Category Archives: New RHCP album

New RHCP Single Black Summer!

Posted on by

Lyrics:”Black Summer”

A lazy rain am I
The skies refuse to cry
Cremation takes its piece of your supply

The night is dressed like noon
A sailor spoke too soon
And China’s on the dark side of the moon

Platypus are a few
The secret life of roo*
A personality I never knew
My Greta weighs a ton
The archers on the run
And no one stands alone behind the sun

It’s been a long time since I made a new friend
Waiting on another black summer to end
It’s been a long time and you never know when
Waiting on another black summer to end

Crack the flaming whip
Sailing on a censorship
Riding on a headless horse to make the trip

Been a long time since I made a new friend
Waiting on another black summer to end
It’s been a long time and you never know when
Waiting on another black summer to end

I’ve been waiting
I’ve been waiting
Waiting on another black summer to end
I’ve been waiting
I’ve been waiting
Waiting on another black summer to end
I’ve been waiting
I’ve been waiting
Waiting on another black summer to end
I’ve been waiting
I’ve been waiting
Waiting on another black summer to end

(*trying to decide if it’s ‘roo as in an abbreviation of kangaroo as that fits with the platypus in being an Australian creature, or if it’s Roo as in the Winnie the Pooh character).

And Finally! RHCP with Frusciante…

Posted on by

On the 30th anniversary of the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik yesterday, RHCP released a new video and three new photos with John Frusciante… like buses there’s nothing for ages and then a load come along at once! The photos were taken by Flea’s daughter, Clara Balzary.

The video is a spoof newsroom announcement of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2022 world tour and new album. Flea and Anthony Kiedis are the presenters Todd the Squirrel and Johnson Hammerswaddle respectively, John Frusciante cameos as himself for the special guest slot, while Chad Smith is Randy Raindrops the weatherman.

 

An email has also been sent out if you have subscribed to the news update service on the official RHCP website mentioning the 2022 tour and new album:

Rick Rubin Comments on the New RHCP Album

Posted on by

Rubin was talking on the Chris Jericho podcast and he has confirmed what we already assumed since both Flea and Chad have posted photos from his studio. Rubin is working on the new RHCP album. Here is the transcript of the relevant parts:

Transcript

CJ: When you worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, how do you corral them? I know you’ve worked with them for so many years. What was your role? I know they are obviously very artistic and very free in their jams and their song writing. Where did you fit in?

RR: It still is. We’re finishing the new album right now.

CJ: Ah, you’re working on the new record with them?

RR: Frusciante is back in the band.

CJ: I know that…

RR: And it’s unbelievable.

CJ: Chad is one of the best people on the planet. Just great… and one of the best drummers in the world and you know as you use them all the time

RR: Absolutely. I went to the first rehearsal that I was invited to after John re-joined the band and it made me cry. It was so thrilling seeing that group of people back together coz they just made such great music for such a long time together. It just hit me in an emotional way.
So with the Peppers we just talk about songs. They have really good habits in that they write lots of songs. It is something I’d say we probably developed together from the beginning; this idea of overwriting. You know, if there’s going to be twelve songs on an album, they might write fifty, they might write a hundred to find those twelve. And they we just talk, they play for me in rehearsal. We talk about song strengths, weaknesses, how to make them better, where they work, where they don’t and then we try new stuff. I don’t necessarily have the way to fix them, I just say what I think. I notice where the weaknesses are and just say, “This part going into that part doesn’t sound so good. Is there a better way to do it?” And then they come up with a better way.

***

The interviewer chats and mentions some albums ending with Stadium Arcadium.

RR: I hope you like the new stuff. If think if you like Stadium you might like this

CJ: Frusciante to me is like Adrian Smith in Iron Maiden or Phil Rudd in AC/DC, without that integral part, people might not realise but Frusciante is the Chili Peppers. Hopefully everything is cool coz they brought him back a third time and that rarely happens in rock ‘n’ roll.

