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(Foo Fighters the next big thing? LA Times 10/19/97)

Wanted: An Alternative to Ska
By STEVE HOCHMAN
 
Think your band could be the next Nirvana? 
KROQ wants you. 
And so does every other alternative-rock radio station in the country.

     "Any real guitar band out there, if I get their CD, it will go
straight to the top of my listening stack," says KROQ assistant programming
director Gene Sandbloom. 
     What they don't want is the next No Doubt or the Mighty Mighty
Bosstones. The current rush of ska and pop-oriented acts provides
programmers with a lot of catchy, fun songs that get instant reaction. But
to the radio folks, these groups lack the depth that builds a solid
audience the way the rockers did during alternative rock's early '90s
eruption. 
     "We had with Nirvana and Pearl Jam a huge streak of bands that
followed, and then Green Day and Offspring and sound-alike bands after
that," says Sandbloom. "But since then, there hasn't been a band that's
come along and unified the 17-year-olds who are moved by rock." 
     Jeff Pollack, a leading national rock and alternative radio
consultant, has seen fans who are interested in edgier sounds move away
from outlets playing ska and pop. 
     "The alternative stations were the definitive stations in the market
for several years," he says. "As it is, [alternative stations] are leaving
a large part of their musical programming open to attack by stations
playing harder rock." 
     Mark Williams, who signed the Smashing Pumpkins at Virgin Records and
now is co-head of the DreamWorks-financed Outpost Records, has also
wondered where all the rock bands have gone. 
     "Rock has sort of been a negative word for the last year or so because
there's been so much success with pop that people have shied away from it,"
says Williams, who has an Indiana band called Days of the New that he hopes
might fill the bill. "And we're not getting as many rock tapes to consider
as we used to." 
     It's not that there's a total dearth of candidates. Foo Fighters,
fronted by Nirvana's Dave Grohl, is heading back up the charts with its
second album, "The Colour and the Shape." Sandbloom also points to Prodigy,
Radiohead and Third Eye Blind as filling varying parts of the job in
question. 
     "But we can't find a single band with the power of a Nirvana to bring
it all together," he says. "We've existed on the last Smashing Pumpkins
album for well over a year now." 
     "I'm sure some record companies would say they have these acts, but
the quality of rock bands available for alternative is just not what it was
a few years ago," says Pollack. "If someone says it is, send me a list." 


Pop musing: Who's Foo? Only Dave Grohl knows for sure
Jon Bream / Star Tribune (10/21/97)

You can't tell who's who in the hit-making Foo Fighters without a scorecard.

The first Foo Fighters album in 1995 (featuring the alt-rock hits "Big Me" and "This Is the
Call") was a one-man band project, and then Dave Grohl hired a group to tour. That band
recorded this year's second Foo Fighters album (featuring the alt-rock hits "Monkey
Wrench" and "Everlong"), then there was a change of drummers before the quartet hit the
road last spring. Then in September, there was a change of guitarists. And now it's been
announced that the group's bassist will record an album with Sunny Day Real Estate but
still remain with the Foos.

Got that straight?

"I don't care what anybody thinks about this band as long as the four of us are happy,"
said Grohl, who brings the Foos to Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul Thursday.

The recent lineup change came in a high-profile fashion, with guitarist Pat Smear
announcing on the MTV Music Video Awards that he had left the band.

"We figured if we do it on MTV then people will realize that bands can exchange
members with no turmoil, turbulence or problems," Grohl said recently from New York.
"We didn't want people to think there was any shady backroom fighting or dealing or
bottle-throwing. Pat told us he wanted to leave like five months ago. One of the reasons
we did it on MTV was that was the first day that Franz was available."

For 10 years, Franz Stahl played in a Washington, D.C., band called Scream. Grohl was
with Scream for three years until its breakup in '90. Then he became the drummer for
Nirvana, the struggling Seattle grunge band that was about to become the most important
rock band of the '90s. 

How long did it take Stahl to hit his stride with the Foos?
"About a week of rehearsals," said Grohl, the drummer-turned-singer-guitarist. "He'd
already hit it when we played our first show with him in Las Vegas about 4 1/2 weeks
ago. It was easy for him to come and join the band. The chemistry was already there; he
and I are like family. I basically learned how to play rock guitar and write and arrange
songs by being in a band with Franz. The sound of Foo Fighters is really no major
departure from anything he's ever done."

With this lineup of bassist Nate Mendel, drummer Taylor Hawkins and Stahl, Grohl said
the Foos are "just a better band than we've ever been. I'm happier than I've ever been
with the band. The shows have been consistently smoother, better, stronger, funner,
rockin'-er than ever."

Grohl, 28, said it still feels strange to be a frontman but he's more confident than he was
on the first Foo Fighters tour a year and a half ago.

Oddly enough, he never intended for the Foos to be a band. "It was just a project I was
doing down the street from my house in a studio that was built underground. I was going
to record these 12 songs, do this vinyl LP and start my own label and maybe press 10 or
20 thousand of them and release them anonymously without any name or photo or
anything on the album. Kind of like what Stewart Copeland drummer for the Police did in
the '80s with the Clark Kent project. That was my original intention. But it turned into
something else. It turned into a band."

The Foo Fighters played two concerts this week with the Rolling Stones (as a kid, Grohl
played Stones songs in his "neighborhood cover band") but they are on tour with Talk
Show, the new group featuring three members of Stone Temple Pilots. "The guitar player
Dean DeLeo is totally amazing. He's sort of like the Jimmy Page of the '90s. They're one
of the few bands out there that go out and do guitar solos. He's very tasteful."

