Foo Fighters
Photo: MTV News

Back in the summer of 1995, a strange album appeared in stores. It had an odd brown cover with a comically futuristic pistol on it, and was simply labeled Foo Fighters. There was no indication that a member of one of the most important bands in history was behind it — but it's hard to imagine that anyone interested didn't know that it was the first album from ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl's new band, which, at the time, was just him.

On Tuesday (November 3), more than 14 years later, the band releases Greatest Hits, a collection of 14 of their biggest singles plus two new songs, Wheels" and "Word Forward." But this isn't Grohl and his bandmates calling it a career — rather, they see it as a way to recharge the batteries and reevaluate their future as a band.

"The last three records happened within four years, so we were constantly working," Grohl told MTV News last week. "At the end of this touring cycle, it seemed like the perfect time to take a break. We're burnt, the audience needs a break and we need to back off and regroup and re-evaluate and get it back together. But in the meantime, let's put out this thing."

Grohl said their record label has been asking them for a hits compilation for several years, but they've been so inspired to make new music that it never felt like the right time. Of course, he's kept himself busy with side-gigs throughout the band's career, whether playing drums for Tom Petty, Killing Joke or Queens of the Stone Age — or, in recent months, forming a band called Them Crooked Vultures with Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Queens' Josh Homme and Alain Johannes (that (that band will release its debut LP on November 17).

Looking back at the body of work the Foos have produced over the years makes their frontman proud — and more than a little amazed.

"It's kind of cool," he said of the album. "I look at the sequence of songs, and it's a pretty accurate representation of what's been going on with the Foo Fighters in the past 15 years. This band started sort of on a dare, and we never intended for it to become as big as it did."

• Foo Fighters
• Dave Grohl

Photo: Gareth Cattermole/ Getty Images

Justin Timberlake has added an Emmy to that "Box" — the singer and "Saturday Night Live" actor Andy Samberg took home the award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for "Di-- in a Box," the pair's wildly popular song about surprise packages, on Sunday (September 9). Timberlake wasn't at the ceremony to accept the award, as he's been in Vegas for the VMAs, but Samberg told People, "We'll definitely give him a call and let him know." ...

Nas joined forces with John Mayer, Phil Vassar and the Dave Mathews Band on Thursday night to bring "A Concert for Virginia Tech" to the college's Blacksburg campus. According to The Richmond Times-Dispatch, the rapper cheekily dedicated the last song of his set, "Hate Me Now," to TV pundit Bill O'Reilly, who had previously said it was an "abomination" and "atrocity" that Nas was going to perform at the free concert. "For those who don't understand what Nas is about, like that chump Bill O'Reilly, I got a song for you," he said before breaking into the tune. More than 45,000 people reportedly attended the concert. ...

Paris Hilton is suing Hallmark for a half-million dollars for using her photo and "That's hot!" catchphrase on one of its cards, Agence-France Presse reports. The heiress filed a lawsuit against the company on Thursday in Los Angeles, accusing Hallmark of misappropriating her image and invading her privacy by putting the card on sale earlier this year. It features Hilton's face superimposed on a cartoon body, along with the message, "First day as a waitress." ...

Led Zeppelin fans are holding their collective breath once again amid reports that a press conference pertaining to the band will take place in London on Wednesday, according to Billboard.com. The development comes shortly after "11.13.07" mysteriously appeared along with the band's commonly used symbols on LedZeppelin.com. The news outlet reported in July that the band might reassemble for a potential tribute to Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, who died last year. According to Billboard.com, the band was spotted touring London's O2 arena during Prince's 10-night stand at the venue. However, standing offers have been on the table for a Zep tour for decades, and November 13 is also the release date of the group's upcoming greatest-hits compilation, Mothership. ...

Nick Bollea, who is being investigated for a crash last week that left his friend critically injured, was warned and ticketed by police last year for driving at high speeds on a Florida highway, according to an interview he gave Rides magazine before the crash. Authorities told AP that Bollea, the son of Hulk Hogan, was stopped twice on September 17, 2006 — he was first warned for going 100 mph in a 70-mph zone, then pulled over a second time for driving 115 mph. He received a $305.50 ticket for the latter offense. Bollea's passenger, John Graziano, remains in critical condition at a Florida hospital. ... Phil Spector lawyer Linda Kenney-Baden finished her closing statement on Friday, urging jurors not to become "vigilantes" and find the music producer innocent in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. "We don't convict people in this country because we don't like them, because we don't like their hair or their clothes," she said. "Your job is not to make good copy or good ratings. Your job is to find the truth." The case will be turned over to the jurors after a planned rebuttal by the prosecution. ...

Joss Stone is helping launch the Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network, a Hip-Hop Summit Action Network program that is setting out to deal with the portrayal of women of color in entertainment — specifically hip-hop. Baby Phat designer Kimora Lee Simmons will act as the national spokeswoman for WEEN, which will be formally christened with a pink-carpet event September 19 at Bo Concept, a furniture in Manhattan, New York. ... The Spice Girls reunion tour will be directed by Christina Aguilera and Madonna collaborator Jamie King. "Everyone has the same vision for this show," the group's manger, Simon Fuller, said in a press statement. "It will be a roller coaster of fun reflecting all the things that made the Spice Girls such a huge global pop group." ...

Radiohead have put the finishing touches on their next album, guitarist Jonny Greenwood told Paste magazine. The band, which fulfilled its six-album EMI contract with 2003's Hail to the Thief, is currently unsigned. "We're very relieved to have finished recording, now we have to decide what we should do with it," he said. ... Tobey Maguire is shifting from a movie adaptation of a comic book to ... a movie adaptation of an anime series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he will produce the sci-fi classic "Robotech" — and might even play a lead role in the flick. "We are very excited to bring 'Robotech' to the big screen," he said. "There is a rich mythology that will be a great foundation for a sophisticated, smart and entertaining film." ...

By now, you've likely heard the acoustic cover of Rihanna's "Umbrella" by Internet phenomenon Marié Digby, whose unique style won her a contract with Hollywood Records. More than 2.3 million people have checked out the 24-year-old's unplugged take on the jam of the summer. But, according to The Wall Street Journal, the alleged viral-video discovery was actually signed to Hollywood 18 months before becoming an online phenom. The article also claims Hollywood helped devise her Internet strategy and distributed a high-quality studio recording of "Umbrella" to radio stations and iTunes as a way to build hype for Digby's upcoming major-label debut. ...

Apparently, the Magic Kingdom has hung a "Machine Head Not Welcome" sign up at the gates. According to a spokesperson for the group, Walt Disney Properties pressured Live Nation to cancel the metal band's show at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California, on Friday (which was to take place on Disneyland property) citing, according to a press release from the band's publicist, violent imagery, undesirable fans and inflammatory lyrics. In an e-mail, the group said it got less than 48 hours' notice of the scotched gig, which was to be the kickoff of their Black Tyranny tour with Arch Enemy, Throwdown and Sanctity. Live Nation rescheduled the tour kickoff for the Glass House in nearby Pomona. A Disney spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

09.06.07

Kanye West is planning to have children, he divulged to Blender for its October cover story. "Yes, I'm engaged. Yes, I plan to have kids," he said. After that, 'Ye quipped, "But I'm not gonna base the night that I conceive a child off of what I tell Blender magazine." In the interview, he also highlighted some recent faves — the Killers, Keane, Modest Mouse — and also admitted that, despite his unforgettable remark about President Bush two years ago, "I'm not very tuned into politics. I apologize to people who expect me to act like I work at CNN." And, of course, what would a West interview be like these days without a few choice comments about his Tuesday rival, 50 Cent? "I pulled the trigger on that date," he revealed, saying it was his idea for the rappers' albums to go head to head. "I got on the phone with Def Jam like, 'Yo, I want to do this.' ... There were people that weren't ready for that fight. And I was like, 'Man, this is what I do!' " Still, he did have some kind words to say about Fif: "Turn this up, please," he said when 50's "I Get Money" reportedly started playing on the radio during the interview. "50 is popping on this. ... I hear 50 drop a number, like, 'I spent this much,' and I'm like, 'Damn! 50 is so much richer than me!' " The MCs are slated to appear on BET's "106 & Park" on Tuesday. The network is planning to treat the event like a boxing match, recruiting ESPN's Stuart Scott to give a statistical breakdown of the MCs. ...

Lindsay Lohan is meeting with her father, Michael Lohan, at the Cirque Lodge treatment center in Utah, according to People. The magazine says the news was confirmed by the troubled starlet's mother, Dina Lohan, who added, "She needed to do this for herself. It's still her father, no matter how you slice it. ... It's part of the healing process." "Access Hollywood" claims the meeting is the first time Lindsay had seen her dad since he was released from prison in March. ...

