Clang & Clatter

So I cringed just a little bit when I read online today that Dave Grohl had issued a public apology for statements made during his acceptance speech for Best Rock Performance at the 2012 Grammys on Sunday night. I was thinking, “No, no, no, Dave, no. Don’t backpedal. What you said was brilliant and spot-on. Don’t sully it by apologizing.”

Then I sucked it up, pulled up my big boy undies, and headed out to read the statement and take it like a man. But I was surprised at what I found. I wasn’t reading an apology. This was a clarification.

Apparently some people took Dave to task for his comments, misunderstanding both what he said and his intent. Dave wasn’t bashing the use of computers or electronics or effects. He was criticizing the all-too-common practice within the music industry to take some talentless (albeit pretty) hack off the streets, have him or her imperfectly sing words he or she didn’t write to music he or she didn’t compose, take it into ProTools, and then apply a thick, glossy sheen of autotune and effects to create the next overnight sensation and make said hack (and everyone else involved) obscenely rich. Oh, and did I mention that said hack can also dance?!

So Dave issued a clarification that I’m pretty sure the complainers still aren’t going to be happy with, because what he didn’t say was that it was OK to be a talentless (albeit pretty and now obscenely rich) hack. What he said is that what makes music good is being good at your craft, regardless of genre or instrument. Hey, it’s no Gettysburg Address, but it’s good enough for me. Go read it for yourself and see if you agree.

Oh, and get off my lawn.

So unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you know that Dave Grohl is all over the place. The multi-dimensional, multi-instrumental Foo Fighters founder and frontman is no stranger to the spotlight. His band’s most recent Butch Vig-produced album Wasting Light debuted at number one in twelve countries (including the Billboard 200 here in the states), has sold in excess of 660,000 copies in the U.S. alone, and won him and his cohorts five of the six Grammys for which they were nominated this year. The Foos have toured massively behind Wasting Light, and they released the documentary Back and Forth chronicling the band’s career and which focused largely on the making of the new album. And then there’s that whole Them Crooked Vultures thing.

Now Dave’s making a movie. But not just any movie. A movie about a studio. And not just any studio, but Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, which has seen its fair share of rock’s elite record there. As a matter of fact, seven of Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (a designation I’m not going to debate here) and 5 of Spin Magazine’s Top 40 Metal Albums of All Time (another argument I won’t get into) were recorded at Sound City.

And in true Dave Grohl fashion, the documentary will not just focus on the studio, but on a specific sound board that was used at the studio—the 1970s model Neve console that was used to track Nirvana’s Nevermind and that he acquired when Sound City announced its closing to the public in May 2011. Similar to his Probot side-project that saw him team up with some of the heavy/death/extreme metal heros from his youth, Grohl has invited artists that recorded at the legendary studio to collaborate with him to make music on the board one last time. And he’s filming the entire thing.

Here’s how Dave himself described the project in an interview with Rolling Stone:

When Sound City closed last year, it was a very sad day. That place was like a church. The list of people that recorded there reads like a virtual Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame… We recorded ‘Nevermind’ there back in 1991.

That funky old place had the best drum room in world. The drum sound at the beginning of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ — that’s Sound City.

I decided to make a film about that feeling you get when you put five guys in a room, hit ‘record’ and the hair on the back of your neck stands up. Expect some epic jam sessions.

The impressive list of artists on tap for the project includes Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick), Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures), Tom Petty and Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), Stephen Pearcy and Warren DeMartini (Ratt), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), and Lindsey Buckinham, Stevie Nicks, and Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac). Watch the Sound City website for more information.

Enjoy!

Here’s Dave Grohl at the Guitar World studios talking about the creative process of songwriting and how he works the riffs into full-blown songs. It’s no surprise to find out that some of his riffs come from rhythmic patterns revolving around the drum beat. What does surprise me is how simple it all seems once he starts to break the songs apart into individual pieces and explains how he arrived at each place. Listening to him makes me realize that:

1. I need to spend more time with a guitar in my hands without worrying about practicing or getting better or creating something, and

B. Once I hit on something cool, work it out and beat it to death until something good comes out of it.

Oh, and stop trying to make things so dadgummed complicated.

I’m still trying to decide what I think about this new single Foo Fighters released on their website since it is so radically different from “White Limo” (although after a few listens I’m starting to dig it). However, I really do like how they are releasing these teasers for their upcoming album Wasting Light, due out in April.

I have a soft spot for early Foos, but I seem to have lost interest in all but a few of their songs somewhere after 2002’s One by One. And I don’t say that to take anything away from Dave Grohl. He is a great songwriter, he has an amazing voice, and he is a beast behind the drum kit. I just think Foo Fighters and I were traveling on different trajectories there for awhile.

But it may be that our paths might just cross again when Wasting Light is released.

No matter how many times I watch this, the seriousness with which Jack Black performs this song will always crack me up. Just sayin’.

Yes you are, Dave. Yes you are.