Todd Lyden

I Wow! Nearly two years, a documentary, and documentary series later and I am back to talk about Dave Grohl after I reviewed the Foo Fighter's last album, Wasting Light . This was an exciting prospect. Fresh off the success of "Sound City," Grohl announced this passion-project, where the Foos would tour different studios in different cities all over the US to show off the auditory capacity of our great nation. I can't speak to the documentary aspect, but the tidbits I've seen have shown that Grohl definitely has a place (with his film makers) as a documentarian. However, does the album that came as a result of the documentary suffice as a Foos album? Let's go track by track: 1. "Something from Nothing"  from Chicago This sounds like it should have been two songs and makes for a great theme to the "show." As a Foo's song, it is a bit all over the place and almost feels like they were just trying to give everyone something t...

Image via Wikipedia In honor of the Foo Fighters finally getting back in the studio to produce a new album, I thought I would take a look at the career of Dave Grohl , their "CEO," recently named one of the ten most exciting persons in music , and derive some business lessons from it. What can you learn from a musician who went from being functionally homeless to having over a 1000 employees?  Lesson #1 Embrace Failure/Fear After the death of Kurt Cobain , Grohl did not wallow in grief. He refocused and put himself back into the music. First by playing with and then rejecting a job offer from Tom Petty (who is still a close friend). Then, by embracing a DIY attitude to produce what became the first Foo Fighters album nearly entirely on his own with demos he had accumulated over the years. Lesson #2 Challenge Yourself Despite being known as one of the hardest working drummers in the business having played with Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultur...