Happy birthday, Kurt Cobain

Happy birthday Kurt Cobain, shown here watching the first Lollapalooza tour with Dave Grohl at the Irvine Meadows Ampitheatre in 1991, two months before Nevermind's release. Dave later told Body Count's Ernie C that he and Kurt enjoyed their performance. I've got some quotes from Ernie and Talib Kweli about Nirvana's influence and their connection to Body Count in my book.

Rock Muppets

I'm thrilled about the new Muppets show coming to TV this fall, and of course I'm hoping they'll continue to have metal guest appearances--Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne and Dave Grohl are among the headbangers who've performed with Kermit's gang in the past. Maybe this time they'll even create a metal muppet, something they've never done in the past (as far as I've known). But two hard rock themed performances come close.

"ZZ Blues" is a catchy blues-rock song lamenting the lack of z-words, performed by ZZ Top-inspired Muppets. Whoever put this together was clearly an old school fan--notice how the song plays on the band's blues-based '70s tracks and not their more popular synth-heavy '80s hits. The green screen background suggests every generic '70s rock TV studio performance, and the creators even got the beardless drummer right. "ZZ Blues" is as worthy of the Top as "Haw-haw-haw" and the famous hand gesture.



"Rebel L" honors Billy Idol as deftly as "ZZ Blues" gets ZZ Top, with a "Rebel Yell" parody that chronicles a renegade letter making noise outside the Idol Muppet's house. I'd love to know how many kids learned what a rebel was from this video, or bothered their parents by reenacting the events. Bonus points for being the only '80s music video I can think of where the cops are as badass as the singer and the title characer.

Foo Fighters, "New Way Home"

13 Days to Find a Home



Dave Grohl gets mocked for writing soft grunge, usually by people who forgot that Kurt Cobain wrote pop songs. But now that we've heard Torche we know that Grohl wasn't watering down heavy, he was reinventing it.

With the Foo Fighters, he's never written a front-to-back classic, but he's proven himself an expert tunesmith whose skills run deep. Case in point: "New Way Home," a soaring piece of power-grunge nearly buried at the end of The Colour and the Shape. We knew he could play, we knew he could write, we knew he could produce, but songs like "New Way Home" is where we learned that Dave Grohl could, as he told us, stick around.

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth

Call it Even Dave Grohl Gets Band Drama. One thing that anyone who sees Foo Fighters: Back and Forth will take away from it is that you can be the coolest, funniest, most easygoing rock star in the world, and keeping a band together is still tough work.

Grohl's reputation as The Nicest Guy in Rock won't be tattered by Back and Forth, where you see him struggle to keep Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Pat Smear in a band together. There's a reason why it's not called Dave Grohl: Back and Forth. But this is not a side of Grohl that we're used to seeing, when he goofs around with Jack Black or Josh Homme in public. Here he turns down a cushy gig with Tom Petty (on the Wildflowers tour, no less) because it's more important to him to try out his own untested songs. He overdubs his own drums on The Colour and the Shape at the risk of hurting his original drummer's feelings, which it does. Grohl may be an uncharacteristically sweet rock star, but he's still a rock star, and he demonstrates the kind of focus and professionalism that one would expect from a guy who's led one of the biggest rock bands in the world for almost 20 years now. He's been many things to many different people, but he's still nobody's monkey wrench.

Yet Back and Forth has one thing that's even more fascinating than watching Grohl be a boss, and you know exactly what that is. "It's all about the music" is a cliché in any rockumentary, but Grohl says it here without ever uttering the words. Watching him explain how he wrote the bass line to "Enough Space" while jumping up and down to get the rhythm of a crowd of people jumping at a rock show just right is even more spellbinding than the song itself. Maybe you think that's faint praise, but even if you're not a Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Probot, Queens of the Stone Age, Tenacious D, Them Crooked Vultures or Scream fan, there's no denying that Dave Grohl was born to make music.

Nirvana, "Scentless Apprentice"

In Utero turns 20 this week, and is getting a load of press and a schmancy, 4-disc reissue that would probably appall any band that once wanted to name an album Cash Cow.



It's being advertised as Nirvana's "difficult" album, which is fair, and probably why it's my favorite of theirs. But even its heaviest and most distorted, In Utero almost can't help but be hooky. Take "Scentless Apprentice," a sludge metal masterpiece that could have appeared on the Melvins album that Kurt Cobain co-produced in the same year.



It's an apt offering from a guy who wanted to be a rock star but hated himself for wanting it, the type of guy who'd wear a hand-scribbled "CORPORATE MAGAZINES STILL SUCK" t-shirt on the cover of the corporate magazine he agreed to talk to. It's got a raw, abrasive tone and one of the scariest screams that I've ever heard on record, but was meticulously reworked from Dave Grohl's initial riff into the final product--rehearsal demos and concert performances went on for over ten minutes and tried out several different stanzas. The working title was "Chuck Chuck Fo Fuck," because the progression that drives most of the song sounds like Shirley Ellis' "The Name Game."



