Foo Fighters "Sonic Highway" documentary series on HBO

that paraphrase is dave grohl talking about the evens, to be clear

actually i think ian didn't give the name of the big arena rocker who said that to him but i can't imagine there's a lot of other arena rockers hanging out with ian so

Ooh special Foo Fighters club gig Friday in DC (this is their version of a $5 Fugazi gig I guess)

Fri Oct 24::
FOO FIGHTERS
plus a special screening of
Sonic Highways
$20 Mainstage / Doors at 9:00

$20 per ticket. $3 service charge. Cash only. Maximum of 2 tickets per person. You must bring your ID. If you are buying a 2nd ticket you must provide the person's name as it is stated on their ID. Tickets are 100% non-transferable and non-refundable. On sale Tuesday October 21 at 6:00pm at the Black Cat. The Black Cat is located at 1811 14th Street NW Washington, DC.

$20 per ticket. $3 service charge. Cash only

haha service charge AND cash only

quality service

The Black Cat Club is owned by the drummer of long ago Dischord band Iron Cross & other groups (who got Grohl to invest in the original purchase way back when) btw

xxxxpost, re: Grohl listening to the Evens, the thought of *him* sitting in a studio for a FF project and not being able to fight past all the frustrating bullshit squashes any hope I have for my own life

Batshit rant from the dude who signed Hootie making the rounds. He makes some bad points, but also some good ones, not least asking (iirc) why Grohl, a good guy with a strong understanding of the industry, the way it works, and the way it is antithetical to much of the music he purports to love (in this doc and elsewhere), seems to have no prob sucking away at the corporate teat in the most corporate way possible, even though he, of all people, is in a position to say know. Is it just that he is such a nice guy he can't so no to whatever's asked of him?

In ep one, I downright winced when, after they have this eureka moment of jamming the cord in the guitar pre-solo and causing this cool crackling fuzz sound, the guitarist dude admits his biggest concern is replicating it on TV, and all the other dudes chuckle knowingly. Because they all know they'll be slumming it up on some shitty TV shows soon enough, because that's just that they do, right?

Another question never answered (not that it needs to be, necessarily): why do they spend all this time extolling the skill and genius of Steve Albini, in his own studio, and then have Butch Vig behind the board?

http://tanteguerilla.com/bilder/produkte/normal/SST-Corporate-Rock-Still-Sucks-T-Shirt-white.jpg

xpost because there's no fucking way albini would produce them at this point? though to be fair with albini it's as much about him fetishizing his own "indie integrity" to a degree that's downright masturbatory as it is him having pretty good taste

I coasted through the first two episodes Saturday afternoon when good football was at a lull. Nothing remarkable and nothing offensive about either so far, but I'll be curious to see the Nashville episode. That shit's totally out of Grohl's element, so there should be some smdh lols.

xpost because there's no fucking way albini would produce them at this point?

Oh please, he'll produce any band who walks in there with a certified check and their own instruments.

don't think they actually wanted a song that sounds like albini recorded it anyway

Yeah, because it wouldn't ... sell.

Watched the first half of the first ep, which was fine, but when they were tracking at Electrical Audio and someone says something along the lines of "usually it takes us weeks just to record the drums" I literally said "what a bunch of pussies" out loud to no one but our sleeping cat.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, October 21, 2014 3:38 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha yeah I lol'd at there whole established process "first we do drums for three weeks, then we do the bass for two weeks, then we do all the guitars" etc. way to make everything sound unbelievably boring

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, October 21, 2014 3:39 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean...unless you guys are clutching your pearls at overdubbing and think every band should be all FUCK IT WE'LL DO IT LIVE, that's just the practical no brainer way to do record rock music. unless you want to set up and mic drums and break them down again multiple times and waste a ton of man hours, or do a bunch of other instruments over a clicktrack before there are live drums recorded.

^ otm

xxxpost oh my well at least he'll take their money now even if he still probably grumbles as if he's too good for it and saves his aggression for (overrated IMO if not totally w/o merit) shellac records

croupier you're probably right

whoops i fucked up zee x's

xxxpost oh my well at least he'll take their money now even if he still probably grumbles as if he's too good for it and saves his aggression for (overrated IMO if not totally w/o merit) shellac records

croupier you're probably right

― blood on the peaves (slothroprhymes), Monday, October 27, 2014 1:42 PM (46 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bullshit

which part?

I know how recording works croup I'm just lol'ing at the length of time required esp given the material involved

everyone i've heard who's recorded with him says he's super professional and pleasant, like just doing his job type vibe

Er some dude not croup sorry

xpost I know how records are made. I've made records myself. But there are really only two reasons it should take months to make a record. The first is if you're Peter Gabriel or U2 and GNR or whomever and it takes weeks and months to craft songs out of bit of studio improv and ideas. The other is if you're polishing things up to make it as commercial as possible. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with either approach. It just seems tacky to hear Grohl romanticise the mean, lean, fast, punk approach while he pursues the opposite for the sake of sounding slick and commercial or whatever.

