Foo Fighters "Sonic Highway" documentary series on HBO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0TrqXHoL10

I know that the Foo Fighters are a polarizing band in this forum, and turning an album into such a documentary series is frowned upon as self-aggrandizing hyperbole that detracts from the music, but I still assume some people will be interested in this if nothing else for those being interviewed and the fact that HBO usually does a good job with these things.

Is anyone else going to be watching or TiVoing this series?

oh i'll watch it for sure

I like Grohl/Foos, and now that I have HBO I'll be watching.

The Foos are mega ding-dongs but I can't wait to watch this, though I am admittedly most excited to see the episode at Electrical Audio cuz the band I'm in made a record there and I can be all "whoa Taylor Hawkins is sitting where I sat and ate like a pound of trail mix!"

Not much of a fan of their music but this series looks cool. Will watch. Always interested in production and what goes on in the studios.

there was hilariously awkward promotional clip where the interviewee said something like "bands only have 3 good albums in them" and then realized the foo fighters have like 8 albums and then he started laughing. i guess we as the viewers are supposed to be like "haha he's obviously wrong because the foo fighters have all of those great albums" but then there's an uncomfortable moment where all of us, viewers and the interviewee, together, are counting up the number of good foo fighters albums and it's less than 2

could be good for grohlz lolz

there was hilariously awkward promotional clip where the interviewee said something like "bands only have 3 good albums in them" and then realized the foo fighters have like 8 albums and then he started laughing. i guess we as the viewers are supposed to be like "haha he's obviously wrong because the foo fighters have all of those great albums" but then there's an uncomfortable moment where all of us, viewers and the interviewee, together, are counting up the number of good foo fighters albums and it's less than 2

― Karl Malone, Monday, 13 October 2014 22:50 (3 days ago) Permalink

It is Gibby Haynes, who knows a thing or two about making terrible albums beyond the first three

i'm all over this

as much as he *should* annoy me i can't really hate on grohl that much, he's like the likeable bono

can we all agree that "sonic highways" has got to be one of the most milquetoast/boring album titles in forever though?

It's not Rattle & Hum. It's HBO.

It's not Rattle & Hum

well, it's got that going for it.

I wish they'd named it One Nation Under Foo

"Sonic Highways" is the name of album that comes with pair dad jeans and nice pair of brown tassled loafers.

the problem with Our Band Could Be Your Life was that it didn't explain how all this maverick trailblazing could lead to the foo fighters. now we'll find out, with dave fitting albini and mackaye into the pbs tapestry they've previously been excluded from.

"sonic highways" are special roads for major label rock stars and their guests

xp honestly One Nation Under Foo would be preferable. it'd at least be swinging for something rather than shrugging and driving down the middle of the road. which has kind of been the deal with FF since the fourth album.

otm with the dad jeans reference

i'm sure i'll find plenty to enjoy in this like i do most rock docs, but i kind of wish he'd just made a goodbye to broad street instead

sorry, give my regards to broad street

or maybe a one-trick pony with lorde as the b-52s

Intensity In 8 Cities

^^^even that's better than Sonic Highways. 8 Ways to Rock is one of the only things I can imagine that'd be worse/more basic.

America Rocks

Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock

Life Is A Sonic Highway In America Keep On Rockin'

"8 Ways to Rock"

I'm having trouble with this link, can you help? I'm trying to post it on facebook.

Thanks.

sonic highways 2

1. The Dirtiest Water (with Steven Tyler & Joe Perry)
2. Pumped (with Uncle Luke)
3. Always Dreaming (with Peter Buck & Kate Pierson)
4. Going (with Darryl Hall & Questlove)
5. Way Down Home (with Aretha Franklin & The Black Keys)
6. Candles (with Bob Seger)
7. Working On It (with The Original 7ven)
8. There For All Time/Combine (with Billie Joe Armstrong, E-40 & Bob Weir)

imagine if they'd gone to philadelphia - questlove would totally get involved and then either angrily castigate himself for it or self-righteously defend it in the liner notes of the next roots album

Foo Fighters Over America and then he could have squeezed in appearance by his close personal friend Paul McCartney

Foo Fighters are the number one band for people who tuck in their t-shirts

gotta save paul for sonic eurail

Foo Fighters are the number one band for people who tuck in their t-shirts

― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, October 16, 2014 12:13 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Rush fans aren't gonna give up that easily pal

lmao

Foos have steadily eclipsed Rush in the past few yrs according to my research

Rush fans I think have moved into the mock-turtleneck phase

you can categorize many fans of both bands under the umbrella of "people who probably bought zunes"

"Sonic Highways" is being pushed to Zune users exclusively for free!

nah, ballmer gave all those up - used them on the low to pay for the clippers. chris paul is furious.

oh btw here's the first single, it's...pretty whatever IMO. not that bad, not that good, almost entirely uninteresting though the breakdown near the end is decent...

