FOO FIGHTERS: HIATUS? WHAT HIATUS?

Dave Grohl tells Rolling Stone that the Foo Fighters will do their next album with Butch Vig, who he of course worked with nearly twenty years ago on Nirvana's Nevermind. (Dave also filled in for Vig on drums on "Bad Boyfriend," from Garbage's most recent album). He says that he and Taylor Hawkins are already working on new songs. I kind of thought that Them Crooked Vultures would be a year long project, but maybe that won't be the case. I do hope they work together in the future though. On the other hand, I've read that bassist Nate Mendel is reuniting with Sunny Day Real Estate for a tour, so who knows if there's an actual schedule for the Foos to return to active duty.

THEM CROOKED VULTURES AT ROSELAND

OK, the above performance isn't from Them Crooked Vultures' Roseland show, it was two nights before on Saturday Night Live. But like on SNL, they were big, bad, riffy and had mad swagger (in the parlance of the times). They were a heaving juggernaut of awesome heavy blues-based (but not blues reverent) rock. TCV is on the cover of the new Guitar World, and in the feature, frontman Josh Homme says that he would have had a real problem if he felt like he was filling in for Robert Plant, Jimmy Page or Kurt Cobain. It's actually the perfect attitude to have. It allows the group to be their own group and not a "supergroup." Also in the article, it looked like Dave Grohl kept Josh from making the band too riff-y and not song-y enough... there are some killer riffs and great songs on the album, but I wish they worked on the songs a bit more. That said, they were righteous live, especially on "Scumbag Blues." It was great to see Dave Grohl playing drums (I never saw Nirvana; I've seen Dave play drums a bit with the Foo Fighters and I saw a Mike Watt gig when he played drums for most of the show). This was the first time I ever saw John Paul Jones perform: I have seen both of his surviving Led Zeppelin ex-bandmates, but never John. He was just as cool as you would expect. He's 64 and playing super heavy rock with guys decades younger than him. He looks great, sounds great and his fingers move super fast. I've heard that Them Crooked Vultures are thinking about the next album already. Here's hoping they knock it out quickly, I can't wait to hear where they go from here (with apologies to Dave's bandmates in the Foo Fighters).

Honorable mention to guitarist/keyboardist Alain Johannes, who plays with the band at their live shows. A former member of Eleven (I saw them open for both Pearl Jam and Soundgarden), he also plays with Homme in Queens of the Stone Age and on Josh's Desert Sessions albums, he really added to the band's live sound.  They should have him join as a full member, even though he isn't famous.

SOMETIMES IT'S WORTH STAYING UP FOR THE ENTIRE "SNL"

Them Crooked Vultures was the musical guest last night on Saturday Night Live, and they rocked pretty hard. I usually don't stay up until the end of the show, though, since their last half hour is usually 1 minute long throwaway skits followed by commercials. But this skit apparently was the last one of the night, and featured TCV drummer Dave Grohl. Good for SNL for using Dave's comedic skills!

COACHELLA: MUSE, FAITH NO MORE, THEM CROOKED VULTURES

I'm probably not about to go camping in the desert, but if I were going to, I'd do it for this year's Coachella festival. The lineup has some great artists: Them Crooked Vultures, The Specials, Muse, Faith No More, Les Claypool, Devo, Sly & The Family Stone, The Dead Weather,  and de la soul. Plus some younger artists who I like, including LCD Soundsystem, She & Him, The Avett Brothers, MGMT, Coheed & Cambria, The Raveonettes, Sia, Corinne Bailey Rae, Porcupine Tree, Shooter Jennings, Band Of Skulls, Spoon and King Khan & The Shrines.  And "Thom Yorke???"  I presume that name is because Thom Yorke hasn't named his new project. Great lineup.  I love that Pavement - the big deal reunion of the year - are billed beneath a cartoon band, Gorillaz.

BEST OF THE 00's: DAVE GROHL

I remember watching The Backbeat Band on the MTV Movie Awards in 1994 and wondering if Dave Grohl would ever play to such a large crowd again.

At this point, of course, Nirvana had ended with Kurt Cobain's death, and no one could have anticipated that Dave Grohl would have become what he became. Dave was playing drums for a "supergroup" that also featured Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli, Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner (a huge star at that time), Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Don Flemming of Gumball and Mike Mills of R.E.M. They recorded an album of garage rock classics for the soundtrack of the film Backbeat, about the early days of The Beatles when they were playing clubs.

Of course we know how it all turned out: Grohl became the singer/songwriter/leader of Foo Fighters, one of the biggest rock bands of the second half of the '90s. 1995's Foo Fighters (essentially a solo album on which Dave played everything, except one guitar track by Dulli), 1997's The Colour and The Shape and 1999's There Is Nothing Left To Lose showed that Grohl was a great songwriter and leader in his own right, certainly influenced by Nirvana, but not afraid to go more metal, or more pop. Refreshingly, he didn't have a problem with being popular, playing arena stages, and rubbing shoulders with classic rockers.  That would continue in the '00.

2000's releases were a cover of Pink Floyd's "Have A Cigar" for the Mission Impossible II soundtrack (Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins sang lead, and Queen's Brian May played lead guitar), and a bunch of guest appearances.  Dave, along with Frank Black and David Bowie guested on a great song, "Jewel," from Bowie (then-) guitarist Reeves Gabrels' solo album, Ulysses.  In interviews, Grohl expressed hope that those musicians would work together again (which never happened). Also that year, Dave wrote, sang, and played drums on "Goodbye Lament" from Tony Iommi's debut album Iommi. Grohl has always had a great sense of humor (remember the Nirvana In Utero commercial with Bobcat Goldtwhait, and the Foo Fighters "Big Me" video?). In 2001, he played drums on Tenacious D's debut album, a rocking album.

Speaking of rocking, in 2002, he briefly joined Queens Of The Stone Age for the Songs For The Deaf album, probably the best album Dave played on in the '00s. The lineup at that point was singer/guitarist/songwriter/founder Josh Homme, along with bassist/vocalist Nick Oliveri and singer Mark Lanegan (formerly of Screaming Trees). I don't always buy into the Queens, but I have a lot of respect for Josh, and this is his finest moment. The album really overshadowed the next Foo Fighters album, One By One, which came out later that year, and that point, I kind of wondered if Dave was still into the Foo Fighters.

There were more sessions: he played guitar on Bowie's cover of Neil Young's "I've Been Watiting For You," played drums and some bass on Cat Power's You Are Free album and played drums on the entire Killing Joke self-titled album (reportedly free of charge).

In 2004, he put out the long-talked about Probot project. A full-on underground metal project, Grohl was recording (on his own) metal jams in the style of some of his favorite old bands.  Eventually he started calling the frontmen of those bands to contribute lyrics and vocals, and the album includes Lemmy, Max Cavalera, King Diamond and Mike Dean of Corrosion Of Conformity among others. The album got respect among real metal fans who didn't give a shit about Nirvana or the Foo Fighters.

In 2005, he played drums on one of Garbage's best songs, "Bad Boyfriend" (filling in for the band's usual drummer, Nevermind producer Butch Vig), and also on most of Nine Inch Nails' With Teeth. It turns out that these outside projects help keep him inspiried for the Foo Fighters, because on the next album, the double CD In Your Honor, he seemed rejuvinated.

Named in tribute to John Kerry (who Grohl "opened" for on his campaign trail in 2004), the album was half rock and half more acoustic stuff.  The acoustic side had some notable guests, including Norah Jones, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones. This was the best of the decade's three Foo Fighters albums, and led to two tours: a rocking arena tour and an acoustic theater tour, which yielded the band's first live album, Skin and Bones. The album featured a song that Dave wrote while in Nirvana, "Friend of a Friend," and during the tour Dave started playing "Marigold," the Cobain-less Nirvana tune that he wrote and sang.

In 2006, Dave returned to rocking and comedy by reprising his role as Satan (first played in Tenacious D's "Tribute" video).  This time he played the role in the D's film, The Pick Of Destiny, also adding satanic vocals to "Beezleboss (The Final Showdown)."  The next year saw another great Foo Fighters album, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace. Since then, they've released a very Petty-esque song "Wheels," for their Greatest Hits album, and of course now Dave is spending time with his new band, Them Crooked Vultures, featuring Josh Homme and John Paul Jones. I haven't even gotten into the Foo Fighters jams with John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page,  or the fact that Dave has also jammed with Paul McCartney.

The guy really has the best of all worlds: he can play loud rock and also acoustic, he's got a great band but can play in other bands and guest on other people's albums.  He can jam with McCartney and King Diamond. He's got the rock star lifestyle and remains a cool guy (and a family man at that). I imagine he'll be on the road for much of 2010 with Them Crooked Vultures, and after that, who knows.

JIMMY PAGE GETS ROAD ENVY

Jimmy Page tells Sky News that he has some new music ready, and that he wants to hit the road to perform in 2010. He, of course, wanted to tour as Led Zeppelin after the epic reunion concert from two years ago, but Robert Plant nixed the idea due to his tour with Alison Krauss (and he may not have wanted to do a Zep tour anyway). Now, John Paul Jones is preparing for a tour with his new band Them Crooked Vultures (with Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and Queen Of The Stone Age Josh Homme). Now Jimmy must be all, "I did that 'Zeppelin-legend-tours-with-younger-artists-thing' years ago when I toured with The Black Crowes as my band!"  Maybe he'll do something like that again.  I'm curious to see what form his music will take.  He's only dione one solo album (1988's Outrider), I wonder if this will be a solo thing like that or more of a collaboration.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: NIRVANA, FOO FIGHTERS, THEM CROOKED VULUTRES

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, if you enjoy reading my musings on music and you have a satellite radio, you can hear me Wednesday mornings on SIRIUSXM's OutQ Channel. I am a guest of The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick at about 9 am ET every Wednesday. (You can actually get a free online trial and listen on your computer at www.sirius.com/freetrial). This week, I am talking about albums by Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Them Crooked Vultures. Someone commented to me that the common denomonator is Dave Grohl, which is both true and false.

There are two new Nirvana releases out now: the first is the 20th anniversary edition of Nirvana's debut album, 1989's Bleach. Dave Grohl hadn't yet joined the band. Chad Channing was the drummer on that album. Supposedly, it cost $600 to make the album, and there are no outtakes, because they couldn't afford extra tape, so if they didn't like a take, they taped over it. So why get this reissue? Because it includes a live set from the era on the CD and on a bonus DVD. Channing plays drums on that gig -it is early Nirvana, really, really raw.


Then, there's Live At Reading, recorded on August 30, 1992. They were one of the biggest bands in the world at that moment, and Kurt Cobain was getting really sick of it. One complaint I've read about the CD is that it cuts the in-between song banter, which gives it a bit of context, there's a lot of Kurt's whining. On the CD, they cut that, so you hear a powerful set of awesome songs performed with fury (and some boredom). But some people think it's misleading I guess.

It's weird (or maybe not) that both Nirvana albums came out on the same day last week (they are on different labels, SubPop owns Bleach while Universal put out Reading), and on the same day, a Foo Fighters Greatest Hits album came out. When Nirvana first broke up, I remember Dave played drums for a "supergroup" on the Backbeat soundtrack (a film about the Beatles' early days as a club band). It was Grohl, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Don Flemming of Gumball, Dave Pierner of Soul Asylum and Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs. They covered all the same old songs that The Beatles covered. I remember seeing them perform on the MTV Movie Awards, and wondering when Grohl would get to play big crowds again! Around that time, drummer Stan Lynch quit The Heartbreakers, and Tom Petty invited Dave to join the band. He didn't, but he did play for them on one episode of Saturday Night Live. I remember hearing Kris Novoselic telling Eddie Vedder about Dave's new project on an episode of Pearl Jam's "Monkey Wrench Radio," and he played a few songs from the demo, which sounded really cool. A few months later, the Foo Fighters opened for Mike Watt (Dave also played drums for Watt) but no one really had heard of them! It was pretty great though. By all accounts, Dave is a cool guy, and I'm glad he's done so well. I saw the Foo Fighters headline an arena last summer, and it was a good show.

