- por Bernardo Brum

A era hippie acabou e agora todos estão trabalhando. Mas você sabe, às vezes tem um homem que pode mudar tudo isso.  Sem comunistas, agora no máximo podemos acreditar no discurso deste republicano ou daquele democrata. Mas às vezes existe um homem para provar como nós todos estávamos enganados. Tudo agora é baseado no dinheiro para a caridade, para as artes plásticas ou para fortalecer a máfia da pornografia em videotape, que não sabem mais o que é cinema. Só que as vezes tem um homem que não liga, chega e destrambelha tudo.  E esse homem que eu não conheço não é ninguém importante, mas você sabe que às vezes tem um homem que… Hum, perdi o fio da meada.

Eis Jeffrey Lebowski, O Cara, exímio jogador de boliche que junto de seus incapazes amigos – o cardíaco Donny e o psicótico ex-combatente do Vietnã Walter – é tirado do seu mundo de baseados, white russians e calorosos debates nos clubes onde bolas rolam e pinos caem para fazer as vezes de Sam Spade. Ou de Philip Marlowe. Para aqueles sombrios anos pós-depressão,  o homem era Bogart, gel no cabelo, terno impecável, cigarrinho no canto da boca e frases ferinas. Nesses anos de incrível ressaca moral, nós temos que deixar isso pra lá e buscar compensação por nossos carpetes mijados e nossas fitas do Creedence.

Esse é o dilema moral do Cara. Tomado por um milionário homônimo, tendo seu carpete mijado e tendo que sair por aí atrás de uma ex-atriz pornô casada com o tal Grande Lebowski – que, segundo o próprio foi raptada por uma gangue de… niilistas? E, claro, no meio do caminho tendo que aguentar moleques arrogantes, a filha excêntrica do milionário, o síndico afetado, o pederasta mothafucka’, agiotas do mundo pornô, a polícia, um taxista que é fã do Eagles, os ataques de Walter, e lá vamos nós.

Predileção dos Coen, O Grande Lebowski é um grande filme sobre o nada, a desinformação, a estupidez e a fragilidade da vida. Só O Cara que não parece ligar sobre isso, e em momento algum ele reina soberano – o mundo faz gato e sapato de um pobre vagabundo metido em uma conspiração digna de um O Falcão Maltês ou À Beira do Abismo que, no final das contas, surgiu apenas por causa do caos que faz de nossas vidas grandes campanhas em nome de coisa alguma e que só foram empreendidas, afinal, porque nós somos estúpidos demais para fazer qualquer coisa útil. Ou preguiçosos, talvez.

Aí, uma bola de feno sendo empurrada por aí pelo vento logo transforma-se em sonhos psicodélicos envolvendo garotas gostosas vestidas de viking em uma pista de boliche, ou cinzas de um defunto sendo jogadas em nosso rosto. É tudo muito frágil, ridiculamente frágil. E é tudo muito estúpido, hilariamente estúpido. O planeta é tão rico em oxigênio quanto em burrice, e assim segue o balaio das grandes epopéias dos inúteis, por gerações. Por que, às vezes, tem um Cara para nos mostrar tudo isso. Às vezes, tem um cara para acender uns baseados e ouvir uns rockzinhos safados antes de terem a cabeça afundada na privada. Às vezes, tem… um Cara.

5/5

Ficha técnica: O Grande Lebowski (The Big Lebowski) – 1998, EUA. Dir.: Joel e Ethan Coen. Elenco: Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Tara Reid, John Turturro, Flea

Print the flyer below to get 10% off your order at the Peranakan Babazaar (don’t you just LOVE saying that word??), part of the Peranakan Festival celebrations.

Details of Babazaar:

28-29 November, SMU Concourse

11am – 6pm

~*~*~

Slash y Fergie ya han trabajado anteriormente juntos

Ante las críticas de algunos fans, Slash, quien fuera el famoso guitarrista de Guns N’ Roses, defendió en su twitter la colaboración que realizó la cantante de Black Eyed Peas, Fergie, para hacer una nueva versión del clásico “Paradise city”, que posiblemente incluya en su nuevo álbum que saldrá para marzo del 2010.

“Hasta ahora, no hay demasiada gente que haya escuchado a Fergie cantar rock & roll, pero canta mejor que la mayoría de los tipos que conozco. Ella grita con el corazón”, expresó el legendario músico.

En esta nueva producción  colabora con grandes estrellas como Dave Grohl, Flea, Chris Cornell, Duff McKagan,  Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Meat Loaf, Ozzy Osbourne, entre otros.

En esta nueva versión de “Paradise City” también mete su talento Cypress Hill, en lo que da como mezcla un buen hard-rap.

Aquí tocando Sweet Child O’ Mine.

Love this movie, it never gets tired. It’s the ultimate teen angst punk rock movie set in an abandoned town on the outskirts of a residential area in California. Great styling and great music from the west coasts golden era of punk rock. It was directed by Penelope Spheeris, who went on to produce several more music documentaries on Americas alternative scene, before eventually entering the main stream, and directing Wayne’s world !

If you haven’t seen it I highly recommended it, or go check out Suburbia’s more main stream friendly cousin “Dudes,” also directed by Penelope, also both films feature the acting skills of Flea ! (americas prototype punk)

Chili Pepper’s music school has kids hoppin’, learning

[shaky cam, but pretty close to the action and awesome audio quality if you turn on HD.]

This probably isn’t a super-group by most people’s standards, but Thom Yorke’s new touring band is pure-dynamite concentrate. I don’t know what kind of sedative Yorke crushed into Flea’s yogurt parfait to make him so tame, but it worked– there is definitely no out of place Flea cock-lassoing during any of Yorke’s morose set. The two actually play off each other pretty well; Flea really brings the bass that’s buried in some of Yorke’s work out in the open, and even inspires a sullen Yorke to jam for chrissakes. What is a cute little crescendo-reprise in the album version of The Eraser becomes a dueling static guitars between Yorke and Flea in this live set (4:30 in).

-jakeyp

———

A swedish-assyrian family gave me a hitch from Stockholm to Jönköping this weekend, and we talked so much in the car that my cheeks were aching when I got out after the 300 km ride. Deniz on the front seat really liked funk. I admitted that I had listened intensely to cheesy funk jazz like Tower of Power through my teenage years, but have gotten very tired of polished funk jazz. He had a long lasting fanship of Red Hot Chili Peppers, so I told him about this rather unknown band Action Figure Party, where Flea from RHCP played bass in too, and which coincidently plays a funky variant of jazz fusion. Multi instrumentalist Greg Kurstin gathered the group, and they only released this one album, but it is a gem in it’s genre. A corrupted genre, since everything from television shows and second hand fashion stores have colonized jazz fusion to the point of annoyance (the same ol’ Pavlovian conditioning at work again), but this record resists colonization! Maybe that is actually the lakmus test of any piece of music, that nothing, no matter how horrible, will corrupt it by association?

There’s a japanese godzilla size turtle called Gamera, but I don’t know if they had that in mind when they made this track. Anyway, yummy:

Action Figure Party – Gamera

Besides the cheesy lyrics (for some reason, funk music always contain cheesy lyrics, and I’m not sure what this should tell us??), this is sooo mmmmmmmmm:

Action Figure Party – Clock Radio

I love the screaming guitar riff in this track

Action Figure Party – Pong Baby

Another stellar and more well known act in jazz fusion is virtuoso guitarist John Scofield. He sometimes gets labelled as acid jazz because the great amount of looping psychedelic sounds and strange guitar effects. His characteristic guitar sound is the chorus effect, that gives a dissonance by adding dissonant tones to every note, making Scofield sound like a drunk person. This track is from the eclectic record Überjam, which features a four-armed Sco in lotus position on the front cover.

John Scofield Band – Snap Crackle Pop

Por Murillo Moret

Anunciamos que o Red Hot Chili Peppers gravaria um novo cd no final de 2010,  mas o retorno aos palcos será bem antes. Bem antes.

Em meados de maio de 2008, o vocalista Anthony Kiedis, em entrevista a revista Rolling Stone, afirmou que a banda entraria de férias. Era o prenúncio do fim do grupo. Ao menos para os fãs.

Após, porém, o baterista Chad Smith falar que o Red Hot gravaria um novo cd, a banda anunciou que fará um show após um hiato de dois anos. Eles irão se apresentar no MusiCares 2010 (evento em homenagem a Neil Young), no dia 29 de janeiro.

Fãs dos pimentas… viajem para os Estados Unidos e garantam seus ingressos. Certeza de uma grande reestreia.

Álbum: Californication, 1999. Música: Easily.

