I heard about, and then completely ignored, this photo album of Mastodon recording their new album. Why did I completely ignore it? Because I’ve seen bands record albums. It looks like dudes standing in a studio playing instruments. And unless you’re dealing with a band who haven’t recorded together in a very, very, very long time, well… that’s not too exciting. So these kinds of shots in and of themselves are usually not very cool.

Well, I’m an idiot. If I had looked, I might have seen this pic of Dave Grohl in the studio with the band:

Instead, I had to read about it on Heavy Blog is Heavy. D’oh!

ANYWAY, let us now analyze this photograph into, ahem, oblivion.

So this picture is obviously no guarantee that Grohl will be on the next Mastodon release. Like the fact that Anders Bjorler was in the studio with In Flames did not mean that he was the new In Flames guitarist. Grohl could just be paying a friendly visit. I mean, he’s certainly goofing off in that picture.

On the other hand, what a waste to have Dave Grohl in the studio and not get him to record anything. And the Mastodudes do have a tendency to feature guests on their albums. Scott Kelly’s been on the last three Mastodon records, Neil Fallon sings on “Blood and Thunder,” Josh Homme and two members of The Mars Volta were on Blood Mountain, etc.

Ah, well. We probably won’t know the actual answer for awhile. In the meantime, let’s keep our fingers crossed. When Vince and I were in L.A. a couple of weeks ago, we only had a couple of CDs in the car, so after listening to Scissorfight’s incredible EP, Potential New Agent for Unconventional Warfare, we finally resorted to listening to modern alt-rock radio. Consequently, we heard the new Foo Fighters single, “Rope,” about a gajillion times, and then ran out and got the Foo Fighters album. So I’m particularly excited by the idea of a Grohl-Mastodon team-up right now. Also, I’m apparently still susceptible to radio ploys.

-AR