Foo Fighters have announced that their ninth studio album Concrete And Gold will be released on September 15th via Roswell Records/RCA Records. The project will be followed by a tour and massive Cal Jam 17 performance featuring 12 hours of “non-stop 100% live music.”
“I wanted it to be the biggest sounding Foo Fighters record ever. To make a gigantic rock record but with Greg Kurstin’s sense of melody and arrangement… Motorhead’s version of Sgt. Pepper… or something like that,” says frontman and founder Dave Grohl of the band’s mission statement of the album.
Just as Foo Fighters’ anthem of the summer “Run” “opens as a dreamy, slow burner then… quickly turns heavy as thunder” (Billboard) with its “huge triumphant chorus” (Sterogum), Concrete and Gold marries some of the most insanely heavy Foo Fighters riffs ever with lush harmonic complexities courtesy of a first time team-up with producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia, Pink).
This unlikely alliance came about through a bizarre sequence of surprise musical obsessions and chance encounters: Listening to the radio during a drive roughly four years ago, Grohl first heard “Again and Again” by Kurstin’s band The Bird & The Bee—“It blew my mind… it was so much more sophisticated than anything I’d ever heard and I became obsessed.”
Some months later, Grohl would randomly spot and fanboy out over “the guy from The Bird & The Bee!” aka Greg Kurstin. The two became fast friends over common musical loves with Grohl learning that his new favorite band had been on hiatus due to Kurstin’s workload as a producer.
While Foo Fighters recorded and released Sonic Highways, broke some bones and packed stadiums and arenas on one of the top five grossing tours of 2015, and gifted fans with the St. Cecilia EP, “Greg was becoming one of the biggest producers in the world,” Grohl recalls.
With the writing and recording of the next Foo Fighters album on the horizon, Grohl was eager as always to find fresh challenges for the band, stating, “So I think maybe Greg is the guy that we ask to be our producer because he’s never made a heavy rock record before and we’ve never worked with a pop producer.”
Darrel Thorp (Beck, Radiohead) was soon enlisted to mix and engineer. This collective conceived a blueprint of the new record as “Motorhead’s version of Sgt. Pepper… or something like that,” secretly booking into Hollywood’s esteemed EastWest studios to consummate this marriage of extremes… or as Grohl puts it, “Our noise and Greg’s big brain and all of his sophisticated arrangements and composition.”
Concrete and Gold was written and performed by Foo Fighters, produced by Greg Kurstin and Foo Fighters, and mixed by Darrell Thorp.
Months, sounds and stories (more on those soon, promise) and so many guitars later, the 11-Grammy-winning, 25+ million-record-selling, last great American stadium rock band had completed its most ambitious album ever—which naturally begat another insane challenge: How to celebrate music & throw the ultimate “backyard party for 50,000 people.”
What came to Grohl in that vision will become reality October 7th when Foo Fighters’ Cal Jam 17 takes over Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, CA. In addition to being Foo Fighters’ biggest ever one-day U.S. headline, in the spirit of the original California Jam, this daylong marathon of eating, drinking and rocking features Queens of the Stone Age, Cage The Elephant, Liam Gallagher, The Kills, Royal Blood, Japandroids, Wolf Alice, Bob Mould, The Struts, Bully, Circa Waves, Babes in Toyland, Adia Victoria, Fireball Ministry, The Obsessed, Pinky Pinky, Starcrawler, White Reaper.
In addition to 12 hours of rock and roll good times, Cal Jam 17 offers camping, carnival rides, a water park, attractions, a mobile recording studio & so much more. On Friday night, October 6th, campers will also experience the world’s best Go-Go band Big Tony & Trouble Funk, an outdoor movie theater and many other surprises. Camping space is limited, so act fast. Tickets available at caljamfest.com.
Cal Jam 17 will be the first chance for Foo Fighters fans in the U.S. to experience the sonic majesty of songs from Concrete and Gold in their full live glory—and will be followed by a full scale October through December U.S. headline tour. Public on sales for all dates will be June 29th at 10 am local time via foofighters.com.
As a sponsor of Cal Jam 17 and the 2017 Concrete and Gold Tour, Capital One cardholders will have early access to tickets. The Capital One pre-sale starts Monday, June 26th at 9 am local time via Foo Fighters website.
CD
1. T-Shirt
2. Run
3. Make It Right
4. The Sky Is A Neighborhood
5. La Dee Da
6. Dirty Water
7. Arrows
8. Happy Ever After (Zero Hour)
9. Sunday Rain
10. The Line
11. Concrete and Gold
Tour Dates:
OCTOBER 12 – Washington DC – The Anthem (SOLD OUT)
OCTOBER 14 – Richmond, VA – Richmond Coliseum
OCTOBER 15 – Greensboro, NC – Greensboro Coliseum
OCTOBER 17 – Columbia, SC – Colonial Life Arena
OCTOBER 18 – Knoxville, TN – Thompson-Boling Arena
OCTOBER 20 – Cincinnati, OH – U.S. Bank Arena
OCTOBER 21 – Lexington, KY – Rupp Arena
OCTOBER 23 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
OCTOBER 24 – Memphis,TN – FedExForum
OCTOBER 26 – Birmingham, AL – Legacy Arena at The BJCC
OCTOBER 28 – New Orleans, LA – Voodoo Music + Arts Experience
NOVEMBER 7 – Madison, WI – Kohl Center
NOVEMBER 8 – Champaign, IL – State Farm Arena (* Public On Sale Thursday, July 13 10am Local)
NOVEMBER 10 – Des Moines, IA – Wells Fargo Arena
NOVEMBER 11 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford PREMIER Center
NOVEMBER 13 – Wichita, KS – INTRUST Bank Arena
NOVEMBER 15 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
DECEMBER 1 – Fresno, CA – Save Mart Center
DECEMBER 2 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
DECEMBER 4 – Spokane, WA – Spokane Arena
DECEMBER 5 – Eugene, OR – Matthew Knight Arena
DECEMBER 7 – Nampa ID – Ford Idaho Center
DECEMBER 9 – Billings MT – Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark
DECEMBER 10 – Casper WY – Casper Events Center
DECEMBER 12 – Salt Lake City UT – Vivint Smart Home Arena