The Roundup is a compilation of recommended clicks this week in the world of surfing. If you have any suggestions, links, tips or just want to call me an asshole, email me at nugable@gmail.com

The Vans Triple Crown kicked off yesterday at Haleiwa. (VTCOS)

The real reason Bruce Irons quit the tour? Golf. Irons is a fantastic golfer’s name isn’t it? (Golf Digest)

If you play Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of Oz you will see God.  If you play the Easy Rider soundtrack while watching The Drifter you will see Machado. (Poor Specimen)

Slater, Julian, Flores, Dane. You will like. It may be a Quiksilver advertorial, but it is good. (976 Surf Surfline)

After a much-publicized battle with drugs, Darryl “Flea” Virostko is back where he belongs… Mavericks. (San Francisco Gate)

South African surf mag Zig Zag ordered by court to pay 10,000 Rand for publishing a “seemingly provocative bikini pose” of a 12 year old. (IOL)

The 4th Annual World Skin Cancer Foundation Slater Brothers Invitational. (Eastern Surf)

The Surfer’s Journal is now boasting a new and content-rich site. Have a look around and register for access to subscriber-only content for the next 60 days. (Surfer’s Journal)

Cocaine, spices and hormones found in drinking water. I am scared to think what would be found in the water at my home break. (National Geographic)

Which surfing youngster has a shot at Kelly’s reign? None of them. (Demon Factory)

So check this out.  Slash is coming out with a solo album featuring a slew of special guests including Dave Grohl, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, all of Guns N’ Roses minus Axl, and many more.  The first song hit the internet and it is a cover of Paradise City featuring Cypress Hill & Fergie. 

What do you think of the song? 

Apparently Steven Tyler is NOT leaving Aerosmith as earlier reported.  I know you were losing sleep over this.  Here is with the Joe Perry Project last night talking about how he is the mother fu***ing rainbow.  Um, OK.

Also, here is the story about Flea’s music school.  Cool.

September 30th, 2009

They say you should never meet your heroes.

Sound advice.

Unless they happen to be firemen.

To be honest, I never actually thought it was a given. And anyway I know from experience it’s not; because <brag alert> Joe Strummer was the perfect gent.

Anyway, last weekend I found myself at a gig I’d been looking forward to all year – Gang Of Four at The Forum in KentishTown. The reason it was so anticipated was that I had been promised to be put on the door months ago, as my girlfriend is mates with the manager / promoter there (thanks Dan, I owe you several beers at this stage).

Dan had already sorted me and Naomi with a couple of really cool festival tickets over the summer, but I’d not yet been to The Forum this year (I did see Living Color there about eight years ago).

I had been eyeballing the Gang Of Four show since about March; and the fact it was the 30^th anniversary of their debut Entertainment! (stone cold classic – GET IT NOW), I was excited to say the least.

Just to put in context how much this band (who released their first album the same year I was born, bear in mind) means to me, here’s a little rock and roll history.

Obviously I wasn’t around for the original release; but for a band of their time, they’re probably the single biggest influence on the group who’s album became the reason I picked up a bass in the first place.

That reason was Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

That album blew my head open. It introduced me not just to the force of nature that is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but also to Rick Rubin’s career-high producing Midas touch (which still continues to this day) and the sublime talents of engineer / mixer Brendan O’Brien – another superlative producer in his own right.

The songs, the incredible performances and personalities coupled with the Zeppelin-esque recording process, all resulted in my favourite album of all time and a determination that I wanted to play music until I die.

“How does this relate to Gang Of Four?” I hear you yawn.

Well, Flea in particular, has said the original sound of the Chili Peppers was primarily influenced by Leeds’ punk-funk rogues. So much so that they got Gang Of Four axe-man, Andy Gill, to produce their first album.

Without wanting to put too fine a point on it – he made a bollocks of that album.

To be fair, it was never going to be Blood Sugar Sex Magik; but it could have easily been an underground classic.

There were a few factors involved also – last minute line up changes, the band’s inexperience, personality clashes etc.

Gill’s assertion that he “didn’t know what (he) was doing” on the Gang Of Four’s earlier albums probably didn’t lift the bands confidence either. One story, that the band left a pizza box (with a shit in it) on the mixing desk, speaks volumes.

“Typical.” was Gill’s only response to the incident, apparently.

So, based on this evidence, I have only myself to blame that I did not heed to the potential perils of hero contact.

The fact that the hero I approached on this occasion was also Andy Gill, gives me the distinct impression that I have all the foresight of a Darwin Award winner.

The after show exchange went something like this….

“Hey Andy. Sorry to bother you. Amazing gig. Thanks so much.”

“Are you Jurgen?”

“Erm, no…”

“What’s your name?”

