SOUNDTRACK: FOO FIGHTERS-Wasting Light (2011).
The Foo Fighters are huge. Duh. But when I think of that, it amazes me that a) the Foo Fighters are the band from “the drummer from Nirvana” and that b) while Dave Grohl knows his way around a melody, he is a metal dude at heart, and some of his most popular songs are really heavy. He can scream with the best of them.
I’ve enjoyed the Foos for many years, but I didn’t listen to their previous discs all that much (or at least I didn’t listen to the mellow disc from In Your Honor and I don’t remember anything off of Echoes…), but this new one is fantastic. There’s not a dull song on the disc, and Grohl has hit new heights of catchiness and singalong-ness.
I also like how noisy the disc is. It opens with some great discord before turning in a majorly heavy rifftastic scream fest in “Bridge Burning.” Despite the screaming and noise of the opening, the chorus is super catchy. “Rope” was said to be inspired by Rush. Knowing that, I can hear a lot of little Rush-isms in the track: The main riff is very Rush-like, there’s a cymbal tapping that reminds me of Neil Peart in the verses, as well as a little drum solo in the middle (with a cowbell!) and the solo is very Alex Lifeson. (It also feels longer than 4 minutes).
“Dear Rosemary” features Bob Mould on backing vocals (but you can hardly tell it’s him). It’s got a great chorus as well. “White Limo” is a wonderful punk song, completely incomprehensible lyrics and all. Meanwhile “Arlandria” (whatever that means) is another totally catchy track (I find myself singing it a lot).
“These Days” should be the next single: catchy and easy on the ears. I wonder why it hasn’t been released yet. “Back and Forth” has another great noisy riff. One thing that I like a lot about the Foos is that they put different things in the same song: so “A Matter of Time” has a very simple verse and a catchy chorus, but there’s some really buzzing heavy guitars too. “Miss the Misery” has a kind of sleazy feel which I think is new for the Foos. And “I Should Have Known” is a kind of angry ballad (I’d like to see Richard Thompson cover it).
The final track, “Walk” is a fast rocker that sums up the album really well. Bravo Dave Grohl. I can’t get enough of this disc, regardless of how popular it is.
[READ: July 2, 2011] Five Dials Number 15
After the brevity of Number 14, Five Dials Number 15 comes back to a fuller size. It’s strange to me that the issue is titled The November Issue, in part because they never tell us when the issues were published, but even more because this is actually the Québec Issue. Most of the authors are Quécbecers and the issue release party was in Québec as well.
I’d like to point out that while I was looking something up about this issue (more later) I discovered the Five Dials News Page. There are currently 43 pages worth of posts. But most of them are short. If there are any especially noteworthy ones, I’ll add them to reviews of future issues, but for the most part so far they’re just announcements of how well received their books are (I’ve already made notes to read two of them). They also give release dates for the issues, which is how I have been able to retroactively attach dates to some of them.
There are many Québecois writers included in this issue (thoughtfully translated into English), as well as some standard features by Alain De Botton and frequent contributors David Shields and Raymond Chandler.
CRAIG TAYLOR-On Our Québec Issue, and Young Novelists
Taylor’s introduction discusses many Canadian’s attitudes about Québec and their (seemingly perennial) vote concerning separation from the country (“so, let them go”).
creepy beard
The confusing thing here is that it appears that Taylor is Canadian (or at least lived there in 1995/6). But surely he is British, no?
There’s lots of information about Québec in here but no grand statement (except that Celine Dion’s husband’s beard is still creepy).
He also introduces a new section called “Our Town” which is all about London. The final section of the note says that
we are releasing our second Five Dials list of Top Ten Novelists Under Ten (or ‘Ten Under Ten’,or ‘Ten-Ten’, or as some of the writers themselves call the list: ‘Tintin.’) As you know, many of the writers we chose for our first Ten Under Ten list went on to things such as high school.
This is how I discovered the Five Dials News page, because there certainly was no Ten Under Ten section in a previous issue of the magazine. Of course, nor is there any mention in the news that I have seen. So I can’t decide if the whole thing is just a big joke or what. I assume it is (but I’d hate to not give credit to the waaaay precocious kids at the end of the issue). (more…)
I Just Read About That... 