The great charm of the Foo Fighters sound, according to Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons often cites the Foo Fighters in interviews as the last great rock band. For the vocalist and bassist of Kissno one managed to succeed the group led by Dave Grohl in terms of growth, to the point of, like them, playing in large arenas.

But the analysis of Simmons regarding the Foos It’s not just quantitative. The hard rock veteran sees a lot of quality in the band born from the “ashes” of Nirvana.

In a 2015 interview with The Quietus(via website Igor Miranda), Gene was asked to list the best albums of all time in his opinion. The Color and the Shapesecond album from Foo Fighters, made the list. Released in 1997, the work features hits such as “Everlong”, “Monkey Wrench” and “My Hero”, plus B-sides that fans love, like “Walking After You” (which even won a music video), “Hey, Johnny Park!” It is “February Stars”.

Initially, Simmons reflected on how the Foo Fighters was impacted by many people’s initial preconceptions about being a band related to Nirvana. please note that Dave Grohl, then a drummer, he decided to form the group — and take over the main microphone — after the death of Kurt Cobain.

“The problem with this band is that it came from a grunge background, obviously Dave Grohl came from Nirvana. But he plays guitar as well as or better than Kurtin addition to singing very well.”

Then the frontman of Kiss pointed out what he believes to be the great charm of the sound of Foos. For him, Grohl he uses pop music standards and not blues, a genre that influenced rock so much, when composing his songs.

“The most interesting thing I find about Foo Fighters, and songs like ‘My Hero’, is that they are based on pop melodies. Not blues-based. Which is really interesting, having that big wall of guitar with pop melodies and interesting lyrics.”

Gene Simmons, Foo Fighters and… Blur

As he continued his story, Gene Simmons highlighted that The Color and the Shape brings “the right songs and has the necessary attitude”. The musician from Kiss recalled that he had a great disappointment with another renowned band in the 1990s: Blur.

“You can have good songs on an album, but… well, I remember receiving the album from Blur (namesake, 1997) after hearing that ‘Song 2’ and I was shocked to find that the rest was just synthesizers and stuff. What the f*ck is this? You hear ‘Song 2’ and think, ‘Wow, that’s great!’ and then you hear the rest of the album and it’s like ‘REEEOOW REEEOW’. It’s like The Communards or something. Almost electronic music or something.”

In the view of the (literally) loud-mouthed bassist of Kiss, an album needs to be consistent and make a “statement song after song”. And he praised another band, this one older, for making albums that bring unity: the AC DC.

“Perhaps the most consistent band is AC DC. Song after song could almost be the same track. There’s a great interview with Angus Young where a reviewer says, ‘I don’t mean to insult you, but I think your new record sounds the same as your last record.’ Angus said: ‘I don’t agree. I think our new record sounds like every record we’ve ever made.’ Sometimes the biggest criticism you can give can be the biggest compliment.”

Back to The Color of the Shape, Simmons describes the album as “consistent”, especially for “making a statement”.

“What that means is they can take that song and play it live and it should sound similar, consistent. I would include more if I could, but when you pick an album, it’s not just a standalone item. It’s about what’s going on in your life, where you are and so on.”