Tony Yayo (real name: Marvin Bernard) was in court Thursday (September 6) to hear motions in the case in which he is alleged to have roughed up the 14-year-old son of Game manager Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond in March. According to Yayo's lawyer, Scott Leemon, the judge denied his request to obtain e-mails from Rosemond's Czar Entertainment connected to the case. But in a significant development, Leemon said he revealed in court that he provided the district attorney's office with an affidavit three weeks ago from a witness who knows the 14-year-old and Yayo, witnessed the incident and said Yayo did not slap the boy. "That person has already signed the affidavit saying Yayo was not the person who slapped the boy," Leemon told MTV News. "The judge instructed the DA to send an investigator and investigate it because nothing has been done in three weeks." Yayo is due back in court October 30. A spokesperson for the DA's office did not return calls for comment at press time. ...

Gwen Stefani, Dave Grohl, Ozzy Osbourne and other icons are helping the BBC's Radio 1 throw down for its 40th b-day by taking over the airwaves on September 30. Ten "Radio 1 Legends" will present shows with songs of their own choosing. ... Jennifer Lopez is still shaking off negative reviews about "El Cantante," her flick with hubby Marc Anthony — maybe a new DVD of "Selena," for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe, will help. Piled onto the two-disc "Selena: 10th Anniversary Special Edition," due September 18, is an unreleased extended version of the flick, new interviews with Lopez and Selena's family, deleted scenes, a making-of featurette and more. ...

Try this example of life imitating art on for size: One of the actual high schools where "High School Musical" was shot is putting together its own stage version of the production, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. More than 200 students are getting involved in the fall show at the city's East High School, where parts of the first and second flicks were filmed. ... Madonna was paid a visit by Malawi's chief social-welfare official in London as part of a delayed assessment into whether she can adopt David Banda, The Associated Press reports. Simon Chisale is making the assessment instead of Penston Kilembe, a child-welfare-services director who was removed from the case in light of allegations he took money from the singer to fly to London. ...

A new compilation of performances from "Saturday Night Live" will be available exclusively at Target stores beginning Sunday. Live From SNL! Music Performances From Saturday Night Live, the first live album from the show in almost a decade, will feature performances from the past four years by the likes of Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Maroon 5, Foo Fighters, Beck, Arctic Monkeys, Dave Matthews, the Shins, the Strokes and Franz Ferdinand. ... If you thought Ozzfest would wear out Ozzy Osbourne for a while, think again: He will support his recently released album, Black Rain, with an extensive trek also set to feature Rob Zombie. The metal vets will take to the road October 18 in Seattle and return home after a January 24 gig in Cleveland. ...

Phil Spector attorney Linda Kenney-Baden said during closing arguments Thursday that prosecutors were trying to get "the first celebrity notch in the government's gun belt," AP reports. The prosecution has offered only "accusations and demonizations rather than showing you what evidence they have that proves their case beyond a reasonable doubt. ... The government has again given you stories, rather than science," she said. Kenney-Baden, a forensics specialist, also outlined scientific evidence she claimed exonerates Spector of murder. The Los Angeles Times reports that jurors might not begin deliberating until Monday — not Friday, as previously expected. ...

Chill out, Van Halen fans: The band has tapped a laid-back opener for its upcoming reunion trek. Bob Marley's son Ky-Mani — whose 2001 album, Many More Roads, was nominated for a Grammy — will get the honor to play prior to the hard-rockers. ... Iron Maiden are getting ready to "Dance With Death" again — the metal gods are pulling together another larger-than-life world tour. The band's Somewhere Back in Time trek will hit Australia — for Maiden's first shows there in 15 years — as well as five additional continents, from February through August. The guys are expected to log 100,000 miles on the tour. ...

Opera legend Luciano Pavarotti died Thursday in his hometown of Modena, Italy, of pancreatic cancer at age 71, according to a Reuters report. The hefty bearded tenor was famed for having brought opera to the masses during a nearly 50-year career during which he rang up huge album sales with his 1990 performance of classic aria "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot," and he performed alongside such pop stars as Bono, Sting and the Spice Girls. "Some can sing opera; Luciano Pavarotti was an opera," Bono wrote on U2's Web site. "No one could inhabit those acrobatic melodies and words like him ... I spoke to him last week ... the voice that was louder than any rock band was a whisper." ...

Congress is scheduled to take up topics including misogyny in hip-hop lyrics on September 25 during a hearing titled "From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degradation." Variety reports that Representative Bobby Rush, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, said, "I want to look at not only the problem caused by misogynistic content in some hip-hop music but also some of the pain that emanates from this degradation." He's proposing voluntary solutions to what he sees as the problem of misogyny in the entertainment industry. Among the witnesses scheduled to appear are Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO Doug Morris, Warner Music Group Chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr., and, so far, only one artist: rapper Master P.

