique consists of, you're doing something very powerful by not letting your whole inner mental rhythm be determined by your emotions and finding another focal point for yourself that has nothing to with anything emotional. It might be boring to some people, but that's the point of it. To have a half hour of sever boredom is actually really valuable as you're not bored when you're worrying and being insecure; you're consumed by it.

People with problems, their lives are really exciting. People that create drama around themselves, their lives are really full of excitement all the time. That's not what I'm looking for in life. You develop that relationship to what initially appears to be boredom, and then you see it was more like my emotions were addicted to fear, insecurity and worry, and you can gradually through that process learn to disconnect yourself (the parts of you that felt they needed to be scared or insecure or to find some sort of excitement). By disconnecting your emotions from those thoughts you end up opening up room in yourself to find excitement in other areas, and more excitement from the places that can really do you some good like music or friends or books.'

Click HERE for part 1, and HERE for part 2

Courtesy of Hillingdon Mind

John Frusciante talks to 'Mind' Part 2: How music influences state of mind

I talked to John about how music influences one’s mind state:

‘Everything that happens has a big influence on the state of mind. Our senses are constantly being bombarded with all kinds of things that are making a constant change to what goes on inside of us. We have so many tendencies that have been put in place by things that have happened to us in life, and everything that happens to us to some degree affects our tendencies in the future and affects our state of mind. To me what I’m noticing more with music- that separates it from incidents that happen- that change somebody’s state of mind, is that it seems to come through another channel besides the five senses. When the music is being created, the ideas enter the musician from an unknown source, through a channel that there’s no medical term for, no biological term, no psychological term for. There’s some channel that the ideas come through and the sense of musical balance that the musician employs in order to organise the ideas. That’s also something that there’s also no word for. It’s all the unknown, and a person that has a good sense of musical organisation has no idea where that sense came from. Partially it may come from loving and listening to music and really appreciating the balance and organisation of music that’s so cosmic, but there’s a lot of people who appreciate it that don’t have a sense of it, of how to manipulate that organisation, how to take control of it.

I would say that in the creation of music, where the ideas are coming from- why one idea means a great deal to me and another idea means nothing to me- and that there’s some sort of mental criteria to distinguish between these two things; it’s not something that anybody has grasped in any way. And then in the reception of music, I don’t believe it’s just the notes, chords or melodies in themselves (although there’s a lot to ponder just in those- why they affect people in the way they do). I also think that what’s underestimated when people are judging music is that you are hearing the intention of the composer or musician or the band or whatever. I believe that there’s a sort of 6th sense when we’re hearing music and some people have this. For some people this sense is clearer than for others.

You can hear when someone is doing something for reasons such as personal gain or ego gratification, and when the intention is to purely explore this wondrous thing which is the nature of music as it’s presented to us by the laws of the cosmos. If you put some crap, some commercial band who’s only doing it because it’s how they make their living and they get a certain amount of ego gratification from it- if that same band played a Fugazi song, it wouldn’t mean the same thing as what it means to somebody who needs to hear Fugazi to feel good. It’s not a matter of the song, it wouldn’t matter how well it was played; we’re hearing something behind the music. We hear the psychological state of the people who are playing or composing it, and I feel that something else comes through into the listener besides what’s apparent to the senses. I feel really sure of that.

I really feel that when you’re talking about the reception or music or the creation of music- the most important parts of can’t be quantified or measured, and there’s no way to put your finger on them. I feel like it’s that way with love and to any person who has a special thing; if there’s a guy obsessed with mechanics or if there’s a guy obsessed with plants or something. These things produce an excitement in people that can’t be measured by just the virtues of the subject themselves. There’s some sort of connection between that persons soul and whatever that thing is that they really love, and it seems like music has this direct connection to excite a much larger group of people than most isolated subjects. I think part of the reason for this has to with the fact- I think there are messages that are coming across in music. There are messages that music is conveying, there are truths about the nature of existence. In nature, you have your things like trees and flowers, grass, human beings and brains, water, and air. There are these other things that are part of the fabric of existence that exist- like for instance numbers exist as a part of nature regardless of whether there’s the human understanding of them.

In other words the human understanding of a number is more a symbol of the thing. We have no way to actually grasp numbers in of themselves, even thought they’re an inescapable part of existence. With music you have mind boggling things going on with numbers. The truth about numbers themselves is that they all exist as one thing together. They’re all dependant on one another. There’s no existence of 4 without the existence of 3. There’s no 1 billion without the existence of 2 billion. All numbers are interdependent on one another and need one another to exist, and so they are one thing. But it’s the nature of the human mind to perceive these differences from one thing to the other. I don’t think that these differences exist not only with numbers, but I don’t think a tree is any different from a person- is any different from the air- is any different from the water. I think we’ve been blessed with this psychological ability to be able to differentiate between one thing and the other. It’s all existing in harmony with one another. To me it expresses that no one thing is different from anything else. With numbers, every one absolutely needs the other one to exist, and so- are all one number. Or you could say numbers are all one thing.’

Click HERE for part 1, and HERE for part 3.

Courtesy of Hillingdon Mind

John Frusciante talks to 'Mind' Part 1: Mental Health and his Solo work

There is a level of understanding that comes with an ability to look inwards. Realisations come from the awareness of internal conflict and bringing unconscious thoughts into the conscious, which in turn awakens the mind and changes our perspective on life. Along with his work in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante also has a successful music career in his own right. His life is based around the creation of music with an extensive back catalogue of solo releases. John is a man who actively explores looking inward, observing thoughts, and letting go. He states that there are some key aspects that maintain a healthy mind-state: meditating, reading, writing, and music.

