The Foos are looking to keep it interesting and Dave Grohl gets to flex his directing muscles again after the charming and fun documentary Sound City. They document the recording of their new album with each song in a different “music city” - which Dave uses to anchor an exploration of the city’s music history, some key figures, and where relevant, Grohl’s connection to the city.
I’ve caught the three ep’s so far - Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Nashville. You know, they are pretty good. I enjoyed hearing about Steve Albini in Chicago - they focused on Buddy Guy for the blues, too, but it seemed like Grohl’s heart was closer to Albini for obvious reasons. DC was cool to learn about Go Go - respect to Grohl for focusing on it as much as his own punk rock scene (interesting that Ian MacKaye was featured, but Henry Rollins barely got a reference). Nashville was pretty good.
Grohl is his charming self, Pat Smear is a smiling doofus, Taylor Hawkins comes across as a clueless twit and Butch Vig as a cool guy.
So far I’ve only watched the DC episode, but I really liked it – and I love the Foo Fighters – and am planning to catch up on the others/keep watching. It was cool to learn about the historic DC music scene. I’m not particularly interested in Chicago (but I’ll watch it); I’m looking forward to the Nashville ep. Just based on the one I’ve seen I agree with your characterizations.
Been a die-hard Foo fan since '95. I really loved Sound City, and these vignettes surrounding eight cities/eight songs is almost just as good.
So, besides Dave having a contagious, fun-loving personality, he’s an accomplished musician and now a pretty damn good director.
I can’t wait to see the other five cities (and songs). Although, and perhaps I’m a bit biased, I’m surprised he’s doing Austin, TX instead of Detroit, MI which IMO has a much heavier depth and history in Rock Music, not to mention Motown. Plus I think an episode on Detroit would weave one very interesting (if not ultimately tragic) tale.
Like it alot… the city focus is more than just history and recording in famous studios. Each song seems to have multiple references to the stories he has been told by the various people he comes in contact with.
I am really enjoying the series. Every episode has been interesting and educational, bringing in various artists to tell the story of how specific genres of music came to be in that city.
However, with respect to the new song they unveil at the end of each episode, I loved the Chicago one, and saw how he incorporated the stories and quotes from the interviews into the lyrics. The DC and Nashville episodes, not as much.
Uverse offered free HBO over the Thanksgiving weekend and I watched all of these. I really enjoyed each episode. You can’t help but love Dave’s enthusiasm for all music. It was fun seeing old clips and learning about stuff I didn’t even know existed. I especially liked the songs “Something from Nothing” and “Subterranean”. And it was an interesting approach to base the lyrics on interviews from each city.
Dave was on The Daily Show tonight and said it looks like there will be a second season.
Glad I did a search, as I was going to start a thread on this. As someone who is/was a total non-fan of punk, go-go, death metal and the like, and who checked out of the rock music scene in the early 90s, I’m finding this show to be very interesting and informative. I really appreciate what Grohl is trying to do; it’s an ambitious undertaking, to say the least. Hearing these guys’ takes on the genesis of their various genres is an education. So far, we’ve only watched the Chicago and DC eps, but will watch the others.
Interesting note about Albini. He was commenting on how the Nirvana album In Utero was the best thing he will ever do. On the Wiki entry for Nirvana it states that after Albini produced the album, the band was unhappy with it primarily because the bass levels were too low, and they hired someone else to fix the mixing problems.
Anyway, I doubt that I will ever become a fan of a lot of this music, but at least I’ll have an idea about where it came from.
I haven’t watched much of it but I had to see the New Orleans and Seattle episodes, and loved them. Didn’t realize there’s a Chicago episode, so I have to catch that now.
I’ve been watching them and am currently about 1/2 way through the L.A. episode. I’m really enjoying them- Grohl is a pretty talented guy. You all are probably saying “duh”, but I don’t know too much of his stuff- realize he was the drummer in Nirvana and then formed Foo Fighters, and I have one of their early albums (forget which one). But he’s knowledgeable, clearly a talented musician, and now producer/director.
I really like how the song at the end of each episode brings in bits of the interviews and conversations and influences from the episode. I might have to get the album.
The Seattle episode was good. Loved the respect given The Sonics - Have Love, Will Travel baby!
Also great to hear Grohl’s early attempts to record his songwriting post-Nirvana. Some sound meh, but one or two, you really hear the beginnings of his New Thing.
All in all, worth seeing. Once again: go Dave. He just continues to cement his position as the Musician with the Coolest Career™, doesn’t he?
I watched the whole series, and loved it. Grohl’s a pretty good director!
I’m not so sure about the album that came out of it, however. It seems pretty formulaic and the lyrics are somewhat trite. I don’t think that part of the experiment worked nearly as well as the actual show.
Yeah, I am inclined to agree. The incorporation of the lyrics was a neat parlor trick, but that is not what I look for in my rock. But as you say - it was great and cool overall and I enjoyed it.
Yeah, the cool thing about him is how much he appreciates other musicians, and his eagerness to collaborate with as many people as possible. He’s doing more for rock music than anyone in his generation.
