Anybody watching this? Surprised this is the first mention of it, you buncha slackers.

Don't have HBO, so no. Not sure I'd have much interest in it anyway. I feel like Foo Fighters have been coasting along as a generic rock radio band for quite awhile now. Which is fine, but they haven't put out anything I've been eager to listen to for a long time now. What I've heard from Sonic Highways hasn't changed that opinion either.

I liked the series a lot before last week, but the last episode really sold me on it. The last one (LA) was basically Grohl's love letter to KYUSS and Rancho de la Luna, so it was awesome seeing this happening on freaking HBO!!! He kind of had to throw that Pat Smear/Germs stuff in there because he is in Foo Fighters and folks are bummed it wasn't more Black Flag, Slayer, etc. oriented, but it's soley Dave's documentary to make and he's spotlighting the stuff he that was important to him.

The Chicago episode was really top-knotch too, especially the Albini content. The DC/Nashville episodes were educational, but not in my wheelhouse at all. The Austin episode actually diminished that scene for me a lot. It'll be interesting to see what come out of NOLA, Seattle and NYC. I wonder if Grohl's love-letter to the Melvins will be as intense as the one to KYUSS was?

My first thought was "where is San Francisco?" and I've seen gripes about no Detroit, so maybe this will be something they can expand to a second season/album and pick up other spots. It's not like he can't afford doing it.

Yeah, I'm liking it a lot too. Last week's ep, as Red says, was stellar. I'd never seen a lot of the archive of Kyuss and that whole scene and to have Mario Lalli featured so prominently was killer. Although have to say the over the top swinging from Joe Walsh's nuts after he played the world's most generic solo was a bit much. The history and interviews in each scene are fascinating. But Bullio's also got it - they're a pretty generic band and the song at the end of each episode usually proves that out. Still, it's a super unique series and I'm glad HBO got behind it. Grohl's a likeable character…I keep wondering what Cobain would think. Chances are, aged 47 or whatever, Cobain would have outgrown his holier than thou punk-ethos. Too bad he didn't get a chance to, like Ed Vedder who's turned into a pretty relaxed, normal dude. But hey, I was an angst-ridden douche in 94 too.

Only the first two episodes have aired here in Sweden yet, but I dig it a lot. It's like a TV-series version of the Sound City-movie. But with more Foo Fighters, obviously.

I'm not really a fan of the Foo Fighters, but don't have much against them. They're pretty solid for generic radio rock. The show is great though. It's got much more of a history lesson vibe to it than a making of an album thing going on. Plus, they put motherfucking CHUCK BROWN on TV!!! Nobody gives that dude his proper due outside of DC. Plus, Across the River generator party footage?!?!? Insanity.

I have to cop to owning all the FF studio albums, but they stuff they put out on this is weak,,, even for them! Still I guess with all the killer content Grohl puts in these shows, you can just consider the FF segments the "commercial breaks", you'd get on network/non-premium cable TV.

Yeah, I also got all the FF-albums. Studio, live, whathaveyou. Love the Foo Fighters, man.

My roommate is a Foo Fighters fanboy so he is pumped about this. He kisses Dave Grohl's ass.

I still consider myself a fan, since they are some of the only listenable stuff left on mainstream rock radio, but I haven't bought an album since One By One. I certainly respect Grohl for his dedication to, and relentless championing of the punk and metal bands that shaped his life. Some people get rich and famous and they start palling around with Taylor Swift and the guy from Coldplay and they forget their roots. Not him.

That said, the new stuff I heard sounds like Tom Petty. I don't hate Tom Petty, but I don't really love Tom Petty either. It seems to be what happens when you hit middle age after spending too much time in California.

Clutch are big bocal supporters of Chuck Brown and the DC go-go scene in general. They play a CB tune over the PA right before hitting the stage every night.

Yep, they've been playing "We Need Some Money" for years now. Heartbeat, the conga player on PRF, actually played with Chuck for a while too.

I like this show a lot, short the Foo Fighters segments at the end since the songs are so boring and sound alike - might have been more fun if the song was in the style of the city they are visiting.

Nice he is giving all these underground bands and places some exposure.

I don't have HBO so I haven't seen it, but it still blows my mind that the replacement drummer from Nirvana managed to become not only the most successful cheerleader for underground rock, but pretty much all popular music, like even the stuff that passes for country music these days. Did not see that coming 20 years ago.

