The Foo Fighters are an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1994. Drummer Dave Grohl formed the group as a one-man project after the dissolution of his previous band, Nirvana, in 1994. Prior to the release of the band's eponymous debut album in 1995, Grohl drafted two members from the former band Sunny Day Real Estate, Nate Mendel as bassist and William Goldsmith as drummer, as well as fellow Nirvana bandmate Pat Smear as guitarist to complete the group. The band was small and young, and began with performances in Portland, Oregon, before gaining popularity. Goldsmith left during the recording of the group's second album, The Colour and the Shape (1997), and Smear's departure followed soon afterward. They were replaced by Taylor Hawkins and Franz Stahl, respectively, although Stahl left before the recording of the group's third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999).
Chris Shiflett joined as the band's third guitarist after the completion of There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The band released its fourth album, One by One, in 2002. The group followed that release with the two-disc In Your Honor (2005), which was split between acoustic songs and harder-rocking material. Foo Fighters released its sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, in 2007. Later that year, guitarist Pat Smear rejoined the band.
Over the course of the band's existence, three of its albums have won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album, and all six have been nominated for Grammys.
Musical style
When Grohl first started the band, its music was often compared to that of his previous group, Nirvana. Grohl acknowledged that Nirvana singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain was a major influence on his songwriting. Grohl said, "Through Kurt, I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that's stripped down." Foo Fighters also utilize the Pixies' technique of shifting between quiet verses and loud chorus, which Grohl said was influenced by the members of Nirvana "liking the Knack, Bay City Rollers, Beatles, and ABBA as much as we liked Flipper and Black Flag, I suppose".Writing and recording songs for the first Foo Fighters album by himself, Grohl wrote the guitar riffs to be as rhythmic as possible. He approached the guitar similar to how he approached playing a drumkit, assigning different drum parts to different strings on the instrument. This allowed him to piece together songs easily; he said, "I could hear the song in my head before it was finished."Once Grohl assembled a full band, his bandmates assisted in song arrangements.
The members of Foo Fighters meld melodic elements with harder sounds. Grohl noted in 1997, "We all love music, whether it's the Beatles or Queen or punk rock. I think the lure of punk rock was the energy and immediacy; the need to thrash stuff around. But at the same time, we're all suckers for a beautiful melody, you know? So it is just natural."Grohl said in 2005, "I love being in a rock band, but I don't know if I necessarily wanna be in an alternative rock band from the 1990s for the rest of my life. It might be nice to broaden our range, open up the dynamic, so we can go out and just make music". Grohl noted that the band's acoustic tour was such an attempt to broaden the group's sound
"Best of You" is a song by American hard rock band Foo Fighters, and the first single released from the band's fifth studio album, In Your Honor. Dave
Grohl notes that the song was written following appearances at John Kerry's campaign trail and is "about breaking away from the things that confine
you."To date, it is the band's only single to reach Platinum status in the US. The song holds the band's highest chart peaks in the US (#18), the UK (#4),
and Australia (#5), and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. It also topped Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for four weeks and Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks.
Following the band's performance at Live Earth, the song again entered the UK charts at #38. It had previously peaked at #4, giving them their highest
performing song there as well.
Background
In an interview discussing the band's successful singles, Dave Grohl notes that: "Best of You is funny because we demoted so many songs for In Your
Honor, I'd kind of forgotten about it. Our manager came in and said, "What happened to that Best of You song?" So we pulled it out and worked on it a little more."
Music video
The music video was directed by Mark Pellington, best known for his work on the video for "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam. He was inspired by the death of his wife a few months prior to the shoot, and was drawn to the song's notion of dealing with pain in life.
The video features the band playing on top of an abandoned hospital. Along with the band's scenes are clips that show pain, depression, or anger:
* Clips with children playing alone or with each other, one scene shows one girl hugging another.
* A car crash
* A lion pouncing on its prey, which is a vulture
* A snake attacks a rodent
* A zebra kicks another zebra behind itself
* A snarling wolf
* Crash test dummies being crushed by a car crash test
* Men and women showing affection for each other.
scrEEn ShOts
Do COmmeNT !!!!
General
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