Foo Fighters s/t
scum stats: this is the original US pressing baby, i bet they only did 5000 copies
Foo Fighters are in town tonight, reason enough to dig into the shelves and listen to this one on vinyl for the first time in probably 15 years.
Bought it NEW at Car City Records in 1995. Major labels and vinyl in the mid-Nineties…did they have any idea what in the hell they were doing? I don’t think so.
I’d be hard-pressed to name a record I’ve spent MORE time with than this album. Junior high through high school this was a consistent Disc-man resident and I was so on-board that I’d even listen to this to soundtrack while falling asleep. By no means a “sleep” record, but that’s just how ON BOARD I was at age thirteen.
So many memories here…that ’95 4th of July weekend of release and 89x radio just playing the shit out of it, catching the world premiere of the “I’ll Stick Around” video, knowing they were playing a show at St. Andrew’s Hall in August but not even understanding how I could even TRY to go to that show (one of my bigger regrets in life) video-taping their December performance on Saturday Night Live, properly waiting in line to buy tix at the Harmony House in Grosse Pointe the moment they went on sale (at the SAME time Bob Seger was selling tickets for something like 8 shows in a row at the Palace), the “Big Me” video forcing me to have an appreciation for Mentos and hand-making my own custom package of “Foo-Tos" and then going to my first concert ever when they played the State Theater in March of ’96 and on and on and on.
In my basement with my best friend Nick Orozco, we poorly “covered” no less than four songs off this album (and at that same time were threatening to cover Nirvana’s “Nevermind” in its entirety). At the time this felt like the biggest most wide-reaching record in the world and with hindsight I realized the band probably just barely sold out the 2k capacity State Theater. These guys weren’t THAT big. But doesn’t matter, it’s all still huge in my mind.
My favorites here are the deeper cuts. When I heard (fairly recently) that Dave Grohl once played Kurt Cobain a version of “Alone + Easy Target” and Kurt responded with “FINALLY! Now I don’t have to be the only songwriter in the band” it made my heart feel all kinds of warm. I love that song. There’s a slow, subdued version of “Floaty” that is glorious. “For All The Cows” is one of those songs we did in the basement and it’s still so powerful…saw FF play it in Nashville at the Ryman in 2014 and I was over the moon. And the rise and free fall of “Exhausted” is so un-improvable, this record is forever burned into every section of my brain, synapses connected in ways words fail and every last solo, chord, vocal tic, burst of feedback feel as if they’ve been etched into stone tablets and could not be conveyed in any better manner.
My copy is a little bit soot damaged from the ’08 fire, but that just means it’s been with me all along the way, like these songs, like Nirvana, like any music that cuts deeper than everything else.
I’ve been hitting the Nirvana/pre-spawn of Nirvana, etc hard this spring. For me, having been to young to enjoy either The Foo Fighters at that time or Nirvana for that matter, I can only imagine. I was 6 when this album came out lol. I am envious of all of you who got to live through those simpler and more epic times, seemingly several generations’ last great “musical frontier”. That’s heavy music history, I mean I wasn’t even really old enough to follow The White Stripes like I now would’ve wanted to in the early 2000’s. That’s why I guess I’m over the moon to finally see a teenage musical influence for the first time: Jack’s tour, in Portland, OR this August. My town isn’t big enough to pull in musicians really, especially not back then, so driving 4.5 hours to Portland or Seattle is pretty much the only option (mountain pass weather permitting) and when you aren’t old enough to own anything more than a Walkman and a bike, well you aren’t going to many shows lol. BUT. My town or “mid-sized city” as Wikipedia terms it, has one claim to fame related to this post, The Foo Fighters bassist, Nate Mendel, grew up a few streets north of my house. His Wikipedia article pretty match sums up my teenage years as a musician, except for the inevitable “turn 18 and move to Seattle” part for me didn’t amount to anything except 2-3 months of free rent at a hostile that liked my solo stuff and let me play every night for people staying there, also some unlicensed street performances in Pike Place market lol, a far cry from surprise! meeting Dave Grohl and getting inducted into music history as not only a member of the Foo Fighters, but the ONLY famous person besides the author of the book “Fight Club” that the movie was based off of, yup, to be born in the good ol’ Richland/Kennewick/Pasco area, WA. From Wikipedia: “Mendel was born on December 2, 1968, in Richland, a mid-sized city in southeast Washington. His first instrument was the violin. As at the age of 13, Mendel started to get interested in rock music and joining a band; Mendel began his musical career in the hardcore band Diddly Squat, which only recorded a 7" single; After Diddly Squat ended, Mendel moved to Seattle, where he spent four months…” Funny how similar that is to my musical past here in Richland, even down to the violin lol. I used to have a Diddly Squat cassette tape that my cousin who went to school with Nate and his friends gave me, the tangible music is still around town in the hands of 3-4 vinyl “don’t even ask me to look at my collection” Scrooge collectors, but mostly it’s the “I should’ve kept that local punk band’s weird free stuff” of town, I don’t know where it’s buried but if I find it I’ll send it your way Ben, it’s fit for archival and it’s not bad music, it used to be my “they did it so I can too” reminder. I doubt you want any of my 2-3 bands demo tapes from 13 years ago, but Southeastern WA music DOES have some music history after all!! Now if we could only get the RRS to head up here… With my record collection growing (thanks to TMR and RSD..) and Hanford cleanup jobs declining I may side hustle my way into starting the first real record store here, as town grows, kids need access to the new “music frontier” of TODAY so they stop moving to that damn Seattle place and trying to be famous! Haha. These posts are always good at stirring up memories the time of the morning my 1 year old wants to be up for good. Coffee and check out the vault, fun stuff. Plan on being a regular and stealing more knowledge from here on out. From the only time zone it’s still dark outside, -J
I went to the show where they opened for Mike White (Ballhog or Tugboat? Tour) at St. Andrew’s Hall, they didn’t have a record out yet – only a fidget magnet of that cover was for sale at the show. I remember the first time I heard a track of this was when Pearl Jam did that radio show from Eddie’s house in Seattle. They played a few songs from this demo – all tracks that would be on the first record. My high school friends and I loved it… because, in those days – feeling like an old man, everyone in school had a “Seattle band” they loved because of radio play/MTV. Mine was always Soundgarden. But, anyhow… great show, great band in those days. I didn’t continue to follow them – nothing they did… I just forgot to check in with them as I got deeper into jazz and other stuff.
I’ve never heard that quote from Kurt, that’s really cool. I remember listening to that Nirvana box set that came out like 10 or so years ago and hearing Marigold for the first time (somehow my Nirvana phase transitioned to the White Stripes instead of the Foo Fighters) and thinking I should really dive into the FF
American Epic!! … wait … that is actually something else entirely!
Yes! So awesome man. “Weenie Beenie” has always been a favorite of mine along with those mentioned.
Just a great record.