I think its an enjoyable series.
Weird stoner rock connection:
James Rota from Fireball Ministry is an executive producer on the show

This sells him short a bit imo. He drummed on a majority of the Nirvana stuff and pretty much ALL of their famous stuff. And while FF takes a big beating from "we the serious music fans" it is tough to deny that the turn he took after Cobain's suicide to the FF's debut and even that second album is/was amazing. He definitely picked up on some hooky, songwriting acumen in his short time with Kurt. And he just kind of stayed there in the late 90's with FF, but in the interim he's done that Probot album, a Killing Joke album, two projects/albums with Josh Homme, built a great, old-school analog studio in his domicile, the Sound City documentary and now this series.

I have to give it up to the guy that he just hasn't sat on his mountain of Nirvana money (and I know that wasn't what you were saying, but I just want to give credit where it is due) and sort of tried to advance the rock music art form as best he can.

I give him full credit for all the cool records he's played on and musicians he's helped promote and I've always thought he was a great drummer. I do like the guy (although I have no use for FF), but as I said before, it's amazing how relevant he is today at a time when aging rockers are kind of looked down upon by young kids and ignored by most everyone else.

The Seattle episode delivered as expected. That certainly was a strange studio they recorded in this time. I had no idea that existed! It's kind of weird he spent as much time on Heart as he did, because nobody around here really thinks of them as PNW phenom. Like Chris Cornell said, they catapulted to a pretty major act before any kind of scene presented itself. The Sonics footage was nice.

As expected though, the bulk focused on Sub Pop/Nirvana. The Melvins were regulated to a footnote, which was kind of strange considering they were Kurt's favorite band. I guess that's his prerogative, as it's his story to tell. Watching him listen to the early FF demos was fun. He's a good guy.

I flew out of SEATAC earlier this month and saw the Sub Pop store they have there. Pretty funny, but I guess it makes sense given the demographics of a lot of business travelers nowadays. I'd think vinyl would be a pain in the ass to tote around through air travel though. I would have stopped in there in I'd know Mark Pickerel works there. I remember the "Sub Pop Mall" they used to have there on 2nd & Virginia. Fun stuff.

It seems to be the role he's defined for himself over the last few years. Kind of the defender of the old way of album-oriented rock art, trying to keep these old ways alive in the age of mass media karaoke TV contests.

How many rockers that have "been there" (from a fame recognition standpoint) are astute, sober and care enough to put together a public speaking appearance like this?

I think it's because he's exactly what a "rock star" should be. He is fanatical about music, he involves plenty of others in his projects, comes across as an "everyman," and doesn't seem to take any of it too seriously.

He's the antithesis of the douche-rock that generally permeates rock-radio. Grohl's general likability also separates him from peers like Pearl Jam that still seem weary of their chosen careers.

AND he was great as the Devil in the Tenacious D "Tribute" video

The singing cymbal player was hilarious - don't you want them to actually do that?

"The Lead Cymbalist"

He rubs me the wrong way, comes off as a nice guy, until he has such mean words for american idol or glee. Wow, you rock, dude. You schooled fucking glee.

Foo's drummer sucks donkey balls as does the rest of the band. The songs are worthless pieces of shit, all the same, might as well be rap.

I don't need a history lesson from dave grohl, it's like he lifted everything he does from my facebook page 4-5 years ago. so irrelevant, all of it. I can't even begin to express how out of touch he is, these corporate fucks missed out on life and our planet. And no one is striving to write popular songs, except foo fighters. We all try to write good shit. Yeah I sit there and watch past rock stars tell their stories, he keeps picking the ones that benefit him, and everyone has heard of them. I'll admit I didn't know a lot of the bands until facebook, stonerrock is so pigeonholed we had real shows in youngstown, your zero member crowds were played out after the first year, you couldn't label any of our shows, but fuck can you label everything on these sonic highways episodes. I guess if the kid's trying, hey go for it, rock out that hair club for men. I guess since I have my band I'm allowed to talk shit. Maybe a member has more issues I wasn't away of on top of habits, they'll be the first out obviously, but then again. I can tell my band anything, they we're just jamming out.

Fun interview today:

He interviews Obama on Friday! About rock!