Foo Fighters "Sonic Highway" documentary series on HBO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0TrqXHoL10

I know that the Foo Fighters are a polarizing band in this forum, and turning an album into such a documentary series is frowned upon as self-aggrandizing hyperbole that detracts from the music, but I still assume some people will be interested in this if nothing else for those being interviewed and the fact that HBO usually does a good job with these things.

Is anyone else going to be watching or TiVoing this series?

oh i'll watch it for sure

I like Grohl/Foos, and now that I have HBO I'll be watching.

The Foos are mega ding-dongs but I can't wait to watch this, though I am admittedly most excited to see the episode at Electrical Audio cuz the band I'm in made a record there and I can be all "whoa Taylor Hawkins is sitting where I sat and ate like a pound of trail mix!"

Not much of a fan of their music but this series looks cool. Will watch. Always interested in production and what goes on in the studios.

there was hilariously awkward promotional clip where the interviewee said something like "bands only have 3 good albums in them" and then realized the foo fighters have like 8 albums and then he started laughing. i guess we as the viewers are supposed to be like "haha he's obviously wrong because the foo fighters have all of those great albums" but then there's an uncomfortable moment where all of us, viewers and the interviewee, together, are counting up the number of good foo fighters albums and it's less than 2

could be good for grohlz lolz

there was hilariously awkward promotional clip where the interviewee said something like "bands only have 3 good albums in them" and then realized the foo fighters have like 8 albums and then he started laughing. i guess we as the viewers are supposed to be like "haha he's obviously wrong because the foo fighters have all of those great albums" but then there's an uncomfortable moment where all of us, viewers and the interviewee, together, are counting up the number of good foo fighters albums and it's less than 2

― Karl Malone, Monday, 13 October 2014 22:50 (3 days ago) Permalink

It is Gibby Haynes, who knows a thing or two about making terrible albums beyond the first three

i'm all over this

as much as he *should* annoy me i can't really hate on grohl that much, he's like the likeable bono

can we all agree that "sonic highways" has got to be one of the most milquetoast/boring album titles in forever though?

It's not Rattle & Hum. It's HBO.

It's not Rattle & Hum

well, it's got that going for it.

I wish they'd named it One Nation Under Foo

"Sonic Highways" is the name of album that comes with pair dad jeans and nice pair of brown tassled loafers.

the problem with Our Band Could Be Your Life was that it didn't explain how all this maverick trailblazing could lead to the foo fighters. now we'll find out, with dave fitting albini and mackaye into the pbs tapestry they've previously been excluded from.

"sonic highways" are special roads for major label rock stars and their guests

xp honestly One Nation Under Foo would be preferable. it'd at least be swinging for something rather than shrugging and driving down the middle of the road. which has kind of been the deal with FF since the fourth album.

otm with the dad jeans reference

i'm sure i'll find plenty to enjoy in this like i do most rock docs, but i kind of wish he'd just made a goodbye to broad street instead

sorry, give my regards to broad street

or maybe a one-trick pony with lorde as the b-52s

Intensity In 8 Cities

^^^even that's better than Sonic Highways. 8 Ways to Rock is one of the only things I can imagine that'd be worse/more basic.

America Rocks

Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock

Life Is A Sonic Highway In America Keep On Rockin'

"8 Ways to Rock"

I'm having trouble with this link, can you help? I'm trying to post it on facebook.

Thanks.

sonic highways 2

1. The Dirtiest Water (with Steven Tyler & Joe Perry)
2. Pumped (with Uncle Luke)
3. Always Dreaming (with Peter Buck & Kate Pierson)
4. Going (with Darryl Hall & Questlove)
5. Way Down Home (with Aretha Franklin & The Black Keys)
6. Candles (with Bob Seger)
7. Working On It (with The Original 7ven)
8. There For All Time/Combine (with Billie Joe Armstrong, E-40 & Bob Weir)

imagine if they'd gone to philadelphia - questlove would totally get involved and then either angrily castigate himself for it or self-righteously defend it in the liner notes of the next roots album

Foo Fighters Over America and then he could have squeezed in appearance by his close personal friend Paul McCartney

Foo Fighters are the number one band for people who tuck in their t-shirts

gotta save paul for sonic eurail

Foo Fighters are the number one band for people who tuck in their t-shirts

― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, October 16, 2014 12:13 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Rush fans aren't gonna give up that easily pal

lmao

Foos have steadily eclipsed Rush in the past few yrs according to my research

Rush fans I think have moved into the mock-turtleneck phase

you can categorize many fans of both bands under the umbrella of "people who probably bought zunes"

"Sonic Highways" is being pushed to Zune users exclusively for free!

nah, ballmer gave all those up - used them on the low to pay for the clippers. chris paul is furious.

oh btw here's the first single, it's...pretty whatever IMO. not that bad, not that good, almost entirely uninteresting though the breakdown near the end is decent...

<iframe width="788" height="484" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Y3B0Vx_yQgo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

wow that didnt work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3B0Vx_yQgo if you're curious

Has any rock band ever made a good record with different special guests on every song? Other than Santana, of course.

The 6ths, Wasps Nests - if you pretend its the magnetic fields with a different singer on each track

yeah that's a good album

wow, foo fighters really are unleashing some amazing new sounds into this vibrant rock and roll genre

this music http://i57.tinypic.com/x62ir.gif

SO DO FOO

Indiana Grohl and Sonic Highway of Doom

as someone who stanned for "Rope," "The Pretender," "Best of You," etc. this is definitely their most underwhelming lead single in a long time. the funky clavinet (?) at the halfway point is cool, though. this was the song done at Electric Audio, doesn't sound especially Albini-ish though, i'm guessing he was just interviewed for the show and not involved in the track.

track 5 of the album is gonna have Joe Walsh on it, so that will probably be the ILM pick hit

All my life I've been searching for something
Something never comes never leads to nothing

haven't bought a Foo album since first 3, but hate here is really piling on

also DG is a stud, and probly will be at 65, i suspect most of the boys here know it.

Has any rock band ever made a good record with different special guests on every song?

This reminds me I should play it again soon. It's been a while...

I was surprised at the degree to which the concept shaped the album -- all the guests, and Grohl using quotes from interviews for the basis of the lyrics etc. -- because I initially figured it would be just another set of Foo Fighters songs that were recorded in different studios. i thought Wasting Light was really good, but it's not like they have so much to say as a band that it would be a bad thing to pour their effort into a different kind of idea for once.

First two albums were really good but I honestly don't know what's meant to be interesting about watching an extended road doc about the Foo Fighters.

Don't get HBO, but would like to see this in order to watch:

In Chicago, he covers Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Chess Records and “Soundstage,” and also spends time reminiscing with his cousin Tracey Bradford, a onetime punk-rock singer who took Mr. Grohl to his first live music show (Naked Raygun at the Cubby Bear).

The Washington segment is more scattered but more interesting, because the music it covers — the city’s hardcore punk-rock scene and go-go, the local offshoot of funk — from NY Times review

Plus I think Steve Albini might be interviewed in the Chicago part also

In other words, I want to see this for the guests, not for the Foo Fighters

Come for the guests, stay for the Foo

it's gonna be funny when dave grohl explores the rich diversity of music in these different towns, including local flavors ignored by the top 40, and then ends with a foo fighters song

http://www.theonion.com/articles/horrible-band-obviously-not-listening-to-its-influ,3073/

^^^^DING DING DING WE HAVE A WINNER

the DC Go Go stuff does look cool, and it deserves some attention.

don't get me wrong i will watch at least one episode of this for the music-history stuff involved. and dave grohl as a person has done too much cool side work and been too undeniable a part of rock history to be dismissed outright. but dear god, his music has been pure milquetoast for at least 12 years.

Good guy, bad band. He's like the bizarro world Mike Love.
The "bad guy" in the band: who are the other Mike Loves in music?

Show streaming live from the Cubby Bear fwiw:
https://www.facebook.com/HBO/posts/10152857867888933

I think one angle to look at such a project is that this probably will introduce some good music and musicians to some people for the first time. I know as a total dweeb preteen, the first time I saw James Brown, heard Elmore James, Cab Calloway and John Lee Hooker was watching the Blues Brothers movie.

If only it worked that way. God knows, Cheap Trick has been introduced and reintroduced so many times over the past few decades, from festivals and special gigs to guest spots and whatnot, but damned if most folks know, at best, anything more than "I Want You To Want Me," or if they're, you know, hip, man, the source of the sample that starts "Check Your Head." The idea of Foo Fighters introducing kids to the world of Chess Records is as nuts as Weezer introducing kids to the Cars, and that throughline is more clear.