<iframe width="788" height="484" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Y3B0Vx_yQgo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

wow that didnt work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3B0Vx_yQgo if you're curious

Has any rock band ever made a good record with different special guests on every song? Other than Santana, of course.

The 6ths, Wasps Nests - if you pretend its the magnetic fields with a different singer on each track

yeah that's a good album

wow, foo fighters really are unleashing some amazing new sounds into this vibrant rock and roll genre

this music http://i57.tinypic.com/x62ir.gif

SO DO FOO

Indiana Grohl and Sonic Highway of Doom

as someone who stanned for "Rope," "The Pretender," "Best of You," etc. this is definitely their most underwhelming lead single in a long time. the funky clavinet (?) at the halfway point is cool, though. this was the song done at Electric Audio, doesn't sound especially Albini-ish though, i'm guessing he was just interviewed for the show and not involved in the track.

track 5 of the album is gonna have Joe Walsh on it, so that will probably be the ILM pick hit

New Orleans song was the most hilariously non-sounding-like-the-city-we-just-immersed-ourselves-in yet

Are the other band members (besides Taylor) always quiet anonymous plain dudes on purpose so they don't alienate the very large Foo Fighters fan demo of quiet anonymous plain dudes?

XP - Yeah, I was hoping for some crazy track with a bounce rhythm and some horns, then we get another pumped up Rick Springfield tune. *caveat* I only listened to the first 40s

ha yeah I turned it off too maybe there was a brass band breakdown at the end lol

Yeah but they made sure the camera panned across portraits of disappointed looking New Orealns legends during the video

xxxpost

The others come across very well on that Doc that came out a couple of years back, esp Nate.

i wonder if joe walsh was a compromise to keep dave from having to meet don henley

(well, yeah)

The others come across very well on that Doc that came out a couple of years back, esp Nate.

― Rita, Sue and Peter Gabriel Two (MaresNest), Tuesday, November 25, 2014 3:20 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He's the AIDS denier

Really? I guess that must have been in the special features.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2000/02/foo-fighters-hiv-deniers

Mendel says he was won over by Maggiore's book, and passed it around to the rest of the band, which includes former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Mendel says that he would steer anyone considering an HIV antibody test toward Maggiore's group.

"If you test positive, you are pretty much given a bleak outlook and told to take toxic drugs to possibly ward off new infections," says Mendel.

With the other band members on board, Mendel aims to use the Foo Fighters' celebrity to get the message out to a broad audience. The Foo Fighters plan additional benefit shows, and have placed a banner ad on their Web site linking to Alive and Well. Mendel says that he does not have HIV, nor does he have any friends with HIV besides Maggiore, who has remained asymptomatic.

Watched the Seattle episode last night. Some genuinely moving parts, especially toward the end. And then, for no fucking reason at all, the mood shifts completely and Dave interviews Macklemore. WTF

haha wow ok glad I turned it off before that

Taylor Hawkins bums me out, but I bet it's kind of a bummer to be Taylor Hawkins.

Can't really think of another example of such a famous band whose drummer is not the best drummer in the band, besides maybe that one time Sheila E was one of Ringo's all-stars

Are the other band members (besides Taylor) always quiet anonymous plain dudes on purpose so they don't alienate the very large Foo Fighters fan demo of quiet anonymous plain dudes?
--Evan

weird to see that pat smear is now a relatively quiet anonymous plain dude, but he's rich, so that prob makes up for it.

regarding current foo fandom, this is so OTM it's not even funny ( ok it is funny bc I'm laughing)

Grohl just basically spilled the beans on The Daily Show that there will be a second season. Hopefully it won't be tied to an album, but of course it will.

Has this been addressed yet?

http://jezebel.com/dave-grohls-sonic-highways-systematically-erases-women-1666309945

I don't necessarily agree (maybe Hole weren't mentioned because - ultimately -- HOLE DON'T MATTER)...but just throwin' it out there.

Said article also features this line...

"Kanye West, an artist as complicated, heart-driven, and relevant as Nirvana ever was, is seen in a short clip at the beginning, near the credits, but is not mentioned thereafter."

Kanye West is complicated?

FOH

There have been a bunch of women on the show - heart, joan jett, dolly parton, emmylou harris.

