I am trying to think of another band that relentlessly churns out such accessible, financially successful, melodic, heavy power pop as much as the Foo Fighters do. Its hard to believe that these guys have been at it for almost two decades now and are just such a tight and purposeful band with their songwriting.
I have to say, I’m just as impressed with them now as I was when I first heard “This Is A Call” in 1994-5.
Anyone else a big fan? How about their most recent single, “These Days”? It rocks!
You’re not alone. I was smitten since I first heard This is A Call on the radio and immediately picked up Grohl’s first CD that day.
Haven’t been disappointed since. I’m actually wearing a Foo tee today. I’m hard pressed to think of another band that’s as accessible and also as legitimate a rock band as the Foo gets.
Wasting Light is their strongest effort since the first eponymous album and The Color and the Shape, IMHO. But their entire catalog is all good, solid music with hardly any filler. At the worst, some experimental, misguided stuff on One By One, but still a rocking disc.
These Days does rock. My favs are White Limo, Arlandria and Miss the Misery.
I saw the Foo Fighters play for a few minutes at New Orleans’ Jazzfest a couple of weeks ago (they were just one of the 7 or 8 bands playing at the time; There are 8 different stages with several different bands playing simultaneously) and I was really hoping to hear something that resonated with me, (friends told me to be sure to check them out) but after a few songs that fell flat (to my ears at least) I gave up and went to listen to Bonnie Raitt, who sounded excellent.
Well, sure. I mean, Bonnie Raitt is a long cry from post-grunge, power rock. The acoustic side of their double album, In Your Honor, might be more your speed if you’d like to give them another spin.
I sincerely hope Arlandria is released as a single, because it’s the best track on Wasting Light–and that album is full of good tracks.
It’s both depressing and awesome that we’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of the first Foo Fighters release. I’m impressed that they’re still going strong.
Back in 99 or 2000, I saw them open for RHCP. I bought my ticket to see the Chili Peppers, but was most impressed by Foo Fighters who by most accounts blew them out of the water. I heard that there was later some bad blood between them on that tour owing to Foo Fighters soundly out performing them every night.
Thanks for the tip, I haven’t seen the performance with Mick. And as to your last sentence…I know, right?
I agree…I feel old knowing they’ve been around since my college days, but I am also glad to see they are still viable pop musicians putting out fun, catchy music.
Another thing I really like about them is that Dave Grohl seems like such a good dude…someone you’d just want to hang out with. His self-effacing demeanor in a genre of preening, self-absorbed nincompoops is refreshing…
Has anyone seen the video of them playing live at Wembley when Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones take the stage to cover “Ramble On” and “Rock and Roll” with them? Dave’s statement about how its “the best day in our fucking band’s lives” because they were so honored to play with them scored him a few points in my book.
I never could really get into them–they are a bit too clean and corporate rock sounding for my tastes. There’s just no edge to their music, at least not to my ears. That said, they are very good at what they do, and I’ve always liked Taylor Hawkins’s drumming.