Yeah, I guess FF played here last night. My buddy posted some "big star at cubby bear" and I was so bummed it wasn't Big Star and just some big star. Who I don't mind, as a drummer and professional big star, but the Foo Fighters are like the musical equivalent of training wheels. The one time I (had to) see them live, it was like a parody of an arena show, almost like a winking Kiss, but I'm not sure whose expense the yucks came at. The people there? The music industry these guys more or less exemplify and cozy up to? It's a big mystery to me, though they do emphasize my kneejerk observation that in the end consistent mediocrity is worse than bad. Though again, Grohl seems like a pretty OK dude, as far as this world goes.

I watched half the Cubby Bear show live streamed by HBO. Grohl was having fun, and they were a good bar band. Huge downside was their drummer who also sang vocals on a bunch of songs, including a "Miss You" cover. That guy's SoCal incarnate.

I haven't much ref for Foos as an arena band... i only saw them do a NY show at Tramps a few months before the first (essentially solo) album came out. Pretty chill, Smear and i guess the newly hired band were the players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Ramu397UQ

http://www.timeout.com/chicago/music/foo-fighters-debut-sonic-highways-at-cubby-bear

Taylor Hawkins is awful

Someone was clearly on the clock when they churned out that review.

I'll never understand why they let Taylor Hawkins sing on that dennis wilson reissue

That was the first time I saw his name and I assumed he was like some old r&b singer that was friends w dennis or something lol

I think he begged them to be part of it. Their was an interview in Mojo with one of the producers when the POB reissue happened and they said Hawkins was a huge Dennis fan and they liked that his voice had similar qualities.

Kevin McCarthy 6 months ago

One of my favorite concert stories. Guy sitting in front of me wearing a RUSH shirt goes to get a beer grumbling something about "this drum solo sucks". He gets back after Geddy and Alex left the stage and the girl he is with has this look on her face like she's speechless. He just looks at her and shouts "What did I miss?"

tbh, i dunno how a rock star as big as Grohl could carry him/herself any better than he does. does he do some things that are offputting to some people? probably. but generally speaking, he seems nice/normal enough, gives good interviews, seems to care about the history of music and does more than his share of providing exposure to quality old musicians/producers/studios/whatever. to hate on the guy ... i mean, you can do it, but how many better targets are there out there? like, all of them. all the targets.

and i should note i'm not some ff superfan. i thought the first two albums were really good, that last one was pretty good, and i never really bothered w/ anything in between. 'wasting light' isn't perfect, but i don't see how you could describe it as milquetoast. parts of it slay pretty fuckin' hard for the seventh album by the world's fourth biggest rock band or w/e

I can co-sign on that, there are some straight-up jams on that record, and the three-guitar sound works.

Gonna try out the first ep of the show sometime this weekend.

I am 28 minutes through the 1st episode…

mucho mucho cliches…Foo dudes walking in slo mo, moodily…Grohl's earnest platitudes about sense of place in music…very very successful millionaire musicians talking about 80s hardcore in tones reminiscent of Paul kantner or David Crosby talking about the 60s (maaann). a lot of time spent on Albini so far…am reminded of this 20 years of tortoise thing I read where one of those guys was talking to Albini about remixes and house music, and the former being indignant or bewildered or a combination thereof…does the guy have any appreciation for anything that isn't G/B/D or anything not immersed in notions of "authenticity?"

although I note that those far Kanye is shown as a representative of great chicago music and that the DC one will talk about go go, this program reinforces Grohl's key thing: it's like the oppositional stance Albini and Mackaye had towards bigtime rock distributed by multinational corporations never existed. the only thing left is "rock music is played with these authentic tools. if it doesn't use those tools, it's false, joe walsh = naked raygun, and kids are being denied immutable truth and beauty if they don't do what WE did." never mind that that's what every 40-60 year olds has said about younger people since the beginning of time, and I really wish that there was (or I was aware of) more of a "fuck you old assholes" rebuke from musicians and fans in their teens-20s. Or maybe they don't care cuz they're too busy partying?

i dunno i can't fault someone for Believing that Rock Can Change The World when he was in the last rock band that changed the world

Joe walsh = naked raygun

I'm down w both of these tbh

While the web has flattened these things out some, I think anytime Chuck Brown, Bad Brains or Ian MacKaye gets on mainstream TV is a good thing. I don't have HBO and really won't look for this show, but I thought the Sound City documentary was pretty entertaining.

i dunno i can't fault someone for Believing that Rock Can Change The World when he was in the last rock band that changed the world

Wait, Dave Grohl was in Public Enemy? Huh.

He was Professor Grohl

Ha!
_______________

I think one angle to look at such a project is that this probably will introduce some good music and musicians to some people for the first time. I know as a total dweeb preteen, the first time I saw James Brown, heard Elmore James, Cab Calloway and John Lee Hooker was watching the Blues Brothers movie.

― earlnash, Saturday, October 18, 2014 10:29 AM (12 hours ago)

^^^this

ugh I hate music documentaries that spend all their time extolling how "important" certain music/musicians were or how "nothing was the same after ____", just all this empty rote hyperbole. Show me the performances, give me an interesting story, reveal odd details but don't make me listen to people rhapsodizing about how amazing going to a show was, or how incredible it was to hear x song, I really really don't care. That being said yeah it's nice to see Albini or Rick Nielsen or whoever, but the tone of this is so off-putting.

very very successful millionaire musicians talking about 80s hardcore in tones reminiscent of Paul kantner or David Crosby talking about the 60s (maaann).

the tone/sentiments expressed are very similar - the weird thing to me is that if you go to any major town these days, there is guaranteed to be a hardcore scene of teenagers/young folks doing pretty much exactly the same things that 80s hardcore did. But this was never the case with the music/scene of Kantner/Crosby, even in the 80s, that model/aesthetic just didn't transfer to new generations on the same scale.

But this was never the case with the music/scene of Kantner/Crosby, even in the 80s, that model/aesthetic just didn't transfer to new generations on the same scale.

― Οὖτις, Monday, October 20, 2014 3:41 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hardcore is a more easy to approach template, musicianship-wise

I'm sure that's part of it but there's also something that seems to be eternally appealing about it to a subset of kids, beyond the "anyone can do it" factor

Think its something to with it being the highest energy music you can do with guitar bass and drums that doesnt require more advanced chops found more in speed metal etc

God this is the worst fucking show ever. I vomited the entire way through and blood started shooting out my ass. Now I have a high grade fever I can't get rid of, seing these people talk about their " music" made me so angry I had to take a switch to my damn kids ass.

Terrible post

I actually think the form of this is kinda novel - looking at scenes and how they influence artists and the songwriting process etc. - but there are about 500 bands I'd rather see try their hand at it than the Foos. But then Grohl is the best-connected guy in rock, so...it's a chatch-22 of sorts.

no way in hell would i watch this show after seeing that sound city doc. boomer wannabes talking about how fucking magical their precious shit stained recording gear was + the worlds shittiest jam session ft. 70 year old dude trying to seem hip and with it = i, too, had to take a switch to my damn kids ass

Terrible post

Yeah yer right. Nobody bats 1.000

talking about 80s hardcore in tones reminiscent of Paul kantner or David Crosby talking about the 60s (maaann).

Is it getting as bad as classic rock radio and the Lefsetz worshipful approach? Not in tv commercials yet, and no Big Chill movie with Henry Rollins in it yet...Maybe soon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oSFnotAmcoA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2jUOvxG7440

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SoSQwV0orzU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FM7PcYMH67c

Watched the first half of the first ep, which was fine, but when they were tracking at Electrical Audio and someone says something along the lines of "usually it takes us weeks just to record the drums" I literally said "what a bunch of pussies" out loud to no one but our sleeping cat.

haha yeah I lol'd at there whole established process "first we do drums for three weeks, then we do the bass for two weeks, then we do all the guitars" etc. way to make everything sound unbelievably boring

Dusty Springfield usta record one syllable at a time on occasion.

iirc ian mackaye said one time when he was listening to an evens song something like "oh man that hook you just did once, we'd have to repeat it a bunch of times". for a torch-bearing rocker with a sense of roots dave grohl sure has a lot of bloated corporate shit he has to do.

that paraphrase is dave grohl talking about the evens, to be clear

actually i think ian didn't give the name of the big arena rocker who said that to him but i can't imagine there's a lot of other arena rockers hanging out with ian so

Ooh special Foo Fighters club gig Friday in DC (this is their version of a $5 Fugazi gig I guess)

Fri Oct 24::
FOO FIGHTERS
plus a special screening of
Sonic Highways
$20 Mainstage / Doors at 9:00

$20 per ticket. $3 service charge. Cash only. Maximum of 2 tickets per person. You must bring your ID. If you are buying a 2nd ticket you must provide the person's name as it is stated on their ID. Tickets are 100% non-transferable and non-refundable. On sale Tuesday October 21 at 6:00pm at the Black Cat. The Black Cat is located at 1811 14th Street NW Washington, DC.

