A high school friend and band mate, Chris Chaney, has had a long career since high school playing with people like Alanis Morrisette, Jane's Addiction, and being in both Dave Navarro and Taylor Hawkins side project bands. He and Taylor met playing with Alanis, and have been brothers ever since. According to Chris, Taylor is exactly who everyone says he was; just a sweetheart of a guy, and a phenomenal drummer. (I like in the article how he says that Dave Grohl is a John Bonham style drummer, while Taylor is a Stuart Copeland style drummer. It really nails the finer details of how these two guys differ, and why they are both monsters in their own right.)
I just watched a doc on Alanis Morrisette and apparently they called Chris in after auditions completely on accident-they had meant to call someone else. Taylor Hawkins made a comment that he didn’t know who Janes addiction was at the time, which is perfect considering he now plays with them. What a cool guy to know.
Monkey Wrench is the song that broke them into the mainstream. (And the song in the elevator is a Muzak'ed version of another of their hits.) Everlong is the balladic stadium rock anthem. My Hero is just a great rock song that a lot of people have been sharing since Taylor's death. And there is a fascinating documentary about the Foo Fighters called Back and Forth, which is just a great story, whether you like the band or not. The guys in this band are not rock stars... they are just a buncha guys doing the best they know how, and being genuine and honest and down to earth... even when playing in front of 80,000 people.
Maybe Aurora? I'm not the best person to ask, though, as I'm right there with you. Not a big Foo Fighters fan - what they do, bland, outsized rock music that appeals to everyone, they do well. But it's not really for me.
I made an effort this year to listen to popular bands and artists that I never caught on to. Rock and Jazz are dead music forms and I've generally tried to avoid listening to modern people flogging the dead horse of rock and Jazz. It's fine to enjoy modern rock and Jazz but neither are significant cultural forces anymore. Nonetheless I gave the Foo Fighters the old college try. It reminded me of a lot of stuff that other people did twenty years before them. It was fine but I'll never listen to it again. It made me want to listen to Superchunk.