Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin will be releasing one cover song a day for each night of Hanukkah, starting tonight with “Sabotage” by The Beastie Boys. The Hanukkah Sessions will go for eight nights total.
In the announcement video, Kurstin starts off by introducing himself and saying he is Jewish. Grohl picks it up from there, “I’m not Jewish, but this year, instead of doing a Christmas song, Greg and I decided to celebrate Hanukkah by recording eight songs by eight famous Jewish artists and releasing one song each night of Hanukkah.”
With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin & I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hanukkah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS! So hold on to your tuchuses… we’ve got something special coming for your shayna punims.
L’chaim!! pic.twitter.com/baTduQYdBW
— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) December 10, 2020
The “Sabotage” cover is fairly faithful to the original, except Kurstin imitates the guitar parts on a couple keyboards layered with effects, completely changing the texture of the track. Grohl plays drums and sings, contributing a unique vocal performance by shouting louder and singing higher than he usually does.
“As the only Rock and Roll Hall Of Famers with a lyric about kugel, we thought it would be a shanda to not kick off this party with New York’s (and Abraham’s) finest…known by some as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedenego, known by others as Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA…known by their Imas and Abbas as Adam Horovitz, Mike Diamond and Adam Yauch… Beastie Boys!”
Foo Fighters have an album called Medicine at Midnight set for February 5, 2021 release. They had to cancel their 25th anniversary tour because of COVID-19, but have been playing some live stream shows, including Save Our Stagest Fest, a Tom Petty tribute concert and a headline show Live From the Roxy.
Photo credit: Boston Lynn Schulz