Man, Dave Grohl is one cool dude. On October 10th, Jared Champion, the drummer for Cage the Elephant, had to be rushed to the hospital for immediate surgery on a burst appendix. Cage has been opening for the Foo Fighters tour currently running, supporting Wasting Light. Apparently, when Dave Grohl found out about the predicament he immediately called Cage’s tour manager to offer his drumming services. Cage the Elephant excitedly accepted his offer and Dave ended up playing drums for the last 5 songs of the Cage set in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the Maverick Center.
“I had to pinch myself,” says Cage guitarist Lincoln Parish. “I turned around and Dave Grohl is playing the drums. It’s an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Nobody can replace Jared. But…it’s Dave fucking Grohl. If you’re going to be replaced by anybody, it might as well be the best.” Dave filled in again for part of their set at the Forum in Los Angeles on October 13. What a great story that shows not only the great relationship between the Foo Fighers and Cage the Elephant, but also how talented, kind, and bad-ass Dave Grohl is.
“For 20 years people have asked me what my dream band line-up is,” Dave Grohl said in a recent interview. “And now I can say I’m in it!”
Dave is refering to his latest project, Them Crooked Vultures. Formed in 2009 in LA California, the groups members include drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), and legendary bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin). The band also features Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age) as a live rhythm guitarist and back up vocalist when touring. Their self titled album was released on November 17, 2009 in the US.
The trio of Grohl, Homme, and Jones started working together sometime around or before 2005. That is when Grohl first made public remarks pertaining to the collaboration stating: “The next project that I’m trying to initiate involves me on drums, Josh Homme on guitar, and John Paul Jones playing bass. That’s the next album. That wouldn’t suck.” The band entered the recording studio in July 2009 and threw down their 14 track album. The single Mind Eraser (No Chaser) was made available to fans that had bought tickets to a live performance and then was offered on iTunes as a free download. The band later made their entire album available to stream through their website themcrookedvultures.com on November 9th. Them Crooked Vultures just finished up their fist USA tour in November and have moved on to a December Europe tour.
Josh Homme confesses “it was the most difficult record I’ve ever made knowing I wanted it to be as good as possible” while Dave Grohl enthusiastically adding: “I consider the album to be the most exciting thing I’ve done in my entire life.” The music is unique and can be described (not surprisingly) as a mix of Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age. I can only hope that Them Crooked Vultures will come back to the USA for another tour soon.
Listen to “New Fang” by Them Crooked Vultures below
Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, guitarist Joe Satriani and former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony have joined forces to form the supergroup Chickenfoot. They will have a self titled album coming out on June 7th that will only be available at Best Buy.
RollingStone.com interviewed Sammy Hagar about the new collaboration:
…each member’s rock roots play a role in the band’s music. “Kind of like who we are. Like kind of Zeppelin, Van Halen you know hard rock-y, Rush-y, kind of progressive a little bit. Hard rock. Hard sophisticated rock,” Hagar said, adding that “Joe Satriani, he’s the doctor man. He is the professor, this guy he’s awesome.”
When Hagar realized he didn’t like singing and playing guitar at the same time, he thought, “‘We need a great guitar player. Who’s the best guitar player out there?’ Joe Satriani. And Joe’s a buddy right here in San Francisco, so I called him and boom.”
As an attempt to make the album more tempting to purchase, the CD is reported to come with heat sensitive artwork with hidden pictures that can only be seen after warming the graphics with your hand. As a big fan of Chad Smith and Joe Satriani, I know that I am excited to hear how hard Chickenfoot can rock.
For more information, check out the full article at RollingStone.com
One of my favorite musicians is Dave Grohl. He is a multi-instrumentalist known best for his songwriting/guitar/vocals in the band Foo Fighters. Dave started out his career playing drums and eventually became the drummer for the band Nirvana. After the death of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, Dave created the Foo Fighters as the lead guitarist and singer. Check out this video of a Foo Fighters concert where Dave Grohl joins in with their drummer Taylor Hawkins for an awesome multi-kit drum solo.
Danny Carey is another one of my favorite drummers. He plays in the band Tool and is known for his technical yet fluid drum groves and the frequent use of irregular patterns and time signatures. Below is a video of Danny Carey playing the last two minutes of the Tool song Lateralus. In the video, Carey plays one of his custom drum sets which was built by well known drum maker Jeff Ocheltree. The drum shells are cast bronze and are manufactured from recycled Paiste cymbals. Carey only uses this drum set when touring in the United States as the kit is quite heavy with the bass drums alone weighing over 100 pounds each.
Below is a clip of one of my favorite drummers, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Chad and Flea, the RHCP bassist, play a couple songs and jam together. Chad explains what he is trying to accomplish as a drummer in an improvisational environment and the important connection between bass and drums.
