The Foo Fighters - Classic or Dud?

20 years ago, certainly in the NYC music media/major label ecosystem in which I resided, and no doubt in similar redoubts elsewhere, the foo fighters represented a kind of mainstream rock group populated by people that we, or more significantly I, recognized as guys I would like. And this band was contrasted with what at the time appeared to be the ascendant dominant rock music: nu- or rap-metal, or creed style butt rock. The Foo Fighters were respectable! and they did mainstream music that employees of major labels and hangers on like myself were not threatened by…

What really turned me against the guy was the HBO documentary. I really liked that "Rope" song, and I have mainstream radio-rock so deeply embedded in my being that I have no doubt that I would like many songs on their records, even this dopey new one (you can't do better than mentioning let's Dance or "Miss you?" Can't you have someone tell you to talk about Dua Lipa?) were I inclined to listen to it. But when he uses that doc to privilege his own experience coming up in music, through punk rock, clubs, guitars, etc etc and to in essence complain that if kids aren't doing it that way, they are doing it wrong? Fuck him with a hot poker. It is not up to him or Little Steven to dictate the proper ways for kids to experience music. Neither he or Little Steven would like it if some 50 year old told him that Mantovani or Glenn Miller done it this way…and indeed, most kids are experiencing music in their own image…as it should be!

yeah, I certainly encourage preservation/renewal of techniques, technologies, spaces, etc, but it can come off more offputtingly conservative or prescriptive than I think they meant to

realization, i think what happened to me in college was more or less that what i looked for in the foo fighters, i now found in the Guided By Voices best-of.

it brings me no great pleasure to share this video, in which Dave Grohl is his usual charming self for 30 minutes - burping, cursing, telling stories and getting Hot Ones Sean drunk. sorry, but i love it.

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

thx for this -Dave is a good time imo!

also Dave reminds me of my brother in law who i love to death. same age, same level gregariousness, same “fun hang” vibe. so for that i cannot help but enjoy him.

Thought this bump was going to be about their stupid horror movie.

Came to post about their stupid horror movie...Was looking at the schedule for the rep theatre an hour away, and it's on there for next week. As a non-fan, it was like "Am I actually reading this?"

i want to see it. my friend loved it.

It's like their "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park" or something, right?

In the end Grohl is kind of like the alt Phil Collins, an incredible drummer with his name on lots of good records who is best when he is playing drums and sort of hit or miss (no pun intended) when he's doing anything else, which averages out to a kind of default middle of the road reputation a little discordant (again, no pun intended) with his punk roots and love of Real Metal.

I've heard from a few horror loving friends that the gore and kills are great, but everything else is absolutely awful.

Grohl retorts "I DON'T OWE YOU ANYTHING"

When they make the documentary on the making of the stupid horror movie, that'll work out well, because Dave Grohl would have been in it anyway.

what the fuuuck

seriously what the fuck. completely shocking.

rip taylor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-0EGjHwSKE

insanely awful news RIP

this is very sad news, RIP Taylor

That's so sad to hear. They were on tour in South America. So far from home.

oh no

never forget when he joined the band, i was like”…is he…dave’s cousin or something? he’s like a mini blond Dave!”

cannot believe this news. so fucked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQDbr_3di7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMe05dO816k

i support this truthbomb, he was v hot in drag

Taylor Hawkins was my adult version of "Bugs Bunny Dressed as a Fancy Lady." https://t.co/ahtn2tkIJ5

— Merlin Mann (@hotdogsladies) March 26, 2022

Bogotá: Festival Estereo Picnic's main stage (they were going to headline Friday evening)

El main stage de FEP en estos momentos. pic.twitter.com/uoxTK8ymj1

— Pablo Acuña (@pabloacuna) March 26, 2022

got me a little choked up

◾ "Taylor Hawkins Por Siempre"

Emotiva despedida de los fans de Foo Fighters en Colombia, cantando "My Hero".

Vía @Antooferretti pic.twitter.com/W3OAW6QFzT

— Pogopedia (@Pogopedia) March 26, 2022

That's a heartbreaker (though the pedant in me feels compelled to point out that track is pre-Taylor). I have to say, whatever people's reservations about the Foos, There's Nothing Left To Lose is an absolutely PERFECT album.

Spotify might wanna take down the new releases section from their/my homepage that says Foo Fighters, "Demon Widow" :(

Went to bed last night before the news and woke up to it this morning. My second thought, after immediately thinking WAAAAAT, was oh shit Dave Grohl has had to go through this twice now in very big, very public ways and if he comes out the other side ok then he's stronger than most.

this sucks ass

i put together a foo fighters set to learn on drums just in case my band ever plays a halloween show and all of the hawkins parts i learned ("generator," "aurora," "low," "white limo") are so tasty/tasteful and fun to play

That "demon widow" looks incongruous now, but I don't think it would be a good thing to withdraw it as such.

i love that he was always grinning away like he got away with something, like he was Curious George & had snuck on stage or something.

not a fan of this band but as an individual I liked this guy, so awful. feel terrible for the fans waiting at the show.

Dave Grohl wrote about his special bond with Taylor Hawkins in his memoir. 🖤 pic.twitter.com/e9RXHVC9CG

— Consequence (@consequence) March 26, 2022

lol VegemiteGrrl otm. Wild. RIP.

damn, RIP Taylor Hawkins. I remember that he was on the cover of one of the first issues of Modern Drummer I received after I started subscribing. i had just started getting into music, generally, and foo fighters and colour and the shape were so huge for me at the time. a lot of the other stuff in those issues would fly right over my head, but i remember loving how he talked about music and how he played, the beats that were notated - they were all really relatable, happy, fun, joyful somehow, the way he talked about it.

This is so awful, RIP

Obviously I feel terrible for his wife and kids, but one of my first thoughts was for Dave, poor guy.

Obviously lots of Foo love going about today, but I wanted to shout out the weirdo prog album he did as The Birds of Satan, I always liked that one. Also forgot until this morning that he drummed on that one Coheed and Cambria record.

loved this, ultimate fan moment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Ramu397UQ

and Geddy’s words abt Taylor from instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CbkhR9VA1HS/

My heart is truly breaking at the news of Taylor's passing. A sweetheart of a man that radiated good vibes, a love of music, and a total monster on the drums. He was so, so happy the night Alex and I came up onstage to play YYZ with him during the Foos show at the Air Canada Centre on March 23rd, 2008... His excitement was almost impossible for him to contain.
Brother, you left us way, way too soon... rest in peace my friend... 💔

FOO LOVE

I love this too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwHyPCRLW38

oh, that was an audience recording, here's the whole song but from a TV broadcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkDW6jcmx4k

<3

He was an excellent, very funny fellow to interview… when we spoke, upon very little notice he started to talk about how much he liked Pacific Ocean Blue, and then some 6 years later when a deluxe version packaged with the never released Bambu came out, he subbed for Dennis Wilson on a song called "Holy Man": i guess Dennis had cut a guide vocal with a melody Hawkins could follow, but otherwise Dennis never cut a fully usable take for the record… "Holy Man" is for sure the standout song to have come out of those sessions, closest thing to a hit as such and INSANELY SOULFUL, and Taylor absolutely sells it, capturing Dennis's essence… surfer game recognizes surfer game…

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

One thing that was clear to me about him is that, when other guys in the Foo Fighters and other peer bands talk about being on indie labels and touring in vans for cred purposes, he couldn't hang like that…he was on major labels from the git-go, his formative experiences were when punk and punk-adjacent bands could get on major labels, not to mention Rush, Queen, Police… he was a KROQ surfer kind of person, he was on tour buses and planes and never in vans…

A shame.

The moment in the Everlong video when Taylor’s drum kit appears in the bed is one of my favorite things

That song and video are the peak of my FF fandom

i love that video so much

i would have been annoyed/pissed if anyone tried to cover Andy Gibb’s Shadow Dancing but Taylor did such a killer job on the vocals it made me deliriously happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o5n5SpWEwQ

This sucks. I wasn't a fan of pretty much anything after 1997 but they always inspired a "glad they're out there still doing it even if I don't care if I hear it" feeling.

Third time going through this for Pat Smear.

The moment in the Everlong video when Taylor’s drum kit appears in the bed is one of my favorite things

Mine too, had to make a gif of it.

https://i.imgur.com/hxTawQP.gif

the toxicology report is in - god fucking dammit, Taylor.

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/details-emerge-colombian-authorities-investigate-death-foo-fighters-dr-rcna21689