$20 per ticket. $3 service charge. Cash only

haha service charge AND cash only

quality service

The Black Cat Club is owned by the drummer of long ago Dischord band Iron Cross & other groups (who got Grohl to invest in the original purchase way back when) btw

xxxxpost, re: Grohl listening to the Evens, the thought of *him* sitting in a studio for a FF project and not being able to fight past all the frustrating bullshit squashes any hope I have for my own life

Batshit rant from the dude who signed Hootie making the rounds. He makes some bad points, but also some good ones, not least asking (iirc) why Grohl, a good guy with a strong understanding of the industry, the way it works, and the way it is antithetical to much of the music he purports to love (in this doc and elsewhere), seems to have no prob sucking away at the corporate teat in the most corporate way possible, even though he, of all people, is in a position to say know. Is it just that he is such a nice guy he can't so no to whatever's asked of him?

In ep one, I downright winced when, after they have this eureka moment of jamming the cord in the guitar pre-solo and causing this cool crackling fuzz sound, the guitarist dude admits his biggest concern is replicating it on TV, and all the other dudes chuckle knowingly. Because they all know they'll be slumming it up on some shitty TV shows soon enough, because that's just that they do, right?

Another question never answered (not that it needs to be, necessarily): why do they spend all this time extolling the skill and genius of Steve Albini, in his own studio, and then have Butch Vig behind the board?

http://tanteguerilla.com/bilder/produkte/normal/SST-Corporate-Rock-Still-Sucks-T-Shirt-white.jpg

xpost because there's no fucking way albini would produce them at this point? though to be fair with albini it's as much about him fetishizing his own "indie integrity" to a degree that's downright masturbatory as it is him having pretty good taste

I coasted through the first two episodes Saturday afternoon when good football was at a lull. Nothing remarkable and nothing offensive about either so far, but I'll be curious to see the Nashville episode. That shit's totally out of Grohl's element, so there should be some smdh lols.

xpost because there's no fucking way albini would produce them at this point?

Oh please, he'll produce any band who walks in there with a certified check and their own instruments.

don't think they actually wanted a song that sounds like albini recorded it anyway

Yeah, because it wouldn't ... sell.

Watched the first half of the first ep, which was fine, but when they were tracking at Electrical Audio and someone says something along the lines of "usually it takes us weeks just to record the drums" I literally said "what a bunch of pussies" out loud to no one but our sleeping cat.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, October 21, 2014 3:38 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha yeah I lol'd at there whole established process "first we do drums for three weeks, then we do the bass for two weeks, then we do all the guitars" etc. way to make everything sound unbelievably boring

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, October 21, 2014 3:39 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean...unless you guys are clutching your pearls at overdubbing and think every band should be all FUCK IT WE'LL DO IT LIVE, that's just the practical no brainer way to do record rock music. unless you want to set up and mic drums and break them down again multiple times and waste a ton of man hours, or do a bunch of other instruments over a clicktrack before there are live drums recorded.

^ otm

xxxpost oh my well at least he'll take their money now even if he still probably grumbles as if he's too good for it and saves his aggression for (overrated IMO if not totally w/o merit) shellac records

croupier you're probably right

whoops i fucked up zee x's

xxxpost oh my well at least he'll take their money now even if he still probably grumbles as if he's too good for it and saves his aggression for (overrated IMO if not totally w/o merit) shellac records

croupier you're probably right

― blood on the peaves (slothroprhymes), Monday, October 27, 2014 1:42 PM (46 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bullshit

which part?

I know how recording works croup I'm just lol'ing at the length of time required esp given the material involved

everyone i've heard who's recorded with him says he's super professional and pleasant, like just doing his job type vibe

Er some dude not croup sorry

xpost I know how records are made. I've made records myself. But there are really only two reasons it should take months to make a record. The first is if you're Peter Gabriel or U2 and GNR or whomever and it takes weeks and months to craft songs out of bit of studio improv and ideas. The other is if you're polishing things up to make it as commercial as possible. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with either approach. It just seems tacky to hear Grohl romanticise the mean, lean, fast, punk approach while he pursues the opposite for the sake of sounding slick and commercial or whatever.

What he said

sh@kedown i don't have the luxury of knowing him personally or knowing bands who know him, only the way his persona is sometimes presented in certain media. i didn't think a rep for saltiness was that far off the mark given some of what's been said about him and his style, but if it is, my B

so nashville is next? Where else are they going? Detroit? Olympia? LA?

it's not like a luxury it's just like tons of rinky dink midwest bands no one cares about record there all the time! it's like a studio you can go to if you want to pay for it, p affordable actually for small bands for how nice it is

i didn't mean "luxury" in a monetary sense. more like the opportunity to easily know stuff about him IRL beyond the established albini narratives dating back to big black

Yeah, Albini is pretty much a straight shooter. His reputation for prickliness stems almost entirely from his disdain for the real industry bullshit so many people put up with. He records bands, he cooks pasta, he plays poker, he likes cats and has a nice wife. If the dude was as bad as his rep he never would have meshed with Polly Harvey, or bands like Low and Bedhead.

it's funny because Albini is basically the archetype of the "normal even-tempered professional who loves to type brutally opinionated stuff about music" message board persona that so many of us embody to some degree or another. in the '80s zine culture his invective stood out but now it seems kind of commonplace and harmless.

eh dude's invective also used to be way more noxious - he brooks no fools but he doesn't play with hate speech to prove he can anymore, etc

i liked when dave grohl semi-acknowledged that while albini doesn't expect royalties (admirable considering it would be money taken from the band, not the label) he WILL jack up the price if you're on the major label dollar (there's that story about how he did surfer rosa for nothing but hit 'em hard for a follow-up thing elektra funded) - "he wants to be paid like a plumber...a KICK-ASS plumber". Albini also referenced figuring out how much the recording session is "worth" - that the rate obviously fluctuates.

A couple of years ago:

Steve, your essay The Problem With Music and the Big Black tour diary still get referred to and reposted on forums. Do you feel vindicated or oppressed by their continued presence these days?
Steve: The Big Black Tour Diary was a lark, and nobody including me or the guys who first printed it [Forced Exposure magazine] thought much of it at the time. I guess as a snapshot of the kind of loudmouth I was at the time it has value. The “Problem with Music” essay was intended to be a warning to my peers in the music scene during a period in the ’90s when the mainstream music industry was poaching bands off of independent labels with regularity. I wanted to demonstrate that it wasn’t necessarily in a band’s best interest to get involved with a monolithic industry that had no respect for them.

The industry has changed pretty dramatically since then, and virtually all the figures are out of date but the principle argument, that the mainstream of the old-school showbusiness record industry is not operated for the benefit of the bands, holds up. Thankfully there isn’t much of that record industry left, so bands are almost forced to work in a more independent way, which means they are more efficient by default.

Do you have any deep thoughts on turning 50 earlier this year?
Steve: I need bifocals now but my cock still works. Still have my hearing, all my teeth and all my hair. I take the occasional nap. Can’t complain.

he doesn't play with hate speech to prove he can anymore

tell that to OFWGKTA

oh they'll tell themselves before too long, earl sweatshirt's already calling things "offensive"

lol whoops i was unaware of the albini vs odd future beef

earl has grown up more 2 years than the rest of his collective have been in their entire 20-years-and-change existences.

dude an albini-OF beef would be all of the lols

*more in the past 2, agh

it happened! i just had no idea

http://www.spin.com/articles/hot-beef-odd-future-vs-steve-albini/

after reading that I've got Neil Young's "old man" stuck in my head

oh WOOOOWWWWWW.

"n----ring everything in sight," hoooooly shit. how did i miss this? i was actually dumb enough to be paying close attention to OF members not named earl in 2011

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/foo_fighters_is_the_dumbest_band_name_ever_says_dave_grohl

The DC episode focused on activism much more than I expected. More footage of Mark Andersen and Amy Pickering and others talking than of footage of bands playing

and then they ended apartheid

I did like the episode in general up until the point I had to listen to a foo fighters song and see terrible lyrics flash on my screen

Ha. I thought the music to that song was worse than Grohl's shoehorning in DC history and DC punk phrases into his lyrics.

He doesn't need me to defend him or anything, but in my experience Steve (and everyone who works at Electrical) is very pleasant, professional, and easy to work with.

Also, not to blow his rep or anything but he & I got into an argument (not really, but it's funnier if I say it was an argument instead of discussion) about the level of vocals in the mix of a song, with me saying they should be quieter and him saying they should be louder.

Irony!

I enjoyed both episodes of this show so far.

I admire Albini's work ethic and like a lot of the work he's done. Otherwise, his personal politics as expressed in public often seem pretty loathsome.

2 episodes in :

buddy guy + steve albini + ian mackaye + trouble funk + chuck brown

what the fuck is to hate !!?

this is a major tv channel giving time to music i never expected too see.

cynics be damned.

