#Greg Kurstin

[damonalbarn]

Stevie Nicks talks to Zane Lowe about her Gorillaz collab: Well, I have to tell you, it was really great. Because when I got the song... Because Greg Kurstin sent it to me. Evidently Elton John said to him... Well, I think he might have asked Elton to do something. And Elton said, "Well, I can't really sing with you. You don't write your words in the right place.""It's really, I think, choppy. And you sing... Well, I just don't know how you even sing. I don't think I can do it." Anyway, and I was laughing so hard. Because I had just done a song with Elton, and Elton, I adore. But I had to learn how to sing with Elton. I really had to practice for weeks to be able to sing this song called Stolen Car. And I did it, and I was right there with Elton, but it was hard. So anyway, so Greg tells me this. And I go, "Send me the song." He sends me the song, and I play it for everybody in my dorm house. I call Greg back, and I go, "Oh, I think this is now our new favorite song," and I haven't even sung on it yet. But yes, I would love to do this, and I'm going to... Listen, I'm going to prove him wrong. I'm going to sing exactly perfect with him.So I learned that song as if I had written that song and as if I was a Englishman, with that accent. And I love it so much. But this is the only thing I asked for. I said, "I'm not asking for anything except the 50 bucks I'd probably charge you. If you make a video of this..." Because that's how I know about the Gorillaz, is because of all their crazy cartoon videos. I'm going, "I want to be in the oil video." I want to be a Gorilla, and I want to have big, false eyelashes, and I want to have blond hair, right?So, that's what I said. I said, "This is my one demand that I will make." And so, they're doing it as we speak. And the whole song is... I think that song is somewhere between love and war. Because when it's... (singing) And then there's... (singing) My favorite part. But anyway, whatever it is, I can't wait till it comes out because I'm so proud of it. Now, I was an honorary Heartbreaker. I was an honorary Foo Fighter. And now, I'm an honorary Gorilla. I'm so happy.

audio

[greensparty]

My Concert History: Foo Fighters UPDATED

Periodically I do a rundown of my concert history of seeing a particular artist. In 2018, I did my concert history of Foo Fighters, but since then I actually need to update the list. Timing couldn't be better with their show at Fenway Park tomorrow, which I'll be at...and have to update this list again! Here now is the update concert history since that 2018 history was published:

- WBCN River Rave 6/8/1997 @ Great Woods (Mansfield, MA)

I didn’t catch any of Foo Fighters’ shows in 1995-96, but I wasn’t going to miss out when The Colour and the Shape was released. Taylor Hawkins had just joined the band, and it was a few months before Pat Smear left the band. The WBCN River Rave also featured Matthew Sweet, Morphine, Fiona Apple, Porno for Pyros, Primus, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Moby just to name a few. Their set was mostly the songs off the first 2 albums. One of the highlights of the festival!

- HMV Records 11/1/1999 @ HMV (New York, NY)

Me meeting Dave Grohl at their HMV in-store

Chris Shiflett had just joined the band. When There is Nothing Left to Lose was released, they did promotional blitz in NYC that included an in-store appearance at HMV. My ex-GF and I traveled down from MA to NYC for this. The band performed for about 40 min. mostly off the new album. Then the band signed copies of the new album and I got to meet them (read all about it here).

- WBCN Xmas Rave 12/1/1999 @ Orpheum Theater (Boston, MA)

Only a month after I got to meet the band, I saw them at the WBCN Xmas Rave, which also featured At the Drive-In and Ben Harper. They played about 13 songs, mostly hits and new album. Great show!

- 4/2/2000 @ Mullins Center (Amherst, MA)

They co-headlined a tour with Red Hot Chili Peppers (my first time seeing RHCP) with opening act Muse. Drove out to UMass Amherst to see this show. It was really cool to see the Foo Fighters in a much bigger venue, a preview of some of the arenas I’d see them in later. RHCP drummer Chad Smith came out and joined them on a second drum kit for “My Hero”.

