The Foo Fighters - Classic or Dud?

i heard a song on the radio while going to walmart the other day. it had this grownup sadman chorus part and the guitars got all chunky for a minute at the end. i went home and sang it to my cat who said it was foos. then i listened to it a couple more times on youtube. it's okay. foo fighters!

[saint cecilia]

I GOT ANOTHA CONFESSION TO MAAAAAAAAAYKE

"bands you were surprised to learn had not broken up yet"

i heard a song on the radio while going to walmart the other day. it had this grownup sadman chorus part and the guitars got all chunky for a minute at the end. i went home and sang it to my cat who said it was foos. then i listened to it a couple more times on youtube. it's okay. foo fighters!

― leet gentlemen's club (contenderizer), Thursday, March 3, 2016 3:58 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah "Saint Cecilia" is nice. i find it funny that they went across the country recording their last full-length in 8 different studios and painstakingly documenting the process and wound up with probably their worst album, and then during the tour they knocked out an EP recorded on buses and hotel rooms that's a bit lighter on its feet.

first album is sick

I love the third one. A great power-pop album.

THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST

it's tiiiiiimes like theeeese you learn to love agaaaaaaaain!!!!!!!!! whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRlJrkxsqo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRlJrkxsqo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRlJrkxsqo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRlJrkxsqo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRlJrkxsqo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTte01kdG_k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifwc5xgI3QM

These guys are surely the alternative rock Status Quo by this stage? Like, everything after their third or fourth album just blurs into one huge fucking mush of samey to me now.

that new single seems to change shape enough to keep my attention

i really wish i loved this band more as things like the recent rick astley thing and this are rather wonderful.

http://www.nme.com/news/music/foo-fighters-under-pressure-cover-student-2152109?utm_content=manual&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nme

I watched the perfectly enjoyable THOR last week and it was almost ruined after the fact in the end credits thanks to what ended up being an especially terrible Foo Fighters song.

this is a bad band.

they should have quit 20 years ago

i got another confession to make!

utm_content=manual&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nme

UTM.

i'm almost stunned every time i hear a post-Everlong foos track because they're always vv featureless and bland and despite Grohl being the wacky chive king throne god and future twice-inducted RNR HOFer there's zero personality and songcraft that comes out in any of their music, and even the early superior stuff is fairly blank corporate uber-competency completely divorced from his persona.

when hate-shazamming any generic rock song i'm unfamiliar with, the answer is always "foo fighters"

They are very My First Rock Band.

excellent summary omar little.

i used to think of them as "whatever album came out while you were still in high school is their last good album," but maybe i was wrongly generalizing from my own experience where that would be "there is nothing left to lose." tho in hindsight that only has like 3-4 tracks i'd still consider more or less good, hmmmmmm

I still think There Is Nothing Left To Lose is a very very strong power-pop record

I keep getting YT clips recommended to me of FF gigs where they seem to be endlessly getting fans up on stage to play their own songs or a parade of classic rock cover versions and fucking about doing crowd-pleasing goofy things, it's all a bit Vegas.

The other guys (apart from Hawkins, perhaps) perform like they are simply there for the paycheck, Ghrol can keep up the illusion that they are a real band and not just a vessel for his songs, but he really should have just stuck it out as a solo artist, like a Gen-X Billy Joel.

there is nothing left to lose has “aurora” and “generator,” the best foo fighters deep cuts. they’ve never released a completely solid album but yeah the albums get markedly worse after that one. (except for wasting light which was weirdly pretty good)

"live-in skin" was my personal jam deep cut from that one. i wish i could re-inhabit the excitement when my buddy and i first scored a leaked radio promo mp3 of "stacked actors" and believed the impending album would be one of the hardest-rocking CDs ever pressed.

"when hate-shazamming any generic rock song i'm unfamiliar with, the answer is always "foo fighters""

--Nick Cave

Foo Fighters are 21st Century butt-rock.

I think the second album and *maybe* the first are both "completely solid"

Wasting Light is probably close ... like 84% solid

Grohl has a forever pass, he can do what he wants as long as he wants and I'll still like him ... as long as I don't have to listen to the albums.

I still think There Is Nothing Left To Lose is a very very strong power-pop record

― Pinche Cumbion Bien Loco (stevie), Wednesday, February 12, 2020 2:50 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

“Aurora” is so great. There was a point maybe 10 or so years ago where I thought Paramore could do a great cover version of that album.

Aurora, Generator, MIA, Stacked Actors, Learning To Fly, Ain't It The Life, Live-In Skin... There isn't a song I'd skip, and there's quite a few I genuinely love. After that, his hit-rate gets spotty, and he's definitely more a craftsman than someone given to maverick inspiration, and he'll forever be living in the shadow of his first band, and he'll never be cool, but I certainly reckon Foo Fighters remain a net positive. And Sonic Highways was a great TV show (if a lumpen and patchy LP).

xp Grohl knows what he's doing. Hundreds of people rely on his success in order to keep working. They could easily record an edgy record if they really wanted to, but it would be too much of a business risk or whatever.

I thought "Rope" was good actually, and that was 2010s. But I don't recall if it charted that well.

Anyone care about the new one out today?

We're drafting off of a friend's Peloton app, generally enjoying the content via the TV. The other morning I took a themed/sponsored class called "Spotify rock" or something, and they started with that "Shame" single. "Man, the Foo Fighters ... " began the trainer. "They're definitely one of my favorite bands, maybe even my absolute favorite band of all time." And I literally stopped what I was doing and yelled at the TV screen: "No they're not, you're a liar!"

I have a friend who was like raised in a bunker and didn't hear the beatles until high school. Foo Fighters are her favorite band. She should fight the foo within herself.

I pity the foo.

There must be some great stories about all those van tours the Foo Fighters have done. pic.twitter.com/e2FjpnQv5c

— @ACNewman (@ACNewman) February 7, 2021

(Of course none of these guys are strangers to vans, and Newman knows this, it's just a funny droll bit of shade. Amusing thread, too.)

In 2012, Grohl went the wrong kind of viral for giving a speech at the Grammys where he criticized “computer” music. But for this record, he embraced drum loops — a new frontier for the band, and something their actual drummer took some time getting used to. “Dave has a strong hold on every single thing that happens on our record — every bass note, every guitar note, every vocal, every everything,” Hawkins said.

From big NY Times article
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/arts/music/foo-fighters-dave-grohl.html

Writer Jeremy Gordon for NY Times also says: Without shedding their traditional distorted guitars and expansive howling, the Foos have consciously incorporated dance and funk rhythms into their new songs, influenced by artists like David Bowie and the Rolling Stones who did the same.

Drummer Omar Hakim from David Bowie’s Let’s Dance record also guests on some tracks.

I haven’t listened to this yet.

The Foos' first tour was a van tour iirc, opening for Mike Watt. And it's weird that Dave was ragging on computer music at the Grammys when he was stanning hard for the Prodigy in the mid-90s.

Again, none of them are strangers to vans, but that was, what, 25 years ago? And neither Grohl nor Vedder (who was also on that tour in Hovercraft, right, and also backing Watt?) were traveling by van by necessity. Fair game to tease them for posing in a tour van in 2021.

Looks like he deleted the tweet.

My Name Is Dave Grohl And I Am Funky

I smell a critically lauded, back to basics, return to form in 2023

And it's weird that Dave was ragging on computer music at the Grammys when he was stanning hard for the Prodigy in the mid-90s.

Grohl wasn't complaining about electronic music but quantizing/pitch correction/endless comping in the studio IIRC.

ah, right.