I spoke to John about these elements and how music can bring a whole host of benefits to our mental health and well being. I asked John firstly about writing thoughts down:

'It's been really good for me. I think it's being able to see the mind from an exterior position. It's another one of the issues that come up especially with people who have mental imbalances: that you're trapped in your mind; there's no escape. It's like being imprisoned. You're inside yourself, you're inside your body, your thoughts are inside your mind- you can't escape. Your thoughts aren't just moving along in some kind of cosmic orbit, they're determined by your surroundings and your conditioning. The realisation of the inability to escape from it, not being able to step out of your mind- the more you think about it, the more overwhelming it can become- especially when you're not happy with the thoughts that are in your mind, you're not happy with your surroundings, and you're not happy with the way people have treated you.

The thought that you can't escape from within yourself is really terrifying. To be able to examine your thoughts when you write them down is really illuminating because you can read them back to yourself 5 minutes later, and have a completely different reaction to it than you had when you were thinking the thought. It becomes much easier at that moment to look at what you've written and say: 'well that's true from one angle but I can also see it from this position.' Your emotions are directly tied to your thoughts and you had no ability to be able separate them. Then you read it a couple of days later and you're in a different mood, and by looking at it from this exterior position you're able to mentally put it in it's place in a clearer way. By the brain taking in those same thoughts but in a completely different emotional context, you're able to establish some sort of separation between your thoughts and your emotions; which if you don't ever write anything down and don't ever look at yourself from the outside, you're incapable of doing.

I've resolved so many issues of my childhood from writing- page after page, when I was all revved up about them. By writing about them and reading them back to myself, somehow in that process I accomplished a lot of the same things that could potentially be accomplished by going to a therapist every week for years. I found it within myself to forgive people that I'd always resented, I'd always felt like a victim because of, and through writing them down I was able to see the balance of it all, and to not blame that person for their own actions but to realise that the way they treat people is the result of the way people treated them. There's no more point in being resentful of another person for something they've done then there is of being resentful of life itself- which to me doesn't really make any sense. The brain that's making that statement 'I resent life itself' is only here by virtue of that brain, so who's the 'I' talking? The 'I' talking is nature itself. If you're attaching importance to the opinion that life is f****d, you're automatically giving credence to life because life is the thing that's talking and saying what you think. Something's built into our characters, we all think a lot of what we ourselves think! Each person thinks their opinions are very true and valid. It's a built-in thing of our character. But I think to do that with your thoughts is really important [to write them down]. It's really bad to get lost inside yourself.'

I spoke to John about being trapped in a distorted headspace with thoughts spinning around…

'It's a really interesting tendency on the part of people- is that they like being twisted. There's a part of you that becomes comfortable there and you don't wanna be released. I get like that when I'm in a bad mood about something and somebody tries to cheer me up, but I don't want them to cheer me up. It's like I'm happier being miserable than I am being happy. There are certain situations where somebody who would rather stay in their misery might be superior in their relationship to life than somebody who's constantly trying to maintain a position of happiness- in that, there could potentially be a kind of emptiness. Sometimes people who go through life sad are some of the deepest people.

I can't imagine it [writing] not being good for anybody. I used to be superstitious about writing down my thoughts, I only would write down poetry. When I started writing down ordinary thoughts, I couldn't believe what a difference it made. Sometimes you might write the same thing all the time 'I'm so sad, I'm so miserable…' I've written those same entries in my notebook so many times- the same exact words. There's a feeling of getting it out. There are times when just the act of writing it itself ends up bringing you to a new perspective. Sometimes it's not even reading it back; as you're writing it the train of thought is different as it's more moderated. When you're thinking things, your thoughts have the ability to go at this incredibly fast pace, much faster than we speak or can write, so sometimes the process of writing is also a process of slowing down the thought stream to where you're thinking at a slower pace. You come to conclusions by thinking slower that you could never come to when you're thinking faster.

Interview by Chris Phillips.

Click HERE for part 2, and HERE for part 3

Courtesy of Hillingdon Mind

John Frusciante - Today - Hand Written Lyrics

Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Greatest Hits Album Artwork/Covers/Booklet Scans

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Click "Album Scans" below to view the other booklet scans from the RHCP discography.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication Album Artwork/Covers/Booklet Scans

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Click "Album Scans" below to view the other booklet scans from the RHCP discography.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - One Hot Minute Album Artwork/Covers/Booklet Scans

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Click "Album Scans" below to view the other booklet scans from the RHCP discography.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik (BSSM) Album Artwork/Covers/Booklet Scans

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New Flea interview

Click below to read the latest interview with Flea

http://issuu.com/poptimist/docs/november/35

Pictures of Flea's Signature Bass

Pictures taken at Dawsons in Manchester

Red Hot Chili Peppers to Perform LIVE at MusiCares 20th anniversary gala on the 28th of January 2010

Legendary artist and activist Neil Young will be honored as the 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year at a special event celebrating his exceptional artistic achievements as well as his philanthropic work. Proceeds from the annual Person of the Year tribute — now in its 20th year — provide essential support for MusiCares, which ensures that music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical and personal need.

Performances by multi-GRAMMY®-winning artists Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, k.d. lang, Dave Matthews, Ozomatli, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and James Taylor; GRAMMY winners John Mellencamp, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Wilco; GRAMMY-nominated artists Jackson Browne and Josh Groban; and acclaimed emerging band Everest.

Flea talks about his Music School in New CNN Video

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mothers Milk Album Artwork/Covers/Booklet Scans

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Click "Album Scans" below to view the other booklet scans from the RHCP discography.