RR:  And I would say that’s the combination. It’s when Flea and John play together something magic happens. When Chad plays with Flea and John, something magic happens. When Anthony sings based on what those guys play, it sounds like the Chili Peppers. And there are some flavours where it happens on the new album and it’s like, “Oh my God! Nobody else sounds like that. So quintessentially Chili Peppers…

You can hear the podcast here: Episode link

Closer to the Flea

Posted on by
New interview with Flea on Closer to The Edge.
There’s a lot of general chat about music and making music.
Specific RHCP references:
Around 13:45 he talks about writing horn arrangements for the new RHCP album.
From around 35:13 until the end, they talk about different things related to the band/making music- about Hillel, about John’s return and how Josh is amazing, but that the four of them have something really special with John, etc.
Special thanks to SisterWitch for researching this.

Another Chad Smith Interview: SiriusXM

Posted on by

RHCP’s drummer, Chad Smith, was interviewed by Lindsay Parker for the Volume West show on Sirius XM in Los Angeles.

Chad used to promote on the program (in 2018?), so he knew the presenter well and there’s a lot of chit chat between them throughout the show. Chad talks about many things including working with Ozzy and Elton John (Elton took royalties for the RHCP’s Sick Love song that he played piano on, and so did Bernie Taupin although he had nothing to do with it at all. They didn’t discuss charges; Elton played and then they got a letter a few days later asking for half the royalties!)

Chad actually returned to talk about his new art show in Austin, Texas, and there’s a lengthy discussion of how it was made made (including knives, DNA and getting oiled up in Vegas…!).

There are a few mentions of RHCP which might answer a couple of questions kicking around right now (although again, nothing on why Josh is no longer in the band).

Background Summary:

The band were working together at the end of 2018, but the process was literally stopped by the Wolsey fire in the Malibu area as the house where they were based was in the fire path. [A certain guitarist told me he didn’t know if his guitars had been destroyed as there was no knowledge on the fate of the house they were working in as nobody could access that area]. Progress did not really resume then because of the physical damage and aftermath in Malibu; e.g. Anthony had to move out of his home for an extended period and went to his other property in Hawaii for a while.

 

What RHCP Material was already recorded:

Presenter talking about Chad, having to put stuff [presenting the show] on hold ostensibly because the band were working on the new album. Then she starts to comment on the Wolsey fire:

Presenter: Then you had to put that on hold because of what was going on with the Wolsey fires; something happened where you couldn’t get to your HG, or whatever…

Chad: Our HQ?

Presenter: I don’t know! Your bunker, your jam… your monkey style house that you…

Chad: That’s what we had. We had a HQ.

Presenter: And you couldn’t get to it because the road as burned out or something…

[Talking about when; November 2018]

New RHP Album

Presenter: So where is the next RHCP album now? Did you start over? Are you picking up? What can you tell us because I thought it was supposed to come out last year. I think even though you are busy with other stuff, I think people are hoping for a new record in 2020

Chad: Yeah, I think so.

Presenter: You think so?

Chad: Yeah. I don’t know. I think so.

Presenter: Are you working on it now? I know there’s certain things you can’t talk about.

Chad: Yes [I can’t talk about some things]

Presenter: Tell me what you can say.

Chad: That we’re excited.. [lots of mumbling and laughter]

Presenter: It’s just us, Chad… [joking].

Chad: We’ve had some changes, and we’re really excited about it. With respect to people on our band [some mumbling], I’m looking forward to writing new music. We’re going to start working on it very soon. Flea’s like on honeymoon and riding elephants in Thailand … so when he comes back, we’ll start up again

Presenter: So is the stuff you were doing before the fires happened, is any of that going to make it into the record.

Chad: I don’t know. We’ll just.. have to…

[Mumbling again] Goes on to talk a bit about Bottlerock being announced.

Chad: That might be the first real gig.

 

Pyramid Show/ Documentary

Chad and Lindsey started talking about the show RHCP did at the pyramids in Cairo, Egypt last year. Note: This is paraphrased/shortened as there was a lot of chat and mumbling especially at the beginning of this section when the two were joking about Chad standing on top of a pyramid playing his drums!

Presenter: You literally played on a pyramid in like Egypt

Chad: No! Like in close proximity

Presenter: I want to envisage you standing right on top, bouncing drum sticks…

Chad: Bouncing drum sticks..