Finally, Them Crooked Vultures. I've written about them a bit already. It's Dave Grohl on drums (and I think some vocals), Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age and Eagles Of Death Metal on guitar and vocals and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin on bass and keyboards. Their album comes out next week, but they're letting you listen to it on their YouTube page. I've got to say, it sounds pretty awesome.

ON iTUNES: FOO FIGHTERS GREATEST HITS EP

Tomorrow sees the release of the Foo Fighters' Greatest Hits album. A deluxe version will have a DVD of the band's videos. But iTunes will have a cheapter EP version, which will just have the two new songs, "Wheels" and "Word Forward," as well as the acoustic version of "Everlong" and a cover of Paul McCartney's "Band On The Run" which is exclusive to the EP. Dave Grohl and Sir Paul are total bros: Dave played drums for Paul at the Grammys last year (and I think he joined them for "Band On The Run" at one of Paul's shows in the summer of '08). I watched part of the Foo Fighters exclusive Facebook show on Friday night, and it was pretty cool.

Of course, that's probably the last we'll see of the band for a while, since Dave is about to spend the next few months with Them Crooked Vultures. I imagine the other Foos - drummer Taylor Hawkins and guitarist Chris Shiflett - will do solo stuff, and bassist Nate Mendel may work with Sunny Day Real Estate again.

START THE LED ZEPPELIN RUMOR MILL AGAIN...

The other night at the Q Awards, Robert Plant told the BBC that he's been talking with the organizers of England's Glastonbury Festival about playing their fest this summer. The event has already sold out, without naming one performer! But the festival seems to like having a very hip bill with some prestigious bigger names headlining - such as Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Paul McCartney. Plant said to the "beeb": "There is a place for me there, but I have no idea who with." He's always so cagey: of course millions of people would be hoping that he is referring to another Led Zeppelin reunion (although, this time around, John Paul Jones is the Zep-guy with the busy schedule, due to his new band Them Crooked Vultures). But he could just as easily be referring to another performance with Alison Krauss. Of course, as great as Robert and Alison are, they probably wouldn't be the right choice to headline that festival.

THEM CROOKED VULTURES LAND NOVEMBER 17

Them Crooked Vultures - the band featuring John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin on bass and keyboards, Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters on drums and Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stones Age and The Eagles Of Death Metal on guitar and vocals - will release their self-titled debut on November 17. I can't wait to hear it. A friend of mine recently went to see them at Roseland in NYC, where they played all new music that no one had heard yet, and supposedly it was awesome.

Speaking of The Foo Fighters, I heard their new single "Wheels," from their upcoming greatest hits album, and it is very Petty-like. I like it a lot.

TWO NEW FOO FIGHTERS SONGS

I mentioned a while back that The Foo Fighters debuted a new song, "Wheels," when they played the White House's July 4th picnic, and that the song is going to be on their upcoming greatest hits album. Well, it turns out that there's going to be another new song called "Word Forward" which was produced by Butch Vig - who of course Dave Grohl worked with on Nirvana's Nevermind. (Dave also filled in for Butch Vig by playing drums on Garbage's "Bad Boyfriend.")

That will probably be the last we hear from the Foos for a while, as Dave is probably going to be spending a lot of time with Them Crooked Vultures in the next few months.

ANOTHER GLIMPSE OF THEM CROOKED VULTURES

I can't wait to hear their album, and see them in concert.

SO WHAT DO THEM CROOKED VULTURES SOUND LIKE?

Them Crooked Vultures is, as I've mentioned, John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme. They have a website, and here's 15 seconds of what they sound like. I'm sold already.

DAVE GROHL + JOSH HOMME + JOHN PAUL JONES = THEM CROOKED VULTURES

The Dave Grohl/Josh Homme/John Paul Jones band I wrote about will be playing their first gig this weekend according to Billboard. They also have a website. They're called Them Crooked Vultures. Pretty cool!