Pretty clever, Kurt Kurt Bo Burt.

Ten Metal Bands to See Before You Die: The Dillinger Escape Plan

This.



With the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosting a schmancy “Punk: From Chaos To Couture” gala attended by Hilfigers and Kardashians this month, one could be fooled into thinking that all danger has been completely erased from rock n' roll. Then you see a band like The Dillinger Escape Plan. Rock music is going to be OK, although I worry that these guys might not be.

When anything gets burned or broken at a rock show, usually it's there to be destroyed. Notice how Paul Stanley's guitar shatters in the exact same place, at the same time in the show, night after night after night. But when something--instruments, equipment, bones--gets broken or torched at a Dillinger show, one senses that these boys just couldn't control themselves. If Greg Puciato starts running towards the crowd, get out of the way. If he brings out a torch, duck. If there's an encore, you've done something right. Show me someone who thinks that Karen O is insane, and I'll show you someone who's never seen Greg Puciato.

Watching Ben Weinman play guitar reminds me of Jerry Lee Lewis setting his piano on fire, or Kurt Cobain flinging himself into Dave Grohl's drum kit. His ability to make math-rock stay in your head has earned him a spot among today's metal greats, but his performances are in a league with the most dangerous rock legends. I don't know many people who could play "Panasonic Youth" sitting down, much less while swinging the guitar around and violently jerking back and forth. Whoever is in charge of equipment at the Bowery Presents clubs probably begs the promoters to not book The Dillinger Escape Plan.

When I get a chance to breathe, sometimes I wonder how much further these guys can go. There may not be a more musically or physically demanding band in the world. I can't imagine they're getting much compensation, unless blogger admiration counts for something. Every time someone leaves the band, I'm a little disappointed but never too surprised. But whether Puciato, Weinman and the rest of DEP break up tonight (and, considering this month's One of Us is the Killer, that would be a crushing loss), or whether they're as young as Lemmy when they're 65, watching them on any stage is one of music's rarest and most dependable thrills.

Dave Grohl at SXSW

One of the best keynote speeches that you'll ever see.

Song of the Day: Hüsker Dü, "Ice Cold Ice"

Just like that, the guest host of Chelsea Lately goes back to being punk. Here's Dave Grohl joining Bob Mould for Hüsker Dü's "Ice Cold Ice," in a clip from a Mould concert film that's currently taking donations on Kickstarter.



Mould is usually pigeonholed as Hüsker Dü's "difficult" songwriter, as opposed to the poppier Grant Hart, but he wrote a perfectly dour pop-rock song here. Had R.E.M. recorded it, or maybe even if Hüsker Dü had not split up before the year that punk broke, it would be played on FM radio today.

Instead, "Ice Cold Ice" was Hüsker Dü's last single before breaking up. How many other bands have ever blitzed out so forcefully?

Dave Grohl Hosting Chelsea Lately

Dave Grohl has turned into alternative music's Snoop Dogg, seemingly able to publicly align himself with any sort of dorkiness and keep credibility intact. Chelsea Lately sounds like something that I'd rather claw my eyes out than watch, yet the former drummer from Scream looked great in his guest-host opening skit a few days ago. Could you imagine Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor or Eddie Vedder surviving this?



Yes, that's Dave Grohl unloading the riff to "Let There Be Rock" on E!. I hope he gets to host the Oscars next.

Song of the Day: Queens of the Stone Age, "A Song for the Dead"

Thrilled to hear that Dave Grohl is going to be drumming on the new Queens of the Stone Age CD. After the underwhelming Era Vulgaris and a five year break between studio albums, suddenly I'm ecstatic at the thought of seeing the Queens again.



With Nick Oliveri apparently never coming back, Grohl is the perfect madcap foil for Josh Homme's laconic persona. I love the fills that Grohl provided on 2002's Songs for the Deaf, particularly when matched against Homme's car alarm main riff in "A Song for the Dead." Grohl really has no cues to do anything at all here, yet his irrepressible tendencies end up carrying the song. That ultramelodic sensibility that everybody knows the Foo Fighters for is even better served behind a drum kit than leading a band.

Top Five Metal Movie Cameos

1. Alice Cooper in Wayne's World

Everyone remembers this scene for Alice's mild-mannered discourse, but the part that I could never get over is that Wayne and Garth head backstage while Alice is still playing "Feed My Frankenstein."