- 7/3/2003 @ Hammerstein Ballroom (New York, NY)

Even though the band in retrospect isn’t a fan of their 2002 album One By One, its one of my favorites. Promoting the album, the band played 2 shows at Hammerstein with openers My Morning Jacket and Pete Yorn. They did quite a bit of the One By One album and during “Everlong”, a fan apparently proposed during that song!?! 

- Fuse TV Special 6/14/2005 @ Fuse TV studios (New York, NY)

Technically this is not a concert I saw, but I’ll explain why it made the list. I was working at the music video cable TV channel Fuse in 2005 just as the double album In Your Honor had been released. The band was doing a promotional blitz in NYC and stopped by Fuse to do a live performance 7th Avenue Drop show. I tried to go down to see them, but even as an employee and knowing so many people, I wasn’t able to go to the studio due to the capacity limit. But my friend who was working there, managed to get Dave Grohl’s guitar pick for me! Hence it being listed here even though it wasn't an official show I saw.

- 10/14/2005 @ Continental Airlines Arena (Rutherford, NJ)

My girlfriend (who became my wife) and two friends made the trek to NJ to see this co-headlining tour with Weezer and opening act Hot Hot Heat. This was a fantastic show, but the big highlight of the night was when they brought out special guest Roger Taylor of Queen, who played drums on the cover of “Tie Your Mother Down”, which Taylor Hawkins sang on. So much for “Never Meet Your Idols”! 

- 8/21/2006 @ Beacon Theater (New York, NY)

In 2006 they went on an intimate acoustic tour of theaters. I went to the Beacon Theater show with Frank Black (of The Pixies) opening. Further musicians they brought on this tour included Rami Jaffee (who became an official member in 2017), Petra Haden, Drew Hester and returning Foo Fighter Pat Smear, who officially returned as a member in 2010. It was almost like an episode of Storytellers as Dave Grohl talked about some of the songs and their meaning. Very special show!

- 2/19/2008 @ Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)

After the release of Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, the band began playing much larger venues. At this MSG show, Serj Tankian (of System of a Down) and Against Me! opened. Some of the additional musicians who played the 2006 acoustic tour came out for an acoustic section of the show that included the very first Triangle solo in MSG history from their percussionist. 

- 11/13/2011 @ Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)

By the time of 2011′s album Wasting Light, Pat Smear was back as an official band member. For their NYC show at MSG, the openers were The Joy Formidable and Social Distortion. They brought out a few special guests: Bob Mould of Husker Du played on “Dear Rosemary” and “Breakdown” (the Tom Petty song); and Joan Jett came out and did her song “Bad Reputation” with the band. The band also did Pink Floyd’s “In the Flesh”.

- 7/19/2015 @ Fenway Park (Boston, MA)

Obligatory concert selfie of me and my friend Tim with Foo Fighters behind us!

After the 2014 album and HBO series Sonic Highways, I hoped Boston would be an upcoming episode / recording. While on tour to promote the album, just a few weeks earlier, Dave Grohl broke his leg onstage, so for the remainder of the tour he performed on a throne. Even if he was sitting the whole time, it was one hell of a show (read my concert review here). Openers were Royal Blood and Dropkick Murphys. Highlights of the show included Grohl’s surgeon Dr. Lew Schon, who came out and sang The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” with the band; a brief cover of The Cars’ “Let’s Go”; a cover of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure”, and Godsmack’s Sully Erna joining for Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”. 

