Dave Grohl’s daughter Violet took lead vocals on a cover of X’s Los Angeles album cut “Nausea” that they performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live with the help of Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Suicidal Tendencies/ex-Slayer/etc. drummer Dave Lombardo and The Bird and The Bee keyboardist Greg Kurstin. Violet and Dave Grohl & Friends recorded the cover as single, which they made for Dave Grohl’s new documentary What Drives Us.
Grohl played the guitar part and added backing vocals during the choruses. His crunchy guitar tone goes to show that the 1981 X classic was fairly proto-grunge to begin with, if only it wasn’t as punk-rock and lost the psychedelic organ playing. Of course, it would be a completely different song then. Thankfully, the Grohl’s & friends kept it punk, kept the organ and just changed up the textures, choosing to pay tribute to the original.
Violet’s vocals are notably cleaner than Exene Cervenka’s performance, although Violet retains plenty of the punk flair. She also sang on Foo Fighters’ recent song “Making Fire,” which opened their latest album Medicine at Midnight. She also sang rendition of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” with the band’s remaining members, which she reprised for their Heaven is Rock & Roll performance. Violet was able to contribute backing vocals for Foo Fighters’ Live at the Roxy stream as well.
While the artists involved with the cover would be considered a supergroup, Lombardo is the member who has been in the news the most aside from Grohl. He’s currently a member of Suicidal Tendencies, Misfits, Mr. Bungle, Dead Cross and more. He also formed new industrial rock band with Dead Cross bandmate Justin Pearson called Satanic Planet. He also just teamed up with Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Halestorm’s Lizzy Hale and Anthrax’s Scott Ian on Netflix Originals’ Thunderforce theme song.
According to Grohl, What Drives Us is his “love letter to every musician that has ever jumped in an old van with their friends and left it all behind for the simple reward of playing music.” He continued, “What started as a project to pull back the curtain on the DIY logistics of stuffing all your friends and equipment into a small space for months on end eventually turned into an exploration of ‘why? What drives us?’”
In it are interviews from many artists who embody this spirit, including St. Vincent, Ian Mackaye, Starcrawler, Flea, Duff McKagan and Lars Ulrich. It will be available this Friday, April 30 via The Coda Collection on Amazon Prime Video. Foo Fighters’ official YouTube channel shared a trailer for it, teasing interview quotes from some of the artists involved.
Photo credit: Boston Lynn Schulz
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