Foo Fighters (album)

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 213.230.198.6 (talk) at 12:00, 29 April 2012 (→‎Track listing: (Corrected typo on 'watershed')). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Untitled

Foo Fighters is the debut album by American alternative rock band Foo Fighters, released on July 4, 1995 by Capitol Records through Dave Grohl's label Roswell. At the time, the only official member of the Foo Fighters was Grohl, who wrote and recorded the entire album himself - with the exception of a guest guitar spot by Greg Dulli - with the assistance of producer Barrett Jones at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, Washington in 1994. Grohl claimed he recorded the album just for fun, describing it as a cathartic experience to recover from the suicide of his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain.

After Grohl completed the recordings, he picked up the name "Foo Fighters" to hide his identity and passed cassettes copies of the sessions to personal friends. After said tapes attracted record label interest, Grohl signed with Capitol and recruited a full band to perform the songs live. The album was promoted through extensive tours and six singles, two of which received music videos. Foo Fighters earned positive reviews praising the songwriting and performances, and was also a commercial success, becoming the band's second best-selling album in the United States and reaching the top five in the charts of United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Background

Following the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in April 1994, drummer Dave Grohl entered a state of depression,[1] and found it difficult to both listen to music and play instruments.[2] The musician was uncertain on what to do next, even considering abandoning his musical career despite a few invitations by bands such as Danzig to become their drummer because "it would just remind me of being in Nirvana; every time I sat down at a drum set, I would think of that."[3][4]

Dave Grohl sings and plays the guitar atop a stage.
Dave Grohl wrote and recorded the songs in Foo Fighters by himself.

Grohl's first musical performance following the demise of Nirvana was performing with The Backbeat Band at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards in June, during which he was invited by Mike Watt to take part in his album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?. After enjoying the performance, Grohl figured he could do his own musical project,[5] which could work as "some sort of cathartic therapy, to go out and record these songs that I'd written by myself."[4] Grohl afterwards booked six days at Seattle's Robert Lang Studios, which were located near his house, where he would record "my favorite songs I had written in the past four, five years that no one had heard"[1] with the assistance of producer Barrett Jones, with whom he had recorded the demo tape Pocketwatch in 1992.[6] The idea was to have Grohl playing all instruments and release it under a name that would make people believe it was a band, similar to Stewart Copeland's Klark Kent.[2]

Recording

"The first Foo Fighters record was not meant to be an album, it was an experiment and for fun. I was just fucking around. Some of the lyrics weren't even real words."

 —Dave Grohl in 2011[7]

Grohl and Jones produced the record across a period of one week in October 1994, with Grohl recording all vocal, guitar, bass and drum tracks himself.[6] Both would arrive in the morning at Robert Lang Studios, start production by noon and do four songs a day.[4] According to Grohl, during the recording process he would run from room to room, "still sweating and shaking from playing drums and [then] pick up the guitar and put down a track, do the bass, maybe another guitar part, have a sip of coffee and then go in and do the next song". The only performance by an outsider was a guitar part on "X-Static" provided by Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs. Each song took about 45 minutes each to be completed, and the compositions were recorded on the same order that became the album's track listing. The only song that required two run-throughs before completion was "I'll Stick Around".[6] Grohl was insecure about his singing, and added effects to his voice in "Floaty",[8] and tried to enhance the performance through double track - "You know how people double their vocals to make them stronger? That album the vocals are quadrupled."[4]

In an attempt to keep his anonymity, Grohl planned to release the songs under the name Foo Fighters.[5] It would be a very low-key release, with only 100 LP records being pressed after the sessions were finished.[9] Grohl also created cassette copies of the session and started handing them to friends for feedback. Eddie Vedder premiered two songs from the recording on January 8, 1995 during his Self-Pollution radio broadcast.[5] The recordings quickly circulated amongst the music industry, which in turn created record label interest. A deal was eventually signed to Capitol Records, as president Gary Gersh was a personal friend of Grohl ever since he worked on Nirvana's label Geffen Records.[3][10]

