Red Hot Chili Peppers Disband for at least a Year

[GA!]

Red Hot Chili Peppers have disbanded for at least a year.

Singer Anthony Kiedis has revealed that the band members will step away from music to concentrate on their individual lives.

The singer told Rolling Stone that the band have decided to have no involvement in the band for 12 months after becoming exhausted with their hectic schedule.

The star went on to explain that he will spend more time with his family, while bassist Flea and guitarist John Frusciante are set to work on individual musical projects.

"We're disbanded for the moment," he said. "We took a very long time to make the 'Stadium Arcadium' record (released in 2006). It was a gruelling, long haul and it followed two other very long hauls, 'Californication' (1999) and 'By the Way' (2002).

"So we didn't really stop until the tour ended last year. We were all emotionally and mentally zapped at the end of that run. The discussion was, 'Let's not do anything Red Hot Chili Peppers-related for a minimum of one year, and just live and breathe and eat and learn new things.'"

He added: "I'm just home, hanging out with this really cool little kid, learning how to surf. But I'm starting to get just a little bit of a tingle that it would be nice to start thinking about songs and pieces of music. But just pieces."

- NME.COM

Edited May 22, 2008 by God-Awful

[Dingle]

Whilst I feel the band have declined with Stadium Arcadium, it's good that they disbanded on good terms (I hope) because they do have decent songs every now and then and Californication and By the Way are two great albums and hopefully we can get more in the future.

[GA!]

I think disbanding has come at a good time for them. It's been two years since Stadium Arcadium was released and I'm sure they've made a fuckload of money from touring since. Not to mention their new album was/is unlikely to come until late 2009/2010 anyway, this is a wise decision that will hopefully ensure the future of the band is a long one.

[Benji]

I'm glad they're taking time off, from what I gather they were near killing one another during the last recording, Flea and Frusciante actually got into a full blown brawl.

[IAceI]

Frusciante comes off as the sort of person who fights like a real girl.

[ROC]

It's a very good idea for the band. They have been just as guilty as many "long-time" musicians of diminishing returns and a year off could really put some things in perspective for them. Take a sabbatical the length of say REM's after making that trainwreck that was Around The Sun into how much time it took for the much better Accelerate to come out. (Which admittedly is about four years, the length from By the Way to Stadium Arcadium.) Also, it might help them with their ability to self-edit, because Stadium would've been a better overall package without 28 tracks.

[probablyoliver]

I guess this means we get new Frusch stuff in coming months. Hopefully we can see Flea and Farrell do some stuff again, because Satellite Party was wonderful stuff.

[tristy]

I hope Frusciante continues to work the the Mars Volta, personally.

[Benji]

I really don't >_> Hopefully he can recreate something akin to A Sphere In The Heart of Silence that is fucking amazing <3

[Tarheels.]

As long as we get more solo Frusciante stuff (I'd kill for a North American Tour) then I'm completely fine. I love Frusciante's solo work. Especially 'Shadows Collide With The People'

[gunnar hendershow]

I hope Frusciante continues to work the the Mars Volta, personally.

Absolutely. Frusciante does some great stuff and really makes RHCP. I like most of what he does. Period.

[tristy]

I wouldn't be too fussed if Frusciante joined the Mars Volta, even if it's only to record and tour for the upcoming new album. It's rumored to be an acoustic album, so I could see it happening.

[Benji]

I have always struggled to get into The Mars Volta; even when EWB was having loving them a few years ago. Some suggest me the catchiest song they have done so I can make an attempt to enjoy them.

[tristy]

The Widow is probably their "catchiest" song. It's a slow song, though. I didn't like them at first when the Inertiatic ESP single came out back in 2003, but I grew to love them as my tastes changed. Just depends on what you're willing to explore, y'know? Most of their songs are/could be described as wanky guitar prog, and incoherent jibberish. I think they're amazing, but that's just me.

Plus, the Mars Volta + Frusciante and Flea live jam session = love. I used to have the bootleg, but I've lost it over the years. And the live version of Eriatarka that featured Saul Williams is pretty amazing, too. If you want bootleg live shows, I have the website. Don't worry, their endorsed by the band and webmaster of their official site/myspace page created this board.

[Tarheels.]

The Widow is probably their "catchiest" song. It's a slow song, though. I didn't like them at first when the Inertiatic ESP single came out back in 2003, but I grew to love them as my tastes changed. Just depends on what you're willing to explore, y'know? Most of their songs are/could be described as wanky guitar prog, and incoherent jibberish. I think they're amazing, but that's just me.

Plus, the Mars Volta + Frusciante and Flea live jam session = love. I used to have the bootleg, but I've lost it over the years. And the live version of Eriatarka that featured Saul Williams is pretty amazing, too. If you want bootleg live shows, I have the website. Don't worry, their endorsed by the band and webmaster of their official site/myspace page created this board.

I feel like they've gone downhill. I thought De-Loused was their best effort and that Bedlam is the better of their past few albums. But De-Loused is easily my favorite Mars Volta album by far. With ESP and Roulette Dares being my 2 favorite songs from their catalog. But yeah, they do have some catchy songs but I feel like they just got to the point where it was "Hey look at how experimental we are, we have a 40 MINUTE JAM ON OUR LIVE ALBUM!"

[tristy]

straight up live albums annoy me in general, so Scabdates was a welcome change, for me personally. I mean, seriously, go back and listen to some of the early bootlegs of some of the shows from the Tremulant era, or right before De-Loused... they're very boring. It's just the Mars Volta, being another band, playing their songs just like they are on the album. Fuck, I even downloaded their very first show from 2001, and it was even worse. It was basically At The Drive-In attempting to play early versions of Mars Volta songs.

They use the live shows to hone their current catalog of songs, and to actually practice future parts of upcoming songs. I don't remember the exact song, but they used to have a jam in the middle of Roulette Dares that featured an early take on... i think it was Cygnus Vismund Cygnus, with incomplete lyrics and all.

[YI]

The Widow is probably their "catchiest" song. It's a slow song, though. I didn't like them at first when the Inertiatic ESP single came out back in 2003, but I grew to love them as my tastes changed. Just depends on what you're willing to explore, y'know? Most of their songs are/could be described as wanky guitar prog, and incoherent jibberish. I think they're amazing, but that's just me.

I would not really say "The Widow" was their catchiest. I mean, when you've got stuff like the "Multiple Spouse Wounds" melody later on in the same album, it's not even the catchiest thing on the record.

You even mentioned it in your post, "Inertiatic ESP" is a hell of a lot 'catchier' than "The Widow". In fact a lot of "De-Loused" is; "Eriatarka" (my favourite tune), "Roulette Dares", "This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed", "Televators" are all 'catchy' tracks too, all of which I'd say are 'easier on the ear'/'catacher' than "The Widow".

Different tastes though.

I'd suggest most of the tunes on "De-Loused..." or "De-Loused..." as a whole as a starting off point. It's got individual songs, unlike a lot of other albums, and there's not a lot of jamming or wankery. It's basically Mars Volta in their 'purest' form. Plus it's generally a lot catchier.

"Frances The Mute" is my favourite album. But there's not a lot in the way of 'songs', with "The Widow" being the only track clocking in at under 10-minutes, and there only being 5 'songs' on the thing. There's also a lot of atmospherics and the like, and a lot of the songs take a while to get going. But personally, the album just feels so complete, I love it.

"Amputechture" I wasn't a big fan of, and I highly doubt I'll actually listen to it again. I liked 1/2 songs on it, but there was too much jamming for the sake of it, and songs lost direction. Also, there was no real big melodic outbursts like in the first two albums. I was very dissapointed with it.

"The Bedlam In Goliath" sees the band return more to the 'song' structure of "De-Loused", with all the tracks under 10-minutes. However, I'm still not digging it. It's 'dull'. Which is something I never thought I'd say about The Mars Volta. Personally I think they need to stop releasing an album like every year. They need to take a couple of years to hone some proper kick arse material. They've clearly still got it in them, but it's just not happening, IMO.

As for RHCP. I hate this "disband for at least a year"...isn't that what most bands do? They record, they tour, they sit around doing 'nothing' and occasionally work on material. I hate it when bands feel the need to announce such a thing. It's basically just another way to 'get their name out there'. The "Mars" disk of "Stadium Arcadium" was great, but the first disk really brought the release down. If it had just been "Mars" with a couple of tunes switched like "Charlie", "Hump De Bump" etc, it'd a top notch record. As for "By The Way" and "Californication", outside of a few songs on each, I didn't really like them, "By The Way" especially. I wasn't digging that at all outside of 1/2 singles.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Meh different tastes for different people, I personally thought that By The Way was the best thing they've ever done. I could actually sit through the whole thing without being put off with an outragously out of place funk song.

Even though Tear seemed like a direct rip off of let it be >_>