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Stadium Arcadium is the Red Hot Chili Peppers' ninth studio album and their first in nearly four years. It was released on May 5, 2006, in Croatia, May 8, 2006 in the United Kingdom, May 9, 2006 in North America, May 10, 2006 in Japan, May 13, 2006 in Australia, May 15, 2006 in New Zealand and May 5, 2006 in some countries in Europe (see 2006 in music). It was leaked onto the internet on April 30, presumably from a promotional copy. It is the first time a Red Hot Chili Peppers band line-up has remained the same for three consecutive studio albums. It debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart, the Japanese Oricon Albums chart, and the U.S. Billboard 200. Stadium Arcadium sold a combined 442,000 copies in its first week of release in the U.S., which is the band's second best sales week to date.

According to an interview with frontman Anthony Kiedis in New Musical Express, Stadium Arcadium was originally scheduled to be a trilogy of albums each released six months apart, but was condensed into one 28 track double album so that the music could be heard more quickly. As for the ten tracks left off of the original 38 track trilogy, Kiedis had noted that there might be plans to release them as bonus tracks on albums distributed to the numerous store chains; however, there has been no evidence since of such plans, and multiple retailers have been found offering the album with a uniform tracklisting. The first CD single "Dani California" (or one of its versions) does contain a total of three non-album tracks, presumably picked from those ten songs.

The song "Dani California", is about "Dani", the same character from their hit single, "By the Way" and was also mentioned in the song "Californication". "Dani", according to Kiedis, is a representation of every girl that he has come across in his life. He also said it is his favorite name.

"Dani California", "Wet Sand", "21st Century", "Readymade", "Tell Me Baby", "Desecration Smile", "Charlie", "Hard To Concentrate", "She's Only 18", and "Snow ((Hey Oh))" have all been played live. "Dani California" was premiered on radio stations worldwide on April 3, 2006. The video leaked onto the internet on April 1 and followed on music television stations worldwide over the subsequent days.

Stadium Arcadium is also available in a limited-edition black box that includes the 28-song, two-CD set, plus a DVD with the "Dani California" video and behind-the-scenes "making of the video" footage; a one-hour band interview; a 28-page booklet; contained in an 8-panel digipack; Four art cards containing original artwork by the band; a wooden spinning top; Four different psychadelic templates for the spinning top; a bag containing marbles; and a notepad disguised as a matchbook. It can be found at Virgin Megastores for $42 U.S.

For the introduction of the album, the iTunes Music Store offered an exclusive pre-order of the album. The iTunes version included the entire 28-song set, a documentary on the making of the video for "Dani California", audio commentary from the band on the making of the album, and exclusive access to a pre-ticket sale for the upcoming Red Hot Chili Peppers' tour from Ticketmaster, four days before they go on sale to the public. These bonus attributes were only available with the pre-order.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded a session for AOL on March 28, 2006. They performed a five-song set in the mansion where they recorded the album. They played three new tracks: "Dani California", "Desecration Smile" and "Tell Me Baby" They also played two old hits: "Californication" and "Scar Tissue". Unfortunately "Tell Me Baby" and "Desecration Smile" haven't made their online appearances on Session@AOL, but are available elsewhere on online.

On April 17, 2006, a live show aired on the Zane Lowe show on Radio 1 in the UK. They played old hits along with several new songs, including "21st Century", "Tell Me Baby", "Dani California", and the previously unplayed "Charlie", "Snow (Hey Oh)", "Hard To Concentrate".

According to Frusciante.net, there will be seven singles off the album. Five have been confirmed: the current single "Dani California", "Tell Me Baby", "Storm in a Teacup", "Snow ((Hey Oh))", and "Stadium Arcadium". While not even released as a single yet, "Snow ((Hey Oh))" climbed to number fifty-three in the U.K. iTunes top 100 on May 13; this bodes well for a future release.

Band members' thoughts

Bassist Flea has said, "If you don't like this record, you don't like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Period."

Engineer Ryan Hewitt talks about his work on the Red Hot Chili Peppers forthcoming double album. When asked about the sound of the album, Hewitt said, "Everyone's asking me, ‘Are they bringing back the funk?’” Hewitt confides. “All I can say is, ‘Yes.’”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Flea says that Stadium Arcadium is "by far the best thing we've ever done."

"I originally wanted to call it 'An Increase in Howling Pt. 1,' and then Flea said, 'hey how 'bout Stadium Arcadium,' and I said OK," Anthony Kiedis joked on a radio interview in New York during the world premier of the album on VH1 online and Red Hot Chili Peppers Radio across the States.

Flea's response to the album leak:

This text originally appeared on the band's official website here, posted by Michael Balzary (Flea) on May 2, 2006, who seemed quite affected.

When I woke up this morning I was was confronted with the news that our record has been leaked to the internet. It does not come out until May 9 but now it has leaked. And not that I know a lot about this kind of thing but I guess now it is possible to download it for free if you want.

