The Foo Fighters, Rage Against the Machine, Carole King and more announced as 2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees

Ladies, gents, and rockers of all ages, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2021 finalists have been announced!

The Foo Fighters, Jay-Z, Rage Against the Machine, Carole King, Chaka Khan, Iron Maiden, Tina Turner, and the Go-Go’s are just some of the artists who may be inducted into Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame come the fall.

Out of the 16 artists who made it to the final stage, seven are first-time nominees. Those artists include Jay-Z, the Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden, The Go-Go’s, Fela Kuti, Dionne Warwick, and Carole King (as a performer).

For some musicians on the list, they have been here once (or several times) before.

This is the sixth time LL Cool J has appeared on the ballot; the third time for Todd Rundgren, Rage Against the Machine, and Chaka Khan; and the second time for Kate Bush. Devo, Carole King, and the New York Dolls.

If the Foo Fighters make it to the end, this will mark the second time Dave Grohl will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He joined the exclusive club as part of Nirvana in 2014.

Grohl is in good company with others who may get the chance to get inducted twice under different acts. King was inaugurated in 1990 as a songwriter alongside Gerry Goffin, while Turner joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 alongside Ike Turner as half of the act Ike and Tine Turner.

For an artist to be eligible to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, their first recording must have been released at least 25 years ago.

From now until April 30, fans can cast their vote in the fan-cast category here.

The Class of 2021 will be announced in May, with the official ceremony taking place in the fall.

Foo Fighters announce Fourth of July celebration in D.C.

Do you have plans this Fourth of July?

Are the Foo Fighters on your concert bucket list?

Do you want to celebrate the nation’s birthday in the nation’s capital?

Well, if you answered yes to all of those questions, then we’ve got news for you!

On Tuesday (March 3), the Foo Fighters “Foo-rmally invited” fans to the DC incarnation of their JAM fest. Initially launched in California, Dave Grohl and company are taking the single-day event across the country to the nation’s capital.

Dubbed DC JAM Fest, the music festival will include performances from Chris Stapleton, Pharrell Williams, the Go-Go’s, Band of Horses, Beach Bunny, and more.

In addition to the genre-bending acts, the event will also include a BBQ competition where attendees will get to sample the goods, a tailgate party, rides, games, and other attractions.

Doesn’t that just scream “Fourth of July celebration” to you?

DC JAM Fest will take place on the Fourth of July at the FedExField in Landover, Maryland. Tickets for the event go on sale this Friday, March 6, on the festival’s website.

Before taking over the FedExField in July, the Foo Fighters will embark on their 25th-anniversary tour. Dubbed the “2020 Van Tour,” the band’s touring route will be an exact replica of their first-ever outing in 1995. Talk about taking it back to the van days.

The tour kicks off on April 12 at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix and wraps up with their appearance at Boston Calling during the weekend of May 22-24. The full list of tour stops can be found here.

The Foo Fighters release surprise live EP for ‘Area 51 Day’

Whether you’re “Naruto” running your way to Area 51 or watching the dumpster fire that is ‘Storm Area 51’ from the comfort of your computer screen, everyone is doing something.

Cue the Foo Fighters who decided to get in on the non-holiday by giving us some jams.

On Friday (Sept. 20), the Washington-founded act unleashed their 00050525 Live in Roswell live EP to celebrate the Facebook-created event.

Surprisingly, the concert where this show was recorded did not take place recently; it actually took place on June 18, 2005, at the now-defunct Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, New Mexico.

Now, you may be wondering what does the Foo Fighters’ show in Rosewell and Area 51 (which is in Nevada) have to do with one another? Well, all we can say is:

But we digress.

The seven-song record features several, if not all, of their biggest hits such as “Learn to Fly,” “My Hero,” “Monkey Wrench,” “Everlong,” “Best of You,” and more.

Because the Foo Fighters are everyone’s favorite dads, they also uploaded a poster on Facebook with the proper way to act when invading Area 51/greeting your new “foreign” friends.

But in all seriousness, the Foo Fighters reveal on their website that the Roswell show was a special one for them; it was a one-of-a-kind tenth-anniversary gig.

“This was a special 10th-anniversary show held at a disused Air Force base close to the site of the supposed Roswell UFO incident in 1947,” the band posted online.

