Its official...the Foo Fighters aren't sh*t anymore!!! I've pretty much hated everything by them since the release of their 4th album 'One by One' almost a decade ago in 2002.
However, in the week Dave Grohl's legendry rock'n'roll presence picked up NME's 'Godlike genius' award and 'coincidently' Pat Smear having rejoined the group before the Foo's are due to play a huge UK gig at Milton Keyes bowl and a slew of UK festivals as they are set to release their (lucky number) 7th studio album 'Wasting Light'...proof that things always can go back to how they once were!
In tribute - I will remember what it was like when they were one of the best bands around and select some tracks from their first 3 AWESOME albums a quick look at some of Grohl's other work before a quick look at the new album....
Foo Fighters...
David Eric Grohl started out his musical career in the lesser known band Scream before joining one of the world's most influencial and sucessful bands of modern times, Nirvana. With Grohl on drums, Krist Novalselic on bass and Kurt Cobain on vocals and guitar they formed a band that lead the seattle grunge movement to a worldwide phenominon and became house house names. Following the untimely suicide of Cobain and inevitably the demise of Nirvana; Grohl had brief stint with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers before entering studio in grunge capital of the world, Seattle in the late 94...were he would take the genre to its next level.
In the studio he recorded 12 of the 40 songs he wrote whilst in Nirvana, singing and playing all the instruments himself. The album proved an instant hit and Nate Mendel and Will Goldsmith were drafted in to play live along with former Nirvana touring bandmate Pat Smear. Stand out tracks from the album include 'Big Me', 'For all the cows' and the grungy number 'I'll stick around'. For me though my favourite track from the album is the Foo's debut single 'This is a call', taken from a very early live performance, enjoy...
Colour and the Shape...
The bands second album is not only my personal favourite Foo's albums, but one the greatest albums ever to be recorded! The Foo's second album was the 1st to be recorded as a band based loosely around the breakup of an intense romance and produced by British born, Pixies producer Gil Norton...hence the spelling of 'colour' the proper way.
Alanis Morrisette's drummer, Taylor Hawkins was enlisted to perform the album live after Goldsmith relocated to LA, this proved to be an inspired decision. The entire album is almost faultless with stand out tracks 'My Hero', 'Monkey Wrench', 'Hey, Johnny Park', 'New Way home' and the track written about Grohl's first divorce 'Walking after you'. Not forgetting one the greatest songs to EVER be written, the awesomely epic 'Everlong', check out this awesome live version + crank it up to 11...
There is Nothing Left to Loose...
In 1999 I got my first chance to see the Foo's, now a 3 piece Grohl, Hawkins and Nate Menel had been busy in the studio and drafted in Chris Shifflet for the massive World Tour! The 3rd album is not on the same level as 'Colour and Shape' but yet still a great album. A serious of fantasic singles and videos followed including 'Breakout', 'Generator', 'Next Year' and probably the funniest music vid in history 'Learn to fly' with a little help from Tenacious D's Jack Black and Kyle Gass. My favourite track from the album has to be the 1st track 'Stacked Actors' written about the fakeness of living in Holywood and is much harder than the rest of the album with a much more abrasive, sharp and distorted sound, crack-a-lacking!...
Grohl Factor...
Not being a fan of the Foo's 4th, 5th and 6th albums I will play the ignorant card, shut my ears and pretend they never existed with the exception of a couple of tracks it was pretty much commercial rubbish. During the past 10-15 years Grohl has had his fingers in many other musical pies, possibly one of the reasons the last decade of Foo's hasn't been so below par. Short-lived side projects Late! and Probot passed me by before Grohl put in some awesome drum work for Queens of the Stone Age and worked with a variety of instruments and artists alike- including: P Diddy, Teanacious D, Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, Slash and Juliette Lewis. For me though, Grohl was one third of the greatest supergroup in history 'Them Crooked Vultures' with his long time friend Josh Homme of Kyus and QOSTA fame and Led Zepplin's genius John Paul Jones who made an epic of an album, well worth a purchase!
I could have chosen litterally ANY of this work, however I opted for something a little more Leftfield. An accoustic cover of Elton John's classic 'Tiny Dancer' on a US chat show, the Grohl banter beforehand is a big part of what the mans about, hope you enjoy....
Wasting Light...
Judging from the snipests I've heard that influenced my decision to write this weeks feature blog the new album is very much back to basics. The entire album was recorded in Grohl's garage using only analog equipment and for me, its really paid off without all the annoying over production that is the death of so many big bands! Pat Smear has rejoined the band 13 years after leaving and they are due to play T, Oxegen and Isle of Wight and a sell out MK Bowl to 65,000 Foo's fans. Check out their latest single 'Rope', I cannot express my delight at the intro + the throwback to the classic 'Monkey Wrench' song break 3/4 way through...lovely stuff lads!
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