Presenter: Proximity is still pretty bad ass!

Chad: Nobody has done it since the Grateful Dead…  We filmed it, did the whole thing. I think it’s coming out in… one of the Ms…March or May…

 

Many thanks to Sister Witch for all of her help with this, and especially to Midnight_Slump on Reddit for posting the clip and the download. Much appreciated! 

Discussion on Reddit with clip 

Download of whole interview

An Update: Josh Klinghoffer Leaving RHCP and John Frusciante Returning

Posted on by

Adding this an announcement for anyone who doesn’t know the latest band news, and also to summarise the events now we’ve had time to process shock announcement.

Last weekend, a post appeared on the official band Instagram thanking Josh for his contribution over the last 10 years and saying he was no longer the guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It also stated that John Frusciante was returning to the band.

Initially, people thought the account had been hacked and that this announcement was a hoax as it was so sudden and unexpected. To add to the confusion, it didn’t appear on the band’s other social media accounts at the same time, including the official website (it was posted there the following day- UK time at least).

Flea posted the same announcement on his personal Instagram and Twitter accounts shortly afterwards, but many people still weren’t sure it was genuine until James Slovak* publicly confirmed it was. Chad posted the same announcement a few hours later. (* Hillel’s brother. James, I believe, works for QPrime, RHCP’s management team, and that’s the most likely reason he knew the post was genuine).

No details are given on the announcement and it merely states the band is “parting ways” with Josh. No mention is even given of Josh leaving to pursue his solo career which would have been the logical explanation given the recent release of his Pluralone CD.

As for details, the same account is circulating from numerous sources and that is John requested to rejoin the band and since that was agreed, there was no longer a position for Josh. If true, whether Josh left of his own accord, or was asked to leave, isn’t known. The only definite is that John was photographed with Flea in the summer (July) so they have been back in contact recently.

How long John has actually been back in the band again isn’t known. It might be starting with the announcement, or they might have been together for a while, or he might have been working with just one band member initially and it led from there.

As for the forthcoming expected RHCP album, Flea recently stated during one of his promotional interviews for his memoir, ‘Acid For The Children,’ that an album will be released next year in 2020. There have been various mentions that the band are working on an album. The most recent comment about the actual process was, ironically now, from Josh at the Ohana Festival a couple of months ago (29th September), stating work was slow due to family commitments of the other band members. It certainly sounded like he was part of the process then and people at that point assumed he was as there was no reason to think otherwise. Some fans are now speculating that work has already begun with John, but there is currently no actual evidence for this.

An interview with Josh is due to be aired on 5th January so maybe more details about his departure will be made public then. No member of the band has commented publicly at the time of writing this. Flea has tweeted a few things about loving Josh and about his solo work, but nothing about the reasons for his departure.

As for Josh, for those of you concerned about him, I’ve had word back saying he is fine and I know a couple of other fan pages have had the same message too.

The Announcement:

The Red Hot Chili Peppers announce that we are parting ways with our guitarist of the past ten years, Josh Klinghoffer. Josh is a beautiful musician who we respect and love. We are deeply grateful for our time with him, and the countless gifts he shared with us.

We also announce, with great excitement and full hearts, that John Frusciante is rejoining our group.

Thank you.

News Round Up- New Tour Dates!

Posted on by

Loads of RHCP related stuff coming out today!

Firstly, there’s an article on Blabbermouth with Chad Smith talking about how the Woolsey/Malibu fires halted work on the new RHCP album.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have also announced two new tour dates. They will be playing Egypt, Live at the Pyramids, on the 15th March with tickets going on sale on Friday (18th) and also an Instagram a post came out saying RHCP will play the 20th Anniversary Summer Sonic Festival in Japan

Goodbye Angels Video

Posted on by

The video for Goodbye Angels has been released today:

It features brilliant live footage of a RHCP concert shot in Atlanta, Georgia interspersed with a story line of girl peeing in a flower bed, getting high, drinking, smoking, snogging & stripping in a toilet cubical and gatecrashing the concert just because apparently we all want to see that. Whatever.