April Fool’s Day is over in New Zealand, and it may have cost some radio DJs their jobs. Seems the good people on Auckland’s “Rock FM” thought they could promote an acoustic Foo Fighters gig at a local venue, where the expecting masses would then by raspberried by DJs as the band’s music played on a boombox. Tee hee! Only it turns out there were a lot more excited Foo fans in the area than the “about fifty” they expected to dupe.
Like many of us, Courtney Love wonders about certain choices Village Voice Media has made over the last few years. Twelve hours ago she was specifically irate over Voice music editor’s Rob Harvilla’s recent piece on the Foo Fighters, where Harvilla praised frontman Dave Grohl for his likeability by claiming that “in arena rock, as in politics, we vote for the candidate we’d most enjoy having a beer with” and that Grohl was the arena-rocker in whose company he’d most enjoy popping the top on a tall cold one. Courtney then attacked Harvilla’s offhand dismissal of informed voting until her caps lock squealed like someone in Boy George’s basement, comparing Harvilla’s lede to a “Fox [News, presumably] talking point” and referring to the Foo Fighters as a “mediocre” band. Incensed that the general public perceives arena rockers as beer fans–“Beer isnt even GOOD. i mean REALLY.”–Courtney went on to list all the things she’s done with arena rockers instead of drinking beer, maddeningly teasing us by not including the names of the arena rockers in question.
Alt-rock institution Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters are set to play a sold-out Madison Square Garden in just a few hours, sending desperate New Yorkers scrambling to the always dicey secondary market in hopes they might still be able to score a 300-level seat behind the stage. These three Nassau County Foo fans are unfortunately too strapped at the moment to pay scalper prices, but while they’re desperate enough to take to Craigslist in search of last-minute remedies, they’re not going to beg for your charity. In fact, perhaps they can help you.
Judging by the reactions from my living room, my instant-messenger conversations, and the comments section on our Grammy liveblog, people were more than a little surprised when the Album Of The Year winner was announced… and said winner wasn’t Kanye West or Amy Winehouse, but Herbie Hancock, whose Joni Mitchell homage River: The Joni Letters took home the night’s final prize. I actually wasn’t too surprised by Hancock’s victory–to quote myself, “if you didn’t at least think that Herbie Hancock paying tribute to Joni Mitchell would sway at least half the people who voted for Steely Dan over Eminem a few years back you haven’t been paying attention”–but apparently a lot of people were! (Perhaps they forgot that Norah Jones and Corinne Bailey Rae and Tina Turner and Leonard Cohen were also on the album.) So let’s put it to all of you: If you had a vote in the Grammy balloting, what would you have chosen as this Grammy year’s Album Of The Year? Poll after the jump.
The People’s Choice Awards were reduced to a clip show. The Golden Globes are going to be held in press conference form. Will the writer’s strike have a detrimental effect on the Grammys, which are scheduled to take place on Feb. 10? According to Phil Gallo at Variety, it might, because the producers “would have to do a show with no WGA writing, no actors as presenters and none of musicians with union or Hollywood connections.” While the Grammys have only officially announced one performer at the show–the Foo Fighters, who are doing that YouTube talent show thing–Gallo has helpfully compiled a list of people who you likely wouldn’t see on the telecast, given their assorted union connections. And guess whose name is right up top?
Since many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock, welcome to “Corporate Rock Still Sells,” where Al Shipley (a.k.a. Idolator commenter GovernmentNames) examines what’s good, bad, and ugly in the world of Billboard‘s rock charts. This time around he takes a look at the year’s most (supposedly) surprising Grammy nominees, alt-rock survivors the Foo Fighters:
Solidifying his “elder statesman of rock” cred, Dave Grohl leads the Foo Fighters as they turn “Band On The Run” into … well, a Foo Fighters song, pretty much. More »
Solidifying his “elder statesman of rock” cred, Dave Grohl leads the Foo Fighters as they turn “Band On The Run” into … well, a Foo Fighters song, pretty much. More »
Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today’s entry is the Foo Fighters’ Echoes Silence Patience & Grace, which comes out today:
Forgive me for having been locked in the attic these past few weeks, but seriously–a 10th anniversary edition of a friggin’ Foo Fighters album? Seriously, who’s going to buy this thing? The people who sold it back the first time and decided that they really, really missed it?