7/21/2018 @ Fenway Park (Boston, MA)

my friend Ron, Wally the Green Monster and me at Fenway Park

Taylor Hawkins onstage with Foo Fighters

My second time seeing them at Fenway Park, but this show was very special because I won a contest and got tickets to the show and got to stay at the nearby Verb Hotel and also earlier in the weekend I got to see Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett doing a solo show at City Winery. I wish I could have this experience more often to get to see a musician in a small intimate setting and then see them rock out in a stadium with a band (read my concert review here). My buddy Ron came up and we had a great time! Openers included Boston's The Monsieurs (who I interviewed earlier in the month) and UK's The Struts. Highlights of this show included a cover of Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" with Taylor Hawkins singing along with The Struts singer Luke Spiller, the band doing a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" musically while singing Van Halen's "Jump" along with producer Greg Kurstin on piano, and Grohl's daughter Violet (12 at the time) on back-up vocals. Looking back it was one of the best Taylor Hawkins' performances as he also did a drum solo.

Boston Calling 5/23/2023 @ Harvard Athletic Complex (Boston, MA)

Foo Fighters on stage

me in my happy place: watching Foo Fighters

I attended Day of the 2023 Boston Calling festival (read my review here). Foo Fighters' headlined that night of the festival. This was a little over a year after the passing of Taylor Hawkins and only a week after they announced new drummer Josh Freese. Much of this show was about the band breaking in Josh but remembering Taylor. They paid tribute to Taylor with Dave singing “Cold Day in the Sun” (which Taylor sang) and to my surprise they performed “Aurora” because it was Taylor’s favorite Foo Fighter song (I haven’t seen them do that song live since 2003). For “Shame, Shame”, Dave introduced his 17 year-old daughter Violet. The highlight of the night (that got national attention from numerous news and music outlets) was Taylor’s 17 year-old son Shane guest drumming on “This is a Call”. 

Me just hanging out with Mr. Chris Shiflett in 2018

In addition to all of these shows I recounted, I also saw Dave Grohl with Them Crooked Vultures in 2009, Taylor Hawkins with the Coattail Riders in 2006 and 2010, and Chris Shiflett in 2018.

After I see tomorrow's show I'll have to update this concert history!

[coffeetablettowers]

Damon Albarn & Greg Kurstin on the making of Cracker Island

[krispyweiss]

Beck Brings “E-Pro” to Hanukkah Sessions

- “It’s a little-known fact that our favorite Grammy-winning Guero actually has Jewish roots,” Greg Kurstin and Dave Grohl say

On the fifth night of the Hanukkah Sessions, Beck joined Greg Kurstin, Dave Grohl and friends to sing the sacred song rooted in tradition:

Na na, na na na na na, it goes.

Na na, na na na na na, it continues.

“E-Pro” it was. And if anyone is wondering what in the world this has to do with Hanukkah or Judaism, it’s this: Beck’s maternal grandmother was Jewish.

Yep, Beck’s a (J)E-(w)Pro.

Or as Kurstin and Grohl put it in a statement accompanying the black-and-white video: “It’s a little-known fact that our favorite Grammy-winning Guero actually has Jewish roots.”

12/22/22

[perfunctory-idols]

Beck and co in Europe, August 2003

Via Beck’s Tour Journal 2003

[cmonbartender]

Inara George & Greg Kurstin (2015)

[lyricsssdotin]

Hass Hass Lyrics

Singer:Diljit Dosanjh, Sia, Greg KurstinAlbum:Ghost Oh, I’m gon’ take your breath awayBut don’t stop runnin’ to me Feel me, and the breeze babyI’m the ocean, sky in heels, baby (baby)I’m the forest and the trees, babyYou’re the royce and I’m the wheels, baby (baby) Tera vi ae dil sab jaan daTu jo mili jaape koi haan daLaal hoya rang aasman daRoop jivein nikhri rakaan daJithe jithe jave per…

[publicacionesdeunachica]

I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet.

To go over everything.

They say that time's supposed to heal ya.

But I ain't done much healing.

[damonalbarn]

Damon Albarn, co-chairman and chief operating officer of Warner Records Tom Corson, Cracker Island producer Greg Kurstin and Jamie Hewlett

[nonesuchrecords]

The Black Keys' twelfth studio album, Ohio Players, is out now. The album features several collaborations between band mates Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney with various friends and colleagues, like Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, Beck, Noel Gallagher, Greg Kurstin, and others. You can get it and hear it here. Thanks to all you Beautiful People for playing!

[talesfromthemightyi]

The Black Keys on writing with Noel: “It couldn’t have gone smoother!”

With the new Black Keys LP on the way, it’s only right that a consolidated write-up piece that collects every bit of information important to the lead up and collaboration between The Black Keys and Noel, be delivered in such a way that, hopefully gives you the full scope of their collaboration.

Patrick, Dan and Noel will tell it all. 

Though mostly Patrick talks through everything about the record all the way back from 2023 to most recently with Joe Rogan, so we’ll start there. And fair warning, there will be a few repeated lines as per the promotional jargon they’ve managed to whittle down before every time the duo speaks about the new LP.

It will jump back and forth, so there’s that to look out for as well.

Let’s start.

Patrick Carney to Rogan: “We made our new record collaborating with people, and one of the guys we wanted to work with was Noel Gallagher from Oasis. So we kept reaching out to him, seeing if he would be up for it, and we kept hearing back that he doesn’t really do that (co-writing songs). And I remembered that my neighbor, who I golf with, used to be Oasis’ agent. So I asked him if he could reach out and through that, we heard back that Noel would be up for recording with us, if we went to London. So we flew all the way to London and rented this small, little studio (Toe Rag Studios). And we barely knew Noel, we met him briefly. But we went in there with no song and sat down with him, and within a couple hours we had a song written and recorded.”

Pat (cont.): “And we did it three days in a row. And we had four days booked. After the first day, we got what we needed. It’d be cool if we got more…–”

Dan Auerbach (interjected): “The rest will be gravy, but we got what we needed. We came for the trip!”

Pat: “Yep, and the second day we got ‘On The Game’, and the third day we got a song called ‘Only Love Matters’ but the fourth day we showed up and were like, ‘We are NOT fucking pressing it!’. We went three-for-three. But let’s not fuck this up. So we spent the whole (fourth) day just bullshitting with him.”

Dan: “It was such an amazing feeling being in the room with him (Noel). We cut it in a studio called Toe Rag and the live room is this size, like this room (points out to the room). Pat’s drum kit is here (points again), little keyboard here, I’m right there and Noel’s right there. We were just in a circle and, you know, what you hear on the record is (one of the live takes) we did. It was like, the second or third time we got through the song without fucking it up. [..] It is the best feeling. It’s the most addictive thing ever, being able to get in the studio and make something out of nothing like that.”

Rogan speaks up briefly to praise ‘On The Game’ from Noel and the band, and expresses that he’s grateful to have been able to listen to Ohio Players early. When asking about the origins of the band and the meaning of the track, Pat lets on about a day at the Chiltern Firehouse where Noel would frequent.

Pat: “The cool thing about ‘On The Game’, we got everything but the lyrics. But the melody was there. We kind of made a point (in) making this album that for the first time we were going to, I guess, kind of do it the way that maybe bands used to do it in the 70s. We were going to stay at the nicest hotels, the funnest– the MOST fun hotels. We were going to have fun. So when we’re out in London, we were staying at the Chiltern Firehouse, just kind of partying every single night, and then dragging ourselves to the studio. One night, Noel was hanging out with us and he was like, pointing to some girl at the bar, he’s like, ‘Oh, she’s for sure on the game!’. And we’ve been to England fifty times but we never heard that expression. We’re like, ‘what’s that?’ and he’s like, ‘Oh, she’s a working girl, she’s probably… you know, she’s probably a prostitute.’ Which checks out, I think! And then Dan was like, ‘Yeah, everybody here is on the game.’ But making this record was so much fun.”

You can watch that podcast here for the rest of the episode.

Earlier in the year, the band also sat down with Uncut Magazine and gave the album a preview for their January 2024 Album Preview issue.

Pat starts, “Dan makes a lot of records for Easy Eye, and when he does those, he’s always writing and collaborating with the artists. But the only other person we’d written with was Danger Mouse. So this time we decided to go a little deeper into our rolodex and call some people we’d been talking about working with for a long time,” says Carney.