[This story was originally published at 8:53 pm E.T. on 09.07.2007]

• MTV Live Backstage: Nas

• Nas
• Joss Stone
• John Mayer
• Dave Matthews
• Dave Matthews Band

Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl
Photo: MTV News

Dave Grohl has been in the rock business for more than 20 years now, and during that time, he's seen many so-called "musical movements" come and go. Thus, he's particularly amused by the current generation of emo-punk acts bounding across stages worldwide. After all, he's been doing this for so long that he remembers emo the first time it came around.

"I have a funny relationship with emo," he said. "I'm from Washington, D.C., and in the mid-'80s, the hardcore scene changed from what it was — Bad Brains and Minor Threat and the Dead Kennedys and MDC — to a bunch of new bands like Rites of Spring and Embrace, which Ian MacKaye was the singer for. Everyone started labeling it 'emo-core.' So I went to Rites of Spring's first show, and it was a revelation. I'd never heard anything like it, and it was a really emotional experience. But in D.C., we all hated that 'emo-core' tag."

(Watch Dave Grohl talk about his emo past.)

It should come as no surprise, then, that Grohl has placed a song called "Cheer Up Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)" smack-dab in the middle of the Foo Fighters' upcoming Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace album, due September 25. After all, Grohl has always struck us as the kind of rock star who's aware of the inherent silliness of being a rock star — the kind of guy not afraid to take a few potshots at those who take themselves a tad too seriously. So the song must be a sort of piss-take on this current crop of raccoon-eyed emo boys, right?

Wrong.

"The title has nothing to do with the song — it's placed right in the middle of the record, where there's a lot of dark stuff. It's a pretty heavy record. We have a couple bummer tunes," Grohl said. "I felt the album needed something to sit in the center and balance it. So we had this lighthearted song, and I called it 'Cheer Up Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)' because it seemed like a little ray of hope in the middle of all this despair."

(Watch Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl insist the band isn't going soft.)

It is statements like that from the normally jovial Grohl that provide the first hint that perhaps Echoes isn't your run-of-the-mill Foo Fighters effort. Building on the musical ground they excavated on 2005's double-discer In Your Honor (see "Dave Grohl: The Gambler") and the foundations laid during the Foos' acoustic tour last year (see "Dave Grohl Gets Personal At Foo Fighters Acoustic Show In Hollywood"), the new album finds the band inhabiting a vast new sonic space, equal parts quiet and loud, refined and raw.

"The acoustic side of In Your Honor was about breaking out of this formula we'd been caged in for years. We wanted to try something new to expand the sound of the band, like a whisper-quiet acoustic song or this wall-of-noise rock stuff and anything in between," he explained. "And the acoustic tour, going out with eight people — I'd never played with strings and Mellotrons and vibes, and we were doing all these new versions of old songs. I realized all this melodic and instrumental potential, like, 'Wow, man. Imagine if we could do this with rock songs.' So I started writing [this new album] with that in mind. Like, 'I'm not scared of a string quartet. I'm not afraid of playing piano.' "

That sonic seriousness is coupled with a newfound heaviness to Grohl's lyrics, which he attributes in part to the birth of his daughter, Violet Maye, last year. And after heading up the band for nearly 13 years, he feels like the Foo Fighters are finally ready to test new terrain, which is why they opted to give their sixth studio effort such a, well, sensitive handle.

"It's tough to name a record," he said. "A lot of bands go into the studio with the title already in place, but we sort of figure it out when we're in there, and when we're done, you try to find this slogan to sum up the whole album. It's strange, especially for an album like this, where it's really diverse and the music is moving in different directions and there are different lyrical themes. So I think it needed a beautiful title, something that represented grace and sound and beauty."

And it is statements like that that might have Foo fans a little worried. Have fatherhood and a newfound appreciation for "arrangements" finally caused Grohl to go soft?

"Not at all. I still listen to Slayer once a week," he said. "But a lot of people who came to see us on our first tour in '95 might have been 22 then, and now they're as old as me.

"It's all about musical exploration," he continued. "We have moments of kick-you-in-the-teeth rock stuff, but there's a lot of power in that lower dynamic too. To be able to get a room to pin-drop silence with an acoustic song that means something is sometimes even more powerful than all the lights and lasers and amps in the world."

• Dave Grohl Says Foo Fighters Haven't Gone Soft

• Foo Fighters
• Dave Grohl

Shadows Fall
Photo: Century Media

Brian Fair just can't get used to it — even after six weeks.

