Space may be the final frontier / But it's made in a Hollywood basement

Red Hot Chili Peppers have fascinated me ever since I was a kid and saw Californication on VH1 for the first time. Of course, back then i had a pretty general opinion on music and didn't really understand their message, but a few years after, I really started listening to these guys.

They're amazing. The exact kind of artists I love, creating a whole new musical genre of their own, inspired by real-life experience. I don't exactly know how to put it into words, the kid i was when i first heard Caliornication loved them just as much as I do now, even though now I also get the meaning behind the music.

Red Hot Chili Peppers are a mixture of alternative rock, funk and hard-rock, and the list of bands and people that influenced them varies from Bob Marley to Bad Brains and Led Zeppelin to Miles Davis and Elvis Presley. Each RHCP member had a different musical evolution and brought his own style and musical preference into the band, which resulted into what RHCP sounds like today.

The lyrics were written by the vocalist, Anthony Kiedis, which I find to be a very interesting man with a very interesting story. He spent his teenage years in LA and had one of the Hollywood's favourite drug dealers at the time for a father, who provided bands such as Led Zeppelin and The Who. He lost his virginity at age 12 with daddy's 18 years old girlfriend and consent, and at 14 he almost died from his first cocaine dose. Up till 2000, since he has been clean, he spent his life struggling with addictions, the 1st wake-up call being his band mate Hillel Slovak's death due to heroin overdose, still, that only turned him into an on and off user for a while. His life experience, as well as the other members' life experience as RHCP evolved, reflects into the lyrics, with themes such as love, romance, sex, drug abuse, politics, globalization, loneliness and dealing with death.

Kickass people making kickass music, putting the knowledge they gained since '83 in the songs as a sign of aging, but keeping the young energy alive. I can pretty much see them at 65 still rocking out on rooftops, making weird faces in photos, dressing tacky-punker clothes and releasing trippy music videos.

9 days left till the new album, I'm with you is out.

(Awesome artwork, by the way, 1st pic, the one with the fly on the pill.)

Till then, Stadium Arcadium:Jupiter and Blood Sugar Sex Magik are back in my playlist.