antiMusic reports:

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS and CHICKENFOOT drummer Chad Smith has put together yet another unit. CHAD SMITH'S BOMBASTIC MEATBATS play instrumental music with a groove. Think of the Chilis without Anthony and add some twists and turns direction-wise.

antiMusic?'s Morley Seaver spoke with Chad lately to find out about the new project and also about his recent injury which forced the cancellation of several Chickenfoot shows.

Here?'s an excerpt:

Q: Apparently, you guys got together while working with Glenn Hughes. How long ago was this, for the Soul Mover record?

A: "Well, we would play together around that time. That?s when I really started playing a lot with Glenn. We did that record. Ed?'s on it. I don?t know if Jeff is. I think JJ (Marsh) is on that record. But live we play some gigs with Glen, you know, we toured a little bit with Glenn not a lot, but we?d play whenever we could together. We really have so much fun together. And Ed and Jeff play with him a lot. When we'?d be like rehearsing for a show or something, if Glenn was late or something and we?d just jam on this kind of stuff, this Meatbat kind of stuff. And we just fell into this love of this kind of groove, kind of funky, you know, Billy Preston-y, Jeff Beck-y, Meters stuff and we?'d do it just for fun, obviously, just screwing around.

And I said, man this is really cool. We should try and write some songs and just make a record. Which you could do these days, pretty easy. (laughs). So we did. One day I went, 'why don'?t you guys come on over to my house and we?ll just come up with some ideas?' It just came really fast and we recorded really quickly. And that was actually January of 2007 when the Meatbats started actually, when we started making songs. So we had this record for a long time and we?ve been playing."

Q: You'?ve said in other interviews that Chickenfoot is not a side project. It?s a real band. How do you view the Meatbats?

A: "Well, we all live in L.A. which is great, you know. We play whenever we can and everybody?'s cool with that. Luckily, it?s not like some other bands where it?s ?'OK, you can?t do it. We?ve got to get somebody else?.' There'?s no pressure. I think maybe the other guys would like to be able to play a little bit more and travel. Once the record comes out hopefully people will get into it, and I would like to do too. But uh, I just gotta say no to things at some point. (laughs) I have a family at home, and I can?t travel as much as I used to. I?'ve traveled a lot with Chickenfoot since May and my wife is very patient but I have a feeling that she would be really upset if I said, ?'Hey, I?'m going to Japan a week after I get home.'? So, you know, we'?ll play wherever we can. It?'ll just make it that much more special you know. It?'s not like we?re some big huge touring band, with 59 people working for us. It?'s not like a Chili Peppers thing. It?'s just the four guys. We set up our own stuff. And we go play. It?'s cool. I like that. It?'s so different from some of the other situations that I?'m in. I start playing with these guys, just for the love of it and that?'s great. Really. It'?s good for me to play to 90 people and with no singing, no light show. You?re just there. It?'s all music and that?'s what it?s all about. It?'s why I started playing. And I want to continue to do that. It?'s fun and I want it to be fun and stay fun. When it?'s not going to be fun anymore, then I?'m not going to do it."

Read the full interview here.

earMUSIC Records has announced the UK release for the debut CD from Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats.

Already hailed as one of the most compelling and unpredictable instrumental bands in years, their debut album, Meet The Meatbats, is released in the UK on Monday, October 12th.

Formed by Chad Smith, legendary drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and, more recently, of rock supergroup Chickenfoot, the remaining members of the Meatbats includes guitarist Jeff Kollman (GLENN HUGHES), bassist Kevin Chown (TED NUGENT) and keyboardist Ed Roth (Glenn Hughes).

Meet The Meatbats (released in North America on September 15th) features the following tracklisting:

'Need Strange'

'The Battle For Ventura Blvd'

'Oh! I Spilled My Beer!'

'Tops Off'

'Death Match'

'Night Sweats'

'Pig Feet'

'Lola'

'Bread Balls'

'Into The Floyd'