Foo Fighters: An Unnecessary Defense

Pitchfork not the review you can come to expect from Pitchfork, it still falls short of where it should be; Dave Grohl and Co. deserve more from Pitchfork, and yes, they deserve some rest. The Foo Fighters aren't a band I listen to often. They're not innovative, they're not groundbreaking, and they've been pretty much doing the same thing for the last four albums. But the Foo Fighters are a great band, a great band for right now, and a great band to embrace as great. Here's why.

1. The Proof Is in the Bloodline. Dave Grohl managed to ascend from Nirvana’s drummer to frontman for the craftsmen of modern stadium rock acts. They’ve got rock greatness in their lineage. Not only that, but they keep the bloodline alive: when Foo formed, we learned that Dave was the Paul to Kurt Cobain’s John. In other words, he’d rather rock through his crying than cry through his rocking. But it doesn’t mean the Foo doesn’t have the same irrationally gleeful teenage guitar-smashing rage impulses that Nirvana once had (that The Who essentially invented). The other comparable instance to this is in Joy Division and New Order; Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis killed himself. Out of that band formed New Order, who made pop songs that—while never quite carrying the same resonance of Joy Division’s smash hit “Love Will Tear Us Apart”—still managed to make a legacy of their own. The difference is that Foo Fighters’ repertoire is far better and extends far further than Joy Division’s. And Nirvana fans can’t view the Foo Fighters the same way Joy Division fans view New Order: with contempt.

2. Dave Grohl Keeps It Real. The Foo Fighters are a band that’ve been around for a long, long time now for an act of their size. They’ve have the same goofy aesthetic that they always have. Look at a band like U2: rooted in pompous, delusional self-seriousness, and now, they’re even worse. Look at a band like Foo Fighters—when they sell out the Garden, they did it without compromising integrity, either. They’re still the same Foo Fighters they ever were. They cover awesome bands. They talk shit on Metallica. They’re covered by awesome bands. Oh, and there was that whole Led Zeppelin thing. Point is, they’re a band who know they need to keep moving forward but also recognize the issues with being in a rock band and getting old. They have yet to stop playing as hard as they ever have (even if the Tom Petty-lite track from the Greatest Hits album isn’t their best).

3. They Make Good Music, Whether You Like It or Not. And not all of it’s perfect, and not all of it will be enjoyed by all people. But there’s a Foo Fighters song for everybody. “Big Me” was the goofy late 90s single that tried to jokingly lift grunge spirits, but “Monkey Wrench” was the one that tried to wake them up and get them out of their funk and rocking again. Same with the epic “Everlong,” “My Hero,” and “Walking After You” from their second album, The Colour and the Shape. This is a band who’s sophomore album was epically better than their first, a hit. We should’ve seen There Is Nothing Left to Lose coming, then: huge epic pop monuments to ascendancy with “Learn to Fly” and ballad-rock “Next Year,” but not without the Courtney Love-trashing, thrashingly pissed, bottled-up rage let loose on “Stacked Actors.” One By One had the rebirth-revival-rock of “Times Like These,” and more of where “Monkey Wrench” was once drawn, the “wake the fuck up” rock of “All My Life,” which came around again in “The Pretender” from Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace , but not before they crafted another hit out of “Times Like These” with “Best of You” from In Your Honor. Are you getting the point? This is one of the few bands who resisted putting out a greatest hits record until they’d actually earned it. And have they. And yes, they’re epic, cheesy rock songs, but Grohl knows it, and knows we know it, and they just want us to play them loud and rock with their dumb, loud rock songs. Is that too much to ask? These guys deserve a break, and from most cynical hipsters who dismissively write them off, another listen. This is a solid, solid rock band.