Well, that's not very nice. If you download it now off one of these file sharing sites you will be getting a pale imitation of the record. It will be of the poor sound quality because of the technique they used to get it on there. And that will break my heart, it will break John Frusciante's heart, it will break Anthony Kiedis's heart, and it will break the heart of Chad Smith.

Yes, we worked for a year and a half to make the epic record of our lives and this is sad to me for the business reasons of course. But also, I think we are selling something really cool and we put all we had into it; 28 songs, 2 hours of the best that we can offer. I think it is a fair deal for everyone, and for people to just steal a poor sound quality version of it for free because some asshole stole it and put it on the internet is sad to me. But, equitable business reasons aside the thing that really bums me out is we worked so hard, and so thoughtfully, all of us, for so long, to make this record sound as warm and full from top to bottom as was possible. We spent day and night for a year making sure every little sound was just right, that they were all put together in the most beautiful way we could. We did not leave a stone unturned in doing that work. I can not put in words how much this record, Stadium Arcadium, means to us, how sacred the sound of it is to us and how many sleepless nights and hardworking days we all had, thinking about how to make it be the best sounding thing we could.

And now, for someone to take it and put it out there with this poor sound quality, it is a painful pill for us to swallow. This bums all of us out and i know that, as sensitive as john frusciante is about sound, the idea of anyone getting and hearing this thing that way will devastate him. Yes, it is stealing from us, and that is lame. Everyone has to live with their own conscience on that one. Let it be your guide, but to take a version that has been defiled sound wise, a version in which some idiot has taken our year and a half of soul baring work and pissed all over it, that will break our hearts.

sincerely,

Flea

This was Flea's response after calming down since news of the leak, taken from Fleamail May 6, 2006

after the other morning when i found out our record had leaked

i freaked
it leaked i freaked
after calming down a little bit
and finding out more about what actually happens
it has been brought to my attention by some intelligent people
that most of the people who download the record before it comes out
are people who really love our music and believe in what we do
and they go out and get the real thing anyway
but of course they can not wait to hear it
and are willing to hear a substandard version first
because they are excited to hear it
and of course i understand and i would do the same thing
it just really scared me that people would be hearing something
without the depth of sound that we strive for

On May 9th, in an interview during TRL on MTV, when asked about how he reacted to the leak, he stated that he calmed down about it. He also shouted into the crowd that he wanted them to go online and download it illegally, however he appeared to be joking.

Track Listing

Disc 1: Jupiter

1. "Dani California" - 4:42
2. "Snow ((Hey Oh))" - 5:34
3. "Charlie" - 4:37
4. "Stadium Arcadium" - 5:15
5. "Hump de Bump" - 3:33
6. "She's Only 18" - 3:25
7. "Slow Cheetah" - 5:19
8. "Torture Me" - 3:44
9. "Strip My Mind" - 4:19
10. "Especially in Michigan" - 4:01
    • Special guest Guitar solo by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
11. "Warlocks" - 3:25
    • Featuring Billy Preston on Clavenette
12. "C'mon Girl" - 3:48
13. "Wet Sand" - 5:09
14. "Hey" - 5:39

Disc 2: Mars

1. "Desecration Smile" - 5:01
2. "Tell Me Baby" - 4:07
3. "Hard to Concentrate" - 4:01
4. "21st Century" - 4:22
5. "She Looks to Me" - 4:06
6. "Readymade" - 4:30
7. "If" - 2:52
8. "Make You Feel Better" - 3:51
9. "Animal Bar" - 5:25
10. "So Much I" - 3:44
11. "Storm in a Teacup" - 3:45
12. "We Believe" - 3:36
13. "Turn It Again" - 6:06
14. "Death of a Martian" - 4:24

B-Sides, Outtakes and Non-Album Tracks

Although these songs were not included on Stadium Arcadium, they have been included with CD singles from the album.

1. "Million Miles of Water" (B-Side of Dani California CD1)
2. "Whatever We Want" (B-Side of Dani California CD2)
3. "Lately" (B-Side of Dani California CD2)

Chart Performance

Stadium Arcadium became the Red Hot Chili Peppers' first album to debut atop The Billboard 200 after selling 442,000 copies only in USA in first week. The band's previous best week was the debut week of By the Way, which yielded 282,000 copies and a debut at number 2 on the 200. However Stadium Arcadium is a double-disc, the sales are about Stadium Arcadium meant as a single-disc, so are sold in first week in USA 442,000 of "jupiter" and 442,000 of "mars", no 221,000 and 221,000.

Trivia

• Underneath the booklet included on the inner sleeve of the album, the members of the band are wearing football uniforms with writing on the helmets, reminiscent of the album art for The Who's Odds and Sods.
• Jupiter is associated with the color blue, and Mars red. In fact, both planets have a red-orange hue.

External links

• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Official Site
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - MySpace Page
• Stadium-Arcadium.com Ultimate Fansite - http://www.stadium-arcadium.com
• Stream Stadium Arcadium
• MTV.com article'
• Still Remains the Same album review
• 15 minute video interview with John Frusciante which includes thoughts on the new album.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers albums
• 2006 albums
• Warner Bros. albums