(that said, i would have loved a chunk more re waxtrax .. but hey .. )

dave grohl + buddy guy + dave grohl + steve albini + ian mackaye + dave grohl + trouble funk + dave grohl + chuck brown + dave grohl

what the fuck is to hate !!?

Waiting to hear reports about Buddy Guy doing the 'jam' portion of his live show, talking about his 'good friend' Dave Group, and the busting out a shredding version of "Everlong".

hopefully, decades from now, when dave gets his medallion from the kennedy center, someone will remember that it was he who brought Big Black to HBO

tbf this series has made me consider, for the first time, in depth, why I am so completely uninterested in the foo fighters discography

oh sure, someone else might have made a montage of chicago music in an HBO doc that included kanye, chicago (the band), muddy waters...but who other than dave would have said "wait. Where's naked raygun?"

hardcore would never have gotten its due from pay cable if not for dave

da croupier : yeah i hear you re DG .. but still ..

i have yet to see a major tv channel give any time to the crews that were given airspace.

i found the show informative and given his obvious major label power, DG lite/light.

(note : i am not a foo stan at all .. just that i found the tv show a lot more interesting than i ever expected)

even if you think the foo fighters are garbage, you have to acknowledge that dave is telling people who'll watch a hbo documentary about the recording of the latest foo fighters album about a lot of cool shit they couldn't find out about otherwise...i mean, without reading

albini saw his face on hbo and it felt good. finally. recognition.

dave is telling people who'll watch a hbo documentary about the recording of the latest foo fighters album about a lot of cool shit they couldn't find out about otherwise..

and the problem with this is ??

there's nothing Grohl is doing, here or otherwise, that some way cooler person of his stature could plausibly be doing in his place, so I got no issues. If it ain't him it would just be Bono, or Jack White, or Billie Joe, or I dunno, Chad Kroeger.

...but who other than dave would have said "wait. Where's naked raygun?"

That's cool and all, but he also could've/should've said, "Wait. Where's Green?"

xpost to be fair it would actually be worse if it was jack white

for all the blandness of his band's current sound grohl is sincere to a fault rather than a smug shitlord with a "realness of music" complex

exactly.
hence why i have no issue with this series.
as a neophyte for most of the topics covered (i was an nme affilated go-go fucker though), i care not re the carrier, as the message is done with a passion rarely found in major tv gubbins.

[xpost.]

[x-xpost : yup .. he may be a corp sucking arse, but DG is giving airtime to people who would never normally get such love]

dave grohl's cousin was so cool in the chicago episode

Wax Trax daughter used to a run a little high-end gift shop down the street from where I live.

If you watch the Muscle Shoals doc, the first voice you hear, iirc, is that of Bono. But anyone who thinks Bono's presence (passionate!) in a Muscle Shoals doc will actually send people to that music is nuts. As I said earlier, the notion that Grohl talking about Buddy Guy, let alone Cheap Trick, will get fans to listen to those acts is as crazy as the belief that Probot sent more than two or three folks in the direction of King Diamond. I do like how he is emphasizing the specific characteristics of how each city inspires or leads to the music made there. I can only assume it will end with a contemporary Los Angeles board room, with dudes in suits walking in slo-mo half-focus, because that is what I hear when I hear Foo Fighters.

If you watch the Muscle Shoals doc, the first voice you hear, iirc, is that of Bono.

indeed it is! that's why it took me a few weeks to finally watch it all the way through (and it was really good for the most part)

Also guilty of the Foo doc slow-mo out of focus walk cliche.

not seen the muscle shoals ep yet.

and to be fair, bonos presence would not be a negative ..

fuck.

even after over 10 years, i really am not an ilm'r

I have no real prob with Bono, but he has no place in that doc.

muscle shoals thing is a totally diff't doc mark

I can only assume it will end with a contemporary Los Angeles board room, with dudes in suits walking in slo-mo half-focus, because that is what I hear when I hear Foo Fighters.

That makes them sound like some Kraftwerkian dream, ie. way more interesting than they are.

for all the blandness of his band's current sound grohl is sincere to a fault rather than a smug shitlord with a "realness of music" complex

it's true, he's a sincere shitlord with a "realness of music" complex

"Wait. Where's Green?"

Possibly working on a new book with Rudy Giuliani?

100% agreed.

(think "shitlord" is a bit harsh, but hey .. )

xpost.

if you cap a documentary about muddy waters, cheap trick and steve albini with your lyric video for "something out of nothing" i get to call you a shitlord

dave grohl's cousin was so cool in the chicago episode

― u2 removal machine (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, October 28, 2014 4:52 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, i want a documentary series about various rock stars' cool cousins who turned them onto good shit when they were young

the cousin stuff was awesome - a documentary that was more about dave's actual evolution, without the attempt to include all aspects of the american musical experience (so no rattle & hum shit about how buddy guy's journey reminded you of your journey and then you made a shitty song with a "superstition" break), would be a lot less insufferable

yeah it will probably get no better than the DC episode just because it had such big personal investment and there was so much firsthand Grohl stuff to pin it to.

so far my favorite mildly embarrassing editing decisions are putting Razorblade Suitcase in the montage of notable Albini productions and the segment about how influential Dischord has been that concluded with a long, lingering clip of the Pearl Jam "Evenflow" video soundtracked by Fugazi's "Break"

croupier i'll always take someone being sincere about their dumb "music realness" shit (grohl knows he's a giant loser), rather than trying to act like it's not completely lame and is something to aspire to - and having the music press & a lot of cultural cache-stockholders buy into it for, idk, like almost 14 fuckin years

like we are only just now admitting that jack white isn't that good in and of himself and maybe not all of those stripes albums were either after a while

jesus it's not like i'm grabbing a pitchfork i'm just making fun of his bs

which of us is truly living up to the spirit of real american music, those who crack wise about the vanity of millionaires or those who note they've seen worse millionaires

kind of an excessive-force preemptive strike, my b

i have irrational levels of hatred jack white

*hatred for, damnit

"Wait. Where's Green?"

Possibly working on a new book with Rudy Giuliani?

Ugh, don't remind me.

(but he wasn't exactly the driving force in that band)

I think the White Stripes were damn near perfect up through elephant. First 2 Too Fighters records are p good too.

The production (by Rick Rubin?) on One By One is pretty terrible.

Rubin's never done an FF record. One By One is a low point, though, and the only one that Grohl has openly dismissed as a singles-and-filler dud. i chalk that up to the songs, though -- the kind of muddy bleary production is probably the closest thing they've come to the sound of the debut since the debut.

THEY'RE JUST A MINOR THREAT
SCREAMIN INTO THE VOID
TROUBLE FUNKIN ROUND THE CORNER
EATIN BEEF ON THE FARAQUET

RARE ESSENCE
FOUND THAT ESSENCE RARE
RARE ESSENCE
FOUND THAT ESSENCE RARE
DUNNUH NUH

"Dave, these are awesome."

i would have liked the chicago ep to be entirely about hardcore and punk. hearing grohl's cousin talk about the time she took him out to a punk club for the first time, seeing at that awesome old footage of her pre-teen band, talking to albini and the naked raygun guys, the too-short wax trax section - that shit was real!!

don't get me wrong i love bonnie raitt and muddy waters but it was just helicoptered in so the "authenticity" would rub off imo

When I think Foo Fighters, I think Bonnie Raitt and Muddy Waters, there's like a straight throughline from them to Grohl. It's pretty obvious.

"Dave, these are awesome."

― Andy K, Thursday, October 30, 2014 1:56 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haha, that's why Vig gets the big bucks!

I heard "Something From Nothing" (which breaking news, has recently won the 2014 Award For Most Metallica Sounding Song Title) on the radio the other day and while not a great song, it was certainly better than when it was shown on the show with the lyrics prominently displayed

Now if only there was a way to play it with the music hidden. too.

Well on the radio at the very least you are saved from having to see Taylor Hawkins's drumming face which has to be up there with one of the greatest afflictions facing humanity

I can still hear his face.

^^^Foo Fighters lyric

i think the Nashville track is much stronger than the first two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZHtZrfFuhU

I really liked the DC episode
BTW American Hardcore is free on Crackle now

I knew director/author Blush back in the day, but still have not seen American Hardcore yet. Thanks.

I liked the Chicago and DC episodes, albeit it's just a Grohl eye view (and one can only cover so much in an hour). Haven't seen Nashville yet. Other than the lyrics, the Chicago and DC music portrayed didn't seem to influence the new FF songs for those locales. Grohl's gotten kinda formulaic and no one is pushing him

Nashville one was a lot of fun - Tony Joe White! Dolly! Steve Earle! - although with the usual forehead-slapping moments. Should've gotten Sturgill Simpson instead of Zac Brown for the token "contemporary country rebel guy we can get down with"

Fascinating
Watching this on BBC i Player. At the Bad Brains segment in the DC episode. Seen most of this footage before but cannot argue with McKaye regarding the Bad Brains
This series, so far is incredible. Just such a pity about the Foo's turgid output.
Albini was a star in the Chicago part.

