OH MAN!!! IT'S COMING IN MAY!!!

[Anthony]

the new Red Hot Chili Pepper album. gonna be called "Stadium Arcadium" (hey, they all can't be awesome).

you can download a 10 second ringtone clip to get an idea of what it'll sound like, the song is called "Dani California".

oh man, i was rocking out for those 10 seconds though.

http://msf.m-qube.com/rhcp/

[Anthony]

you can go here (http://www.redhotchilipeppers.com/news/news.php?uid=141) to hear a longer clip of that awesome song...it's at the 2 minute, 20 second mark.

it's gonna have 25 new friggin songs. i'm getting erect right now.

[Anthony]

oh jeezus, i can't stop listening to it. it's awesome.

[stevew]

I think you should get your own subforum here.

[Anthony]

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have a lot of irons in the proverbial fire at the moment.

In addition to their May 9 double LP, Stadium Arcadium, there's the video the Peppers just shot with "American History X" director Tony Kaye for the track "Danni California." According to bassist Flea, it explores "the tradition and the beauty of the history of rock and roll."

The funkmeisters have also been booked for a handful of European summer festivals, and Flea divulged that they've even agreed, in principal, to play Lollapalooza (see "Lollapalooza Returning As A Three-Day Festival"). Oh, and then there's that idea they're kicking around that involves them doing a U.S. arena tour with Kanye West, which, if all goes according to plan, would launch in late August with dates running through the winter.

"I think we'll be doing some legs with Kanye, but I don't know if that's confirmed yet or not," Flea said. "I think we're going to do a month or two with him. I think it's going to happen, and I hope it happens. He's a great artist ... and we always try to get the best people to play with that we can."

Last month, frontman Anthony Kiedis told MTV News that discussions had been initiated between the Chili Peppers and Kanye camps. "I'm a fan of him in general and I think his music is very good, and I just like his vibe and his energy," Kiedis said. "We've had good success with bringing bands [on the road with us] that aren't traditionally seen as going together, and the more we can kind of break the mold of a genre-specific bill, it's kind of good for us. It would be great. I hope it all works out. The channels have been opened."

A spokesperson for West had no comment.

But even if things don't end up working out with West, it doesn't look as if it'll dampen Flea's enthusiasm about the 25-track Stadium Arcadium. He said he hasn't been this excited about the band's music since "we first started in 1983." The songs, he said, "mean so much to me — it's the best record we've ever made. I feel so important to share [this album] with the world. Making this record, I just feel like each one of us was at the best that we could be. This Stadium Arcadium, this is our grand statement — this is the best that we can do. This is the best we're capable of. If you don't like this [record], you don't like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Period."

Flea said that all the ingredients were in place for the band's "magnum opus": Producer Rick Rubin (Slayer, Jay-Z) was back on board to twist the knobs, and "we worked really well communally together. We really respected each others' opinions and didn't waste time arguing about stupid stuff. We really just got down and made some music."

This was not the case when the Peppers recorded 2002's By the Way. "It was an unpleasant experience for me," Flea explained. "There was definitely tension in the group, tension between [guitarist] John [Frusciante] and I, and I didn't feel comfortable creatively within the band. I didn't feel free to express myself. All of that [was] resolved [during the Stadium sessions], and we got to this place where we felt very free. We were all getting along and all working together well, and when we do that, that's when we're at our best — that's when the real magic happens."

Arcadium, Flea said, is a funk-riddled rocker, which should be good news for the band's longtime fans. But the album has its tranquil, muted moments too.

"I've always loved being mellow," he said, smiling. "Love being intense too. I can't describe what effect [this music will have] on people and whether people [will] perceive it as being mellow or what. We keep rolling along and we learn stuff as we go, and the more that we learn, the more we keep adding. I think initially with us, the main thing we knew how to do was rock out. Just rock the f--- out — to just go into animal mode and get into this primal thing. We've always loved that, and that's always the essence of what we do: complete surrendering to the groove and giving it up.

"But as you go, you learn other things," he continued. "You learn harmony and melody and how beautiful it is to love something as delicate as a flower petal. You deepen. To me, we've retained the intensity and used it in a lot of different ways. But I think people are going to be able to rock, and I think people will get their boogie shoes on and have a good time. I think that everybody likes to feel the power of life."

[Anthony]

Initially, Stadium Arcadium, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' forthcoming ninth studio album, was going to be released in three separate parts. Frontman Anthony Kiedis was keen on the idea — and championed it — until he realized the third installment of the trilogy wouldn't surface for almost two years.

"That notion, I couldn't handle," he said. "In a year and a half, I know we'll be writing new music and then it will be time for that. In the end, [these songs] seemed like a body of music that needed to be heard as one body."

So Kiedis and the Chilis suffered through the "heart-wrenching" process of cutting down the 38 tracks they'd recorded with longtime friend and producer Rick Rubin to the 25 featured on the Stadium Arcadium double LP. "Slow Cheetah," "Storm in a Tea Cup," "Hard to Concentrate," "C'mon Girl," "Ready Made" and "Desecration Smile" are just a handful of the tracks that survived the process and will make the record's track list.

