Speed Dealer Moms are about to rave. No, really. The project that was born out of loooooooong jams in Winnipeg in August 2008, consisting of John and Venetian Snares/Aaron Funk will debut at this year's Bangface Weekender - a rave in Camber Sands UK, the very same place where All Tomorrow's Parties takes place.

Speed Dealer Moms are a mystery You can't stream music on their Myspace profile, because, as they say: all of our tunes are too long to fit on the side of a record or in a myspace player, so you have to imagine what they sound like. That might be better anyways because you could imagine them to sound however you like! For the same reason, they're not signed to a label. Either way, surely interesting if you can see them live in April in UK.

As per Bangface Weekender site, SDM are festival's highlight:

* SUPERSTAR ACID COLLABORATION ALERT *
John Frusciante (Legendary guitarist of the RHCP) & Aaron Funk(Venetian Snares) are joining forces for the first time to bring us a live 303 & 808 analogue show as...SPEED DEALER MOMS

Tickets for six and four-people chalets are still available on eBang and prices are £720 and £480. If you want to go, you'd better find people to share a chalet with, which is also possible via the ravetalk forums, if you're up for such an adventure. And, of course, if someone's going, as any material will be more than appreciated, say so. The festival takes place from 24th to 26th April 2009.

John has posted a new blog entry, after a 40-ish day break and he's talking about the possible interpretations of the meaning of The Empyrean, dismissing them all as more or less wrong, as it is incomprehensible to someone other than him, yet, in some way, every person with an open mind can find their own meaning in the albums' lyrics.

This excerpt is interesting, in particular:

While I could explain the story as I see it,that would detract from the potential multifarious meanings that will come about from people applying their own sense of feeling from their life experience, much as they always do.

So, to read some lyrics excerpts (Or is it a poem? Can someone who has heard the album in advance clarify it?) and the whole insight into the creation process, head over to JF.com. Personally, I advise you to revisit the second to last question on the MusicRadar podcast after reading it; as it might make more sense.

MusicRadar's three-part interview with John Frusciante regarding recording of The Empyrean, the future of Red Hot Chili Peppers and responses to what site visitors had asked is up.

If any of your questions got answered, shout. ^_^ I was pleasantly surprised that mine got picked and answered, as it was a bit out of the way and the only one not related to music. So...anyone else? There's got to be five more people...

According to Music Radar's introduction and the very end of the interview; more confusion was brought into the already confusing story about the future of the world's biggest rock band at the moment. And, according to what we have read in another interview two months ago, there IS a new project, so all of this does not make sense. Or does it?

They also gave a very good preview of The Empyrean:

On Frusciante's latest album, The Empyrean, the guitarist plays by no known rules and the result is a collection of songs that are challenging and poetic but never conventional. They hover in the air and land in special, secret places. From the feedback poetry of Before The Beginning to the guitar psychodrama of Enough Of Me (the latter of which features of gutsy, full-throated vocal performance) to the haunting beauty of Song To The Siren (a Tim Buckley original), this is a record that will stick with you in both waking and sleeping moments.

Volunteers on this website were working hard and super-fast to bring everyone a transcript of this insightful interview. On this note, I would like to thank my friend Slobodan Marković for having transcribed the first part, the second part was done by Sabrina Samwald and the third by yours truly.

Part one: The recording of The Empyrean (page 1-2)
Part two: Working with Johnny Marr, guitars and sounds (page 3-4)
Part three: Listeners' questions (pages 5-7)

For all of you in Australia and nearby, here's a nice draw to compete in and the award is a copy of Tony Woolliscroft's superbook Me And My Friends. Click here and read the requirements carefully before you fill out the form. Good luck!

Post Scriptum: Those who still don't have the book can get it at this link in Europe, at this link in the rest of the world and some lower-resolution scans from Me And My Friends can be viewed on this very domain, if you click here.

