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"Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith &amp;#x2014; fresh off contributing to supergroup Chickenfoot and picking up a nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame &amp;#x2014; has just launched another project, the all-instrumental Bombastic Meatbats. While the group sounds similar at times to Smith&amp;apos;s full-time gig, there is a heavy &amp;apos;70s fusion vibe (a la vintage Return to Forever) throughout their debut album, Meet the Meatbats, which came out earlier this month via Warrior Records.\r\n&amp;quot;The Meatbats came out of jamming with Glenn Hughes, who used to play bass and sing with Deep Purple in the &amp;apos;70s,&amp;quot; Smith tells Rolling Stone. Adding that Ed Roth and Jeff Kollman &amp;#x2014; who play keyboards and guitar in Hughes&amp;apos; solo band &amp;#x2014; would be late to rehearsals, Smith says the group &amp;quot;would just jam on this funk stuff, kinda Billy Preston and Meters-sounding stuff. I&amp;apos;d be like, &amp;apos;We should write some songs and make a record,&amp;apos; and that&amp;apos;s what we did.&amp;quot; Hughes wound up not being involved in the band, so Kevin Chown lays down the bass in the Meatbats.\r\n&amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s instrumental music &amp;#x2014; we&amp;apos;re not trying to compete with the Coldplays and the Lady Gagas of the world,&amp;quot; adds Smith. &amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s just going to be a little cult thing, and it&amp;apos;s cool. I want people to know that sometimes there&amp;apos;s a connotation that instrumental music is guys playing a million notes a minute, but this is party music. It has a sense of humor and it&amp;apos;s not serious.&amp;quot;\r\nDespite Meet the Meatbats landing in the Top 10 on the iTunes jazz album charts, don&amp;apos;t expect a full-on Meatbats tour of the States. &amp;quot;Not right now,&amp;quot; Smith says. &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;m going to back to playing with the Chili Peppers. We&amp;apos;re going to start writing songs on October 12th. So I have to be around for that. But I think maybe the Meatbats will have kind of a &amp;apos;wedding band schedule&amp;apos; &amp;#x2014; maybe we&amp;apos;ll just play on the weekends or something.&amp;quot;\r\nAnd on that note, does Smith have any idea what the Peppers&amp;apos; tenth studio album will sound like? &amp;quot;No idea &amp;#x2014; which is exciting. It&amp;apos;s been two years, and we&amp;apos;re going to get back together and play. This is my favorite part, the creative process. It&amp;apos;s the coolest part of making music and being in a band. I love playing live, but I get really a lot of enjoyment out of this process.&amp;quot;\r\nRelated Stories:&amp;#x2022; Red Hot Chili Peppers Feel &amp;quot;Major Enthusiasm&amp;quot; Heading Into the Studio"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/chili-peppers-smith-brings-the-funk-with-bombastic-meatbats-20090924>