"I think we always [approach the songwriting process] with this mindset that this time, we're going to write the perfect 11 songs and just put out 11 songs like they used to do in the days of Buddy Holly and the Beatles," Kiedis said. "Those early records were so short and sweet, and had this kind of lasting profound impact on the world because they're very memorable and digestible and, I don't know, maybe it just takes less energy or effort to connect with smaller collections. But as has been the case with every single time we've tried to do that, we end up with 30 some-odd songs. The difference this time was we ended up liking all of those songs and finishing all of those songs and it actually became a very difficult process to even just whittle it down to 25. I think it's sort of the best thing that we've ever done, and I just want to get it out there on the airwaves and in the earholes of the world."

Stadium Arcadium's first single will be "Danni California." Kiedis said the band plans to shoot a video for the track soon with Tony Kaye, who directed "American History X." The performance-based clip will boast an underlying story about a character that's appeared on the band's previous two discs.

"The spirit of Danni was evoked in the song 'Californication,' and it talks about a pregnant teenager. And then she sort of comes to fruition in a song called 'By the Way,' where she is actually mentioned by name," he said. "This song's the final chapter of Danni." Kiedis wouldn't elaborate further on the video's treatment, but did say Danni's "an amalgamation of lots of things and people — she's not really based on one person but a collective of probably every girl I've ever met."

As for Stadium Arcadium's sound, Kiedis said the writing process was aided this time around by the fact that "everybody was in good moods. There was very little tension, very little anxiety, very little weirdness going on and every day we showed up to this funky room in the Valley where we write music, and everyone felt more comfortable than ever bringing in their ideas."

Every idea was used to create those 38 tracks. "There is a weird thread that connects back to our first three records," Kiedis added. "There's this weird kind of sublime, subliminal undercurrent that is suggestive, in a spirited way, of our earliest records. There's some retardedly painful funk on this record. There are a few songs that are just straight-up dirty funk, and beyond that, there's this ongoing progression of everything else that has been slowly happening between Californication and By the Way, with harmonies and textures. [Guitarist] John [Frusciante] has really fallen in love with the art of treating sounds. [The album's] layered, but not in a heavy-handed way. John's work is definitely of the masterpiece quality, as a guitar player and sound treatment-ist. He has certainly gone to some weird über-level of hearing some Beethoven-sized symphony sh-- in his head. He really shines on this record."

The 13 tracks that didn't make it onto the final product might wind up surfacing commercially, after all, because "I'd be crushed if they didn't get heard," Kiedis said. But it won't be cheap for the truest of the band's fans to get them all. The singer said the idea is to release different versions of the album through different retail outlets, each with a unique bonus track. So fans who download Stadium Arcadium using iTunes would get one bonus track — say "Especially in Michigan" — while those who picked up their copy at Target would get a different bonus song — like "Mercy, Mercy."

"We're going to try and do that with the independent record stores across America, and for all the monster chains," he explained. "We'll service everybody with a different bonus track, because we have them."

Stadium Arcadium is due May 9, according to the band's management.

[Karlifornia]

The Dani California music video is out..and it seems pretty cool....

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUYuNqc0T_g

[GrantDawg]

I wish HA would let us know how he feels about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He's sort of vague on the subject.

[st.cronin]

I thought only gay men liked the Red Hots.

[vex]

I thought only gay men liked the Red Hots.

I thought this only proved that?

[Schmidty]

I didn't even know the RHCPs were still making albums. I used to like them a lot, but I haven't heard anything good from them since Blood Sugar Sex Magik. I heard that after that, they turned into pussies, sold out and stopped making music. Good to hear they're still making an effort.

[Desnudo]

I thought only gay men liked the Red Hots.

Maybe HA's account was hacked by a teenage girl.

[cthomer5000]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy past their prime.

[King of New York]

Thoughts on the video: didn't care for it, perhaps because I have already seen videos by Nirvana and Outkast that basically shared the same concept. I would much rather see the band being itself.

Thoughts on the song: it's good, but is it any better than anything else that they've done? It sounds similar to a lot of their other stuff (Anthony Kiedis sure likes writing lyrics that mention lots of US states--he's done it previously.) John Frusciante's guitar playing is always very, very cool, Flea's bass playing is virtuosic as usual, but the song does not break much new ground.

[tanglewood]

Just watched the YouTube video and well, it's pretty tedious really. Didn't RHCP used to be funky and fun? That was just a predictable ho-hum stroll with a fairly bland guitar solo tacked on the end. It's not exactly bad, but I would never choose to listen to it again.

[Anthony]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy past their prime.

you and me....we're not good.

[Anthony]

just finished watching the video. loved it. these guys just don't wanna get old.

the song is extremely good. i remember playing the 10 second clip of the song that they unveiled early last month over and over. getting to hear the entire song is awesome. the chorus is very well put together. seems like they gonna be getting backs to the funk.

all right with me. play on, playas.

[B & B]

This RHCP lovefest/masturbation has put me on the path to finding a new sig.

Soon. Very soon.

[Anthony]

i love your current one.

i tell you, it can't be good for my karma what i do in public bathrooms. i'm evil.