During the sessions, Grohl was invited by Tom Petty to perform with The Heartbreakers on Saturday Night Live one month later. The performance was followed by an invitation to be a full-time member of the Heartbreakers, but once Petty heard about the Foo Fighters, he instead encouraged Grohl to move on with this solo project.[11] Grohl soon recruited a full band, which included bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith of the recently disbanded Sunny Day Real Estate, as well as Nirvana touring guitarist, and former Germs member, Pat Smear.[1]

Composition

"I'll Stick Around"
Sample of "I'll Stick Around", the album's second single. Dave Grohl described it as "a very negative song about feeling you were violated or deprived" and considered "it the strongest song I've ever written, because it was the one song that I actually meant and felt emotionally."[12]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Nine of the songs in the album were composed before or during Grohl's tenure with Nirvana, and existed in demos created by Grohl on his home 8-track tape recorder.[11] The only compositions done after Cobain's death were "This Is a Call", "Oh, George" and "I'll Stick Around".[12] The music mostly followed a hard rock sound with the soft-loud dynamics seen in Nirvana tracks such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Heart-Shaped Box".[6] Variants include the melancholic "Exhausted", which Grohl defined as a song that's "sad but makes you feel good".[9]

Most of the lyrics in Foo Fighters are nonsensical lines written by Grohl in the twenty minutes before recording begun,[13] as the frontman explained that "I had seven days to record fifteen songs. I was just concentrating on everything being as together as possible, having everything be tight and in sync. There wasn't too much time spent sitting on a chair thinking."[14] Grohl would add the gibberish was deliberate given "there was too much to say" following Cobain's death and "a lot of emphasis placed on the meaning of the first Foo Fighters album".[11] The musician still considered that "the things you write down spur of the moment are most revealing. Now I look at them and some of them seem to actually have meaning."[14] and revealed that a few songs have lyrics inspired by "personal experiences of the last four or five years", with the standout being "Big Me", an "out-and-out love song" to Grohl's then-wife Jennifer Youngblood that he described as his favorite track on the album.[8] Contrasting with the aggressive and rebellious themes of Nirvana, Grohl had positive and cheery tunes such as "This Is a Call", defined as "a 'hello' and a 'thank you'" to everyone that had played a key role in Grohl's life;[6] the playful "For All the Cows"; and "Wattershed", with a title referencing Mike Watt and lyrics that described Grohl's "love of hardcore and old school punk rock".[9]

Packaging

The name "Foo Fighters" was taken from the description World War II aircraft pilots would use to describe various UFOs.[3] This science fiction theme is further continued with the name of Grohl's Capitol Records imprint, Roswell Records, a reference to the city of Roswell, New Mexico, known for the Roswell UFO incident of 1947; and the album cover done by Grohl's then-wife, photographer Jennifer Youngblood, featuring a Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol.[15] Some reviewers considered the gun on the cover as insensitive,[16] given Kurt Cobain died by shooting himself, but Grohl dutifully disregarded it as just a coincidence.[3][14] Goldsmith later explained, "It was all pretty much based on the whole Foo Fighters thing--Roswell, the space stuff, an antique Buck Rogers raygun. It's really a completely separate thing. Dave wasn't even conscious of that."[14] Despite Grohl being the album's only contributor, at Capitol's insistence the liner notes included a picture of the full band that Grohl had recruited.[17]

Release and promotion

On spring 1995, the Foo Fighters embarked on their first ever United States tour supporting Mike Watt along with fellow tour newbies Hovercraft, whose line-up included Vedder at the time. As well as performing with their own bands, Grohl and Vedder each picked up a role as a member of Watt's backing band throughout the tour, supplying drums and guitar respectively. On May 1995, radio stations KROQ-FM and KNDD started playing some tracks of the then-unreleased album before receiving a cease-and-desist from Capitol. On June 12, 1995, "Exhausted" and "This Is a Call" were sent to college and modern rock radio stations.[10] One week later, "This Is a Call" became the band's first commercial single.[18]

Foo Fighters was released July 4, 1995 on Roswell Records, distributed by Capitol Records. The band promoted the release that summer by completing another US tour with Wool and Shudder to Think, with 25 concerts in little over a month. The Foo Fighters also made their network television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman in August 14, where they performed "This Is a Call". Afterwards, the band played several of their largest shows up to that point, making their debut on the European festival circuit with performances at Pukkelpop, Reading and Lowlands.[19]

"I'll Stick Around" was issued as the second single on September 4, 1995 and would also mark Foo Fighters music video debut, directed by Gerald Casale. That fall, the band continued to tour extensively,[19] with a European tour with Built to Spill,[20] and visits to Japan, Australia and New Zealand.[19] The tour was wrapped with a performance at the Phoenix Festival on July 20, 1996. The Foo Fighters performed nearly 100 concerts throughout 1995, and over 70 dates the following year.[19]

Three more songs of the album were issued as singles: "For All the Cows" in 1995,[21] and both "Big Me" and "Alone + Easy Target" in 1996.[22] "Big Me" was the first commercial single made available in the US, and the second song from the album to see release as a music video, a parody of the Mentos television commercials directed by Jesse Peretz.[23]

Reception

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[24]
Robert Christgau(3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention)[25]
Entertainment Weekly(B+)[26]
Rolling Stone[27]
Spin[28]
Billboard(favorable)[16]
New York(favorable)[29]
Kerrang[13]

Foo Fighters earned mostly positive reviews upon release. Many critics compared the album to Grohl's previous band, Nirvana.[30] Reviewer David Browne of Entertainment Weekly considered that "[Grohl's] songs pack the riffy wallop of unpolished Nirvana demos, and his voice has Kurt Cobain's lunging, over-the-top passion."[26] Writing for Spin, Terri Sutton stylistically compared the album to Nirvana's sophomore album, Nevermind, saying that "the album's first half [...] owes much to Nevermind, and it's tempting to hear it in the way Nevermind taught us to hear."[28] Paul Rees of Kerrang! admitted that "Foo Fighters cannot fail to evoke Kurt Cobain's memory, whether if through Grohl's ragged howl of a voice or the way a number of its songs go soft-soft-loud", but ultimately considered the record "more than strong enough to stand or fall in its own merits".[13] Billboard complimented the "inspired songwriting and passionate performances", adding the album could please grunge fans and "also remind fans of other rock and punk taste makers, from Green Day and The Offspring to Better than Ezra."[16]

The album received minor criticism for its lack of intensity, which many proposed was due to the fact that Grohl played all the instruments himself. Allmusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote, "Since he recorded the album by himself, they aren't as powerful as most band's primal sonic workouts, but the results are damn impressive for a solo musician."[24] Robert Christgau wrote on his review website that "the spirit is strong, but the identity is weak".[25] Rolling Stone's Alex Foege described the record as a "remarkable yet cooly understated solo debut" and felt that "the album's only disappointment is that despite its home-studio feel, it ultimately reveals little about its creator."[27] New York described both the overall melodies and Grohl's singing as derivative of the grunge sound, but praised the "tight Beatlesesque harmonies" and lyrics that "key into the more poetic moments of dudespeak."[29]

The album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 1996 Grammy Awards ceremony, but lost to MTV Unplugged in New York, an album by Grohl's former band Nirvana.[31] Foo Fighters was also ranked as the second best album of 1995 by Rolling Stone, behind PJ Harvey's To Bring You My Love,[32] and also ranked sixth on the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll,[33] and 20th on Spin's list.[34]