The dreadlocked frontman for Massachusetts metal act Shadows Fall said he'll be bouncing ideas off his bandmates, when all of a sudden, a rock-and-roll powerhouse strolls in with a bottle of Icelandic schnapps, looking to party.

"It still blows my mind when, randomly, Dave Grohl pops in with a bottle and he's like, 'Hey dudes — we're partying,' " Fair, a huge fan of Grohl's pre-Nirvana band, Scream, explained. "It's cool just sitting around, talking old D.C. hardcore. And he's just stoked to have a metal band recording in his studio. He comes by and hangs out, and rocks out to what we're doing."

Shadows Fall have been working with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Stone Sour) at Grohl's Studio 606 in Northridge, California, recording the 13 tracks that'll comprise their forthcoming major-label debut, Threads of Life — the follow-up to 2006's Fallout From the War.

But Fair said he hasn't approached Grohl for any creative pointers or tips. Instead, Shadows Fall is concentrating on sticking to what they know, and making punishing sounds the way they always have.

"We didn't write a safe record," he explained. "It's such a natural step that we're heading in, and it's going to push our sound into new places that I think our fans are going to be stoked about. We're just trying to write great metal songs and make sure that the five of us are all super stoked on what we're doing — that we're all on the same page. And [Atlantic Records] has given us a lot of freedom to write a good metal record.

"It's been a great experience out here, and it's the first time we've been immersed, totally, in an album," Fair continued. "We're all living in the same area, and focusing on the record 100 percent. There are none of the distractions from back home, and we're far enough from Hollywood that those distractions are gone too. It's really been a perfect situation."

Fair said the band overwrote for this effort, but wound up bringing 13 songs into the studio with them, though he's not sure all the tracks will make the final cut. "It's the first time we've had more than just enough for the record," he said. "This time, we've been able to demo a lot of ideas, and go back and really find the ones that we're feeling the strongest."

And Shadows Fall haven't softened their sound for the sake of album sales. Fair's voice is still as menacing as it's always been, and several new tracks truly test his pipes. "There are songs on this album that are just all screaming," he said. "There are some acoustic interludes, some clean singing and vocal harmonies. But the screaming — that's just part of our sound, and it has been from the beginning. To eliminate that and go clean with my vocals would really be taking away from what we do."

Fair is also fully aware of the recent success other metal bands have experienced, like Lamb of God — whose latest, Sacrament, debuted at #8 on the Billboard albums chart in late August (see "Alcoholism, In-Fighting Couldn't Derail Lamb Of God's Top 10 Album"). But that band's huge opening week didn't create added stress for Shadows Fall.

"To see the success bands like Lamb of God and Mastodon are having putting out incredibly creative and heavy albums on a major without having to compromise in any way was really inspiring," he said. "You're like, 'See, it can be
done.' "

• Shadows Fall
• Dave Grohl

Killing Joke
Photo: Cooking Vinyl

Their music has amassed disciples ranging from Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden to the LCD Soundsystem. Their songs have been covered by everyone from Metallica to Sarah McLachlan — and there was even a mash-up combining one of their singles with Christina Aguilera's "Make Over" making the rounds not too long ago.

Despite this, Killing Joke, one of the more notorious bands to arise from the pyre of late-'70s British punk, is hardly a household name here in the States. Lead singer Jaz Coleman, laughing down the phone from Cologne, Germany, where the band is touring to promote its latest album, Hosannas From the Basement of Hell, doesn't care. "I get a f---ing CD every week with a Killing Joke cover song — and they all go in the bin [garbage].

"We don't have anything to do with fashion!" he bellowed. "We're a sound and a lifestyle. Hahahahaha!" Coleman, a self-described "black jester," has a disconcerting tendency to punctuate his declarations with a robust laugh that suggests a tenuous grasp on sanity. For nearly three decades, he, along with guitarist Geordie Walker, has fused the stealth of punk to the wallop of heavy metal and a relentless tribal beat, resulting in a sound that has managed to elude classification over 12 studio albums. Their quest, in the words of original drummer "Big Paul" Ferguson, is to emulate "the sound of the earth vomiting."

Hosannas, recorded in the Czech capital of Prague, "for me, is really special," Coleman explained. "We all went collectively to Prague and hammered out loads of demons and had a great time with the beautiful excesses that a beautiful city like Prague provides. We recorded in an inferior studio with a wine cellar below it — where we actually put the drums down. I think it was probably one of the most honest Killing Joke albums, if you're looking at the band's collected input. Everyone hammered out their demons. It was a huge pressure on everyone. Hahahahaha!"

The result finds the band in feral form, anchored by Walker's signature guitar maelstrom. "Killing Joke's never been better," Coleman enthused. "Working with Geordie Walker — he's a magic player. It's my deepest pleasure to have spent more years with him and more time with him than my own blood [-related] brother."

Indeed, while Walker has been Coleman's foil through nearly all of the band's colorful career, the rhythm section has had a near-Spinal Tap-level rate of attrition. Since original drummer Ferguson left the band in 1987, the band has played host to Martin Atkins (Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Pigface), Ted Parsons (Swans, Prong) and even a guest stint from Dave Grohl. Grohl loaned his talents to the band's eponymous 2003 album, putting to rest the hostility between Killing Joke and Nirvana following a lawsuit over the similarity between Nirvana's "Come As You Are" and Joke's "Eighties" (the suit was dropped after Kurt Cobain's death).

Boasting a history fraught with bouts of madness, infighting, flirtation with the occult, several informal breakups and flights to the far corners of the earth (Coleman briefly abandoned the band in the early '80s, retreating to Iceland when he became convinced that the world was about to end), Killing Joke may not have achieved global dominance — but they have left a lasting legacy. Last year, they won popular British heavy metal magazine Kerrang's Lifetime Achievement award. "I was only 45 when I got it," Coleman laughed. "That's probably the youngest lifetime-achievement award you're going to get! [But] everyone knows who we are, from Jimmy Page right on through. You don't have to shout out about it."

When not onstage with the band (where he's usually dressed in war paint), Coleman is an accomplished composer who has written operas and worked with some of the world's greatest symphony orchestras, is an expert in Maori music (the indigenous people of New Zealand) and contributed to the score of Disney's "Mulan" film, among others. But it's his work with the Joke — he's currently planning a summer North American tour as well as another LP — that gives him balance.

"For me, Killing Joke will always be how I deal with my anger," he said, "how I deal with waking up to this world where we're basically destroying everything. It's how I deal with my sleep deprivation — because I can't ever seem to sleep without sedatives. It's my exorcism, it's my catharsis and it is a tradition, and not just for me — there's actually quite a lot of people out there who love the ceremony of it also."

• Killing Joke
• Metallica
• Dave Grohl

Jack Black performs at the Gulf Coast disaster benefit on Thursday
Photo: Getty Images

HOLLYWOOD — Leave it to Jack Black and his prestigious rock pals to dump a barrel of laughs — and a barrel of cash — onto an otherwise grim situation.

Slipping into his mock persona as half of facetious Satan-worshipping folk duo Tenacious D, Black invited Dave Grohl, Fiona Apple, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, and comedians David Cross and Sarah Silverman onstage at the Wiltern LG Thursday night for a Gulf Coast disaster benefit that was equal parts hilarity, intimacy and goodwill.

(Click for photos of the benefit.)

The three-hour, sold-out show started with a somber three-song set by Apple. With Extraordinary Machine producer Jon Brion plucking away on guitar at her side, the motionless Apple delivered tempered but assured vocals, pleasing to no end her fans in the balcony going nuts over the singer's long-awaited return.

But while the bleak-but-affecting tone of Apple's opening set seemed in step with the benefit event's main thrust, it proved to be anything but representational of what the rest of the night had in store.

Following Apple was Silverman, an L.A. comedy veteran who stretches racy humor to its breaking point. Smiling earnestly and standing well below five and a half feet, Jimmy Kimmel's not-so-innocent sweetheart slandered ethnic groups, deceased elderly relatives, political parties (her Nazi references were probably the tamest) ... pretty much anything she could to make the predominantly older-male crowd blush.

Cross, recognizable for his role as Tobias Fünke on "Arrested Development," the HBO series "Mr. Show" and countless big-screen appearances, also slugged the crowd with coarse comments, albeit with a sharper political edge. He found room to slam Bush, Republicans, FEMA, religion and even Toys "R" Us over the course of his 20-minute segment, which was rounded out by a surprise appearance from his "Mr. Show" partner-in-profanity, Bob Odenkirk, as God.

Stand-up-comic relief aside, it was music that proved to be the most moving factor of the night. Josh Homme and Jesse Hughes — on-again, off-again partners in the Eagles of Death Metal — opened their triple-song set with a solemn cover of Johnny Cash's "Dark as a Dungeon," a macabre tune Homme, who played guitar and sang, said felt appropriate for the occasion. After that, with Homme behind the drums and Hughes strutting his stuff, they dug into two Eagles tunes, "I Only Want You" and "Kiss the Devil." Always leaping at the chance to praise the Prince of Darkness, Black sprinted around the stage for the latter song, singing and pulling off a somersault/handspring trick that he would revisit to exhaustion throughout the night.