“We just hit the ground running and we’re making songs as soon as we can.” Auerbach interjects.

Carney continued, “It came out so easy that we were trying to think of other people that we could throw in the mix, and the person at the top of the list was Noel Gallagher. Everyone was like, ‘Noel doesn’t really write with other people.’ But he agreed to meet us in London. We booked some time at Toe Rag and recorded two songs with Noel in three days.”

In London back in 2023, Pat also briefly spoke to NME about that. “When you’re coming up, it can often feel like competition and you’re constantly stressed. Now, we’re at the point where we can just enjoy everything,” signaling a new start and reference to a newer sound of their, yet-to-be-finished (at the time), 12th studio album.

“The key to our sound is embracing the human element. None of us are virtuosic musicians, there’s just a lot of raw rock ‘n’ roll.”

That same interview was in anticipation of kicking off their UK leg of shows in June 2023 at The O2, Hydro and so forth. 

The band would, at the time, also host DJ nights and continues to do so to this day. 

“It’s just us, partying. We don’t want to go to some crummy bar after the show and listen to shitty music. We’d stay backstage and play music but there’s no one else there, which is kind of boring. This is a way for us to control the jukebox and hangout together. We’ve done a lot of growing up in the last 10 years. Dan and I have always been close but we’ve got a very deep friendship right now. We enjoy hanging out. Getting to go on tour with your friend, it makes the whole thing feel more exciting.”

Carney continues, “When we got back in the studio in 2021, to record what would become Dropout Boogie, something had changed. Obviously the whole world had changed but a year of isolation was enough to change the dynamic between Dan and I. We were really, really, really excited to see each other every day.”

In 2021, that work translated into 9 straight weeks of back-and-forth recording in between touring. Never forgetting to mention that even then, the results would ring in the best sounds possible for the duo and would later, actually, keep going.

“But we just kept working. By the end of the year, we had 17 new ideas down and we just kept going, [..] that was the beginning of what we’re finishing now, an epic album that’s our best record for sure. It won’t be out until next year, though. It’s a weird, full circle thing.”

At the time of the interview, Carney didn’t want to 'give too much away' about 'the new evolution of The Black Keys.' It’s important to note that at the time, in 2021, those sessions would spawn more than 40 newer recordings from the duo, minus collaborations from then.

He does go on about smaller details to end on and also mentions Gallagher for the first time, in this NME interview. 

“We’re working with a lot of people and the vibe of the record is fun. It’s very reflective of our DJ nights in a way, it’s a big Saturday night party record. We just had people come through the studio and throw a little bit of special sauce at each song. There are just so many different collaborations but there’s a thread through it with Dan and I filtering everything. It just feels really fucking amazing.”

In steps Noel.

“He’s hilarious and super talented! We were referring to him as ‘the Chord Lord’ because he’s just a perfectionist with it. Dan and I are big fans of him and Liam. Actually, the Liam song ‘Everything’s Electric’ is why we decided to work with Kurstin.”

In speaking to the vibe of the album in the NME interview, Carney would also go on to say that, “Danger Mouse showed us the trick to collaborating and that’s someone we need to work with again soon. We used to be pretty insular. We were two friends from Akron who didn’t really take part in any music scene, and we weren’t able to hang out backstage early on in our career, because we had to drive to the next show. Now, we’re thriving because we’re including our friends and being more inclusive. That’s what the vibe is with this record.”

The same sentiment is shared between Auerbach, most definitely, when he also spoke with Rolling Stone at the beginning of this year.

“No matter who we work with, it never feels like we’re sacrificing who we are. It only feels like it adds some special flavor. We just expanded that palette with people we wanted to work with. We were there to support them and their ideas, to do whatever we could to see that moment flourish. But when it came time to finish the album, it was just Pat and me.”

And back to the Uncut interview. 

