Bands Like These
For the past two or three years, I’ve been thinking how super-clever I am for comparing Foo Fighters (I like them) to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (I love them). Now that Foo Fighters greatest hits is out, everyone is making that comparison. I’ve read at least three reviews with this basic conceit in the last few days. I’m not saying I thought of it first (my friend Darren Croucher did) but it’s become obligatory. The new Petty live anthology looks awesome, by the way. That’s a band and a half.
I haven’t connected Foo Fighters with Tom Petty yet, but I sort of see the comparision now that you mention it.
Nathan
November 8, 2009 at 11:52 pm
then there’s the fact that Dave Grohl has a song called “Learn To Fly” and the new song, “Wheels”, sounds kind of like Petty’s “Learning To Fly”. Of course, “Dani California” by RHCP is basically “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” a little quicker.
I’ve been lamenting the loss of all that great Adult Contemporary stuff from the 90s that started as rock in the 70s and 80s…like a bunch of the early 90s Petty Tunes, “Human Wheels” by Mellencamp…then I realized that people are still making Adult Contemporary, they’re just all named Dave Grohl. I do miss the spooky factor of some of those old songs though: kd Lang, et al.
Christopher Cocca
November 8, 2009 at 11:58 pm
I’ve never heard you make that comparison, and I am not sure I see it. Foo Fighters are enjoyable, but Petty’s music is so much more complex. I definitely don’t see Foo Fighters as anything even close to adult contemporary, but perhaps they have mellowed out since the “Stacked Actors” era albums that I have.
Chad Hogg
November 9, 2009 at 1:07 am
The comparison is based on the observation that Dave Grohl has moved to the great middle of American mainstream radio rock. Foo Fighters have evolved into a sort of quintessentially American rock outfit, ala CCR or Petty etc.
Another thing I think is interesting: Consider that the space between “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and, say, the last Foo album, is about the same as the space between “Refugee” and “Walls”. Or the space between “Big Me” and the last Foo album is about the same as the space between “Refugee” and “Free Fallin’”.
Petty played with and was in a band with Harrison, Dylan, Orbison (and Jeff Lynne). Grohl was in Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, and is now in a band with John Paul Jones (Them Crooked Vultures). Petty and Grohl are both capable of pulling off diverse styles, but both have pretty solid touchstones, and both (I think) hit their best sustained stride with a certain kind of on-purpose Americana. But both also diverge from that to great effect as well.
Christopher Cocca
November 9, 2009 at 1:40 am
Ooh, I was unaware of Them Crooked Vultures. I’ll also have to check out more recent Foo Fighters releases. I do love their semi-recent single “Let It Die”, but that still devolves into screaming hard rock that seems pretty far from mainstream. (Then again, my definition of mainstream is based on the sort of thing my mother would tolerate.)
Chad Hogg
November 9, 2009 at 1:47 am
I don’t know if you do iTunes, but you could check out the greatest hits album on there. I don’t own any Foo albums but I have some singles and I’ve consistently liked what Grohl does. “Everlong” is one of my favorite songs of all time. I loved “Monkey Wrench” when it came out and I like the newer stuff like “Long Road To Ruin” and “Times Like These”. These later two are VERY mainstream. “Let It Die” not as much toward the end. I’ve always thought that “All My Life” song was good (and that it sounds a lot like “Add It Up” by the Femmes).
Christopher Cocca
November 9, 2009 at 1:53 am