While performing in Seattle at the Bumbershoot festival over Labor Day weekend, Grohl
was joined onstage by his former Nirvana colleague, bassist Krist Novoselic. "That was
Pat's last show. Pat and I were going to play 'Big Me' together. 'Big Me' is 'Purple Rain'
but a little bit faster and sort of rearranged. It's very close; don't tell Prince that because
he'll probably sue me. So we started playing 'Purple Rain' as joke. It was at this outdoor
stadium thing with maybe 10,000 people and we got them to wave their hands from side
to side. It was a total arena-rock moment. Then I ran back and jumped on the drums.
Then Krist sprinted out onstage, and picked up Nate's bass and we played 'Purple Rain.'
"

The Foo Fighters with Talk Show and Treble Charger, 7 p.m. Thursday, Roy Wilkins
Auditorium, 175 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, $17; 989-5151.


Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl Elaborates On New Home Studio, More Nirvana Releases?

The Foo Fighters may be opening for the reformed Black Sabbath this summer, but recently
head Foo Dave Grohl was looking for a slice of tranquility.
	"I went back to the East Coast to Virginia and Washington D.C. where I grew up and
looked around for farms," says Grohl. "I'm thinking about buying a farm out on the East
Coast and building a studio on it." 
	The serenity of rural life was probably exactly what Grohl needed last year. As if
a hectic touring schedule wasn't enough, the Foo Fighters also successfully executed a
mid-air personnel reshuffle following the departure of road- weary guitarist Pat Smear
-- a subject Grohl isn't quite sick of talking about yet. 
	"We don't really miss Pat -- but of course we miss Pat because he's a friend and
everything," says Grohl. "But the band is better than we've ever been. It feels better and
it's tighter. My goal has always been to be as powerful live as the Bad Brains -- the band
from Washington D.C. that were totally amazing -- and we're not that close yet, but we're
getting there. 
	"Of course we miss [Smear] in spirit," Grohl continues, "but the band sounds a thousand
times better than we ever have, so that's kind of nice. We knew for the longest time that Pat
was going to leave, before the album even came out." 
	Can Grohl see the day when the Foos might be a trio? "No, actually you know what? We
considered that when Pat left the band. We talked about being a three- piece and I mean, I
don't really think... I don't know... We joke about it like, I'm going to be the next person
to quit, you know? Eventually it's just going to be [drummer] Taylor [Hawkins] and
[guitarist] Franz [Stahl]." 
	Still on the subject of trios, the rumour mill has it that further material by Nirvana
will be released at some stage in the future, though Grohl doesn't know exactly what or when. 
	"I have no idea," he says. "I haven't talked to Krist [Novoselic] in maybe a month or
two.Apparently there's talk of another release on Geffen of unreleased material. I get asked
aboutthat all the time and I'm not entirely sure what it is. As you can see I'm sort of out
of the loop. When something really starts to happen, then Krist and I usually get the call and
say, 'OK, this is what's going on,' and we either say yes or no, and I haven't been contacted
about anything, really. 
    "A lot of that stuff is totally out of our control too," he continues, "which at times can
be pretty maddening when people go out and try to exploit this friend of yours that's not around
anymore to defend himself, and there's really nothing you can do." 
	However, according to a Geffen spokesperson, there are no Nirvana releases on their 1998
release schedule at the moment. 
    In any event, Grohl seems comfortable that the Foo Fighters are now seen in their own light
and on their own terms, rather than operating in the shadow of the N band. 
	As for the Sabbath dates, a spokesperson at the Foo Fighters' publicity firm, Nasty
Little Man, says it's not 100% confirmed yet, but there is talk of the band joining Sabbath on
the European trek of the 1998 Ozzfest this summer. 
						-Murray Engleheart of Allstar.com


Hard Working Foo Fighters May Play Overseas Ozzfest





Contrary to reports on the Internet, the Foo Fighters will not be
"opening for Black Sabbath" in Europe, although sources at both
the band's management and publicity offices confirm the band is in
discussions to play the tentatively scheduled European Ozzfest later
this year. The Ozzfest, which is expected to feature another Black
Sabbath reunion with festival founder Ozzy Osbourne, is making
plans for an overseas trek, but at this stage it's unknown if it will be
comprised of just one date or a short tour.





The Foo Fighters remain one of the hardest working bands in the
business. They toured Europe in December, Asia in January and
are currently down under for a tour of Australia. They begin another
extended trek across America in April, almost a year after they
began touring to support their latest album, "The Colour and the
Shape."





Their new video for the single, "My Hero," debuted on MTV's 120
Minutes this past weekend, and on February 25 they'll find out the
results of their two Grammy Awards nominations.





It won't be long before the band calls Seattle a nice place to visit,
but not home. Grohl has told reporters that's he's looking for a farm
close to his east coast Virginia/DC area roots. The newest member
of the Foo Fighters, Franz Stahl, who replaced guitarist Pat Smear,
still hangs his hat in DC. Stahl played with Grohl in his pre-Nirvana
band, The Scream.




Bassist Nate Mendel is also cutting a major Seattle tie. He was
scheduled to record for Seattle's Sub Pop Records with his
previous band, Sunny Day Real Estate, which also features former
Foo Fighters drummer William Goldsmith, but recently pulled out of
the project, opting to devote all of his time to his current band. A
rep for Sub Pop confirms that Sunny Day Real Estate are currently
auditioning bass players. SDRE hope to start recording in April with
Goldsmith, vocalist/guitarist Jeremy Enigk, and guitarist Dan Hoerner.




-- Article from MTV