 While he was drumming with
Nirvana,
Dave Grohl was recording original songs at home that never received
public release. Those tapes would become the foundation of Foo Fighters, the
band he formed in 1995, after the death of
Kurt Cobain. Like
Nirvana, Foo Fighters melded loud, heavy guitars with pretty melodies and
mixed punk sensibilities with a sharp sense of pop songwriting.
Dave Grohl began playing guitar and writing songs in his early teens, as
well as performing with a variety of hardcore punk bands. In the late '80s, when
he was still in his teens, he joined the Washington, D.C.-area hardcore band
Scream as their drummer. During the final days of
Scream,
Grohl began recording his own material in the basement studio of his friend
Barrett Jones. Some of
Grohl's songs appeared on
Scream's final album, Fumble. After
Scream's 1990 summer tour,
Grohl joined
Nirvana and moved to Seattle.
After
Nirvana recorded Nevermind,
Grohl went back to the D.C. area and recorded a handful of tracks that would
appear on Pocketwatch, a cassette released by Simple Machines. For most of 1992
he was busy with
Nirvana, but when the band stayed off of the road, he recorded solo material
with Jones, who had moved to Seattle. The pair kept recording throughout early
1993, when
Grohl returned to
Nirvana to record In Utero.
Grohl had toyed with the idea of releasing another independent cassette in
the summer of 1993, but the plans never reached fruition. Following
Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994, the drummer kept quiet for several months. In
the fall of 1994, booking time in a professional studio,
Grohl and Jones recorded the album that became Foo Fighters' debut album in
a week. Boiling down his backlog of songs to about 15 tracks,
Grohl played all of the instruments on the album. He made 100 copies of the
tape, passing it out to friends and associates. In no time,
Dave Grohl's solo project became the object of a fierce record company
bidding war.
Instead of embarking on a full-fledged solo career,
Grohl decided to form a band. Through his wife he met
Nate Mendel, the bassist for
Sunny Day Real Estate. Shortly before the pair met,
Jeremy Enigk, the leader of
Sunny Day Real Estate, had converted to Christianity and quit the band,
effectively ending the group's career. Not only did
Mendel join
Grohl's band, but so did Sunny Day's drummer, William Goldsmith; former
Germs and
Nirvana guitarist
Pat Smear rounded out the lineup. The band, named Foo Fighters after a World
War II secret force that allegedly researched UFOs, signed a contract with
Capitol Records. The band's self-titled debut, consisting solely of
Dave Grohl's solo recordings, was released on July 4, 1995. It was an
instant success in America, as "This Is a Call" garnered heavy alternative and
album rock airplay. By early 1996, the album was certified platinum in the U.S.
Throughout 1996, Foo Fighters supported the album with an extensive tour,
enjoying a crossover hit with "Big Me" that spring. Late in the year, the group
began recording their second album with producer Gil Norton. During the
sessions, William Goldsmith left the band due to creative tensions, leaving
Grohl to drum on the majority of the album. Before the record's release in
the spring of 1997, Goldsmith was replaced by Taylor Hawkins, who had previously
drummed with Alanis Morissette. The Colour and the Shape, the Foo Fighters'
second album and the first they recorded as a band, was issued in May of 1997.
Smear left the Foo Fighters in the wake of the album's completion, and was replaced by
guitarist
Franz Stahl, whose stay proved short-lived; 1999's There Is Nothing Left to
Lose was recorded as a three-piece, with ex-No
Use for a Name guitarist Chris Shiflett signing on soon after. One by One,
the group's most polished production, appeared in late 2002, followed by 2005's
In Your Honor. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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