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The last time the Red Hot Chili Peppers released a debut single from a forthcoming album, Barack Obama was still a freshman senator, Rebecca Black was only nine years old, and the music world was irrationally obsessed with Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day.”

Today Obama is president, Black is a pop star, and people remember Susan Powter better than they remember Daniel. And in the middle of it all, the Red Hot Chili Peppers remain steadfast. Sure, they have a new guitarist (longtime collaborator Josh Klinghoffer, replacing the once-again-departed John Frusciante), but if their new single “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” (the first track from their end-of-summer album I’m With You) is any indication, things are still cool in Pepperland.

Sticking with the same mid-tempo groove that colored recent successes like “Dani California” and “Can’t Stop,” “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” lays out a checklist for RHCP hits. Extra-funky Flea bassline? Check. Easy walking drum beat? Yup. Complementary shards of funk guitar? Indeed. Chaise-lounge philosophizing care of Anthony Kiedis? Of course. A heaping ton of cow bell? Yes and yes.

And yet something might be missing. Maybe the chorus isn’t as big as past hits, or perhaps the “Hey now” in the hook evokes too many memories of the sleepy “Snow (Hey Oh).” Still, it does feel like a back-to-basics return for the band after the circus rock excesses of their 2006 double album Stadium Arcadium, and any time the Chili Peppers take a step back (as they did on the now-classic 1999 album Californication), good things tend to happen. “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” is no “Scar Tissue,” but the groove still feels good.

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Credit: Picture Group/ MTV

This past May, Thirty Seconds To Mars, MTV, and a few dozen very lucky members of the Echelon (and, not to mention, a gospel choir) came together in New York City for the band's much-anticipated "MTV Unplugged" performance, presented by Starburst. But this was far from just any regular concert, or even your average up-close-and-personal, stripped-down approach to a live performance. Ask any member of the Echelon, and they'll tell you; Thirty Seconds To Mars' "MTV Unplugged" performance was nothing short of a tent revival reckoning, with the audience -- sitting on a set dressed to resemble a church, candles and pews included -- singing along in perfect harmony, rapt by the band's almost-holy re-imaginings of Thirty Seconds To Mars songs like "Kings And Queens," "Closer To The Edge," "Night Of The Hunter," and "Hurricane." The line between the suggestion of a house of worship and an actual religious experience was, indeed, blurred.

Thirty Seconds To Mars' "MTV Unplugged" performance will finally air on Tuesday, July 19 at 8pm ET on MTV.com. But before that, we've got an exclusive sneak peek of Thirty Seconds To Mars' "MTV Unplugged" performance of "Hurricane." Watch it below, and stay tuned for more sneak peeks of Thirty Seconds To Mars' "MTV Unplugged" performance -- including photos and interviews -- before the show premieres.

+ Watch a sneak peek of Thirty Seconds To Mars' "MTV Unplugged" performance of "Hurricane."