Dave Grohl loves a bit of an old collab. The former Nirvana drummer has lent his thunderous skin-thumping to Queens Of The Stone Age, Killing Joke, Tenacious D, The Prodigy, more recently Paul McCartney, and his all-metal supergroup side-project Probot back in 2004.
That’s just a sampling of Grohl’s many musical dalliances, hell, the final act of the Foo Fighter’s Sound City documentary was all but an informercial for the film’s accompanying soundtrack featuring a jaw-dropping list of A-lister musos.
So it might not come as any great shock that Grohl has ‘revealed’ that’s he’s been secretly recording with Soundwave 2013 alumni and forthcoming Big Day Out 2014 act, Ghost.
The enigmatic Swedish metal band comprises of five ‘Nameless Ghouls’, led by skull-faced leader Papa Emeritus II, and the Foo Fighter installed himself as an additional ‘(Not So) Nameless Grohl’ to record an EP’s worth of heavy metal renditions of songs by Depeche Mode, ABBA, and Roky Erickson (of The 13th Floor Elevators fame).
The forthcoming Grohl-featuring EP will be released as part of a deluxe reissue of Ghost’s 2013 album Infestissumam (Latin for ‘hate’) on 20th November, with the covers EP, If You Have A Ghost, available as a bonus CD and a 12” vinyl release, as Metal Sucks reports.
The five track release features a live recording of the band’s own ‘Crucified’, and Ghost’s versions of Depeche Mode’s ‘Waiting for The Night’, Army of Lovers’ ‘Crucified, ABBA’s ‘I’m A Marionette’, and the EP’s de-facto title track, Roky Erickson’s ‘If You Have Ghosts’, which you can hear below.
Ghost’s ABBA cover, featuring Grohl on drums, was actually previously released as a B-side to Infestissumam as part of an April Fool’s Joke, as Metal Insider reported, in which Grohl teased that he’d be joining Ghost on a permanent basis. “I’ve already played the devil (in 2006′s Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny), so it was a no-brainer to join forces with an evil pope,” said Grohl in a faked press release.
“The last time I had a hunch about joining up with a band that signed to a major label for their second album, it worked out pretty well.” That’d be Nirvana, for those of you with no sense of humour.
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Ghost are headed to Australia next January as part of the Big Day Out bill, no doubt placed on the bill by Soundwave boss AJ Maddah (a noted fan of the Swedes).
Even though Ghost were announced on the Big Day Out 2014 lineup back in June, ahead of September’s announcement that Maddah had bought a share into the iconic touring festival as co-promoter, the Soundwave boss revealing that he’d in fact helped in wrangling bands for Big Day Out lineups for “seven years” prior to 2011. Specifically, the likes of Kasabian, Rage Against The Machine, Trivium, Slipknot, and Bullet For My Valentine – so it’s highly likely Maddah did the same to get Ghost booked.
It’s also looking likely that Maddah is in discussions with West about moving CSS to the Big Day Out 2014 lineup after the Brazilian indie rockers were left stranded following the cancellation of Harvest Festival 2013; their schedules clashing with the subsequently announced replacement headline tours from Franz Ferdinand and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, plus the triple-bill of Neutral Milk Hotel, M Ward, and Superchunk.
If you’re instead wondering if Soundwave, Big Day Out, or another festival promoter could wrangle Dave Grohl and the rest of the Foo Fighters for another Australian visit to coincide with the release of their upcoming, Butch Vig-produced studio album, you’re in luck.
Rumours surrounding plans for an Australian tour from the Rolling Stones involving the Frontier Touring Company looking at bringing over the band made a made a fleeting mention of the Foos for 2014 as well.
Coincidentally, Frontier have just announced a co-headline tour from well-known Grohl buddies Queens Of The Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails, which combined with the already announced Bruce Springsteen Australian Tour 2014 and a potential Foo Fighters and/or Rolling Stones tour would make for a marquee year for Frontier Touring. Fingers crossed.
Listen to Ghost’s cover of ABBA, with Dave Grohl on drums, below:
