Before we went to see them this past Monday night, Vince and I had already heard that the Foo Fighters were gonna be backing the legendary Roger Waters on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as part of “Pink Floyd Week.” So when the band suddenly broke into a rendition of “In the Flesh?” from The Wall towards the end of their show, we lept to our feet with excitement, ’cause we thought that maybe, just maybe, they were about to bring Mr. Waters himself out on stage to perform.

Alas, no such luck. Luckily, though, the performance they did do with Waters for Fallon is now online, and you can check it out below. Vince asked, “How does Grohl get to perform with every single one of his heroes?” But I suspect he already knew the answer: “Because he is fucking awesome.”

And while we’re on the topic of Grohl and the Foos, I mentioned earlier this week that the band did, indeed, have a very special guest at the show — Grohl’s old Nirvana bandmate, Krist Novoselic, who played the accordian for FF’s “These Days.” You can enjoy some fan-filmed footage of that performance after the jump!

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One of the highlights of yesterday evening’s aforementioned Foo Fighters show was a guest appearance by Dave Grohl’s former Nirvana bandmate, Krist Novoselic*, on the tune “These Days” from the Foos’ most recent offering, Wasting Light. Novoselic’s cameo was meant to help celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the release of Nevermind, which took place this past Saturday, and even though Novoselic actually played accordian (!), not bass, on the song, it was still a fun way to commemorate the event.

Also a fun way to commemorate the event: The Dillinger Escape Plan’s cover of “Territorial Pissings” from that seminal release. It’s part of a Kerrang!‘s Nevermind tribute, which, like that magazine’s Master of Puppets anniversary album in ’06 or Metal Hammer’s more recent ode to the Black Album, recreates the entire record, with a different band covering each song. Only in the case of the Nevermind thinger, DEP is the only group that I both a) am familiar with and b) am a fan of. So you can basically listen to this and ignore the rest.

The cover doesn’t take many liberties with the original, but such a ferocious, punk-y song is still extremely well-suited for Dillinger’s particular talents. Also, they took out that wobbly Buffalo Springfield bit at the beginning, which always irritated me on the original recording for some reason.

-AR

*It should go without saying that the name following the phrase “a guest appearance by Dave Grohl’s former Nirvana bandmate” would be Krist Novoselic. I mean, it’s not like they were gonna bring out the remains of Kurt Cobain and parade him around for our amusement, y’know?

[via The PRP]

As recently reported and subsequently grumbled about by Axl, Krist Novoselic recently reunited with his former Nirvana bandmate Dave Grohl and Nevermind producer Butch Vig to record a song for the upcoming, as-yet-unnamed Foo Fighters album. Some weeks back, I did my own bit of grumbling over Grohl’s claim that the new record would be the band’s “heaviest yet.”

If there’s any speculation that the musically dormant bassist’s contribution might fulfill his former drummer’s prophecy, Novoselic’s documented trip to Hollywood’s Amoeba Records wont help things. Check out his selections — which include records from such hard rock luminaries as Lil’ Wayne and M.I.A.–in the above video. Sheesh.

-GS

The interwebs are all aflutter today because Dave Grohl has announced that his former Nirvana bandmate, Krist Novoselic, is going to make a guest appearance on the new Foo Fighters album — which is also being produced by Garbage’s Butch Vig, a.k.a. “The Dude Who Produced Nevermind.” This will mark the first time Grohl and Novoselic have recorded with one another since Kurt Cobain injected himself with enough heroin to kill an elephant, and then stuck a shotgun in his mouth, just to make sure that medical science didn’t get any bright ideas.

Look: I know Nirvana were cool, and I know that Cobain’s premature passing means they get to stay cool forever and ever and ever because the dude didn’t get to grow up to be lame like Billy Corgan and Chris Cornell, but I really don’t see any reason to get excited about this. Novoselic was never a songwriter; he was never even a particularly distinctive bass player. Cobain was Cobain and Grohl certainly beat the ever-lovin’ shit outta his drums, but Nirvana pretty much could have swapped out Novoselic for another bassist at any point and not missed a beat. This song isn’t gonna sound like Nirvana — you’d need to re-animate Cobain to make that happen — it’s just gonna sound like Foo Fighters. I’d wager that the bass lines won’t even be that special, since, like I said, Novoselic’s playing never had much discernible personality. So you’re not even gonna get the “What might that sound like?” curiosity factor that you might get from, say, Dave Lombardo filling in for Lars Ulrich at a Metallica show, or Duff McKagan joining Jane’s Addiction. Creatively speaking, this reunion doesn’t amount to much more than a gimmick.

All of that being said… I’ll take any excuse to post the below video of Novoselic hitting himself in the head with his bass at the 1992 MTV VMAs while Grohl taunts Axl Rose from the stage. This has to be one of the five proudest moments in MTV’s history, right?

-AR

People who care more than I do tell me that today is the anniversary of when they found Kurt Cobain’s carcass (’cause I guess it was hanging around a few days before someone stumbled upon it). That was sixteen years ago. It’s weird to think that he’s been dead longer than some of you have been alive.

I always liked Nirvana, but I never loved Nirvana. In fact I wrote an anti-Cobain piece back in 2007; I know a lot of you weren’t reading MS yet in 2007, so now’s a good time to check this out and tell me what a douche turd I am for kicking a dead man when he’s down.

Meanwhile, here’s Nirvana performing “Lithium” at 1992 MTV VMAs. I like this performance because a) Krist Novoselic hits himself in the head with a bass at the end and b) Dave Grohl goes out of his way to provoke Axl Rose, who was in attendance and performed with Elton John later that night. This lead to an infamous Rose-Cobain scuffle after the show. Good times. Good times.

-AR

The Intarwebs have been buzzing and seething over the inclusion of Kurt Cobain as a playable character in Activision’s popular Guitar Hero video game, his digitized ghost forever doomed to perform Bon Jovi songs at the whim of teenage boys. Most rational people assumed that this perceived offense against the deceased grunge rocker was the fault of his widow Courtney Love, who would have had to sign off the creation of this virtual atrocity. When called out on this via Twitter, by British music journo and former Cobain family friend Everett True, the unflaggingly graceful Love took the usual high road and launched into an inscrutable six hour tweet seizure railing against, among other things, former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.

Anyone with a fucking brain in his skull (NO PUN INTENDED!) should immediately question the notion that Grohl has any control over Cobain’s likeness. Logically, that responsibility would rest with the executor of Cobain’s estate. But of course, we’re talkin’ about COURTNEY FUCKING LOVE here, so logic goes out the window from the start. Fortunately, Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic have formulated a much more coherent response to the growing outrage expressed by Nirvana’s sanctimonious fans, most of whom have grown up to be the type of corporate sellouts that Cobain so obviously disdained.

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We’ve all been cringing at Courtney Love’s latest desecration of her dead husband for a quick buck. Thankfully, the Hole frontwoman and executor of Kurt Cobain’s estate isn’t standing in the way of an absolutely awesome reissue of Bleach, Nirvana’s classic grunge/sludge debut. First released twenty years ago on Sub Pop, the album has been remastered for the label under the direction of bassist Krist Novoselic and original producer Jack Endino.

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I have a beef with Krist Novoselic. Though he doesn’t know that I exist, I’ve written about him on my No Yoko No blog a couple of times. Nearly all of the music Novoselic has put out since his time with Nirvana I could pretty much do without, as he’s distanced himself from anything even remotely rocking. Of course, his membership in a reunited Flipper beginning in 2006 gave me hope that I’d once again hear something worthwhile from one of the first bassists that inspired me to pick up the instrument. Sadly, he left the seminal punk group holding the bag just prior to a U.S. tour this past Fall, forcing the band to cancel the dates on account of the short notice. In that band’s own words, Novoselic “has decided that touring is not something he wants to do, at this time.”

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