Commercial reception

The commercial performance of Foo Fighters was also successful. In the United States, it debuted at the Billboard 200 on number twenty-three, with first-week sales of 40,000 units.[35] The album debuted at number two in New Zealand's album chart,[36] three in the UK Albums Chart,[37] and fifth in Australia's ARIA Charts.[38] It also peaked at number five in the Canadian Albums Chart.[39] By December, it had reached 900,000 units domestically and 2 million worldwide.[35] On September 27, 1995, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),[40] being later certified Platinum on January 26, 1996.[40] By 2011, Foo Fighters had sold 1.468 million units in North America, being the second most successful release of the band behind follow-up The Colour and the Shape.[41] It was also certified Platinum in Canada,[42] and Gold in the United Kingdom.[43]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Dave Grohl except where noted

No.TitleLength
1."This Is a Call"3:53
2."I'll Stick Around"3:52
3."Big Me"2:12
4."Alone + Easy Target"4:05
5."Good Grief"4:01
6."Floaty"4:30
7."Weenie Beenie"2:45
8."Oh, George"3:00
9."For All the Cows"3:30
10."X-Static"4:13
11."Watershed"2:15
12."Exhausted"5:45
Total length:44:06
Australian edition bonus disc
No.TitleLength
1."Winnebago" (Grohl, Geoff Turner)4:13
2."Podunk"3:04
3."How I Miss You"4:54
4."Ozone" (Ace Frehley)4:16
5."For All the Cows" (Live)3:33
6."Watershed" (Live)2:15

Personnel

Charts and certifications

Singles charts

Year Single Peak chart positions
US
Air
[49][50][51] 		US
Alt
[52] 		US
Main
[53] 		US
Adult
[54] 		AUS
[38]
[55] 		CAN
[56]
 CAN
Alt
[57] 		IRL
[58] 		NLD
[59] 		NZ
[36] 		UK
[60]
1995 "This Is a Call" 35 2 6 — 9 35 1 16 32 11 5
"I'll Stick Around" 51 8 12 — 61 — 2 — — — 18
"For All the Cows" — — — — 69 — — — — — 28
1996 "Big Me" 13 3 18 23 65 16 4 27 — — 19