In a concert with many highlights, Grohl's performance managed to stand out. Even though the Foo Fighters foreman is plenty prone to acoustic stuff these days — half of his band's new album, In Your Honor, is in that form, after all — each of the off-the-cuff songs he played were uniquely intimate.

He started off with "Skin and Bones," a tune he said he wrote two weeks ago while on tour — and which he dedicated, red plastic cup in hand, to a "bootlegger" standing up front who recognized it. The tune was about losing weight on the road due to stress — a trend only Meat Loaf and Tenacious D seem unfamiliar with, he said.

On the topic of on-the-road travels, Grohl added that the Foos had witnessed what he called the worst devastation he'd ever seen while driving from Mississippi to Texas post-Hurricane Katrina. With that, he launched into the first-ever acoustic performance of "Best of You," the only radio hit performed all night, bringing the crowd to its chorus-chanting potential.

Saying benefit gigs give him the chance to be spontaneous, Grohl chose a cut even hard-core fans never would've expected: "Friend of a Friend," an obscure song he wrote 15 years ago after meeting "two really weird dudes" and rooming with one of them in an apartment littered with corndog sticks and piles of cigarette ash. "He plays an old guitar/ With a coin found by the phone ... He's never been in love/ But he knows just what love is ... But when he tells his best two friends, 'I think I drink too much'/ No one speaks," he sang, in obvious reference to Kurt Cobain.

For his last number, Grohl called on backup in the form of Homme and Hughes. Homme — who enlisted Grohl to play drums on Queens of the Stone Age's 2003 album, Songs for the Deaf — reversed roles and took to the kit behind the guitar-wielding Grohl. "Do you know how to play drums?" he teased Homme, who has gotten well-acquainted with them through the Eagles of Death Metal. With that they dove into a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Born on the Bayou," made all the more potent by Grohl's shaggy-haired likeness to John Fogerty and the lyrics "Wishin' I were a fast freight train/ Just a chooglin' on down to New Orleans."

A rousing set by the D followed, during which Black and partner Kyle Gass previewed numerous songs from their upcoming "Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny" flick/soundtrack, including "Kickapoo" (the Missouri small town Black supposedly escaped from), "The Government Totally Sucks" (with the chant "Bring back the U.S.A.!"), "Man, I Totally Miss You" (Black's paean to K.G.) and "Master Exploder," a goofy guitar-god song Black hysterically lip-synched. That one drew the most applause of all the new songs, which were balanced out by fan favorites "Wonderboy," "Tribute," "Dio" and "F--- Her Gently."

In a show of unity and friendship, all the evening's performers — save Apple — came out for an encore improv jam. David Cross clunked the cowbell Will Ferrell so expertly used for a D-hosted tsunami tribute at the same venue last year (see "Will Ferrell Rocks Cowbell At Star-Studded Tsunami Benefit"), and Black, seemingly overcome by the accumulated talent surrounding him, instructed the crowd to harmonize along, ran around a few more times, pulled off a few more somersault/handspring flips, and called it a night. All for a good cause.

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports.

• Dave Grohl, Jack Black, Fiona Apple, More At Tenacious D Hurricane Katrina Benefit

• Tenacious D
• Dave Grohl

Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl
Photo: MTV News

BALTIMORE — Over the last 18 months, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl got bored with music and contemplated breaking up his band — then he changed his mind, wrote 40 songs in his bedroom, built an 8,000-square-foot recording studio and decided to make a double album.

And after all that, you think he'd be pretty tired. But just get him talking about his band's new double album, In Your Honor (which comes out on June 14), and his eyes bug out and he starts waving his arms — to say he's excited would be the understatement of our young century.

"If someone asked me which Led Zeppelin album to buy, I would tell them Physical Graffiti, because it has such a wide dynamic and it shows the range that band had. And that's what we wanted to do with this album," he said, backstage at last weekend's HFStival (see "Foo Fighters, Good Charlotte Usher In Summer Concert Season"). "One CD is beautiful, orchestrated, acoustic-based music, and one CD is really aggressive, anthemic rock stuff. It shows our whole dynamic. The first song on the rock record is insane, it sounds like Motörhead. It's super heavy. And then on the acoustic record, there are some songs that are really beautiful and quiet and delicate, so it shows this wide range of sound."

