the foos

“honestly, if I would have taken this whole career things seriously I would have named the band something else because it is the worst fucking band name of all time.” – dave grohl

So.

I have been a Foo Fighters fan since day one. And I disagree with Dave … Foo Fighters is an awesome name (the name comes from the UFOs reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II which were known collectively as foo fighters).

I decided to write this because I just saw an awesome Behind the Music episode on the Foo Fighters.

(I will get back to that later)

I will be honest.

I would have never thought I would have been a Foo fan before I heard the first song. I didn’t like Nirvana. Boy. I tried to like them. But, boy, I didn’t (excepting Heart Shaped Box).  Everything else? Pretty much unlistenable to me (sorry Nirvana fans). Oh. And I thought Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Dinosaur Jr. were better.

Ok. Side note.

Speaking of better (or at least some good music).

Here is some heresy in a Foo Fighters/Dave Grohl discussion. I am not only going to connect Courtney Love & Dave Grohl in a post (although there seems to be some animosity there I say facetiously) I am also going to say I like her music as well as the Foos.

Her second(?) cd, I think it was second, I thought was a good cd top to bottom with two outstanding tracks:

Celebrity Skin (Courtney): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3dWBLoU–E&feature=relmfu

Malibu (Courtney): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0CYB5V9e64

Anyway.

Back to the Foos.

Maybe I should have thought about what was happening with the Foos in the beginning. I didn’t know shit about Dave Grohl (other than he was a drummer … but Phil Collins was too – who would have ever thought Phil Collins and Foo Fighters would be mentioned together – and Don Henley was). But I did like Sunny Day Real Estate (2 Foos came from them when they broke up). I have always liked Pat Smears guitar playing and when he became a Foo I should have paid more attention.

Ok. Another side note.

I was lucky enough to see The Germs play at the old Starwood in West Hollywood and while I am not sure I got my hearing back for about a week I vividly remember standing there mesmerized watching Pat play these amazing underlying guitar riffs threading their way through some hellaciously bad singing (yelling?) from the Germs punk front man. I believe he was one of the guitar players I saw live very early on who made me pay attention to the nuances in what other people may have just heard as “noisy music.” He is an excellent guitar player.

<I am re-writing a ‘my starwood days’ series reflecting back on that place & time and will post soon>

But.

Back to the Foo Fighters.

There is a new Behind the Music Foo Fighters episode (here is the trailer):

http://www.vh1.com/video/misc/631803/foo-fighters-back-and-forth-trailer.jhtml#id=1659852

It is worth watching.

Dave Grohl is a good interview. And if you have any doubts about he feels about Kurt Cobain, and how he felt when Kurt died, you should see this. This is filmed 15 plus years after Kurt died and Dave still gets emotional.

In addition it is really interesting to hear a bunch of talented musicians all who pretty much came from talented bands who broke up and how they all got together and how they talk about it.

Anyway.

This is a good Behind the Music episode.

It takes you through the 16 year history (yeah … it’s been 16 years) of the Foo Fighters. From the cassette demos Grohl recorded while he was Nirvana’s drummer which created the first Foo cd to their current grammy winning cd.

Once a Foo always a Foo. That’s all I have to say.

Written by Bruce