I'm hoping that the Nashville episode features Today is The Day and Lambchop

occurs to me that Ratliff, who nails it below, is seldom cited on ILM. If Pareles wrote about this show, doubtless his tone would be much much more approving, seeing as he often decries bling/conspicuous consumption, autotune, EDM and so forth…

didn't know Grohl compared "single ladies" to the jeffersons theme…

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/arts/music/sonic-highways-dave-grohls-musical-travelogue.html?ref=arts&_r=0

Dave Grohl, the great drummer, inspirational songwriter, former member of Nirvana and current leader of the Foo Fighters, recently discovered the extent to which he is an American musician.

Fave backhands:

But on the album, beyond the agitated first two songs — “Something From Nothing” and “The Feast and the Famine” — he’s doing roughly the opposite: burrowing deeper than ever into starchy, expensive-sounding, multipartite stadium rock, FM radio sounds of the late 1970s and ’80s. The music transmits a desire to belong to outmoded centers of power.

On television, Mr. Grohl plays a fan and an accidental historian. He doesn’t want to seem an expert — like, say, Jack White. He cops to his limitations, and, I hope, exaggerates them.

The Foo Fighters might have more to do with modern country than any other current popular music: guitars, power chords, virtuosity, nostalgia, a shared influence of Southern and West Coast rock of the ’70s.

Mr. Grohl has always been a good scavenger, but here and there on the new album, his reliance on Olympian sources becomes grating. “Something From Nothing” borrows a riff from Dio’s “Holy Diver”; “What Did I Do?/God Is My Witness” adapts a melodic line from the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love.” Strange that he’d pick such well-known sources. Stranger that these songs are yielded by the Chicago and Austin episodes. (Dio was an American band, but not emblematically so; the Beatles were the Beatles.)

Good piece, actually. Nails the end:

“I worry about cities like Austin,” Mr. Grohl says in a voice-over during episode four, discussing the endangerment of live music in that city, “because it’s only a matter of time before that candle blows out, man.” A possible response: That’s what candles do. But you tell him that, if you have the heart.

Yeah that was good
Still enjoying the show despite it's obvious shortcomings

didn't know Grohl compared "single ladies" to the jeffersons theme…

Ha wut

28 minutes in the Austin episode, and a claim appears to be made that the 13th Floor elevators moved from Austin to San Francisco and transformed the coffeehouse dwelling folkies into acid rockers…this is a claim that I have never encountered before…anyone else heard this? I gotta call bullshit, otherwise…

while illustrating this point, they sloppily show John densmore and Robbie Krieger talking about the environment in pre-Dead, pre-Airplane SF, but…those guys were not SF.

i've heard they were influential on the scene and were doing serious acid dropping & playing in the mid 60s, def ahead of the curve...but that said i doubt you can say any one person was responsible for the SF psych/acid scene...surely some must've come up from those LA doctors who were prescribing it to Hollywood folks

the Ken Kesey 'Acid Test' events in 65/6 were a big influence on popularizing all that stuff, Grateful Dead played their first gigs at them etc.

Yeah, the Elevators were there at the right time, but to say they alone transformed SF's sound is a bit generous. It was a community effort.

I really liked the part in the Austin ep about digging out the old piano from behind the bleachers, but then wished they hadn't when the new song debuted at the end of the episode. Worst of the batch yet.

The Foos are ripe for a St Sanders' production.

Esp. Uncle Dave and that gurning drummer

My initial enthusiasm for the series has been tempered, although it remains watchable. Austin was fairly complete with nods to Big Boys, Scratch Acid and Buttholes. But where the hell was the massive segment on Spoon?

from steven hyden's grantland review of the album:

Every Foo Fighters record is the same. As in, exactly the same. Sure, some Foo Fighters records (like One by One and Wasting Light) are a little louder, and some (like 2005’s In Your Honor) are a little quieter. But for the most part, you can expect a Foo Fighters song to sound like this: The rhythm guitar goes DUNGA-dung-DUNGA, the lead guitar goes weow-WHEEDLE-weow-WHEEDLE, and Grohl sings the verse softly and screams the chorus, which will typically be about heroes, living forever, or things that are the best.

SICK BURNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

we built these cities
we built these cities
on rock and roll

im listening to it right now b/c mockery requires due diligence, and its p. much exactly what i expected. def sounds more classic/dad-rocky than he ever has, shedding all vestiges of his 90s alt-origins, a few songs are legitimately ok but nothing that's not ultimately boring 4 tracks in

But where the hell was the massive segment on Spoon?

Spoon fans unaware the rest of the world doesn't give a shit.

I think Spoon is here now:

that stage where you think they aren't popular anymore but are actually way more popular than they were when they had "buzz"

Mark Anderson on TV. That excuses just about anything in my opinion.

Finally got around to the DC episode (I'm in no hurry to stay current with this) and it was really good! Still, I had no idea they were toting Butch Vig around to all these studios with them. Doesn't that miss the point? I would rather see them bring in a dozen different name producers and have them take turns recording in the same room than one producer recording in different rooms. I mean, there's a reason all this Foo Fighters shit sounds the same!

watched the Austin one and fatigue w this series is starting to set in - I like seeing the guests/interviews and some of the clips involved but p much everything else is annoying

half-decent doc footage, but the spectre of their next lyric video hangs over it all.

it's like the candyman. someone says a phrase three times in the interviews and you know dave will yell that phrase at the end

WELL THE SAINTS ARE LIVING REBIRTH GUMBO RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

is the reason they're not going to haight asbury is that starship got there first

the spectre of their next lyric video hangs over it all

Yeah, that time comes around and I remember this is all just one big commercial for an album that, based on what I've heard so far, is the worst one they've ever made.

someone says a phrase three times in the interviews and you know dave will yell that phrase at the end

haha yeah this is so annoying

seattle one is either going to be the most affecting or the most infuriating, maybe both. great opportunity for soul-searching or going full david crosby.

"can't believe this is the *actual* shotgun Kurt used to blow his head off. Lotta ghosts, man, lotta ghosts."

guessing there will be some great interviews with some great people, then dave steps to the mic and goes ABERDEEN SURVIVOR TEARS CORPORATE MAGAZINES STILL SUCK BUT ROCK STILL LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES

Yep. Grohl seems like a truly inquisitive and interested and motivationally pure guy, but has a difficult time channeling what he's learned into his own songs/writings/interviews.

he does appear to have a bottomless well of self-help platitudes

keep hoping someone other than dave in the band is going to get to express an emotion other than "i dunno much about this shit, but this place was pretty cool"

remembered while watching the nashville one some spin article years ago where the rest of the band admitted they didn't know the words to "monkeywrench"

On the plus side: Pat's one line per ep.
On the negative side: Taylor's two-lines and slo-mo soul-search walk per ep.

Foo Fighters should collectively move to a new city each year and record one song after 12 months of residency. Then release their next album in 12 years. I give them permission to film themselves as a "Real World" styled show in each town as long as they stick to the schedule.

can we get just one "some kind of monster" breakdown where nate mendel throws down his bass and says I DO NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT NEW ORLEANS

i mean probably not, these guys seem like the chillest bros, but i can dream

this is definitely the worst show i love

Dave wrote "Monkeywrench" after he saw a movie where a MONKEY tried to WRENCH the door off of its cage.

In the DC one, where they shoot out a list of the bands influenced by the local scene there, and the first three that come to mind are Jane's Addiction, Beastie Boys, Green Day, I almost barfed.

Alternate sequel album: the band breaks up, and each member records a 5 songs in 5 different states, then they put all the EPs together as one album called "United States of Foo Fighters," and also it takes a decade to make, too. Vig produces.

I think if there was going to be anything like that, it would've happened 15 years ago. At this point, they're only a "band" in theory. In reality, they're friends that Dave Grohl gives checks to for helping him play his songs.

yeah i realize this line-up achieved "five guys who can stand dave grohl and like money" about a decade ago

this show is definitely forcing me to address all my own hypocritical bullshit vanity re pop/rock/indie/authenticity etc - can i really say i'm keeping the dream alive when i'm making spotify playlists of AM Gold?

are they going to L.A...? I kinda assumed so when Joan Jett's involvement was noted. at which point maybe Pat will get more than one line to talk about the Germs.

5 	"Los Angeles" 	November 14, 2014
6 	"New Orleans" 	November 21, 2014
7 	"Seattle" 	November 28, 2014
8 	"New York" 	December 5, 2014

they are! yeah that's promising...though i bet there's going to be some impressive waffling between which hair metal bands suck and which were cool

like how the band chicago was included in the "great bands of chicago" montage and then there was some random styx diss later in the episode

I've got no argument with the cities they're choosing—all of them are essential American music hubs—but no Detroit? C'mon.

xp I love Chicago and hate Styx, so I get that.

