Session Information
In late December 1999 Foo Fighters had a few weeks off from touring and elected to head to Studio 606 to carry out some new recording. The primary reason for the session was to give an opportunity for new guitarist Chris Shiflett to work with them in the studio, having joined the band in September and played a handful of live shows.
Their intention was to record songs with Chris that could be used as B-Sides on future singles for their third album ‘There Is Nothing Left To Lose’. Adam Kasper remained in the role of producer and engineer for the first week of recording and things got underway with some cover songs. Speaking after the session during a radio appearance Dave Grohl revealed that they had recorded the Eddie Money track ‘Baby Hold On’, enthusing that “it turned out so great”. Next up was a Foo Fighters version of the Andrew Gold song ‘Lonely Boy’, a song he described as “one of the greatest ever.”
Two more cover songs were recorded in the first week, ‘Invisible Sun’, originally by The Police and ‘Jet’, the Paul McCartney and Wings song from their 1974 album ‘Band On The Run’. Unlike the other covers which were seemingly set for release as B-Sides, there were different plans for the Wings cover. In early 2000 media outlets reported that several artists including Squeeze, Barenaked Ladies and Sloan had recorded tracks for a tribute album to McCartney. The report confirmed Foo Fighters had recorded ‘Jet’ and stated the album was set for release later that year but soon after the album was scrapped and never released. After a week Kasper left the studio and in his place as engineer stepped Curtis Mathewson. Mathewson was a friend of drummer Hawkins and had unsuccessfully tried out for the open Foo Fighters guitarist position earlier in 1999. He would occasionally help Hawkins with some of his demo recordings back in California and was invited across the country to assist with recording for the remainder of the session.
The first track the band worked on with Mathewson was a new version of 'Fraternity', a song they first recorded during the recording session for 'There Is Nothing Left To Lose' six months earlier but hadn't used on the record. It had however been included as a bonus track on Australian editions of the album. The band wanted another attempt at the song with Shiflett and had planned to include the new recording on a future single as a B-Side.
Another track first recorded during the spring session, ‘MIA’, was re-worked next. Rather than being a B-Side the band intended to release a new version of the song as a featured single, as they had done with ‘Walking After You’ in 1998. Sticking to their familiar recording format drums and rhythm guitar was recorded for the song before Nate added a bass track. One late night Grohl attempted to record a new vocal take for the song but after one or two beers during a dinner BBQ party earlier in the evening, nothing useful could be captured by Mathewson. New boy Shiflett recorded his guitar parts the next day but efforts on the song were soon abandoned, leaving the new version unfinished and subsequently, the release plans were scrapped.
During the same radio appearance that Grohl had discussed the cover songs he also revealed that the band had recorded two entirely new original songs, describing the experience recording with Shiflett for the first time - “He was reading my mind the whole time, he and I come up with very similar ideas for guitar parts” he said of the instant chemistry.
According to Mathewson both new “experimental” songs were recorded without vocals and described the first as “Slow, Led Zeppelin-esque open tuning ballad”, sounding similar to songs from Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti. A CD of the album was sitting on the recording console in the studio throughout the recording. The second track he described as having a “mid-tempo droney Rolling Stones feel” with a repeating riff before “a Sonic Youth-like explosion” at the end of the track, running “seven minutes long or so”.
Despite the various plans and ideas for releasing the songs recorded during this session none came to fruition, all recordings from this session remaining unreleased and unheard by fans.