2. GWAR in Empire Records

Ever try to explain GWAR to someone? It never works, but I still try, and I usually start by asking if they've seen this movie. Easily the best scene. (Also, didn't realize until now that Daniel Johnston's "Rock 'n' Roll/EGA" is juxtaposed with "Saddam A-Go-Go" here. Brilliant.)




3. James Hetfield in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

Metallica's frontman tells Kenny that he's going to Hell, the consolation being that he'll still get better music than the angels.




4-5. Ronnie James Dio and Dave Grohl in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

One terrible movie bookended by a Ronnie James Dio poster coming to life and Dave Grohl playing one of the all-time best Beelzebubs. YouTube clips were invented for movies like this.

Brooklyn Calling

Does this look like the kind of mix that would have "I Just Called to Say I Love You?" Go to the mall.



Brooklyn Calling

1. Foo Fighters, "This is a Call"
2. Queensrÿche, "Revolution Calling"
3. The Rolling Stones, "Come On"
4. Muddy Waters, "Long Distance Call"
5. The Beatles, "You Won't See Me"
6. X, "Your Phone's Off the Hook But You're Not"
7. The White Stripes, "Hello Operator"
8. Chuck Berry, "Memphis"
9. The Grateful Dead, "Operator"
10. Kraftwerk, "The Telephone Call"
11. Blondie, "Hanging on the Telephone"
12. Al Green, "Call Me (Come Back Home)"
13. Lou Reed, "New York Telephone Conversation"
14. The Notwist, "Pick up the Phone"
15. Love, "The Red Telephone"
16. Penguin Cafe Orchestra, "Telephone and Rubber Band"
17. Prince, "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore"
18. The Mothers of Invention, "You Didn't Try to Call Me"
19. The Clash, "London Calling"
20. Bob Dylan & The Band, "Long Distance Operator"
21. Tom Waits, "Telephone Call From Istanbul"
22. The Cure, "Wrong Number"
23. The Replacements, "Answering Machine"

23 songs that are less annoying than "I Just Called to Say I Love You" or "Call Me Maybe."

I put this together for some volunteers who will be making calls to help re-elect the President this weekend. For their sake, I'm not including the Dillinger Escape Plan or the Beastie Boys, although those might have been too distracting anyway. Thus, Brooklyn Calling doesn't get any heavier than "This is a Call," which, since Dave Grohl wrote it, will offend exactly no one.

Like many of my half-decent ideas, this one started with the Sound Opinions podcast. Every week, Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot kick off their call-taking segment ("On Sound Opinions, everyone's a critic, so give us a call on our hotline...") by playing a great song about the phone. Had I not heard them on Sound Opinions, I never would've picked out Chuck Berry's "Memphis" or "Come On," the Rolling Stones' first-ever single (also written by Berry) as phone songs. Kot and DeRogatis have also included "Operator," "The Telephone Call," "Call Me," "New York Telephone Conversation" and others on their show. Finally, thumbs up to Sound Opinions for featuring "Hanging on the Telephone," which I prefer to Blondie's more famous phone song.

Much has changed since the days of switchboard operators, and despite the underlying phone theme, many of these songs are hard to apply to the work that we do on the campaign. The most relatable songs here are definitely "Wrong Number," "Answering Machine" and "Your Phone's Off the Hook But You're Not."

Nirvana Night

I Hate Myself and Want to Die is a film of lovingly compiled Nirvana footage that played last week at "Nirvana Night" at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn. You can skip the segment from the Unsolved Mysteries Kurt Cobain conspiracy doc, but other than that I Hate Myself and Want to Die is a thoroughly enjoyable portrait of an unfairly great band. Your favorite moments from Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! and the With the Lights Out DVD are funnier than you remembered, and getting several of the band's best interviews in one place should save you a few hours on YouTube. The film is also commendable for giving Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl their due as bandmates, and for remaining objective about Cobain until the terrific end credits, which you'll have to stick around for.

Here's a trailer for Nirvana Night below.

Song of the Day: Link Wray, "Batman Theme"

"Heavy metal would not exist without Led Zeppelin, and if it did, it would suck," Dave Grohl once said. Jimmy Page would probably have similar words for his influence, Link Wray.



I love this scene from It Might Get Loud, where Page can't contain the excitement he gets from "Rumble," Link Wray's most famous work. Even the gods get giddy.

In 1966, at the peak of the Adam West craze, Wray recorded the classic Caped Crusader theme, written by Neal Hefti. That's Link's kid brother as Dick Grayson.



Robin and the "sound effects" get in the way, just as they did on the show, but no one can be trusted with the twelve bar blues more than Link Wray, whose tones give the song the edge it deserves. Until Prince in 1989, no guitarist gave a better tribute to Gotham City's favorite son.