Flea

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea was stopped at customs and forced to sign Metallica merchandise after a mix-up at an airport in Belarus over the weekend. Despite the fact that he tried to insist he wasn't in Metallica, he still had to go along with the customs officials' mistake.

Flea looks nothing like Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo

Flea posted a shot of himself signing his name on some Metallica CDs, DVDs and posters on Instagram after he and the rest of Red Hot Chili Peppers failed to convince staff at a Belarus airport that they weren't the heavy metal band they were accused of being. Luckily, Flea didn't mind too much given that he's a Metallica superfan himself, but that must've been a weird day for the rockers nonetheless.

Continue reading: Red Hot Chili Peppers Had To Pretend To Be Metallica At Airport Customs

Red Hot Chili Peppers were forced to pull out of their headlining slot at KROQ's annual Weenie Roast on May 14, just hours before they were due to take the stage, after frontman Anthony Kiedis was sent to an area hospital.

Red Hot Chili Peppers were forced to miss their appearance at the KROQ Weenie Roast after Anthony Kiedis was hospitalised.

According to Billboard, a rep for KROQ, a Los Angeles radio station, said the singer was taken from the venue in an ambulance after suffering from extreme stomach pain. However the exact nature of the problem is unknown at this time.

Continue reading: Red Hot Chili Peppers Forced To Pull Out Of Show As Anthony Kiedis Taken To Hospital

Red Hot Chili Peppers have revealed details of their first new album in five years, announcing that their eleventh album The Getaway will be released on June 17th.

It’s their first album since 2011’s I’m With You, and is produced by Danger Mouse (aka. Brian Burton) and mixed by Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich. Fans have noted that it’s therefore the first Chili Peppers album since 1989’s Mother’s Milk not to have been produced by Rick Rubin.

Fans had been awaiting the prospect of new material for many months, ever since the band were confirmed as one of the headliners of T In The Park and Reading and Leeds Festival this year.

Continue reading: Red Hot Chili Peppers Announce New Album 'The Getaway'

Thom Yorke has revealed that he’s being given surf lessons by one of his Atoms For Peace band members. I bet you can guess which one – no, it’s not Nigel Godrich.

In an interview with The Observer, the Radiohead front man, whose Atoms For Peace project released debut LP AMOK today (February 25, 2013), revealed that he’d been taking surfing lessons from bassist Flea – who also plays in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. "I used always to try to force things, in the studio,” Yorke said, comparing his music with his new found interest in surfing. “But it's like, you can sit out there on a board for ages waiting for the right wave to come along. You can't get angry about it. You know it will happen eventually and you start to understand the waiting itself might be part of it. Part of the fun."

Atoms For Peace streamed their album AMOK last week on their official site amid rumors that it had been leaked already, while Yorke and Godrich have since played in London (February 22, 2013) in order to launch the record officially. In the same interview, Yorke revealed that the idea to get an album together under the Atoms For Peace moniker came about in the wake of several US shows in support of his 2006 solo album The Eraser.  "I had these very small ideas," Yorke said, "just beats mostly. And we just played off them for about three days solid."

Continue reading: Flea Gives Thom Yorke Surfing Lessons

Much as My Bloody Valentine did by dropping their latest album at a couple of days notice, so Thom Yorke’s Atoms For Peace have sent the music press scurrying to desperately make their opinion public first, in light of the release of their debut album together, AMOK.

Atoms For Peace, which includes Radiohead front man Thom Yorke, as well as producer Nigel Godrich and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, among others, streamed their album for a limited time on their official site last week ahead of its official release today (February 25, 2013), following reports that it had been leaked onto the internet, and the group have since played their first show in it's support – appearing in London last Friday (February 22, 2013). But what do the critics think of the LP? Opinion seems divided; Uncut magazine couldn’t be more effusive in their praise, writing “A team of skilled journeymen falling in behind an enigmatic guru and his ominous yet often curiously groovy vision.” Clash Magazine back that up, claiming “Amok provides a murky and complicated landscape that sounds like very little else - except the scorched testing ground from which we’ll witness Yorke deservedly going atomic once again.”

However, The Daily Telegraph aren’t so convinced; they say “Yorke seems to have become increasingly conflicted about the very idea of communication, his fondness for cliché indicating a tendency towards self-sabotage.” Their sentiments are backed up by Pitchfork, who write “No doubt these songs will go down a storm in a live setting. But, given the caliber of players Yorke has on hand this time around, it's disappointing that we still have to make that assumption.” Among the chances that Atoms For Peace have to convince live include Melt Festival in Germany, where they’ve recently been confirmed as headliners for the weekend of July 19-21^st.

Continue reading: Atoms For Peace Release AMOK Today; But How Do Thom Yorke & Co. Fare With The Critics?