"well, iggy told me to go fuck myself, and bob seger wants to get paid...kid rock...fuck it, i can't"

maybe they're saving the shaggy 2 dope and wayne kramer interviews for the second season

a monkeywrench is an actual tool, right? kinda like ppl who hate on Dave Grohl for 500 posts.

I liked that early song about all the cows

i'm sorry, morbz. please ignore me.

austin is kinda weird just because it's not really that significant historically compared to the other cities

That show wasn't really about the city. It was about the show originating in that city that brought live music around the whole country like it had never been broadcast previously. And also Townes Van Zandt.

(And Roky Erickson.)

i'm behind, just weird that they didn't do memphis or (as mentioned) detroit

There are definitely enough cities left over for a second series to take place, but is there any talk about that happening? The album's done and out now.

ha weird I totally assumed they were going to Detroit

there is no way that New Orleans episode won't be an embarassment

then again maybe it will be all Master P/Li'l Wayne/Curren$y lol

Will laugh my ass off if they interview anyone from Dash Rip Rock or Better Than Ezra.

*writes in notebook* "the hustle...can't knock the hustle...soldiers and saints...Mannie Fresh plays the mamba..."

lol

"I can't believe I'm riding in Master P's actual tank! Lotta ghosts, man, lotta ghosts"

Who will he talk to in New York?

Lou Reed's corpse

new orleans will all be preservation hall jazz band adulation, i'm guessing

Dr. John typically gets trotted out for these things. one of the Neville bros too probably.

it will literally just be an episode of Treme with Grohl dropped into the Steve Zahn role

^^^^^^^^^SO FUCKING OTM, also the main reason why i could not abide an entire episode of treme ever

Im surprised at no Minneapolis

Regards New Orleans I would have liked Grohl to talk to Earl Palmer, but forgot he died in 08

in new orleans he shoots smack with eyehategod

careful dave! steve earle got shot on treme.

i know it was a shame he was just tryin ta play some real music from the heart

In New Orleans, Uncle Dave high fives drunken, misogynistic sexploits with Greg Dulli in his bar .

In New York , the first three fifths sees the Foos concentrate on GG Allin's last stadium show. Out of respect,the gurning drummer curls one out of the back of his mountain bike at the site of the Gas Station, where the Geeg was last seen. He hurls the results at some nearby donut eating cops.
Dave gets all sombre and reflective, before emitting a brutal two note scream. Him and the fuzz join forces to perform a scatty rendition of YMCA

croup i gotta call you out a billion xposts ago

that werent no Superstition break in "Something From Nothing" that was a Holy Diver break

:)

just watched the Chicago ep

cousin stuff got me so amped up. Going to a Naked Raygun show when you're eleven!!??? fucking yessss

also albini is great

i liked the buddy guy / bonnie raitt stuff but it felt a bit too collagey compared to the punk realness. like there was less of a clear personal connection from dave, he revered them but it's diff to albini or raygun etc

if i get to see some more stuff like that i'll even listen to these new songs
they are very foofighters.xls though, like it bums me out that these are the only kind of songs they do forever

like bust out some probot metal or jam with these other dudes yr band is kind of boring now dave sorry

i still kinda quietly like them
they just bum me out a bit

Dave's cousin is def highlight of the show

something is very "holy diver" but the funky clavinet thing definitely can bring stevie to mind

er something as in "something from nothing"

haha thanks for saying that because honestly i chose to let it go rather than listen to the song again

also won't listen to the album because i don't want pull quote spoilers from future episodes

(well that and it's a foo fighters album and it's not the 90s)

The only true things are death and Texas
A bordertown outlaw country axis
Toting their Teles like hardcore axes
Lifting us all up by feeling DOWN (like Steve Earle, noted country singer)!

Actual lyrics^

haha amazing

Man, Steve Miller's gonna be pissed.

god this austin episode is stupid

even in the austin episode a bunch of ppl admit houston was more important historically!

The longer this series goes on the more it is turning into Dave Grohl's "Rattle & Hum", the rest of the band barely seem aware of what they are doing or why.

"{insert town here} seems cool, I've never really been here before"-Pat Smear in every fucking episode

That said I will watch every single one of the remaining episodes

their "huh how about that" vibe is esp funny considering they've all been touring the globe for decades. is dave the only guy who leaves the hotel?

it's definitely gonna be a joke if the 3/5ths (4/6ths if you count the keyboardist from the wallflowers wikipedia claims is also in the group) of the group from LA doesn't get a little more attention in that episode

"hey can we mention sunny day..."

"it's in the montage, nate. do you mind i've gotta go interview ann wilson and krist"

It's amazing to me that after all these years Nate still holds and plays his bass like he's putting together an Ikea shelving unit in zero gravity.

In the Nashville episode, how can none of these morons recognize any of the pictures on the Opry wall?

even in the austin episode a bunch of ppl admit houston was more important historically!

Yup. The big secret is that up until the late '70s, most big Austin artists had to head out to Houston or DFW to record, and both of those cities along with San Antonio have deeper pedigrees of native musicians.

Not watching this, and I think I'm glad for that despite how up my alley the subject-matter might be. This band caused me a bit of confusion recently when I realized that they were a rare example of an artist whose music I find somewhere between completely forgettable and fairly insipid in its AOL overnormalization, but whose unusually-nice-guy persona I find fairly appealing. Then I read about the anti-vax and AIDS denialism above, and even if they weren't Grohl's personally - I'm not sure - that resolved the conflict pretty quickly. The soft-headedness I perceive in their music extends sufficiently to their personality/politics that even when they mean well, their impact threatens to be pernicious. So I don't need to bother wondering anymore if I'm missing something, musically. Not that I'm not tempted by their stadium lineup this Summer...

The descriptions of the show sound exactly like what I would imagine from them.

I think we can say that they are a no surprises band.

Grohl is so confusing to me. As much as he's a wannabe and annoying cheeseball, he has this lush history as a musician and fan, having been in his high school bands like Brain Damage, and then having gone on tour in high school, followed by living the dream of drumming for his favorite band and then joining -the- mainstream band of the early 90s, also being revered as an energetic drummer to see. So like, I can respect his TV series as well as enjoy it. I've been enjoying Sonic Highways a lot. I feel like I get to travel to a different city every week. I'm not much of a traveler, and this is cool for me, and also inspiring to get this account of stuff happening outside of Taylor Swift (no comment on his comment on her.) But why is he so --to use one of his favorite pieces of language, censored--effing content to make stupid music? Do they just not care? Is he just loving the shit out of being a frontman as his other TWO guitarists pick up for him? Is he just being a business man at this point? He's had enough experiences in the music biz (see: him leaving a broke Scream to join an up-and-coming Nirvana; see: him negotiating his own label to skirt something about contracts...) to know that it's about money. Is he using this documentary to connect with this longing to be authentic while he sells out on the side to survive? /hipsterrunoffesquerant.... ha. anyway, his musical stupidness has been causing me a headache as I try to defend Sonic Highways to my friends when I have no desire to defend his band. I've been tuning out during the last five minutes of each episode. But I do look forward to the showcase of these cities each week and at the start was pleasantly surprised about how little the Foos featured into each episode.

Well, yeah.

But why is he so --to use one of his favorite pieces of language, censored--effing content to make stupid music? Do they just not care? Is he just loving the shit out of being a frontman as his other TWO guitarists pick up for him?

The Foos are basically an incredibly well-funded and well-connected Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp. Rather than (to use a random example that popped into my head) use Rush's "YYZ" as an inspiration/jumping-off point and saying, "Hey, what else can be done with something like that?" and creating something new, they jump onstage with Rush and scream bug-eyed "OMG I'M PLAYING 'YYZ' WITH RUSH!" And their ambitions have never extended beyond the musical equivalent of getting their picture taken with their favorite bands.

The part where he interviews Roky was really cringey. He acts so smart for asking if he was influenced by James Brown then they cut to an old interview where Roky says that making it clear that Grohl was fed the question

Grohl is Ron Wood with Bono's ambition

I think Dave hired Taylor for his teeth
Brothers in Gums.

Foo Fighters have really made me respect Pearl Jam, another band boring in its stability that does a better job of balancing its punk background and diverse interests with its inherently conservative execution.

i dunno the last pearl jam album was launched off a ballad i swear to god sounded like "walking in memphis" can't say i think they do a better job of balancing so much as a better job of being avoidable

pearl jam isn't as inclined to engage in and promote Events

i'm super biased to pj but as a fan of both bands, foos to a lesser extent now, pearl jam is much more interesting *as* a band. it's not just the eddie show even though they're easily marketable as that.

with the foos it's basically always felt like "dave & his bros"...which i mean you have pat smear in your band and he still is just kinda one of the guys. dave seems to just absorb all the light

Despite my ribbing of the Foos, I still think Everlong is such a great song. It's so easy to play too with that dropped D.
Is Everlong a fan's fave or dismissed as too commercial or something?