“The event was sponsored by Real Media with the company running a competition and flying winners to the airbase from across the United States to watch the show.”

To purchase the newly released EP, all you need to do is head on over to the Foo Fighters’ website.

For those who have been sleeping on the outrageous Area 51 invasion, it all started as a joke on Facebook, like almost anything nowadays.

Since jokes tend to get out of hand quickly, millions of people RSVP’d to the “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” event which prompted the Air Force to get involved. They even warned attendees that they “always stand ready to protect America and its assets.”

All we have to say is:

Watch the Foo Fighters get dreamy in ‘The Sky is a Neighborhood’

The Foo Fighters have just surprise their fans with some great news. On Wednesday (Aug. 23), the Seattle-founded band unleashed the music video for their latest single, “The Sky is a Neighborhood.” The music video, according to Rolling Stone, features frontman Dave Grohl’s two daughters 11-year-old Violet and eight-year-old Harper.

The video begins with both of the Grohl’s daughters sitting in a log cabin in front of a fire-place with what looks like an old story book in front of them. As they open the book, the shot shifts to the Foo Fighters set up in front of a backdrop that looks like they are in space. The video shifts between the band playing the new tune as they “bang on the ceiling” of the log cabin and the sisters hanging out, having pillow fights, and playing with items in the house. Watch the music video for “The Sky is a Neighborhood” above.

“The Sky is a Neighborhood” will join “Run” on the Foo Fighters’ upcoming new album Concrete and Gold. Concrete and Gold is set to be released on Sept. 15 and will reportedly feature a slew of guests including Sir Paul McCartney, Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman, and, according to Grohl, “the biggest pop star in the world.” When Grohl made the comment about enlisting the biggest pop star in the word, speculations began that it could be Adele or Taylor Swift. Grohl clarified that it would be neither of them and that said pop star has “been around a long time.”

Concrete and Gold will be the follow-up to the Foo Fighters’ 2014’s Sonic Highways.

Foo Fighters Troll Everyone with ‘Official Announcement’

We’ve been trolled. The Foo Fighters are not breaking up. And to think, it’s not even April’s Fool Day yet. On Wednesday (March 2), after much speculation, buzz, and all around gossip, the Foo Fighters finally confirmed that they are not splitting up. When the New York Post’s Page Six posted an article earlier this week claiming that the band was indeed splitting up, everyone had something to say about it.

The band’s representative had told Entertainment Weekly the claims were “utterly ridiculous,” while the unidentified source told Page Six it was happening and that frontman Dave Grohl was going solo following his Oscars performance Instead of letting the speculations pan out, the band took to social media to announce that an “official announcement” about their relationship status would be made soon. As it turns out, all is good at camp Foo Fighters.

The “official announcement” was actually a 7-minutes clip that begins with several images of media publications that wrote about the band’s “inevitable break up.” Then, there is a brief clip of drummer Taylor Hawkins talking about the “disbandment” before the video changes to Grohl, sitting in a recording studio, discussing going solo. “Seeing as how the Academy Awards thing went so well, I got to thinking that maybe it’s time, ya know? Maybe it’s time for me to do my own thing,” he begins before discussing how he should go solo.

While Grohl is in his little world coming up with tracks for this fake album Phoney Baloney, the other members of the Foo Fighters are seen trying to revive the band. As the singer is creating his “solo music,” the rest of the group is brainstorming about who to recruit for the now-vacant spot. They throw out names like Diplo, Justin Bieber, Phil Collins (the original drummer), Gwen Stefani, and others. Check out what happen in the clip below.

While we feel embarrassed that we were one of the publications who was already planning the band’s eulogy, we’re definitely giving them props for trolling us. Serves us right for believing a gossip column.

Foo Fighters to Address Split Rumors

UPDATE: Well guys, it’s official, the Foo Fighters will be going on an indefinite hiatus. As it turns out, the writing was already on the wall thanks to a recently surfaced interview. During a chat with Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins back in January, Artisan News was able to get the word straight from the musician. The video of the interview can be seen below and finds the sticksman telling them that “we’re on ihateus right now, we’re on an indefinite ihateus.”

According to Hawkins, it’s “not because we don’t love each other, or don’t want to make music together … We did so much in the last five or six years — we as a band could go into the studio tomorrow and have just as much fun as we ever had, but I think the world needs a break from us for a little while.”