“Niall.”

“Sorry, what?  Jurgen..?”

“Uh, no, it’s Niall.”

What followed was Gill (the man whom I called a legend, from the crowd, not half an hour previous) silently turning his back and offering me the limpest, lamest, reverse reach-around handshake in the history of uncomfortablism.

Maybe if I had introduced myself by my nickname (“Disko..? Really..?”), or indeed pretended to be this Jurgen individual, my interaction may have lasted more than five seconds.

Or maybe Andy Gill is just an uppity rude fuckwit.

Naomi and my now deflated self  left soon after – but not before I launched into an expletive ridden tirade as to why the original rhythm section were absent from the current line-up (my reasoning mostly centered around Andy Gill’s fuckwit credentials, as I’m sure you can imagine).

God bless Naomi and her powers of rant absorption.

And thank god I hadn’t directed it at Gill himself.

To be honest, as I (soberly) write this, it’s not really as soul crushing as I had worked it up to be on the night. I think what stung was the sudden gear shift from elated post-gig booze brain to an abrupt, uninterested dismissing.

In fact, I now feel a little guilty about the Mark Chapman death-stare (and wink for some reason, according to Naomi) I threw him as I left the place.

Andy, if you’re reading this – don’t worry; I still love ya, soda pop.

But you’re no Joe Strummer, buddy.

Disko

X

Epilogue :

The next morning I found myself (still pissed) in the Italian deli next door to Naomi’s place.

She had very considerately woken me at half nine to go get a couple of paninis.

As I swayed bleary-eyed at the counter, I turned around and saw Channel Four News’ Jon Snow enter for a Sunday morning coffee with his paper (presumably just to make sure  other journalists are still not as badass as himself).

Thoughts of the universe balancing out the bad karma visited upon me the night before swam round my brain; vying for position amongst slightly less  celestial concerns about whether to get a Milka Bar on the way home.

“If there’s anyone in the world who’d love a slurred declaration of admiration at a quarter to ten on a Sunday morning -  it’s TV’s Jon Snow!”, I reasoned to myself.

Thankfully, at this point my inner Lilac Milka Cow looked up wearily from its grazing and mooed :

“Go back to bed, gobshite.”
Soundtrack : Grand Pappy Du Plenty – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Well known middle-of-the-road pop-funk, adult contemporary band the Red Hot Chili Peppers have recently created a school for children who want to make safe, mediocre music. The Silverlake Conservatory of Music is headed by legendary bass-soloist “Flea”, who is known for slapping his bass guitar with one hand while holding the strings of his bass against the frets of his bass guitar in a method of bass playing called “slapping” or “ruining a song”. Flea harkened back to his days of higher learning, “In high school and after high school, I was heading for disaster. I was on drugs; I was robbing people’s houses; I was wild on the street.” He said.

Experts are torn on whether the students will be taught how to play music that borrows heavily from other, cooler music, or if they will be taught how to write and play the same song and then live on that one song for their whole life. “There are various ways that children can emulate the RHCP” Said an unnamed source within the music industry, “I mean, what better way to teach high school poetry than by going through the Chili Peppers discography? I mean, other than that early phase with that gibberish rapping, there’s a lot of stuff that young children will be able to relate to with their simple minds and lack of experience with the world.”

Children have reacted in much the same way as audiences have over the past two decades when faced with the Chili Peppers’ music. “My mom recently played me some Red Hot Chili Peppers around the house. I liked some of it, but some of it I didn’t like so much.” Said precocious young truth-teller Leo Dacter, who may or may not be suspended for telling it how it is.

Link to Original CNN Article

While actress Milla Jovovich may be trying to draw in your attention with talk of extraterrestrial owls and an imminent fear of the fourth kind, there’s a phenomenon that has been slowly gaining momentum in the music world….

Bands and musicians have been switching members and pairing up like Xenon Octa-Flouride (XeF8) would, if it ever is going to be invented (thanks Wikipedia!). In layman’s terms, we’ve been getting a lot of new supergroups, side projects, and collaborations – some that could have been foreseen, and others that seem to have appeared out of nowhere.

