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August 17, 2007

Foo Fighters Cover Arcade Fire

Foo Fighters seem to be on a good will tour, aimed directly at our bloglines: naming songs "Cheer Up Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)," unleashing a killer first single, and now, this. The fighters of Foo swung by the BBC's Live Lounge, performing for the Jo Whiley show and before signing off, she gave the band a choice of covers: the Fray, Lily Allen ("can you see us covering that?" responded Grohl), Elton John ("Tony Danza?"), or Arcade Fire. Before kicking into "Keep The Car Running," Dave says:

I chose this song 'cause I listen to it every morning when I wake up and I figured it'd be a great song to do here 'cause I'm still waking and I figure can't wake up 'til I listen to this song so I might as well play it!
Turns out Mr. Grohl's a big Fire fan (recently telling RS "[Keep The Car Running] is a great fucking song"). The Foo take's very faithful, with Dave as a winning Butler. They even got an accordion! And from the looks of the pic spread below, a violin too. No hurdy gurdy though. Grohl wants to go into the chorus a little early the third time through, but we won't blame him for wanting to rush into that part. Jo calls the cover of her favorite song this year "brave, but brilliant." We'll go with that.

Foo Fighters - "Keep The Car Running" (MP3)

[UPDATE: MP3 re-upped, now with less talk! Thanks aL]

The second song from Neon Bible to get prominent cover treatment (last time was Calexico on "Ocean Of Noise". Think we can expect more. Pics from the Foo session...




Posted at 4:36 PM in
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31 Comments

so it's official...

Jessy Greene has joined the band on tour

Posted by: solace at 08/17/07 5:17 PM  | Reply
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Grohl is awesome[Period!!!]

Posted by: Christopher at 08/17/07 6:41 PM  | Reply
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"winning Butler"

good one.

Posted by: bubba sparks at 08/17/07 6:44 PM  | Reply
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very cool. This is such an excellent song.

well done, dave grohl and your foo fighting friends.

Posted by: daveisok at 08/17/07 6:56 PM  | Reply
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oh hell yes. i love dave grohl. love.

Posted by: christian at 08/17/07 7:28 PM  | Reply
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Wow. I'm surprised there hasn't been any Haterade served out, given that Foo isn't the indiest of bands.
But you won't get it from me. That cover was awesome.

Posted by: Elliot at 08/17/07 7:42 PM  | Reply
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I'm not big on FF or Arcade Fire, but this cover is actually pretty good. Foo Fighters can be OK, and they put on a good live show, and that's one of the Arcade Fire songs I enjoy.
But saying their new single is killer is just plain wrong. That song is dreadful.

Posted by: Morgan at 08/17/07 8:11 PM  | Reply
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thats cool. love both bands, and love to hear one band take on another bands work. this is great.

Posted by: Brian at 08/17/07 9:18 PM  | Reply
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Can just isolate the song from the DJ talk please? And e-mail to us? We'll rehost w/ the edit.

Posted by: scott at 08/17/07 9:19 PM  | Reply
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maybe if win butler wasnt a mongoloid the arcade fire could sound as good as this.
pretty good.
the single isnt killer. its really generic, just like almost every song on the rock side of the last album.

Posted by: annie onymous at 08/17/07 10:32 PM  | Reply
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First Prince up and covers 'best of you' at the super bowl with those totally smokin' chicks, and now this? In a hip-cred thriller-style back-alley fight to the death Grohl would slay the shit out of the entire Arcade Fire with one hand tied up his ass.

Posted by: Boozey Hooker at 08/18/07 1:56 AM  | Reply
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I think that might have been better than the original. He lit it up!

Posted by: kooky at 08/18/07 3:58 AM  | Reply
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The mp3 is bloated with radio crap so I took the liberty of stripping that garbage and raising the audio level a little. I uploaded the cleaner version at www.divshare.com/download/1630565-569

Posted by: aL at 08/18/07 4:46 AM  | Reply
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I love you Dave Grohl

Also, Winning Butler = love!