I also think the first album was good

first album is great

couldn't care less about anything they've done since tho

first album is great, and I love Color & The Shape

To my knowledge I've never heard a FF song but Everlong, which I've always enjoyed. Watching Sonic Highways has not made me want to change that situation in any way. I'm a little baffled that these guys want to make music that sounds like this.

it's not baffling to me at all that the guys who seemed more excited to hang with Rick Nielsen than any of the other dozens of music legends interviewed for this series basically make post-grunge Cheap Trick records

How dare you demean cheap trick

The Foos are what they are at this point, but to say they've never had any ambition beyond getting their pix taken with their favorite bands is ridiculous. How many hit songs does Grohl have to write, and records does he have to sell, and arenas does he have to fill before this increasingly insufferable thread can acknowledge that maybe he has a little bit of skill and know-how and ambition?

Like I don't even care about the Foo Fighters, really, but you guys are turning me into Captain Save-A-Grohl...

Also, he didn't join -the- mainstream band of the '90s. He joined the band and they became the mainstream band of the '90s, thanks in no small part to his drumming.

yeah, I'm with you. no Grohl, no "Teen Spirit" opening fill and who knows what else would have gone far differently from there. and it's easy to dump on the Foos unless you try to name some bands on the same commercial plateau over the last 18 years that have been so much better. everyone agrees on "Everlong" but there are about a dozen singles that are nearly up to its standard.

but to say they've never had any ambition beyond getting their pix taken with their favorite bands is ridiculous.

I meant that figuratively/musically. Any artistic ambition (or even the slightest sense of almost maybe approaching taking a tiny risk maybe) beyond that isn't something I've been able to discern in their records.

after There Is Nothing Left to Lose, it has felt to me like they're just trying to improve on that sound. Wasting Light was a good album, but it was a pretty rare standout and even then the biggest tracks still sound like FooFighters.xls

I mean, if they dig that monolithic sound then no shade on them but it's hard to maintain the will to actively listen to it rinse-repeat every few years.

I meant that figuratively/musically.

I know, i guess the whole rock 'n' roll fantasy camp and jumping onstage with Rush thing pushed me to respond. why, i don't know ... like i need to be in here defending the Foo Fighters. my two year old just woke up from nap and is crying for me to come get him as i type this!

I enjoy quite a few of the early singles and album and will confidently say that Everlong is in a league of its own imo

I do like some of the songs on the first record, fwiw. Oddly enough, the first time I heard Foo Fighters -- on the radio, before I knew who it/he was -- I was immediately reminded of Chris Mars' first solo record (mainly "Popular Creeps").

FF continued success reminds me a bit of bob mould winding up Sugar, in retrospect the correct thing to do - they were tired and flabby sounding by FUEL and thats the FF blueprint to me - vaguely distorted anonymous rock

album is pretty solid. not as good as Wasting Light, but it also doesn't have any one song that would irritate me in heavy rotation as much as "Walk" did.

Taylor Hawkins flipping out over Joe Walsh's cool but totally ordinary guitar solo was both fun and sort of depressing.

Finally the germs and the eagles have been brought together by the power of corporate rock

Is there anything capitalism can't do

Finally the germs and the eagles have been brought together by the power of corporate rock

Belinda Carlisle sang on Henley sessions back in the early '80s.

But, Yay Capitalism all the same!

So this HBO series, in its own little way, is turning out to be Grohl's own U2/Apple moment, huh? No one gives a shit about the album, and for all the good things about each doc, I've never seen so many people - press, fans, armchair observers - taking so many pot shots at Grohl at once. For being corny, for being over-exposed, for being ridiculous, for being nowhere near the level of the music he praises in each doc.

There should be a drinking game for this show where you have to drink every time a Foo Fighters lyric video quotes an interview in the episode

So you just shotgun a beer at the end?

Basically

Taylor Hawkins does the same thing

Shotgunning beers is rad, dude.

Taylor should get a spin-off sitcom.

http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/story/taylor-hawkins-the-birds-of-satan-stream-eclectic-new-album-20140407/20140407-birds-x624-1396904658.jpg

taylor lookin like if they mated dave grohl and kurt cobain basically

Love that the foos are 2/3 SoCal and Dave managed to spend most of their ep in the desert, with pat lucking out by being a punk icon and Taylor getting a minute of outta nowhere eagle worship. The other two getting zilch.

I'm no FF fan but really appreciated these shows, particularly the Austin one. Dave Grohl seems a very genuine guy to me and anyone who appreciates and promotes the likes of 13th Floor Elevators/Roky Erickson, Butthole Surfers etc gets my vote. Well done!

Yeah, loved the D.C. episode, but I grew up on nothing but Dischord and a handful of eye-opening Go Go shows in the early 90s in the Maryland suburbs. I'd never seen the inside of Inner Ear or seen what Don Zientara looked like and that kind of thing so it was really pretty awesome.
It ends with Grohl throwing a huge b-day party concert for the guy from Trouble Funk at the 9:30 Club, which is really nice.

The BBC is fucking with this in a most peculiar way. First 2 episodes on BBC4, next 4 on iplayer only, then last 2 eps back on BBC4. Seems unnecessarily complicated imo.Anyway I'm enjoying them greatly esp. Mr Smear and his perpetual grin.

he's such a chill dude

Fave moment of whole series might have been pat saying la is the best place to live, with Dave showing clear disbelief before fleeing to the desert

Was certain that Dukowski or Morris would pop up in the LA episode, but I guess you can't cover every base.

Grohl should make a doc about forming a band, touring arenas and teaching kids about guitars. Talking heads should be all uncool butt rock: Styx, REO, Nugent et al.

xp The lack of Keith Morris was certainly surprising, since he seems to have a nose for documentary cameras over the past two decades. He was probably in the background somewhere, answering questions no one was asking.

You can't cover every base...when you'd far rather discuss desert culture than LA culture . Got the feeling if he didn't have a germ and Tay in the band he would have gone to Boston or Detroit instead

On the plus side: Pat's one line per ep.

Best one yet is in the Washington ep. when he's forced to look at Grohl's lyrics - "Wow.....that's a lot of fucking words..."

That was awesome
Agree ppl are being hard on the Foos

Also don't forget his stellar work on Songs For the Deaf by QOTSA, about the best commercial hard rock record of the 00s

Haven't seen the LA one yet but looking forward to the Masque and Hermosa Beach Bathhouse excerpts.
I was looking forward to the long segment of the fishing trip around Catalina Island with Keith Morris piloting the boat for Bill Stevenson and Milo Aukerman. With Dave rocking out on the deck

Has anybody heard Pat Smear's 'Ruthensmear' LP, released on SST in their pot fog days? It's not that great in its sub Bowie Ziggy and I'm not sure why I bought it.

Just to clear it up, I think Grohl is a good drummer. Not sure about him as a frontman but I appear to be in the minority. Plenty seem to enjoy.

Grohl is undeniably a great drummer, and a (mostly) good dude. The issue I have with the Foo Fighters is a guy with great instincts and for all purposes total independence churning out totally MOR corporate-alt that, were it not featuring Grohl, would surely be garnering fewer defenders. Adding insult to injury we get the great drummer's dedication to the totally rad, I mean, lame Taylor Hawkins as his proxy. And then you see them live, where the cheese flows so fast and freely it plays like self-parody to the point of patronizing. Buddy and FF template Bob Mould does the Foos so much better. More depth, better guitar textures, better (or at least funnier!) drummer, etc.

Oh without a doubt, to my ears, FF current output is an irrepressible DUD, given the aforementioned insight of their leader .
Each to their own

Oh man just got to the Joe Walsh part, hope Taylor recovered!

Also all the Rancho/stoner/Kyuss stuff is great!

Omg the lyrics to this song...

He's just going to be singing transcripts of interviews by the end of this thing

Also I love hearing this Joe Walsh solo that blew Taylor's mind, all these random pentatonic string bends

I love this show so much

I sat through the entire New Orleans episode last night. Damn this show is cheesy.

I actually thought that was one of the best ones, but it also made me want to slap Taylor Hawkins more than any other time in the series.

so strange that this band has been around for 20 years and evidently sold many an album but i cannot for the life of me name a single song by them or even characterize what they sound like. do they get played on the radio?