The Almanac Singers seen here with Bess Hawes, Arthur Stern and Sis Cunningham

Now, the idea of a supergroup is not a recent innovation by any stretch of the imagination – the supergroup goes all the way back to the Almanac Singers - a combination of Millard Lampell, Lee Hayes, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie that got its start in 1940. From the 60’s until today, we have been given plenty more supergroups, such as in 1969 which brought us both The Plastic Ono Band (which included the likes of Eric Clapton, both George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and Alan White – just to name a few) as well as Blind Faith (which also featured Mr. Clapton, but had Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood and Ric Grech to boot). 1988 brought us the Traveling Wilburys, which was the tour de force of George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. And although they Wilburys only stuck together for about a year after Orbison’s death, that cosmic aligning is something that has not met it’s match… yet.

The Monsters of Folk

Among the recent crop of supergroups is a group I mentioned last week – The Monsters of Folk, which consists of folk songsters Connor Oberst and  Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes, M. Ward of She & Him, and Jim James from My Morning Jacket. They’ve been associated under the Monsters name since 2004, but have all been so busy with their respective main attractions that they weren’t able to release their self-titled first album until this year. You’ve definitely heard their track “Say Please” on the Peak – and both M. Ward and Connor Oberst gave free concerts in NYC this summer!

Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar

Moving down the line from most folky to least, next up is the recent pairing of Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard with Jay Farrar, member of Uncle Tupelo and frontman for Son Volt, the two bands that he played with throughout the 90’s before he launched his solo career in 2001. Gibbard and Farrar first got together in 2007 to record the soundtrack for One Fast Move and I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur. Both the movie and the album came out on October 20th, the day before the 40th anniversary of the prolific author’s death. You can see the music video for “San Fransisco”, the last track on the album, here. And you can expect to see more from them in the future.

Taking a detour into the realm of electronica, at the end of September, Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead, slipped this little surprise into his blog:

Thom Yorke and Flea

Of course, those shows were sold out in 20 minutes. Flea, as you know, is the Red Hot Chili Peppers Bassist – and he seemed to be ecstatic to be on stage with Yorke, playing cuts from Yorke’s solo album The Eraser (2006). There hasn’t been a follow-up to the October concerts, but that’s something you should keep an eye out for as well.

Jack White and Alison Mosshart sharing the mike at Glastonbury this year

Next up come two really driving groups. First is The Dead Weather, whose song “Hang You Up From the Heavens” I featured in my first week of blog-writing. The Dead Weather was formed by Jack White who’s been extremely active – leaping from the White Stripes, to the Raconteurs, to the recent release of “It Might Get Loud” – a documentary featuring White, The Edge, and Jimmy Page. The band also features Alison Mosshart of the Kills on lead vocals, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence, who played with White in the Raconteurs. And to sweeten the deal, they just announced a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 17th! Tickets for that are going on Sale this friday, so get ‘em quick.

The "Them Crooked Vultures" teaser photo from earlier this fall

And finally, we come to Them Crooked Vultures, or TCV as they call themselves. TCV is big news. On drums is Dave Grohl, from Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. On vocals and guitar is Josh Homme, from the Queens of the Stone Age. The kicker is that John Paul Jones comes soaring in on bass. They’ve got a really great sound, full and rocking, but what remains to be seen is whether TCV will be able to stay afloat once their star power has worn off. Their self-titled first record is due out on Sony in a week, which should be an insta-grab for all hard rock fans. But for now, check out the full album on the band’s website!

So, I apologize about all the name dropping – it’s not something I routinely do. If you think a supergroup has been left out, please let me know. Or if you feel the need to justify the Tinted Windows‘ existence, by all means, please try. But if you do, I’ll kindly remind you that their lead singer is from Hanson, and we’ll go our separate ways. Wikipedia to the rescue once again!

——————————–

Peak Keyword: MMBOP

Après trois ans de break, les Red Hot CHili Peppers ont retrouvés le chemin des studios le 12 octobre dernier afin de préparer un nouvel opus. L’information a été révélée par le batteur du groupe Chad Smith à la presse anglaise : ” Nous allons nous mettre à écrire et cela nous prend en général un moment. Le projet pourrait sortir l’an prochain, aux alentours du mois d’octobre ou de novembre”.

L’album sortirait donc fin 2010 et succéderait au double album “Stadium Arcadium, paru en 2006, qui remporta le Grammy Awards du meilleur album rock.

Source : ClashMusic

Por Pedro Cuenca.

O baterista doRed Hot Chili Peppers, Chad Smith, disse em entrevista à “Clash Magazine”, que a banda deve lançar um novo disco no final de 2010.

“Por enquanto estamos compondo, e isso geralmente nos toma algum tempo”, disse. Segundo ele, o lançamento deve ocorrer no final do ano, provavelmente em outubro.

