STACK Magazine November Issue 121

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NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi
016
F oo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear is an old
punk. Formerly of hardcore legendsThe
Germs, he was a bit-part actor for years (he’s
in Blade Runner! ), joined the final incarnation of
Nirvana, and the first line-up of Foo Fighters. So you’d
think he would’ve seen much of his native land, right?
Not so. According to Smear, his years visiting
America’s great cities in music have been
“hotel, load in, soundcheck, play, load out.”
But the new Foo Fighters album Sonic
Highways has finally afforded a
remedy. Recorded in eight American
cities, the band chronicled the
recording sessions – intercut with
luminaries associated with each city
– for a new HBO series of the same
name. After rejoining Foo Fighters full
time for Wasting Light, he’s loved
working on the new album/series.
“Being involved in Sonic Highways has
given me all this appreciation of amazing music I
never liked before. I had a passionate but limited taste
before this; it’s opened my eyes to so much,” he tells
STACK from his home inWest LA. Rather than holing
up and getting a studio tan, Foo Fighters visited Austin,
NewYork, LA, Nashville,Washington DC, New
Orleans, Nashville and Chicago for one week each,
with Dave Grohl heading out evenings to interview a
local music luminary. Grohl would add lyrics last
minute, often cutting and pasting phrases from his
interview transcriptions.ThusWillie Nelson, famed
producer Steve Albini, Dolly Parton, ex-Beastie Boy
Mike D, Fugazi/Dischord records’ Ian MacKaye, and
even US President Barack Obama appear in Sonic
Highways, talking about the heritage of American
music, and the nuances of its regional history. “There
are reasons blues made it to Chicago, why Nashville
became the country capital,” Grohl told David
Letterman. “New Orleans is such a beautiful city with
hundreds of years of history.The humidity in the air
knocks the pianos and the horns out of tune!” Another
highlight of the Foos’ recent week-long sojourn on
Letterman saw CheapTrick’s Rick Nielson join them for
a live rendition of Stiff Competition. “I loved
CheapTrick as a kid, so getting Rick
Nielson was amazing,” says Smear.
While there are several guests on the
album (New Orleans’ legendary
Preservation Hall Jazz Band on one
track, JoeWalsh on another), Smear
says it was much vaunted blues
guitarist Gary Clarke Jr. that pulled
out all the stops, playing on What Did
I Do? a paean to the Southern Rock of
The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd et
al. “Gary Clarke Jr. played a different solo
every take he played! None of them sounded
the same; he sounded like Mick Ronson (late former
Bowie/Dylan side man), one of the most underrated
players ever, so we bonded over Mick Ronson”. It
seems that Sonic Highways the series, like the album
– while truly a sum of its parts – is also about driving
deep down into the core of the music’s influence.
Episode two, for example, looks at the Go-Go scene in
Washington DC. “Go-Go was a uniquelyWashington
thing,” says Smear. “I remember driving for hours to
find a punk club in LA – we had our own local, hard to
find version of it – but Go-Go just didn’t exist outside
DC at all.” Smear says the project made him think
about the band differently. “Everyone in Foo Fighters
comes from different parts of the US; this project
couldn’t work if we came from the same city.”
EXTRAS NEWS
New Orleans Soul
1966-76
If Davis McAlary of
Treme was real, he’d be
behind this collection of
New Orleans soul.The
city, being a major slave
trading centre in the 19th century, soaked up
West Indian and Latin influences, shaping
later N.O.L.A cultural traditions. Against the
backdrop of the ’50s R&B explosion in the
US, New Orleans soul had a slinkier, cheekier
feel.Typically of Soul Jazz’s far-reaching and
deeply knowledgeable musical archaeology,
there are legendary names mixed with
brilliant obscurities.You’d expect to hear
Aaron Neville and the still brilliant Irma
Thomas (hear the Spector-influenced paean
to the pain of infidelity on What’s SoWrong
AboutYou Loving Me?), but Francine King’s
Two Fools (a commentary on the battle of the
sexes) rates as one of the great lost vocal
performances ofThe Crescent City.Typically
for Soul Jazz, the accompanying booklet is a
mine of information. Jonathan Alley
Foo Fighters
Foos hit sonic highs
Collarbones Return
On their first two records
(2011’s Iconography
and 2012’s DieYoung)
Adelaide/Sydney duo
Collarbones mapped out
a sonic path of listenable
forays into R’n’B, through the lens of
contemporary, deconstructed electronica. If
it harbours playfulness, pop and perfunctory
melodicism, this is a more sonically,
lyrically and structurally complex clutch of
intermeshed moods. SingleTurning is a case
in point. A nod to NewYork diva and vogue-
inflected house, its scattershot rhythms and
yearning vocal hooks float atop a rugged,
tectonic bass rumble that shifts the frame
of reference. There’s plenty more where
that came from; OnlyWater (featuring Oscar
Key Sung) is a dense compound of synth
shimmer and vocal layers. Collarbones make
us work a little harder, but it only makes the
rewards all the more sweet. Dan Rule
Jane Tyrrell
Echoes in the Aviary
JaneTyrrell’s debut solo
record has been years
in the offing. A longtime
vocalist for Sydney
menagerieThe Herd, her lilting voice has
rendered the hooks to some of Australian
hip hop’s most iconic moments. But Echoes
in the Aviary is very much a singular work.
TZU’s Pip Norman shares production duties
alongside PVT’s Pyke brothers and Dustin
McLean, making this is a rich, gorgeous trip
into lateral pop compositions and stunningly
nuanced melodies.The title track is
gorgeous, withTyrrell floating atop stuttering
percussion and wonky synths. Strikingly
complex piece of pop-noir. Dan Rule
Foos ON TOUR! Band hits aUS FEBRUARY 2015
Sonic Highways by
Foo Fighters is out
November 7 on
Sony Music.
24 FEB Brisbane Suncorp Stadium
26 FEB Sydney Anz Stadium
28 FEB Melbourne Etihad Stadium
2 MAR Hobart Derwent Entertainment Centre
4 MAR Adelaide Coopers Stadium
7 MAR Perth Nib Stadium
Music
extra
It’s given me an
appreciation of
amazing music I
never liked before!