Hole is/was terrible

Oh Kanye's complicated alright: http://gawker.com/which-giant-titted-anime-statue-was-kanye-west-obsessed-1667243236?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

That being said criticism of the show being conventionally rockist is obviously legit

"i wish there was more women in it" is more a than valid note, but the claim of systematic erasure in the headline doesn't really match the "sure there was heart but where's bikini kill?" tone of the rest of the post. not totally sure what the definition of "systematically erasing women" would mean, but i assume it would mean having even less than the token legends like dolly, joan jett, etc.

also hole was from la

i stopped watching after my own thinkpiece went up, but unless nate mendel got a lot of love in the seattle episode one could argue he's systematically erasing the other foo fighters almost as much as he is women

"sure, taylor got to jizz his pants at an eagle for one minute, but is the occasional doofy grin all he's had to contribute since 1997?"

"Why, on the LA episode, is there a lengthy interlude about the desert outside the city because Queens of the Stone Age once recorded there, but can't even make a gesture towards Chris Shiflett, the band's guitarist since 1999, who was raised in Santa Barbara?"

I started laughing really hard when the Seattle episode transitioned from grunge to Macklemore. It did a really great job of making the city look like a LA's farm team. Getting so sick of Subpop's "We're losers...really!" schtick.

Austin episode was the highlight of the season for me. Hope season 2 explores the scenes in completely innocuous cities. Maybe send Dave Grohl to Newbridge.

dave-grohls-sonic-highways-systematically-erases-calvin-johnson

i was going to at least check out the seattle episode of the final three but ever since news of macklemore floated out i haven't been able to force myself

I thought the Austin one was terrible. Too much spillover from Nashville, and the rest was overwhelmingly Austin City Limits centric.

I'm sure the NYC one will make me froth at the mouth. Nate got about three nanoseconds in the Seattle episode.

seconds away from watching the final one, and I have every expectation that it will please AlexinNYC very much. Given the deeply conservative worldview presented by Grphl so far, the only thing I can think of that would annoy AiNYC is if the show declined to make a case for Killing Joke as a huge influence on every right thinking act in town, or as a signature achievement in human history.

I have no doubt that Grohl will walk around town and lament clubs that are no longer there, which would be in line with the program thus far. surely there will be a lengthy CBGBs segment.

I hope he just interviews Bono, Sting, Madonna, Taylor Swift and other musicians rich enough to live in New York. Then he can lament how the death of CBGBs means no more bands like Interpol or the Strokes.

Was really praying for a sax-playing bill clinton to walk in and interrupt the obama interview segment.

oddly this was easily the worst episode (ugh a fucking kiss hagiography and no mention of the velvets), resulting in the best foo fighters song of the series. Which was still pretty blah.

Close your laptops and hire a string section and world-class arranger, kids.

I still think Taylor Hawkins is just filling in between Alanis Morissette tours

It bums me out because this band could be good if Dave just gave in and went back on drums and got someone to help write not so structured songs.

this band could be good if Dave just gave in and went back on drums and got Kurt Cobain to help write the songs

This band would be great if different people were in it and they traded their guitars for synths and changed their name to kraftwerk

I kinda got the sense that Grohl just wanted to geek out on Kyuss but felt like it had to be sold as an LA episode

Pat Smear eating a sandwich in the New Orleans episode was great

Dave Grohl's new band ... Oujia Board Kobain ... I'd buy that ...

" .... N ..... O .... "

Taylor Hawkins bums me out, but I bet it's kind of a bummer to be Taylor Hawkins.

Can't really think of another example of such a famous band whose drummer is not the best drummer in the band, besides maybe that one time Sheila E was one of Ringo's all-stars

― sheesh, Tuesday, December 2, 2014 4:54 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dinosaur Jr. imo

wouldn't say Hawkins is as good as Grohl all-around but i've never really been able to pick up on any substantial gap in technical proficiency, he's pretty damn good

He smiles too much.

NY episode was so terrible

Can't really think of another example of such a famous band whose drummer is not the best drummer in the band, besides maybe that one time Sheila E was one of Ringo's all-stars

― sheesh, Tuesday, December 2, 2014 4:54 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also when she was in the Revolution

http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5308/35/16x9/640.jpg

Oh yeah, and as much as I like Meg White, Jack White is probably a better drummer

Oh no, Lefsetz has just discovered the show and is raving about every aspect of it.

Whatever it takes to teach kids today that real music can be made with guitars.

We built these cities
We built these cities on rock and roll