Daily Staff Writer

“Californication”

Red Hot Chili Peppers

FOUR STARS

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have finally returned after four years of rest since 1995’s “One Hot Minute.” This time returning without guitarist Dave Navarro, the Peppers still retain their status as the gods of funk-rock.

Anthony Kiedis, who fought his way through a severe drug addiction, brought the band back together to once again make some crunching and controversial music.

Joined by bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith and guitarist John Frusciante, who last appeared on 1993’s multi-platinum “Blood Sugar Sex Magik,” Kiedis and company drove the miles to conjure up “Californication,” an album that pays tribute to the L. A. rat race and the Hollywood circus.

The album bleeds with contempt for the West Coast mentality, and many lyrics yearn for a better place.

The album’s first single, “Scar Tissue,” which has reached #2 on Billboard’s alternative charts, tugs at the inner soul with its poetic, yet repetitive chorus “with the birds I’ll share this lonely view…”

Album opener “Around The World” marks the band’s global triumph while songs like “Otherside” and the melodic “Porcelain” detail Kiedis’ own battles in life that have gotten him where he is today.

These aren’t all “help me I’ve fallen” songs, however. The Peppers knock things around with funked out songs like “Parallel Universe,” “Get On Top” and the piercing “I Like Dirt.”

Produced by Rick Rubin, “Californication” has awakened something that Red Hot Chili Peppers fans all over the globe have missed. The band has connected to so many people who can identify with the music and understand the road the Peppers have travelled.

-Kevin Hosbond

“Stereo Type A”

Cibo Matto

TWO STARS

Not since Styx sang “Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto” has such a mottled mix of Japanese and American pop culture attempted to force its way into our collective zeitgeist.

Cibo Matto’s new release, “Stereo Type A,” is a mottled collection of sunny day croons ala The Carpenters, new age synthesizer operettas, house music and bastardized rap.

The lyrics are lumpier and more congealed than a leftover batch of grandma’s oatmeal. The rhymes are so strained and obvious they make Steve Perry of Journey seem like wordsmith of the year.

What makes the effort hard to get a handle on is it is so eclectic that it really seems to have no discernible direction.

One second you’re listening to a Japanese version of Tori Amos and in the next it’s the Pacific Rim’s answer to Devo.

“Stereo Type A” is like being in the middle of a bad cyberpunk novel. Electronics slap up against Caribbean beats or funk slap bass, and rather than seeing this as a rich combination of disparate parts, one is left with the distinct impression that armed with a wall of keyboards, any half-assed musician can be turned into the next Japanese corporate pop sensation.

Not since Shonen Knife has a Japanese pop act been so kitschy and vacant. “Stereo Type A” might make a great soundtrack for a season of “Hello Kitty” or a sci-fi convention of manga fans who don’t really care about music.

But for anyone interested in expanding her musical horizons with a quick injection of innovative pop music, Cibo Matto’s “Stereo Type A” should definitely be left on the shelf.

-Greg Jerrett