What he said

sh@kedown i don't have the luxury of knowing him personally or knowing bands who know him, only the way his persona is sometimes presented in certain media. i didn't think a rep for saltiness was that far off the mark given some of what's been said about him and his style, but if it is, my B

so nashville is next? Where else are they going? Detroit? Olympia? LA?

it's not like a luxury it's just like tons of rinky dink midwest bands no one cares about record there all the time! it's like a studio you can go to if you want to pay for it, p affordable actually for small bands for how nice it is

i didn't mean "luxury" in a monetary sense. more like the opportunity to easily know stuff about him IRL beyond the established albini narratives dating back to big black

Yeah, Albini is pretty much a straight shooter. His reputation for prickliness stems almost entirely from his disdain for the real industry bullshit so many people put up with. He records bands, he cooks pasta, he plays poker, he likes cats and has a nice wife. If the dude was as bad as his rep he never would have meshed with Polly Harvey, or bands like Low and Bedhead.

it's funny because Albini is basically the archetype of the "normal even-tempered professional who loves to type brutally opinionated stuff about music" message board persona that so many of us embody to some degree or another. in the '80s zine culture his invective stood out but now it seems kind of commonplace and harmless.

eh dude's invective also used to be way more noxious - he brooks no fools but he doesn't play with hate speech to prove he can anymore, etc

i liked when dave grohl semi-acknowledged that while albini doesn't expect royalties (admirable considering it would be money taken from the band, not the label) he WILL jack up the price if you're on the major label dollar (there's that story about how he did surfer rosa for nothing but hit 'em hard for a follow-up thing elektra funded) - "he wants to be paid like a plumber...a KICK-ASS plumber". Albini also referenced figuring out how much the recording session is "worth" - that the rate obviously fluctuates.

A couple of years ago:

Steve, your essay The Problem With Music and the Big Black tour diary still get referred to and reposted on forums. Do you feel vindicated or oppressed by their continued presence these days?
Steve: The Big Black Tour Diary was a lark, and nobody including me or the guys who first printed it [Forced Exposure magazine] thought much of it at the time. I guess as a snapshot of the kind of loudmouth I was at the time it has value. The “Problem with Music” essay was intended to be a warning to my peers in the music scene during a period in the ’90s when the mainstream music industry was poaching bands off of independent labels with regularity. I wanted to demonstrate that it wasn’t necessarily in a band’s best interest to get involved with a monolithic industry that had no respect for them.

The industry has changed pretty dramatically since then, and virtually all the figures are out of date but the principle argument, that the mainstream of the old-school showbusiness record industry is not operated for the benefit of the bands, holds up. Thankfully there isn’t much of that record industry left, so bands are almost forced to work in a more independent way, which means they are more efficient by default.

Do you have any deep thoughts on turning 50 earlier this year?
Steve: I need bifocals now but my cock still works. Still have my hearing, all my teeth and all my hair. I take the occasional nap. Can’t complain.

he doesn't play with hate speech to prove he can anymore

tell that to OFWGKTA

oh they'll tell themselves before too long, earl sweatshirt's already calling things "offensive"

lol whoops i was unaware of the albini vs odd future beef

earl has grown up more 2 years than the rest of his collective have been in their entire 20-years-and-change existences.

dude an albini-OF beef would be all of the lols

*more in the past 2, agh

it happened! i just had no idea

http://www.spin.com/articles/hot-beef-odd-future-vs-steve-albini/

after reading that I've got Neil Young's "old man" stuck in my head

oh WOOOOWWWWWW.

"n----ring everything in sight," hoooooly shit. how did i miss this? i was actually dumb enough to be paying close attention to OF members not named earl in 2011

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/foo_fighters_is_the_dumbest_band_name_ever_says_dave_grohl

The DC episode focused on activism much more than I expected. More footage of Mark Andersen and Amy Pickering and others talking than of footage of bands playing

and then they ended apartheid

I did like the episode in general up until the point I had to listen to a foo fighters song and see terrible lyrics flash on my screen

Ha. I thought the music to that song was worse than Grohl's shoehorning in DC history and DC punk phrases into his lyrics.

He doesn't need me to defend him or anything, but in my experience Steve (and everyone who works at Electrical) is very pleasant, professional, and easy to work with.

Also, not to blow his rep or anything but he & I got into an argument (not really, but it's funnier if I say it was an argument instead of discussion) about the level of vocals in the mix of a song, with me saying they should be quieter and him saying they should be louder.

Irony!

I enjoyed both episodes of this show so far.

I admire Albini's work ethic and like a lot of the work he's done. Otherwise, his personal politics as expressed in public often seem pretty loathsome.

2 episodes in :

buddy guy + steve albini + ian mackaye + trouble funk + chuck brown

what the fuck is to hate !!?

this is a major tv channel giving time to music i never expected too see.

cynics be damned.

(that said, i would have loved a chunk more re waxtrax .. but hey .. )

dave grohl + buddy guy + dave grohl + steve albini + ian mackaye + dave grohl + trouble funk + dave grohl + chuck brown + dave grohl

what the fuck is to hate !!?