WSPC SESSION NOTES FOR NOVEMBER 2014: LET US GIVE THANKS

FROM THE DJs STUDIO DESK:

I could never be thankful enough for all that music has given, and continues to give, to me.

Even if you happen to just be causal visitors to this site, the activity last month was of an unusually high frequency, and that was entirely based upon the sheer amount of music that I have not only been listening to but how deeply the music itself has inspired me to keep trying to write about it and share my thoughts with you. To think, not only did I receive two incredible Prince albums as well as a superior return to form from Weezer, I have been completely knocked off of my feet by the musical world of the Canadian power pop band Sloan as I have been pouring over their complete catalog after being  amazed by their current album release.

Now, my sense of gratitude continues with a musical figure who is himself embarking upon a mega-musical project which is, in and of itself, a project that is entirely about gratitude and tribute, and that artist is Dave Grohl.

In 2013, Dave Grohl, former Nirvana drummer and leader of the Foo Fighters, embarked upon a passion project with his motion picture documentary "Sound City," a film that I proclaimed as one of my top ten favorite films of the year. In that film, Grohl masterfully transcended the story of a legendary yet now defunct recording studio and beautifully extended the narrative into a cultural commentary about the importance of maintaining a human connection and the importance that connection plays--from the musicians to the entirety of the studio crew--with the creation of music in our increasing technological age, a time which is threatening to keep us isolated from each other.

Now Grohl has boldly extended this concept even further.

This month will see the release of "Sonic Highways," the latest album from Foo Fighters and clearly their most ambitious undertaking to date as the band visited eight legendary studios in eight different cities to create the songs, utilizing whatever inspirational vibes each city and its musicians and inhabitants happened to deliver to them. As an especially crucial supplement to the album is a new eight part televisions series for HBO, which Grohl has directed, also entitled "Sonic Highways," and not only chronicles the making of the album but provides a historical background that was not only essential for the music being recorded but for anyone who loves music at all.

After having watched three episodes, it is terribly easy to pronounce that Dave Grohl has helmed a beautifully realized series that is as entertaining as it is inspirational. Simultaneously autobiographical as well as providing a crucial oral history, Grohl has only continued to prove what a sensational filmmaker he actually is in addition to being a fine documentarian, historian, breathlessly gracious host and endlessly fascinated music fanatic. He is nothing less than a Keeper Of The Flame and the gratitude he exudes towards all musicians is tremendously palpable.

As for the music itself, well...believe it or not, I have to admit that I was not terribly impressed with "Something For Nothing," the first single as well as the first song from the new album, slyly sneaking in a reference from the opening moments of Cheap Trick's "Live At Budokan" (released February 1979). Granted, I did not listen to the song very closely when I first heard bits of it as I guess it all felt like the same whisper to a roar dynamics that we have heard from the band time and again. But that said, it was not until I watched the premiere episode of the television series that the power of the song fully emerged and revealed itself to me. It literally raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

Within that first episode, which is set in my hometown of Chicago, Grohl conducts several insightful interviews with blues legend Buddy Guy, Cheap Trick songwriter/guitarist Rick Nielsen and legendary punk rock musician/music producer Steve Albini, in whose studio "Something For Nothing" was recorded and with Nielsen as special guest. Grohl provides the musical connections and lineage between the three artists as he illustrates how Guy transformed the blues with his then unprecedented style of guitar heroics, how the blues then influenced Nielsen's guitar playing which also then inspired some of the fury of Albini's specialized brand of unrepentant punk rock. And in all three cases, we are given a picture of three very different musicians who all created and changed everything that came before them into something new...literally, something from nothing.

By the episode's conclusion, we hear the completed song in full with a gorgeously filmed performance piece. The opening of "Something For Nothing" is haunting and quietly hushed as if we are hearing the soundtrack of an individual entering a foreign land-the proverbial stranger in a strange town who is simply trying to find his or her way. As the song begins to build itself upwards, I loved how Grohl wrote lyrics that incorporated key statements, phrases and subjects directly from his interviews. For instance, lines like "a button on a string," "looking for a dime but found a quarter," and "you can never make me change my name" all emerged from Grohl's interview sessions with Buddy Guy as he described his arrival to Chicago, meeting Muddy Waters and his beginnings with forging a lifelong friendship and musical partnership that would sustain him for the entirety of his career.

Another line, "But in the end we all come from what's come before" demonstrates the musical lineage between disparate figures like Buddy Guy, Rick Nielsen and Steve Albini to the Foo Fighters themselves, as they all are forged from the same tradition and have embarked upon the same paths and hoped for destinies as each other. Once Grohl sings lines like "I had to be what never was"
and especially the howling defiance of the line "Fuck it all, I came from nothing," the band voluminously sums up the trajectory of every performer who ever felt the soul stirring desire to make music because that was precisely what they were born to do and there was nothing else that could satisfy their respective spirits.

And that's what makes "Something From Nothing" transcend a standard hard rock song and become the sound of an existential hurricane of inspiration made into reality. It is the voice of spiritual deliverance and not just of Guy, Neilsen and Albini, but also of every immigrant to arrive in Chicago determined to survive and make a name for themselves and the legacy of their lives. It is a hell of a way to not only begin an album but to offer tribute to a city and to music itself!

As I continue to watch this series and await the album, as well as what looks to be the final album from Pink Floyd, I will endlessly give thanks to music as I am just unable whatsoever to imagine what life and existence would be like with out its presence and influence.

I sincerely hope that you find sometime to give thanks to music this month as I firmly believe it to be one of the most blissful art forms we have been blessed to have been given.

And as always.......PLAY LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!