Posted by: rina at 08/18/07 9:54 AM  | Reply
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Any idea what Dave Grohl is playing in those photos?

Interesting blue semi-hollow with a headstock I don't recognize.

Posted by: Eugene at 08/18/07 1:35 PM  | Reply
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dave grohl is the shit. i am very much looking forward to the new ff album.

Posted by: nancy at 08/18/07 2:47 PM  | Reply
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Have any of you guys heard a song called "On The Darkside" by a band called Eddie and the Cruisers? Take a listen and you might hear the blatant rip off of melody Arcade Fire stole from that song.

Pretty awesome ripoff, dont you think?

Posted by: Dr. Love at 08/18/07 3:58 PM  | Reply
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color me surprised, it was really good

Posted by: joe at 08/18/07 3:59 PM  | Reply
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Dave is playing an updated version of the Gibson Trini Lopez model. It was really only available in the 60's and from what I've read, he had is custom made and is calling it the "606" model...Not sure how reliable that is, but that's what I understand.

Posted by: travis at 08/18/07 6:36 PM  | Reply
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There's nothing I love more than when a good band covers a good song, and that's what this is. Pretty damn good if I may say so myself.

Posted by: Becky at 08/18/07 8:51 PM  | Reply
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Don't care much about the Foo Fighters, but this is a decent cover. Also, Eddie & the Cruisers? I thought "Keep The Car Running" was also a pretty huge steal of Bruce Springsteen's "All I'm Thinkin' About" - listen to it here and compare:
http://www.brucespringsteen.net/albums/devils.html

Posted by: Thierry at 08/19/07 11:02 AM  | Reply
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I hate it when bands cover songs and they play them exactly like the original song. What's the point? Change it up a little foo fighters, make it your own.

Posted by: Brent at 08/19/07 11:10 AM  | Reply
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arcade fire posts and the leeches come up from under the rocks

Posted by: matt at 08/19/07 12:52 PM  | Reply
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I love "Keep the Car Running" but, yeah, it is strikingly similar to "All I'm Thinking 'Bout Is You" and "Darkside." So I guess "All I'm Thinking 'Bout Is You" qualifies as being kind of similar to "Darkside", but good luck convincing anyone that Springsteen ripped off John Cafferty. That would be like accusing Pearl Jam of ripping off Creed.

Posted by: Adam at 08/19/07 2:35 PM  | Reply
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Foo Fighters are a great band with a large fan following. This is because they make great music. Their songs are fun with a sound that is unique. Their videos are also funny and creative. It takes a lot of work to last for as long as they have. Good showing and keep it real...
If you want to watch DOA by the Foo copy and paste this link. It is free on International Music Feed.
http://www.imf.com/videos/?op=artist_videos&artist=Foo%20Fighters

Posted by: hitzone at 08/20/07 12:26 AM  | Reply
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Grohl is amazing. Thank goodness Foo are still making music. Can't wait for their upcoming album/tour. BV: Let us know when they post tour dates!!

Posted by: puja at 08/20/07 11:50 AM  | Reply
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yeah, that's the Gibson DG606

Posted by: brent at 08/20/07 1:28 PM  | Reply
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The new music video is released for their first single,check it out its pretty kickass.

http://foreveringreen.wordpress.com/

Posted by: Dave at 08/20/07 4:23 PM  | Reply
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Oh, Dave Grohl, is anyone better than you??? I think not... Sigh....

Posted by: sweettalkinghippie at 08/25/07 12:29 PM  | Reply
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WOW, really nice cover. Really interesting to see the Foo Fighters covering a 'newer' band. And although it's more playing the same song, I really like it.

Posted by: Milhaud at 09/24/08 7:50 PM  | Reply
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Nirvana's drummer covers Arcade Fire. I <3 MTV and the Hills.

Posted by: Nasdaf at 11/12/08 11:57 AM  | Reply
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