References

  1. ^ a b c Moll, James (director) (2011). Back and Forth (documentary). RCA.
  2. ^ a b "Everyone Has Their Dark Side", Mojo (April 2005)
  3. ^ a b c d Murphy, Kevin (July 2005). "Honor Roll". Classic Rock.
  4. ^ a b c d My Brilliant Career, Q (November 2007)
  5. ^ a b c From Penniless Drummer To The Bigest Rock Icon In the World, Kerrang! (November 2009)
  6. ^ a b c d e Apter, Jeff (2006). The Dave Grohl Story. Music Sales Group. pp. 256–260. ISBN 978-0-85712-021-2.
  7. ^ "I have all these huge fucking riffs, I can scream for three hours... LET'S GO!", Classic Rock, May 2011
  8. ^ a b True, Everett (November 1995). "The Chosen Foo". Melody Maker.
  9. ^ a b c Apter, 2006. p. 260
  10. ^ a b Rosen, Craig (24 June 1995). "Time Off Re-energizes the Foo Fighters". Billboard.
  11. ^ a b c Brannigan, Paul (November 2009). "Dave Grohl: AMERICAN HERO". Mojo.
  12. ^ a b Mundy, Chris (October 1995). "Invasion Of The Foo Fighters - Dave Grohl Takes Command". Rolling Stone.
  13. ^ a b c Brannigan, Paul (December 2010). "Kerrang's 50 albums you need to hear in 2011 - Foo Fighters (Interview)". Kerrang!. Cite error: The named reference "kerrang" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  14. ^ a b c d Daley, David. Feels Like The First Time, Alternative Press (January 1996)
  15. ^ Apter, 2006. p. 272
  16. ^ a b c Verna, Paul (1995-07-22). "Album Reviews: Foo Fighters". Billboard.
  17. ^ Apter, 2006. p. 298
  18. ^ Apter, 2006. p. 271
  19. ^ a b c d Apter, 2006. p. 294-7
  20. ^ Hermes, Will (March 1996). "Built to Last". Spin.
  21. ^ Berlehan, Essie (1996). Buckley, Jonathan; Ellingham, Mark; Lewis, Justin; Furmanovsky, Jill (ed.). Rock: the rough guide. Rough Guides. p. 36. ISBN 1-85828-201-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  22. ^ Flick, Larry (1996-06-08). "Singles". Billboard.
  23. ^ Reece, Douglas (1996-03-06). "Foo Fighters Make 'Big', Fresh Clip". Billboard.
  24. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Foo Fighters". Allmusic. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  25. ^ a b Christgau, Robert. "Robert Christgau: CG: Foo Fighters". Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  26. ^ a b Browne, David (14 July 1995). "Review of Foo Fighters". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  27. ^ a b Foege, Alex (10 August 1995). "Foo Fighters: Foo Fighters: Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  28. ^ a b Sutton, Terri (10 August 1995). Foo Fighters. Spin. Retrieved 17 April 2011. {{cite book}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  29. ^ a b Norris, Chris (1995-07-17). "Recorded Music: Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters". New York.
  30. ^ Apter, 2006. p. 274
  31. ^ "List of Grammy Nominees". CNN. January 4, 1996. Retrieved May 8, 2011.
  32. ^ "Critics Poll: Best Albums". Rolling Stone (726). January 1996.
  33. ^ "The 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2007-10-07. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  34. ^ "20 Best Albums of '95". Spin. January 1996.
  35. ^ a b Morris, Chris (1995-12-16). "Gary Gersh's Artist Development Proves to be Capitol's Foundation". Billboard.
  36. ^ a b c "Discography Foo Fighters". New Zealand charts online. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  37. ^ a b "1995Top 40 Official UK Albums Archive - 8th July 1995". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
  38. ^ a b c "Discography Foo Fighters". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  39. ^ a b "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 62, No. 3, August 21, 1995". RPM. Retrieved 2008-03-07. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  40. ^ a b c "Gold & Platinum - Search Results: Foo Fighters". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  41. ^ Hughes, Kim (2011-12-03). "Foo Fighters surpass 10 million sales mark (so yeah, they're loaded)". inMusic.ca. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  42. ^ a b "Gold Platinum Database: Foo Fighters — One by One". Canadian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
  43. ^ a b "BPI: Certified Awards Search". British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Retrieved 29 August 2010.
  44. ^ "Discographie Foo Fighters" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  45. ^ "Foo Fighters" (in Finnish). IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  46. ^ "Album - Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters" (in German). Media Control Charts. Retrieved 2008-02-09.
  47. ^ "Discography Foo Fighters" (in Norwegian). Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  48. ^ "Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters". Billboard. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  49. ^ "Hot 100 Airplay - 29 July 1995". Billboard. 1995-07-29.
  50. ^ "Hot 100 Airplay - 21 October 1995". Billboard. 1995-10-21.
  51. ^ "Hot 100 Airplay - 18 May 1996". Billboard. 1996-05-18.
  52. ^ "Foo Fighters Album & Song Chart History – Alternative Songs". Billboard. Retrieved 2010-10-26. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  53. ^ "Foo Fighters - Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-05-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  54. ^ "Artist Adult Airplay History – singles". Billboard. Retrieved 2009-03-01. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  55. ^ "ARIA Top 100 Singles" (PDF) (715). ARIA. 2003-11-03: 2. Retrieved 2010-07-22. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  56. ^ "Canadian Top Singles positions". RPM. Retrieved 2010-05-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  57. ^ "Canadian Rock/Alternative positions". RPM. Retrieved 2010-05-05. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  58. ^ "Irish Charts". Irish Recorded Music Association. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  59. ^ "Discografie Foo Fighters" (in Dutch). MegaCharts. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  60. ^ Foo Fighters chart history, The Official Chart Company. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foo_Fighters_(album)&oldid=489771653"