STACK NZ Magazine November Issue 57

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FEATURE MUSIC visit
NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi
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,
back in the bus.”
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.
Foos hit sonic highs
Foos ON TOUR!
Band hits NZ FEBRUARY 2015
WED 18 FEB Christchurch AMI Stadium
SAT 21 FEB Auckland Mt Smart Stadium
Rather than holing up
and getting a studio tan, Foo
Fighters visited Austin, New
York, 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 inWashington 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.”
The Colour and the Shape (1997)
The first actual Foo Fighters band
album – works a classic American
rock sound and codified what Foo
Fighters could be. It was enormously
popular but hasn’t aged quite as well.
There Is Nothing Left
to Lose (1999)
Closed what had started as the grunge
decade and Grohl wanted to push in
new directions, power pop being one
of them. The songwriting was strong.
It deservedly won a Grammy.
ONE BY ONE (2002)
Had a troubled birth – Grohl didn’t like
the early sessions, drummer Taylor
Hawkins had drug issues -- and the
resulting album is a real heavyweight,
full of roundhouse hard rock punches.
It’s the neighbour-baiting FF album
In Your Honor (2005):
Was a double – acoustic and rock on
separate discs – and far too long.
If you like one disc you’re probably
ho-hum about the other. Nominated
for many Grammys, won none.
Echoes, Silence, Patience
and Grace (2007):
Solid but, despite it winning
awards, sounded like a band
hitting a creative wall.
Wasting Light (2011):
Came after Grohl had exercised
his chops with side projects is
the band back on track again.
It had all the hallmarks of great
FF/Grohl songs – passionate intensity,
hooks that could haul in a great white,
producer Butch Vig’s quiet-LOUD
fingerprint – and it was appropriate
to their position. It’s a stadium-sized
album from a band that didn’t exist
when the Foo Fighters’ debut was
released.
It’s given me an
appreciation of
amazing music I
never liked before!
Foo Fighters
For more reviews, interviews and overviews
by Graham Reid:
Sonic Highways by Foo Fighters
is out November 10 on Sony Music.