Carney says, “(With other artists), most of the time we’d have the music there (already), so we were just looking for words and melody. But with Noel, we started the songs from scratch. Noel is hilarious and we hit it off instantly. It couldn’t have gone smoother. He was very meticulous about finding the right transitional chords for each section, it was amazing!”

“At Toe Rag, we were all in the room: Pat with the drums,” Auerbach continues, “I was playing the bass, Noel had his 335, and our friend Leon was on keyboards. We were just in a circle in this tiny room, recording live, working up songs in real time, literally figuring out chord changes and melodies. Every song that we got with Noel is a live-take, it just felt really good.”

Another key element I wanted to add here, in finding similar pieces on their collaboration there are details that get left out over time, or other details that get added in. All of the same answers are all similar enough that you can hopefully get a sense of the story through-out. It is literal repeated answers from these interviews from The Black Keys, that it hopefully drives home the spirit and ritualistic practice of recording and songwriting, so I am very aware they’re all similar. 

But that is the point here.

Similarly, Noel spoke about the duo on Matt Morgan’s podcast back in August of 2023, “Recently, I was writing with The Black Keys, and I’d never really met them before– that really did work!”

The sound? 

“If you can imagine my good self and them, that’s what it is. It’s not swampy blues, and it’s not my kind of guitar-pop or whatever you want to call it. It’s somewhere in between… it’s really fucking good!”

Gallagher continued, “There’s a song called It’s Only Love That Matters, and it’s really fucking good!” 

“I’d met Patrick maybe once, but I don’t know them, and they called up my office and asked if I’d be interested in writing with them and we all went at it and did like three tunes in five days.”

Once again, more details get added into the story. In keeping with all answers about recording new music, Noel somehow remembers that it was five days instead of four days, like Pat says, but let’s forget that for a second.

Noel continues, “Patrick and Dan would sit opposite each other, and somebody would play a drum beat. Dan would come up with a chord, and then I’d be like, ‘What if it went there?’. The tunes we’ve done together are pretty cool I think.”

“There was five of them (in the sessions) and one of me, I really enjoyed it!”

And so we’ve made it to the end!

The two recordings co-written and produced from this three day session in London back in 2023 would later turn out to be, ‘Everybody’s On the Game’ and ‘It’s Only Love that Matters’. 

These are of course their full titles that did indeed make the cut out of the 16-track collection for Ohio Players and were later shortened down to ‘On the Game’ and ‘Only Love Matters’, which was then also shortly revealed by Nonesuch Records on both their store and website in late January of this year.

The year prior, after said collaboration, Noel would also be hard at work on putting the finishing touches to what would eventually be the fourth LP released under the High Flying Birds pseudonym, Council Skies. 

Council Skies hit store shelves on June 2, 2023. The album contained 10 tracks and 1 bonus track on the Deluxe edition of the album. The Black Keys did not offer anything back in songwriting or recording duties for the fourth High Flying Birds LP.

OHIO PLAYERS by The Black Keys is out on April 5, 2024.

[k-star-holic]

Honestly, Monica, I'm not sure about the Judicial Review.

Source: k-star-holic.blogspot.com

[krispyweiss]

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, It’s Hanukkah Sessions Night Six with Karen O

Hanukkah, Karen O, Hanukkah.

As the only goyish member of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, singer O was also the only one to say “yeah, yeah, yeah” to Greg Kurstin and Dave Grohl’s invitation to join the Hanukkah Sessions for Night 6.

O took the stage to sing and dance to “Heads Will Roll” and to “Hanukkah-ize” the number, as the Foo two put it in a statement. It was a high-octane, dance-til-you’re-dead performance that one either gets or does not get.

When it ended, O pulled a finger across her throat and wished everyone a happy Hanukkah.

Weird.

12/23/22

[perfunctory-idols]

undefined

Beck playing E-Pro live at the Largo for Greg Kurstin and Dave Grohl’s 2022 Hanukkah sessions