Longer-time listeners and those who collect live shows probably know that John, Flea and Josh had a Joy Division tribure band called Still back in 2000 and that the band played a single show at Spaceland on 10th October 2000. John took the microphone and guitar and the band performed cover versions of eleven Joy Division songs, ending their set with a rather stunning take on Love Will Tear Us Apart.

The setlist was:
Exercise One
Disorder
Twenty Four Hours
Failures
Shadowplay
Wilderness
Warsaw
She's Lost Control
New Dawn Fades
Colony
Love Will Tear Us Apart

The good news is that some kind person has uploaded the show to Dime and you can find the torrent here. Do remember to seed it after you've completed the download, so more people would have a chance to hear it. Please.

*EDITED: Typo fixed. If people who visit this site were making typos as rarely as I do, the world would be better, wouldn't it?

Nabil of Blur Photo has uploaded a whole photo session he did with John in November (or at least the EXIF data on one of the photos says it was November) and it can be viewed here.

Photos are both black and white and colour; and the scenery is quite interesting and moving. The photographer also states that John Frusciante is his favourite musician, so that probably makes the whole experience even more personal.

Thanks to Lara, for the heads-up. Tip: if the above link doesn't work for you, go to Blur Photo and select "01".

On MusicRadar's Happy New Year page, as well as the most of other pages, the readers are encouraged to vote for the artist whose album they're most looking forward to in the first months of 2009. The choices are Jeff Beck, Depeche Mode, U2, Neil Young, Franz Ferdinand, Lily Allen and John Frusciante.

So, you can vote for John. But if you want to vote for someone else, it's perfectly fine, too.

Thanks goes to Lindy, for the heads-up.

Dear visitors of Invisible Movement,
I would like to wish you all the best in the coming year. As you know, this website gathers people from all around the world, and we don't always celebrate the same holidays. However, there's one thing we really all know: the New Year begins tonight everywhere in the world, in a timespan of 24 hours. I hope 2009 will bring you everything you want it to bring you, as long as it isn't physically or mentally harmful to you or people around you.

I would like to ask you to take fifteen minutes to do something different. Instead of focusing on things that are there only for people to enjoy; try to do something nice for those who never had a chance to enjoy anything for a good start to 2009.

For example, donate to Wateraid and help people in the poorest countries of the world get clean water, soap and toilets.

Or, you could donate to help children with facial anomalies get operated and end up smiling the way humans should smile.

War Child in UK and Canada have established 12 projects in 10 countries across the world to assist war-affected children; and their programs focus on fighting poverty, providing education and defending children's rights.

To the local readers: take your time tomorrow afternoon and visit the street of the open heart, buy yourself a red clown nose and help clown-doctors.

A whole bunch of other important charities is listed here. And, of course, there are all the places listed on this website back in May.

If you REALLY can't spare a dime; there's always Free Rice and, you can give your signature against punishing people in supposed anti-terrorism jails by going to Unsubscribe me.

Open your eyes, there's only one thing we all have to remember: ignorance in any way is NOT bliss. Avoiding things and pretending they were not happening is not going to keep anyone happy, not even you; because at some point, it hits you. It's not protecting you, humans were not meant to live in cocoons. If someone's having a bad day, if they're experiencing stress, cheer them up. Don't let anyone feel left out. If someone wants to tell you how they'd been feeling recently, lend them an ear. If the whole class is beating up a weakling; help them instead of joining the mob. As an amazing Singaporean girl I met on Facebook through virtual pets says, be kind, people you meet might be fighting great battles.

Thanks for reading this and, once again, Happy New Year 2009!

MusicRadar will publish the podcast of the interview with John on Monday, 05th January 2009. They are really happy with the response and, according to what they're saying on the above linked page, his answers were by turns illuminating, fascinating, thought-provoking and entertaining. So, it should be good!

Click here to subscribe to the Music Radar podcast in iTunes; and it will automatically download the John episode for you on Monday.

As a large amount of people asked for this, I have compiled a list of links with websites where you can acquire The Empyrean, as LP, CD or Japanese version of the CD.

If anyone else has a link to share and thinks their link could help out someone who doesn't know where to order the album from, do share.