Part of the discomfort for me was that I felt like everyone was posturing, and everyone around Grohl was just being a kiss-ass.

xpost i cant speak for having the radio on of late bc i'm rarely in cars or places w/radios, but as recently as their last album release (2011) both new stuff from wasting light and the greatest hits like "everlong," "my hero," etc. would show up on boston rock radio

Well early on they definitely had radio hits that were relatively memorable. Based on what I've heard recently anything you may have heard lately is likely indistinct enough to be totally forgotten.

that might be it-- it just blends into the background.

It's so weird that the rest of the band are barely there, the assistant engineer gets more screen time than Chris and Nate (not counting the vid at the end of course) what gives?

i think the message is that while some of these guys have been chill enough to ride with dave for almost 20 years - they're riding with dave. the guy recorded the first album entirely by himself so it's not like it became a dictatorship, it always was one.

dave: "american cities...rich with musical history...

four of the six foo fighters: "hey, la! we're from there! can we..."

dave: "........the desert......there's always something that's pulled me to it..."

pat: "hey what about the germs, i think we were naked raygun big"

dave: "oh right, right, punk heroes...you, joan jett, sst, 80s underground i'm all about that....but the desert...ever heard kyuss...now that was cool...josh told me a story..."

taylor: "FUCK YOU I'VE BEEN IN THIS BAND SINCE THE 90s I'M MEETING AN EAGLE"

irl lols at that

New Orleans song was the most hilariously non-sounding-like-the-city-we-just-immersed-ourselves-in yet

Are the other band members (besides Taylor) always quiet anonymous plain dudes on purpose so they don't alienate the very large Foo Fighters fan demo of quiet anonymous plain dudes?

XP - Yeah, I was hoping for some crazy track with a bounce rhythm and some horns, then we get another pumped up Rick Springfield tune. *caveat* I only listened to the first 40s

ha yeah I turned it off too maybe there was a brass band breakdown at the end lol

Yeah but they made sure the camera panned across portraits of disappointed looking New Orealns legends during the video

xxxpost

The others come across very well on that Doc that came out a couple of years back, esp Nate.

i wonder if joe walsh was a compromise to keep dave from having to meet don henley

(well, yeah)

The others come across very well on that Doc that came out a couple of years back, esp Nate.

― Rita, Sue and Peter Gabriel Two (MaresNest), Tuesday, November 25, 2014 3:20 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He's the AIDS denier

Really? I guess that must have been in the special features.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2000/02/foo-fighters-hiv-deniers

Mendel says he was won over by Maggiore's book, and passed it around to the rest of the band, which includes former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Mendel says that he would steer anyone considering an HIV antibody test toward Maggiore's group.

"If you test positive, you are pretty much given a bleak outlook and told to take toxic drugs to possibly ward off new infections," says Mendel.

With the other band members on board, Mendel aims to use the Foo Fighters' celebrity to get the message out to a broad audience. The Foo Fighters plan additional benefit shows, and have placed a banner ad on their Web site linking to Alive and Well. Mendel says that he does not have HIV, nor does he have any friends with HIV besides Maggiore, who has remained asymptomatic.

Watched the Seattle episode last night. Some genuinely moving parts, especially toward the end. And then, for no fucking reason at all, the mood shifts completely and Dave interviews Macklemore. WTF

haha wow ok glad I turned it off before that

Taylor Hawkins bums me out, but I bet it's kind of a bummer to be Taylor Hawkins.

Can't really think of another example of such a famous band whose drummer is not the best drummer in the band, besides maybe that one time Sheila E was one of Ringo's all-stars

Are the other band members (besides Taylor) always quiet anonymous plain dudes on purpose so they don't alienate the very large Foo Fighters fan demo of quiet anonymous plain dudes?
--Evan

weird to see that pat smear is now a relatively quiet anonymous plain dude, but he's rich, so that prob makes up for it.

regarding current foo fandom, this is so OTM it's not even funny ( ok it is funny bc I'm laughing)

Grohl just basically spilled the beans on The Daily Show that there will be a second season. Hopefully it won't be tied to an album, but of course it will.

Has this been addressed yet?

http://jezebel.com/dave-grohls-sonic-highways-systematically-erases-women-1666309945

I don't necessarily agree (maybe Hole weren't mentioned because - ultimately -- HOLE DON'T MATTER)...but just throwin' it out there.

Said article also features this line...

"Kanye West, an artist as complicated, heart-driven, and relevant as Nirvana ever was, is seen in a short clip at the beginning, near the credits, but is not mentioned thereafter."

Kanye West is complicated?

FOH

There have been a bunch of women on the show - heart, joan jett, dolly parton, emmylou harris.

Hole is/was terrible

Oh Kanye's complicated alright: http://gawker.com/which-giant-titted-anime-statue-was-kanye-west-obsessed-1667243236?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

That being said criticism of the show being conventionally rockist is obviously legit

"i wish there was more women in it" is more a than valid note, but the claim of systematic erasure in the headline doesn't really match the "sure there was heart but where's bikini kill?" tone of the rest of the post. not totally sure what the definition of "systematically erasing women" would mean, but i assume it would mean having even less than the token legends like dolly, joan jett, etc.

also hole was from la

i stopped watching after my own thinkpiece went up, but unless nate mendel got a lot of love in the seattle episode one could argue he's systematically erasing the other foo fighters almost as much as he is women

"sure, taylor got to jizz his pants at an eagle for one minute, but is the occasional doofy grin all he's had to contribute since 1997?"

"Why, on the LA episode, is there a lengthy interlude about the desert outside the city because Queens of the Stone Age once recorded there, but can't even make a gesture towards Chris Shiflett, the band's guitarist since 1999, who was raised in Santa Barbara?"

I started laughing really hard when the Seattle episode transitioned from grunge to Macklemore. It did a really great job of making the city look like a LA's farm team. Getting so sick of Subpop's "We're losers...really!" schtick.

Austin episode was the highlight of the season for me. Hope season 2 explores the scenes in completely innocuous cities. Maybe send Dave Grohl to Newbridge.

dave-grohls-sonic-highways-systematically-erases-calvin-johnson

i was going to at least check out the seattle episode of the final three but ever since news of macklemore floated out i haven't been able to force myself

I thought the Austin one was terrible. Too much spillover from Nashville, and the rest was overwhelmingly Austin City Limits centric.

I'm sure the NYC one will make me froth at the mouth. Nate got about three nanoseconds in the Seattle episode.

seconds away from watching the final one, and I have every expectation that it will please AlexinNYC very much. Given the deeply conservative worldview presented by Grphl so far, the only thing I can think of that would annoy AiNYC is if the show declined to make a case for Killing Joke as a huge influence on every right thinking act in town, or as a signature achievement in human history.

I have no doubt that Grohl will walk around town and lament clubs that are no longer there, which would be in line with the program thus far. surely there will be a lengthy CBGBs segment.

I hope he just interviews Bono, Sting, Madonna, Taylor Swift and other musicians rich enough to live in New York. Then he can lament how the death of CBGBs means no more bands like Interpol or the Strokes.

Was really praying for a sax-playing bill clinton to walk in and interrupt the obama interview segment.

oddly this was easily the worst episode (ugh a fucking kiss hagiography and no mention of the velvets), resulting in the best foo fighters song of the series. Which was still pretty blah.

Close your laptops and hire a string section and world-class arranger, kids.

I still think Taylor Hawkins is just filling in between Alanis Morissette tours

It bums me out because this band could be good if Dave just gave in and went back on drums and got someone to help write not so structured songs.

this band could be good if Dave just gave in and went back on drums and got Kurt Cobain to help write the songs

This band would be great if different people were in it and they traded their guitars for synths and changed their name to kraftwerk

I kinda got the sense that Grohl just wanted to geek out on Kyuss but felt like it had to be sold as an LA episode

Pat Smear eating a sandwich in the New Orleans episode was great

Dave Grohl's new band ... Oujia Board Kobain ... I'd buy that ...

" .... N ..... O .... "

Taylor Hawkins bums me out, but I bet it's kind of a bummer to be Taylor Hawkins.

Can't really think of another example of such a famous band whose drummer is not the best drummer in the band, besides maybe that one time Sheila E was one of Ringo's all-stars

― sheesh, Tuesday, December 2, 2014 4:54 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dinosaur Jr. imo

wouldn't say Hawkins is as good as Grohl all-around but i've never really been able to pick up on any substantial gap in technical proficiency, he's pretty damn good

He smiles too much.

NY episode was so terrible

Can't really think of another example of such a famous band whose drummer is not the best drummer in the band, besides maybe that one time Sheila E was one of Ringo's all-stars

― sheesh, Tuesday, December 2, 2014 4:54 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also when she was in the Revolution

http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5308/35/16x9/640.jpg

Oh yeah, and as much as I like Meg White, Jack White is probably a better drummer

Oh no, Lefsetz has just discovered the show and is raving about every aspect of it.

Whatever it takes to teach kids today that real music can be made with guitars.

We built these cities
We built these cities on rock and roll