O baterista ainda comentou se o trabalho do baixista Flea com o vocalista do Radiohead, Thom Yorke, poderia influenciar um algo no próximo disco. Ele disse que ainda não tem batidas eletrônicas nas músicas. “”Nunca se sabe. Até agora fizemos algumas músicas com piano”, afirmou.

O Red Hot Chili Peppers não lança um disco desde 2006, com “Stadium Arcadium”.

I spent Saturday at the Fashionista 4 Halloween Special at SMU, which turned out to be a little of a disappointment, as sales weren’t particularly strong in the second half of the day. Still, the day wasn’t entirely wasted – D stayed the whole day and the sweetheart didn’t even complain! I made two new necklaces, and met up with Geraldine from Belle Maison, one of the vendors from the first Dempsey Road flea market I went for. She was wearing the necklace she purchased from me the last time, which was nice – I love seeing people wear my designs because it somehow validates me as a DIY artist! Also, a shout out to Sharon, who made her way down with a friend to buy some of my designs All of you are the reason why indie designers like myself still exist! So thank you very much.

Some pieces which are new – apologies for the poor res and dimness, but you get the idea!

This turned out looking slightly Indian-inspired, though the initial design was to make it seem like the couple were floating atop clouds. It had lots of good reviews though!

Inspired by the vintage brass carousel in the longer necklace – this dual- strand necklace  is kitschy and quirky!

Some of the new (ha,ha) vintage pendants imported from Europe – featuring Alice in Wonderland mainly. They have a raised glass dome that magnifies the pictures and makes them look slightly 3D! These are going to go at $20-$25, most likely.

I think I still have a lot to learn about catering to the right crowd – this time, the only pieces on display were the Signature Wirework and a small selection of Quirky Chic – with bracelets and earrings too – and I guess most of my prices aren’t entirely suitable for the tertiary crowd! I’m not sure if it would have been more effective setting up a stall of second hand clothes and books but the thought of lugging everything down in a number of suitcases is quite daunting, especially if sales aren’t guaranteed. Still, it’s something to consider as the rental isn’t all that high, so I could take two stalls in future.

Meantime, it’s All Saints Day today, so off I go to fulfil my Catholic duties!

A Red Hot Chili Peppers a 2006-os ‘Stadium Arcadium’ megjelenése utáni turnét követően hosszabb időre visszavonult, és csak idén kezdte el újra a közös munkát. Az első számok már készülnek, de még hónapok munkája vár a zenekarra, mielőtt megjelenik az album…

“Még egy ideig írjuk a számokat, ez általában hosszabb munkafolyamat. A lemez megjelenése valamikor jövő évben várható, ha minden jól megy, ősz tájékán. Van néhány számunk, amiben zongorát használunk, de kimondottan elektronikus irányba valószínűleg nem mozdulunk el” – nyilatkozta Chad Smith, az RHCP dobosa, arra a felvetésre, hogy Flea, az együttes basszistája Thom Yorke-kal dolgozik együtt, és ennek hatása érezhető lehet a következő korongon is.

-est-

The Silverlake Conservatory of Music is a non-profit organization, created in 2001 to fill the void in the cultural landscape of our community.  We offer the people of our area the opportunity to study music with exceptional teachers at a reasonable price.  We grant scholarships to deserving children, providing free lessons and instruments.

So reads the mission statement on the homepage of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music.  And, quite frankly, I’m surprised that it’s taken this long for the national press to pick up on the good deeds being done by this little school in Los Angeles.

After all, it’s not every music conservatory that has a genuine rock star as its founder.  And this one does – one Mr. Michael Peter Balzary, otherwise known as Flea, the fantastic bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The co-founder of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music

It’s old news in Los Angeles, where the conservatory hosts an annual “Hullabaloo” fundraiser every fall (the 5th annual was this past Halloween), but it is great to see CNN provide greater exposure for the fantastic deeds of Flea and his fellow philanthropists in this feature by the network’s Denise Quan.

Never judge a book by its cover, they say, and seeing a legitimate music school (not a rock star camp) founded by a guy who – on the surface – would appear to be the least likely to do so is incredibly heartening, to say the least.  And to think, a chance meeting with the music teacher from his old high school was the impetus for the whole project.

Thanks to the inspiration of one man, kids in greater Los Angeles have an opportunity to learn music in an environment that was lacking for the general population before the founding of the conservatory. 

Making Flea not only the perfect example of not judging a book by its cover, but also the personification of one who lives the ideal of “to whom much is given, much is expected”.