So there you have it.

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ORIGINAL: Could the Foo Fighters be splitting up? Is Dave Grohl going solo? Is there some serious inter-band drama happening? Those are just a few questions that began to take over the internet on Tuesday (March 1) after the New York Post’s Page Six posted a story about the Foo Fighters splitting up.

According to a source who spoke with the gossip column, there is reportedly some major tension between frontman Dave Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins. The source told Page Six that the tension has gotten so bad that the band has decided to “take a break.” The reported source told Page Six that, “the band [are] billing it as a ‘break,’ but it’s totally Dave going solo, and Taylor is pissed about it.” The source also claims that Grohl’s performance at the Oscars this past weekend was the gateway to his solo career.

But as we all know with gossip sites and publications, you need to take their reporting with a grain of salt. A few hours after the story was released, a band representative reportedly spoke with Entertainment Weekly and dismissed the claim as “utterly ridiculous.” But statements from representatives aren’t always one-hundred percent honest. In the middle of these ongoing rumors, the band took to social media to post a simple message that read: “Official band announcement tomorrow night. Stay tuned.”

Could it be the end of the Foo Fighters or are they going to turn this negative gossip bit around and announce something huge like a tour or new record? At this point who knows. Currently, it looks like we are back at square one, though it does seem like the band are taking a little bit of a break. In a recent interview with Billboard, Hawkins told the music publication that there’s nothing on the books for them in 2016.

Could you blame them for taking a much-needed break? They did spend a lot of 2014 promoting their recently released album, Sonic Highways while 2015 found them tirelessly touring behind the album. Then, in November of 2015, they give us The Saint Cecilia EP out of the blue. Who knows what the outcome will be. All we can do is sit back and wait for that announcement to be made.

Foo Fighters Release Free Five-Song EP

What should have been an exciting new set of songs for the Foo Fighters has turned into something a little bittersweet for the iconic band. After weeks of teasing fans that something was going to happen once the countdown clock on their website hit zero, the Foo Fighters have finally unveiled just what was waiting on the other side. Like most of their fans, who speculated new music, that is exactly what the band released.

On Monday (Nov. 23), the band’s countdown clock hit zero which led to the release of a five-song EP titled, The Saint Cecilia EP. The album was named after the Saint Cecilia Hotel which the band stayed at during their time at 2013’s Austin City Limits Festival in Austin, TX. In a lengthy letter, Grohl explained just how the short album came together which apparently took a lot (and we mean a lot) of people coming in and out of the hotel during their two-week stay.

But before the letter got to just how the recording session happened, frontman Dave Grohl wrote a preface in which he dedicated the album to those who lost their lives during the ruthless and uncalled for killing in Paris back on Nov. 13.

“The Saint Cecilia EP was put into motion back in October of this year as a celebration of life and music. The concept being that, as our world tour [the “Sonic Highways Tour”/”Broken Leg Tour”] drew to a close this week, we wanted to share our love of both with you in return for everything you have given us.

Now, there is a new, hopeful intention that, even in the smallest way, perhaps these songs can bring a little light into this sometimes dark world. To remind us that music is life, and that hope and healing go hand in hand with song. That much can never be taken away.

To all who were affected by the atrocities in Paris, loved ones and friends, our hearts go out to you and your families. We will return and celebrate life and love with you once again someday with our music. As it should be done.”

But with the sadness also came the bright and cheerfulness of the letter where Grohl talks about what catapulted him and rest of the guys to make Sonic Highways, the issue of his broken leg, and how the five-song EP came to be. To read Grohl’s complete letter or to download the free, five-song EP, head on over here, to the album’s website, to get it.

Foo Fighters Tease Fans with Audio on Website

The Foo Fighters have been keeping fans on their toes since they launched a countdown clock on their website a few weeks back. As always, the speculations started to pour in about what exactly the countdown will lead to when it strikes zero. New music? New tour? Who knows, but the Foos themselves.

On Thursday (Nov. 19), the countdown clock began to do something different; it began to play some music. In addition to the audio, the website was also showing the words “Nothing’s Set in Stone” igniting the rumors of a new album. While the audio is just instruments, no lyrics, it could be a clue that there will be some new music on the other side of that countdown clock.

