SMALL FACES

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, with its onetime guitarist John Frusciante returning in place of Dave Navarro, are set to convene Monday with producer Rick Rubin to start recording a new album in L.A. . . . Frusciante is also on an upcoming album by Banyan, a loose ensemble organized by former Jane’s Addiction/Porno for Pyros drummer Stephen Perkins, with four bassists (Chili Pepper Flea, Mike Watt, Martyn LeNoble and Rob Wasserman) also on board. Perkins is fresh from teaming with Layne Staley and Tom Morello on the remake of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” for the soundtrack to “The Faculty.” . . .

Live’s Ed Kowalczyk and Neneh Cherry have teamed for “Walk Into This Room,” a song Kowalczyk wrote for the soundtrack of the movie “Playing by Heart.” Moby and Fluke also contributed new tracks to the film, with an album due Jan. 12. . . .

Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, whose atmospheric, medieval-influenced sounds spanned Goth and New Age audiences, have decided to end the partnership after 14 years. Perry plans a solo album for March, while Gerrard is working on music for an upcoming movie from director Michael Mann. . . .

Ry Cooder has made another album for the small Santa Barbara label Waterlilly Acoustics, home of his Grammy-winning 1993 “A Meeting by the River” collaboration with guitarist V.M. Bhatt. The new one features Cooder with electro-jazz trumpeter Jon Hassell and French jazz pianist Jacky Terrason, along with Indian musicians. . . .

While waiting for his first album on Epitaph to come out in April, Tom Waits has signed up to act in “Mystery Men,” a film about misfit superheroes starring Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, William H. Macy and Janeane Garofalo.