What’s your favorite Foo Fighters song?
I put an old mix cd on in my car and a live acoustic version of “Everlong” was on it. I really love some of the Foo Fighter’s songs, I think Dave Grohl is a really talented songwriter. He’s able to do that thing I love—make songs that are both energetic and melancholy at the same time.
But they’ve never been a band that I listen to very much. Besides one of their early albums that got a lot of play at an old workplace, I don’t think I’ve ever sat through an entire album. (That early one was really good, though.) I love certain songs, though—and although most of them got grossly overplayed, I’ve never gotten sick of them.
My very favorite is one that wasn’t a hit, I don’t think—”Stacked Actors.” It’s the angriest song I know by them. (If anyone knows of any other songs they have like this, please fill me in.) I’ll post it to the radio.blog.
Hmmm. I’m going to have to go with “None of them”
Comment by gabby — April 30, 2008 @ 9:28 am
The Foo Fighters put me to sleep. I’ve tried to like them, I really have. Dave Grohl seems like a funny guy (though he seems to like to shove it in your face with every music video), and he has a reputation as an excellent musician (he was awesome to watch as a drummer), but I’ve just never heard one Foo Fighters song that did anything for me. I mean, the band is played on regular rotation in the chain grocery store here.
Comment by kwk — April 30, 2008 @ 9:33 am
The acoustic versions of Hero and Everlong give me teh chills every time I hear them. They’re great, one of the few bands I can usually stand listening to a full album.
Comment by jjohnsen — April 30, 2008 @ 9:45 am
Everlong is a great song.
(I’m most impressed with Grohl for his Probot record, though.)
Comment by Susan M — April 30, 2008 @ 9:47 am
Everlong, for sure. The video is great, too, directed by Michel Gondry.
Comment by Supergenius — April 30, 2008 @ 10:03 am
I love the acoustic Everlong as well. Although I’ve never been a huge Foo Fighters fan.
Comment by Clark — April 30, 2008 @ 10:28 am
Yeah I have never known what to do with the Foo Fighters. I like the songs when they are on the radio. They really do rock hard when you listen to the recordings (the drummer beats the hell out of that kit). But for some reason they just don’t do much for me in the end. I have never wanted to buy an album and they are the type of band I often skip on the iPod. Not sure what the reason for that is…
Comment by Geoff J — April 30, 2008 @ 10:30 am
Ditto Geoff. I’m not sure why either. The stuff of theirs I like is usually solo acoustic performances by Grohl.
Comment by Clark — April 30, 2008 @ 10:49 am
Apparently, Grohl played every instrument on their debut album. I love playing “Learn to Fly” on Rock Band, and the video to that song is a creepy masterpiece. Grohl is also the only artist to have a song on Rock Band with two different bands. Kinda cool.
Comment by MCQ — April 30, 2008 @ 11:05 am
I’m not a big Foo Fighters fan, but I like “Everlong” too. I think my favourite of theirs is “What If I Do?” from the In Your Honor album
Comment by Rebecca — April 30, 2008 @ 11:22 am
Everelong is great but since you’ve all said it, I really like “Walking After You.”
Comment by John K. — April 30, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
I guess they’re on par with Weezer for me. Good pop songs but I never do a whole album. I like the Foo better than Weezer, though. (I’ve never put on a Weezer song to listen to it, and I have Foo songs.) I’m a sucker for that melancholy vibe.
I’m guessing Foo Fighers would be really fun to see live. I was surprised at how fun Weezer were when I saw them.
Comment by Susan M — April 30, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
Oh, I’d take Weezer over Foo any day. I agree that they’re song-by-song bands both, but Weezer just has more sounds I like.
Comment by Supergenius — April 30, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
Susan, Foo Fighters are indeed fun to see live, although I saw them in ’96, back when they were just that guy from Nirvana or, for some, that mentos guy.
Comment by Eric Russell — April 30, 2008 @ 2:07 pm
There’s a good two handfuls of Foo Fighters songs I really like, but my absolute favorite is Good Grief off the debut.
Comment by Brian V — April 30, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
“everlong” is a fantastic song, as is “hero.” other than that i’m like a lot of others, lukewarm to indifferent to most of their other stuff. i wish dave grohl would just go back to drumming full-time, splitting duties between QOTSA and tenacious d. i just love him behind the kit. for example, the intro to “scentless apprentice.”
as for weezer, the first two albums were fantastic, and pretty much everything after that is forgettable at best. i doubt i’m the only one that feels that way.
Comment by mike d. — April 30, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
They’re not really one of my favorites either, but 10 songs of theirs I like:
1. All my life
2. I’ll stick around
(those two are the most like Stacked Actors, maybe)
3. Big me
4. Breakout
5. Everlong
6. Learn to fly
7. Stacked actors
8. This is a call
9. Times like these
10. Tired of you
Comment by kuri — April 30, 2008 @ 3:14 pm
I’m a fan of the Foo, but then I’ll admit my rocker palate is not terribly sophisticated. I really liked their album that came out last year—I’ll listen to the whole thing without skipping any tracks (I’ve actually been playing it in my car all week). My favorites on that one are probably Let It Die and Come Alive. I also really like Home.
The acoustic Everlong is an all-time favorite of mine, and I miss those mentos commercials.
Comment by bythelbs — April 30, 2008 @ 3:34 pm
“Stacked Actors”
“One by One”
“Long Road to Ruin”
I’ve seen the Foo live three times now–they put on an excellent show. Fun live band.
Comment by Sherpa — April 30, 2008 @ 5:16 pm
Mide D.
You are not alone in your opinion of Weezer of late.
Comment by John K. — April 30, 2008 @ 11:02 pm
Um…I really like “Next Year,” but that might be latent Ed love.
Comment by John C. — May 1, 2008 @ 9:50 am
I saw Foo Fighters a few times back in 96ish too. Very very good shows, but I assume they play big venues now, which wouldn’t be as fun.
My roommates and I had a goldfish in college that loved Foo Fighters–always got much more active when they were on.
I admit to being out of the loop recently, so I go way back and concur: I love “walking after you”–I think it was for the X-Files movie. It does not rock–a slow song.
Comment by ESO — May 1, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
Totally an aside here, but…
I was a poor college student/aimless youth and scraped up some money for a single concert ticket. Hmmm, Posies or some band I’d not heard of? I went with the Posies. It was meh. The band I opted out of…Foo Fighters. Probably would’ve rocked. Not that I’m bitter
Comment by mo mommy — May 1, 2008 @ 5:04 pm
The Posies are from Bellingham, WA and were part of the Seattle pop scene in the 80s that a lot of people don’t realize existed. I saw them play once with Mudhoney, Nirvana and Tad—boy were they out of place.
Comment by Susan M — May 1, 2008 @ 5:11 pm
[...] things we could use the money for, like piano lessons and braces and food. But Susan M’s Foo Fighters post over at Kulturblog inspired me to check out their touring dates—they’re going to be [...]
Pingback by Fluffy fingers, Foo Fighters and Friday funnies « By the lbs — May 2, 2008 @ 9:37 am
Man, I will admit I really like the foo fighter, so you can gauge your opinion of my comment now; you have all mentioned great songs, but February Stars is another great slow melancholy jam that not many bands can pull off.
Right there with you guys on Weezer. The blue album would probably be one of the ones I need on a deserted island, and Pinkerton is alright, but they’ve sucked ever since.
Comment by peetie — May 6, 2008 @ 8:27 am