He's not kidding. The songs on Honor's "anthemic" side are some of the heaviest things the band has ever written, and the "beautiful" side features some of the quietest, gentlest tunes ever to bear the Foo stamp of approval (see "Foo Fighters Album Preview: Grohl Gets Grand On In Your Honor"). It's completely unexpected, but also totally what you'd expect from a motivated, rejuvenated Grohl.

"At one point I was demo-ing this stuff at my house, writing riffs and little pieces of songs, and I downloaded it onto a hard drive and [realized] it was five hours of music. And I thought, 'Oh my God, we've got to make a double album!' " he said. "I mean, we've been a band for 10 years now, this is our fifth record, and I thought it would be boring to just keep making album after album and making videos and playing festivals, so I wanted to do something special."

He also decided to invite some guests, including Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, Led Zeppelin legend John Paul Jones and, in a move that seemed to royally piss off a lot of Foo fans, maven of mellow Norah Jones (see "Foo Fighters Joined In Studio By John Paul Jones, Norah Jones").

"The song with Norah Jones, 'Virginia Moon,' is eight years old, but it never made sense on any of the records we'd made previously, because it's hard to put an acoustic song in the middle of a rock record," Grohl explained. "So I thought, 'Now that we're doing this acoustic record, maybe it can see the light of day.' And I heard a Norah Jones record and I thought, 'Wait a minute, this is her vibe. She does jazz.' And her voice was so smooth and warm that I figured it would work out great with mine.

"So she came to the studio, and she was only in there for three hours. She was perfect," he continued. "A lot of people think it's really weird, like 'What the hell is she doing on there?' They're thinking it's like 'Monkey Wrench' with Norah Jones in the background. But when people hear the acoustic record, they'll understand where it's coming from."

Not surprisingly, Grohl is already cooking up some tour plans that are as ambitious as his band's new album.

"We wanted to do this tour where it was two nights: a Friday night rock show and a Saturday night acoustic show. And the rock show would be at a big place, and then Saturday night in a small theater. So hopefully we can pull it off," he said. "And I think we're going to do a fall tour with Weezer — we're really excited for that one.

"Basically, we're excited about everything," he enthused. "Because everything we've done up until this point has led up to this, and it's almost like we're back at square one. It's almost like we're a new band now."

• Foo Fighters
• Dave Grohl

Foo Fighters (file)
Photo: RCA

Those tech-savvy Foo Fighters are at it again. First it was guitarist Chris Shiflett who was dropping exclamation-point-filled electronic missives on the band's official message board, and now it looks like head Foo Dave Grohl has caught the blogging bug.

In a note posted on FooFighters.com, Grohl wrote that after many long nights and almost a year of writing, rehearsing and recording, the band's new record is finally finished. A title and month of release have already been selected for the disc.

"In Your Honor will be the band's fifth album. Almost exactly a decade [since] the release of the first Foo Fighters record, it will come out in June," he wrote. "It is a double album, as promised. One CD rock, one CD acoustic. It will surprise you. It surprises me.

"It is by far the most ambitious project I have ever had anything to do with in my entire life," he continued. "There are subtleties. There are complexities. There are extremities. There are familiarities. I have probably single-handedly depleted the Kona Coast of all coffee reserves, but we did it. It's done."

Like Shiflett before him, Grohl details the making of Honor, from the recording of more than five hours of demos in his bedroom, to months spent rehearsing more than 40 songs, to the construction of the Foos' own "Studio 606."

But he stops short of mentioning any additional specifics about the double album, writing only that there are 20 tracks and that a "few guests" make appearances throughout (see "Foo Fighters Joined In Studio By John Paul Jones, Norah Jones").

He also mentions the band's plans for a world tour, and though the only confirmed dates are rock festivals throughout Europe and Asia, it appears that fans of the Foo can expect a full-scale North American assault very soon.

"Just so you know, I have a calendar in front of me that is a year long ... packed with tours that will spin us around the globe over and over again," Grohl wrote. "It makes me dizzy just looking at it. I can't f---ing wait."

• Foo Fighters
• Dave Grohl

Grammy Parties: Scarlett, Christina, Justin, Katharine And More

• Timbaland
• Nelly Furtado
• Natasha Bedingfield
• JC Chasez
• Rich Boy

Jamie Foxx, Ashlee Simpson, Ciara, More At The Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Party, 2.7.06

• Jamie Foxx
• Ashlee Simpson
• Ciara
• Mary J. Blige
• Ludacris

Grammy Parties 2006

• Britney Spears
• Kevin Federline
• Maroon 5
• Chingy
• Christina Milian