For now, check out a clip of the audio below and if by some chance it gets taken down, you ca always head on over to the Foo Fighters’ website and listen to it there.

The Foo Fighters have spent most of 2015 out on the road, touring in support of their recently released album, Sonic Highways. The band wrapped up the North American leg of their “Broken Leg Tour” (yes, a direct reference to Dave Grohl’s broken leg) back in October.

Rock Band 4 Track List Unveiled

It’s the return of the music-centric video games!

Hot on the heels of Activision’s announcement that they would be relaunching their once great video game franchise, Guitar Hero with Guitar Hero Live, another musical instrument video game has announced its return; Rock Band.

Though the announcement that the video game would be coming back was actually made a few months back, the people behind Rock Band 4 have now unveiled part of the track list for the upcoming game. Bands like Paramore, the Foo Fighters, Avenged Sevenfold, Aerosmith, and the Cure will be part of the 1,500 tracks that will be available for download at the Rock Band music store when the game is released in the Fall.

“With Rock Band 4, we’re doubling down on the energy and excitement of playing music live with your friends,” says Harmonix (the developers of the game) Chief Executive Officer Steve Janiak.

“Focusing on the core experience that our fans have told us they love allows us to evolve established gameplay in meaningful ways that we can’t wait to share with everyone later this year.”

Check out some of the track list below.

Aerosmith: “Toys In The Attic”
Avenged Sevenfold: “Hail to the King”
Benjamin Booker: “Violent Shiver”
The Cure: “Friday I’m In Love”
Dream Theater: “Metropolis Part 1 – The Miracle And The Sleeper”
Elvis Presley: “Suspicious Minds”
Fleetwood Mac: “You Make Loving Fun”
Foo Fighters: “The Feast And The Famine”
Jack White: “Lazaretto”
Judas Priest: “Halls Of Valhalla”
The Killers: “Somebody Told Me”
Live: “All Over You”
Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars: “Uptown Funk”
The Outfield: “Your Love”
Ozzy Osbourne: “Miracle Man”
Paramore: “Still Into You”
Queens of the Stone Age: “My God is the Sun”
Scandal: “The Warrior”
Spin Doctors: “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”
St Vincent: “Birth In Reverse”
Van Morrison: “Brown Eyed Girl”
The Who: “The Seeker”

Earlier this week, Harmonix had revealed that gamers will now be given the opportunity to freestyle guitar solos as they play. The game will now allow players to be more flexible in their playing, so instead of having to hit that note at the right exact place at the right exact time, the game will allow the player to follow some general guidelines. During the freestyle, you will still be scored, but apparently, you can’t fail either.

Check out a video directly from Tech Crunch who got the chance to play int his new mode.

Rock Band 4 is set to be released on Oct. 9.

Foo Fighters Cancel Remaining European Tour Dates

Looks like Dave Grohl’s “little fall” during the Foo Fighters’ show in Sweden last Friday is going to have a major effect on the band’s touring schedule.

In a post on the Foo Fighters website, Grohl wrote a letter to fans catching them up on what has happened since the infamous and widely seen fall as well as some behind the scenes tid-bits that the audience was not privy to.

As it turns out, the fall ended up being more serious than anyone could have anticipated. Thanks to the fall, Grohl dislocated his ankle and ended up snapping a fibula “like an old pair of take out chopsticks.” The injury was so severe, Grohl was flown to London to have surgery on Monday (June 17).

After the surgery, Grohl was advised by doctors that he would need to lay off of touring for a while meaning that as of right now, all European tour dates have been cancelled including their Friday night headlining spot at Glastonbury.

“My doctors have advised me to lay low for a while. The most important thing now is for me to recover from the surgery, to keep my leg elevated so as to keep swelling down and prevent any infection/complication that could do long-term damage. I’m not out of the woods yet, folk,” Grohl writes in the lengthy post that can completely be read here.

While all the European tour dates have been cancelled, there has yet to be any indication on whether the band’s upcoming United States tour dates will also be affected by the recovery process. The Foo Fighters were/are scheduled to begin touring the United States this summer on the Fourth of July at Washington, D.C.’s RFK Stadium with the tour wrapping up on Oct. 7 at the FedExForum in Memphis.