Earlier this week, we reported on former Foo Fighters drummer William Goldsmith ripping Dave Grohl for keeping an unreleased Sunny Day Real Estate album in his ‘sock drawer.’ Nate Mendel, the bassist of Foo Fighters and Sunny Day Real Estate, shot down this claim.
William Goldsmith is questioning his former Foo Fighters bandmate Nate Mendel for saying there is ‘no truth’ to his recent story about there being an unreleased Sunny Day Real Estate album that Dave Grohl played a part in blocking. Mendel and Goldsmith were bandmates in Sunny Day Real Estate until the band’s 1995 split. They quickly joined Foo Fighters, with Goldsmith later leaving in 1997 during the recording of The Colour and the Shape when Dave Grohl re-recorded his drum parts. Mendel and Goldsmith later reunited with Sunny Day Real Estate and played in The Fire Theft.
Goldsmith has posted on Facebook, “I’m hearing all these comments Nate Mendel is making saying ‘Categorically there are no songs’ regarding SDRE LP5. Categorically means in a way that is unambiguously explicit and direct. Anything that is swept under the rug and never completed doesn’t have the slightest chance of being unambiguously explicit and direct. But the fact of the matter is I listened to the seven tracks that should have been that record 2 days ago.”
Goldsmith said in his first post earlier this week, “It’s both a shocking slap of reality and a swift kick in the balls. Gets harder to handle each time. Somehow someday – something has to be done.
The tragedy of it is literally manifesting into physical pain. It honestly feels like someone has taken a part of me as a human being and locked it in a closet. My wife looked at me this evening and said ‘I am starting to understand what’s been haunting you for the past 6 years because it’s starting to haunt me as well.’
This is not the first time I’ve had my voice taken from me. But now This music hasn’t just been taken away from me anymore – now it’s been taken away from my children. Unforgivable.”
He wrote in a clarification post the following day, “For clarification purposes – Dave’s sock drawer was meant to figuratively represent studio 606. To clarify – there are many ingredients that resulted in the abandonment of LP5. Ingredients that I had to put together myself and find out later on. One of the unfortunate elements being that Jeremy did not receive the moral support as well as engineering that he deserved and I hold myself accountable just as much as everyone else involved for that mistake.
The reference to Dave’s sock drawer meant studio 606 which was where it was essentially left. If I come across as being a little bit outraged it’s simply because I’ve had the unfortunate experience of hard work being disregarded with no communication or explanation as to why.”
He also said, “So no I was not meaning to claim Dave single handedly prevented the record from being finished. He just owns the place where it was abandoned. However he wasn’t too thrilled when Nate played with the fire theft so I doubt he thought about making it so Nate had the time to see it through. But it’s misunderstandings like this that arise because people don’t communicate. At least not with me with the exception of Jeremy.
Dave and I should have hashed this shit out through honest human interaction a decade and a half ago. And Nate – the last time I talked to you was when you guys said to be by the phone the next day to have a conference call about finishing LP5. The phone never rang and I haven’t heard from you since then which was 2011 if memory serves.”
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