Send "Foo Fighters " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Dave Grohl didn't make it easy for himself. Not long after Nirvana dissolved in April 1994, following Kurt Cobain's suicide, Grohl was offered the opportunity to back Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. For him, a Petty fan, that was a dream job. Though he would drum with them during a "Saturday Night Live" performance later that year, Grohl ultimately declined, to start over from scratch and do what he's still doing today: front a band.At the time, that decision was probably daunting. Grohl had already spent some time in a Seattle studio recording a humble demo tape that would become Foo Fighters' debut, one for whose release rights major labels were already grappling. But the sizable shadow cast by Cobain and the weight of his legacy and death was immense. This week, coupled with Wasting Light, their seventh full-length, Foo Fighters have been screening their new, somewhat revisionist, sometimes 3-D retrospective documentary, Back and Forth. There's some great footage early on during what was Grohl's very first tour (opening for Mike Watt) with his brand new band. There, despite having never heard any of the yet-to-be-released Foo Fighters songs, young Nirvana fans were showing up early and in numbers. "Marigold!" they'd scream out between songs, in hopes of hearing the one Grohl-penned Nirvana tune there was. He never played it. The idea of Grohl opening for anyone now seems just as ridiculous as him having to field requests for anything but one of the two dozen modern rock hits he's released since. But in Wasting Light, Grohl is attempting to come full circle. The plan was to go back to basics, in a few ways: 1) record the album to tape in Grohl's San Fernando Valley garage, 2) hire famed Nevermind producer Butch Vig to man the boards, 3) bring former Germs, Nirvana, and Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear back into the mix, 4) have founding Nirvana member and bassist Krist Novoselic down from Seattle to guest on some of the recordings. As Grohl says during Back and Forth, before recording began in earnest, "I love that we're going to make an album at home. It's going to sound like it was recorded in a house. I know it will."...full text |
| Bbc |
| n December last year the Foo Fighters managed to sell 110,000 tickets for two upcoming summer concerts at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes in less time than it would take to eat a bowl of cereal. More than Green Day, more, even, than Muse, it seems that the claim to the title of Britain’s Favourite Rock Band lies with Dave Grohl’s band of merry everymen. This is no small beer, especially when one considers that even the group’s staunchest of admirers would surely be pressed to nominate any of their previous albums as being classics in the manner of Absolution or American Idiot. Wasting Light, the Foo Fighters’ seventh studio album, is not a release that is likely to alter this state of affairs. Despite a number of headline-grabbing developments – the album features contributions from former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and erstwhile Hüsker Dü great Bob Mould, as well as being produced by Nevermind’s Butch Vig – and a quite brilliant viral marketing campaign (where last-minute club shows were furtively revealed on the band’s website, alongside a clip of the group being chauffeured around Los Angeles by Motörhead’s Lemmy), beneath all the froth, really this is more of the same. Perhaps this is to be expected; only the rarest of bands re-invent themselves seven albums in. All of this can be distilled down to the rather stale observation that if you liked this band’s work before, chances are you’ll like this. Wasting Light does feature a number of terrific songs. The rousing I Should Have Known and the gorgeous Arlandria are among the best Grohl has written, while the noisy and messy White Limo could well become an unlikely hit sing-along in the manner of the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage. But as with some other Foo Fighters albums, the sense is that a number of the compositions featured here serve no greater purpose than making up numbers, and that a composition such as the ordinary Miss the Misery, to name just one, will not be played live and will never be heard from again....full text |
| Consequenceofsound |
| We’ve seen it on YouTube, and for some, it’s been seen in 3-D on the big screen. After a two-year hiatus, Foo Fighters return as a five-piece to tout a ruckus of a new record, Wasting Light. So far 2011 has been the year rock makes a comeback, and it’s been nice to have it back. For as much anticipation as Wasting Light has been given, thanks to the huge promotional push, the reality is exactly what is to be expected from a Foo album: solid, no-frills, modern rock. Sounds refreshing, doesn’t it? In many ways, the album represents the band in a midlife crisis: the return of Pat Smear, the use of analog tape, and recording in a garage. It comes across as a general effort to get rid of the excesses of 2007′s Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace and 2005′s In Your Honor. So much of this story begins to sound a bit gimmicky: a return to the band’s roots in a DIY fashion with appearances from old friends, while quietly keeping the record label in the background. But really, it isn’t a gimmick at all. Foo Fighters are at the top of their game and got there in a no-bullshit way, so there wouldn’t be a point or need for that kind of facade. How do we know? Because even at the top, Dave Grohl really just wants to scream his balls off. Looking back, the last two Foo albums were as grandiose as you could get, what with an eight-piece touring band, dramatic stringed song intros, and a soft rock acoustic record. That was a world away from the Foo Fighters of 1995, and yet that’s exactly what propelled them to be one of the few remaining arena rock bands left. Having that natural ability to make bombastic rockers and melodic, modern tracks actually good is not an easy feat, and yet Grohl and company make it so....full text |
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